2016 B School Admits: One on One

Question

2016 B School Admits: One on One! Folks, it's that time of the year again! As the new year brings loads of joy and happiness into the lives of 2016 applicants with every admits in their mailbox, we are trying to reach out to them and do a candid interview about their journey to the class of 2018 :-)

Update : Some of the extremely gracious current students (class of 2018) have agreed to participate :beer

We are looking for people who: Love to share their story Love to help out future applicants with their experiences Love to be appreciated (who doesn't

) The previous glorious interview threads are right here interviews-with-distinguished-gmatclub-2013-admits-147638.html 2010-nine-questions-with-a-gmat-club-member-apply-now-89940.html q-a-9-questions-with-a-gclub-member-77846.html#p585807 The following users have been interviewed Engr2012 JDtoMBA ankurgupta03

souvik101990 · Answer

Interview with JDtoMBA

First off, congratulations on that Kellogg admit. You must be excited to go to Kellogg. As you have been asked 435 times before this, why did you want to go from JD to MBA?

Thank! I'm interested in a career change into finance or consulting, so I thought the MBA would be the best option for me.

Now on to the question that you have been asked 434 times. Why Kellogg? What other schools were you considering?

I originally applied to only three schools (HBS, Sloan, and Kellogg) and was lucky enough to be admitted to Kellogg out of the three. I submitted applications to Wharton and Booth for Round 2, but after Day at Kellogg, I completely felt that Kellogg was the right school for me. The support network is incredible, all the way from alum to current students. If I had gotten into Wharton Round 2, it may have changed my mind, but Kellogg sold me at Day at Kellogg.

What was the most difficult task in the application process and what seemed to be the most enjoyable?

Definitely being 300% inefficient at work on days that interview invites were released because nonstop pressing F5 on my email inboxes was way more important.

More seriously, putting together a cohesive story about my background was the most difficult task. Everybody already thought I made a huge "jump" from going from Engineering school to getting my JD, but once they hear that I do intellectual property law, they go, "Oh... that makes sense." This was even more difficult in putting together a narrative for "Why MBA?" because very few careers outside the legal industry actively use legal backgrounds. For most lawyers, becoming a lawyer at a well-recognized private practice is the end goal, and I had already been on Supreme Court case. So, convincing the AdComm that I was serious about the MBA and that I could make it happen was definitely the most difficult part.

The most enjoyable part was reconnecting with old friends and connecting with new people regarding the MBA process. Getting the MBA would be a huge investment, so I reached out to many of my friends who either were current students at M7s or alum and was also connected to many people in my target industries. I really enjoyed just chatting with all of them about what they are doing and getting their two-cents on everything from getting into b-school, breaking into certain industries, and the b-school life.

Which bank do you want to rob to pay all your student loans?

All of them. Taking applications to join my squad now.

If you had to apply to schools all over again, what would you do differently?

I hired an admissions consultant (Alice van Harten of Menlo Coaching, whom I highly recommend), but that was only after I had already submitted my Round 1 applications (HBS, Sloan, Kellogg). She really helped me "find myself" and put together a good narrative. I am certain that my Kellogg interview went well because of the time I spent with Alice. I worked with her for putting together my entire Wharton application, but I wish I had done the same for all of my Round 1 applications.

What advice to have for the future JDtoMBA?

Throughout this entire process, I found that I'm in a very small demographic (current practicing attorney going back to school as opposed to JD/MBA joint-degree students), so there were very few resources to help me in my specific journey. There were a lot of naysayers, but I'm living proof that you can get into a top b-school as an attorney, so if that is what you want to do, I would go ahead and apply. I promise I am not paid by Alice of Menlo Coaching, but this year alone, she put at least two current attorneys at M7s (myself at Kellogg and a Canadian lawyer at Columbia).

