Admitted to Kelly (fall 2016) improved to Fuqua with $ (Fall 2017)

Earlier, I had written about the journey to getting 770 on my GMAT at: https://gmatclub.com/forum/from-a-zero- ... l#p1558799. Just like the GMAT, it required a second attempt for me to get into a top B school of my choice.

So getting out of the GMAC centre with a score report displaying a 770 GMAT score is a great feeling. As a typical Indian applicant, with years of obsession with rankings and quantitative numbers, I thought I was on my way to one of the top 10 B schools. I had read that GMAT is only a part of the application, but again that mindset all through those years and the fact that other than the GMAT, I had a good GPA from a tier-1 Engineering college with decent extracurricular achievements and 5 year experience in an Indian PSU made me believe that I was almost there. In hindsight, there were two things that I was missing out on - that it’s not always all about the statistics and that almost each applicant applying to a top 10 B school is likely to have these numbers and achievements. So it was all about standing out from the crowd through the application.

I started the application process and my admissions counsellor did a great job of pulling me down to earth from cloud nine. She was a great mentor and explained the application process and stressed on the fact that the job is still only half done and there was a long way to go. Honestly, I agreed with her, but still had a belief that I was good enough and by working hard on my application, I could crack the top 10. Then attended a Wharton admissions event, where I met fellow applicants and realized the competitiveness of the applicant pool.

I opted for 2 super stretch schools in top 5, 5 schools which we thought were at par and 3 safeties. I went ahead with the applications and started the introspection process. I felt that this whole introspection thing is the best part of the application process. We are not used to it and so giving a long and hard shot at thinking what I really wanted to do in life and finding the answers was interesting. I realized that initially, my main aim of doing an MBA was to explore other industries/ functions and get a global understanding. Or in a more philosophical term, I wanted to come out of my bubble to find my superpower- things which we are good at and come naturally to us. But this philosophical theory wasn’t something that could be experimented with in an admissions essay. So for essay writing, I stuck to my industry that I had grown to love and wrote about the goals that I wanted to achieve in the oil industry. Since, I was applying to 10 schools; I experimented in one of the applications with an idea of sports management that was like a childish wish (I ended up with a ding without interview in this school).

I ended up applying to 8 schools in R2 and was confident of cracking at least one school other than my safe colleges. However, I was in for a shock. Out of the 10 schools, I got admits from only Kelley and ISB, both being in my safe zone. I couldn’t get a single admit from any of the top 15. At that point, I could not realize where I went wrong and spent a month contemplating my next move. While deep down I thought that I can do better, getting rejections from all the top schools was a blow to my confidence. I started to believe that may be my profile was simply not good enough.

With the ongoing indecision, I decided to take a opinion from another admission’s expert. That’s when I researched and found Admissions Gateway. The numbers, the percentages and the reviews on the website were just too good to be real. So I fixed up a free evaluation call with Rajdeep - the co-founder of Admissions Gateway. He gave me a lot of confidence and later on shared profiles and contacts of students who were in similar sorts of dilemma and where they ended up after reapplying with AG. With the numbers behind them and the confidence they showed in me, I decided to give it another shot and applying again.

The first thing that we focussed on was the resume. And boy did my resume change. It was then I realized my first mistake in the last year’s applications- I ended up applying to so many colleges that I really did not have time to spend wisely on my resume. My resume changed from a completely operation centric one to a proper business resume. Last year my resume was focussed on what I did, whereas this time the focus shifted more to the impact and the results that my deeds generated. It was as if I had never thought about the business impact that my actions were bringing about and I only started thinking about the big picture thanks to Rajdeep’s constant poking. So one month into the application cycle, I started realizing where I went wrong last season. Thankfully, it was not as if my profile wasn’t up to the mark, it was something which could be improved by working upon it. And we had already achieved a remarkable improvement by way of putting up a stellar resume.

I had the advantage of having gone through the whole cycle, so the initial anxieties were not there. But I had to take a big decision about choice of B schools this time around. I knew this was the year that I had to make it big, at the same time I couldn’t risk experimenting this time around. Moreover, I was about to get married in January, meaning that R-1 had to be the result delivering round. So I opted to apply in Early Decision at Duke University. My decision was based on the collaborative culture as well as the focus on energy and environment. That the chances of getting an admit in the ED round are higher as compared to normal rounds and the fact that the ED gives you an “early admit” also helped as then I would be sure about my future while I would be getting married. The downside was that I could not then apply to the higher ranked schools that I might have had a shot at. But weighing my options I went for ED.

The application process was a very smooth one. The team at Admissions Gateway has a very structured approach and that was the thing I liked the best about them. For each and every step in the application- be it the resume or the essay writing or the interview, I always had lots of input and guidance beforehand. This ended up saving a lot of time and effort and more importantly always reminded me of what was expected out of me. And one of the most important traits while working with AG is that they are very clear in their thought process. It’s almost as if by the virtue of his analysis throughout these years, Rajdeep knows how and in what way to bring out the best in one’s story and also provides insight into how Adcoms might interpret it. This becomes really helpful while drafting the essays.

Further in the application cycle, I again realized that I had missed out on connecting and networking with the current students and alums at the target schools. Again last year was so cramped due to 8 applications in R2 that I couldn’t do that. Rajdeep encouraged me to talk to the current students and how to get relevant information, which helped a lot and clearly reflected in my essays. An important tip here, which I feel are my personal views, is that at the end of the day you should be able to sell yourself to the Adcoms i.e. you have to make sure that you convince the Adcoms that you are a fit and employable. This is where my last year’s idea of sports management and getting into oil and gas major in the US wasn’t exactly helpful as these industries don’t usually hire internationals. This was another major piece of information that I gained by talking to current students.

I was invited to interview early at Duke. Even during my interview preparation, Admissions Gateway help me out with a lot of material on the most common questions and how to go about framing their answers. I had already faced the interviews last year, so I kind of knew what to expect and fortunately for me, the interviewer was a very helpful person and I had a great interview with him.

Finally after almost 2 years of starting my journey, I got that much awaited and one of the most important phone calls of my life. I had read that Duke makes sure that they call each admitted applicant instead of mailing them, so I was expecting a call late in the night. However, it was around 6 in the evening that I almost jumped when I saw a US number on my phone. Dan McCleary called and his words “I am very happy to be the first person to congratulate you for getting an admit to the Fuqua School of Business” still ring loud in my ears. Later that night, as an icing on the cake I also got a scholarship of USD 33K. I couldn’t believe it and for once I thought, I was dreaming. I checked the attachment twice as it was very late in the night and I was definitely not expecting a scholarship.

All in all, it was a very long and hard but memorable journey right from the start and of course it would not have been possible without the team at Admission’s Gateway- for taking my applications to the next level, College Prep- for advising me on retaking the GMAT after 710 and egmat for helping me reach the 770 mark. I am sure the journey is only half done and that I will have an even more enjoyable stay at Duke.

Hope this might be of some help to fellow MBA aspirants. If you don’t succeed at first, believe in yourself and try again. Please feel free to reach out in case you need help. All the best folks!