souvik101990 · Answer

Interview with Engr2012 https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file.php?mode=view&id=29930 Profile Link: Engr2012 You have more than 2000 posts on GMAT Club, and you are practically a GMAT Club legend. So let’s get the first thing out of the way. How do you still keep your day job with so much GMAT Clubbing? Hah! I knew this would be one of the questions. Frankly, if my company does an audit on the websites visited ona regular basis during office hours, I am sure they will see that they are not getting paid by GMATCLUB but too many hours get spent on it. I hope they don’t find out for the next 3-4 months :D. It all started after my 1st attempt in Oct 2014. I realized that I made a mess of my attempt by not understanding the psyche of the question makers, be it quant or verbal. Once I saw that explaining the same question to another person is the best way to cement that concept, GC became a daily dose of activities. Once I was done with my GMAT, I wanted to stay connected with GC as I wanted to give something back during my application process. I am still very much active on GC and people can find me causing trouble with other experts by openly questioning their methods or finding fauilts in solutions posted by other posters J I intend to keep this association going for as long as I can. Even now, I have 2 deadlines tomorrow at work but I am busy typing this answer. engr.png You had a very elaborate GMAT debrief (one of the best of 2015, if I may add). If you had to tell your story of change from 650-750, how would you tell it? As mentioned before, I would call my GMAT prep for attempt 1 as utterly idiotic and chaotic as I did not have an ounce of understanding of what to expect in verbal. My scores in mocks before 650 attempt ranged from 650-750 with more in the range 700-720. This should’ve told me that I should have a better knowledge of what needs to be done and for a set method of attacking questions. But still went ahead with the GMAT hoping for a miracle that never happened . This was in Oct 2014 and I knew that this application season was good as gone as I belong to the highly acclaimed/detested pool on male Indian engineers and if I do not apply in R1, then I should kiss chances of admits to good schools a goodbye!! Fast forward to April 2015 and I was still without any concrete plan of action for GMAT #2 and application season 2015-16. I told myself that this #2 attempt will be it and I should take it by end-June. Stuck to basics, working towards better verbal score as being an engineer, Quant was easier. Made 1 major change. Scheduled my test fo an afternoon session. Was confident of my prep this time around but started with a decent AWA but a massively disappointing IR (couldn’t make any sense of some questions!). Got so pissed that I ended up screwing first few questions in Quant and said good bye to a Q50/51. Verbal felt doable and better than the last attempt but I was proven wrong about my abilities as I saw only a 4 point verbal increase leading toa 690. Again, not good enough. I tore off my score confirmation printout and immediately booked my 3rd attempt for the latest date possible (was atleast 31 days at that time) as soon as I stepped outside the test center. Until this time I had almost exhausted all my official questions and wanted to stick to official questions only for verbal. So went with LSAT materials. Solved close to 500 LSAT LR/RC questions under timed conditions and this gave me good confidence going into the final attempt (as it was already going to be august and I would've been late for my R1 apps). Didn’t do much more than these LSAT questions and 2 GMATPREP mocks. Went in with a “time to move on after this attempt” attitude and was lucky to see that target score. Still wasn’t happy as I couldn’t score a Q50/51 in all my attempts but c’est la vie. Time to actually move onto the applications. Let’s go to the application cycle. Why are you applying to MBA (given that you are literally a rocket scientist) and why did you pick Kellogg and the others? Applications were fun to say the least. Came to a number of self realizations, and understood the very reason for pursuing an MBA. Now coming to "why MBA". I chose to go with the standard way of weaving your MBA story with what you have done and what you plan to do. Frankly, I wanted to change my industry and function but couldn't have mentioned this in my applications as the adcoms need to see that the story is achievable. Thus, for MBA will be the traditional industry change platform to go from technical engineering role/industry to a strategic/finance based role. This was the idea behind MBA. Additionally, I kind of weaved in my background of coming from the emerging markets into the scheme of things. An indirect reason was also the monetary compensation in technical fields for international students is either restricted or heavily tiered. I wanted to move out of this restriction. Once I was done with my GMAT, I started vetting admission consultants to select the one with whom I will go for my schools. Again, going back to the demographics of my application profile, I knew I needed help with my applications , not in writing my apps for me but to make sure that what I am writing is resonating with what my thoughts were. Choice of schools was inline with my ideas of why MBA and I knew that 1st job post MBA is (to an extent) dependent on what school a person goes to as top Investment banks or consulting firms come to top 10-15 schools only. Thus, I went with Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg and Ross for R1 and Booth/Stern for R2. Looking back, I should've kept Booth for R1 and removed Ross. Choice of schools was based on a combination of realistic chances + dream schools. All schools are good in strategy/finance and one can not go wrong with any of these schools. Got interviewed at Wharton/CBS and Kellogg. Dings after interviews at Wharton (was difficult to swallow as this was "THE SCHOOL" for me!) and CBS (very weird as my interviewer told me that he is recommending me for admission!). No interview at Booth (this was not expected) and Ross (dont know why!). Immense help from my admission consultant (Critical Square) was the reason why I landed all those interviews above even though people with my profile are one of the largest groups to apply to these schools. How was your application experience like? Application experience was like nothing else. I did apply to schools in US/Canada for my Master's in Engineering back in 2008, so I knew what to expect. But after reading about the MBA application process, I came to know the depth and clarity I need to show in my applications is going to be a challenge. Thus went with an admission consultant for 5 schools. After evaluating 7 different companies, I chose Critical Square because of the interaction that I had with its consultant during the free evaluation. Although, it was a bit of an investment but I knew that if I am able to convert even one of the schools in my list, I will be set and will be money's worth! I think I worked on close to 60-65 drafts for 5 schools for ~10 essays+ 1 resume. it used to be tough with work and I sometimes would sleep at 1 AM and get up at 4 AM to complete the draft and have it sent to my consultant for his review. I was amazed at the response time of Critical Square. These guys do not charge for "expedited service" but their usual response time was ~1 day and at most 2 days, very professional! Applications can become taxing if you do not enjoy the process. If you had to do your application over again, what would you change? Probably give myself more time between GMAT and starting the applications. If you are targeting top schools, you can not have any weak link. Will apply to all M7 schools as you will never know how good was your application until you apply. Work towards not being an industry changer by working for atleast 1 year before applying to come back to the same industry. Adcoms are usually skeptical of industry changers as people who do not get placed after MBAs bring the employment stats down. You also have a better framework to come up with a convincing 'MBA story'. What advice do you have to the future engr2012? Make full use of the free consulting option with major consulting firms before finalizing the company for your applications. Give yourself atleast a month to talk to all these companies and then make the final decision. Do not rush into this. Be clear on your Why MBA/Why this school ideas, be clear about your 'MBA Gameplan'. Give yourself time for all the different steps for the application process (from pre-GMAT time-frame to final admittance). If you have a low GPA, go for extra courses to create an alternate transcript , if you lack extra-curriculars, go involve yourself more, assume more responsibilities at work etc. Everything takes time. Never expect your first drafts to be of any use but to later use them for better versions. First drafts will 99% of the times be absolute cr** Enjoy the process

souvik101990 · Answer

Interview with ankurgupta03 https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file.php?id=29929 Profile Link: ankurgupta03 You have been a GMAT Club legend for so many years, so I will get to the beginning first. Tell us something about the first 3 GMAT attempts. Why are you so obsessed with the test? I wanted to pursue and MBA from a long time and gave many Indian entrance tests such as CAT, XAT, FMS etc. I got interview calls from most of the schools and converted some good schools, but I was very greedy and always wanted more :D Now let me take it one test at a time: 1st attempt – This was the time when I got introduced to the GMAT by my roommates who were preparing for the test and told me about what all can be done by giving the GMAT. I did not give much thought and started preparing by borrowing the materials from my friends and GMAT Club of course. The result was a decent 700. I went ahead and applied to ISB, but was rejected after the interview. I applied to NUS and NTU too, but never even got a call. I submitted my job resume, which was more than 3 pages and talked about .NET and JAVA at the schools

2nd Attempt – I was told in the feedback call that I need to improve my score from 700 to secure an admission at ISB owing to my low GPA. So I started again, I prepared for 1.5 months and did nothing new apart from solving questions from GMAT Club and sitting for some CATs. The result was the same – 700 again. It was bb’s helping hand at that point that he made me the moderator and thread master after this disaster  3rd Attempt – I bumped into one of my interviewers from ISB and was told the same again that I need to improve my GMAT score and take it to at least 740. I was left with no option but to appear again. This time I prepared hard (very hard) got the Magoosh course (very helpful), veritas tests, stopped all my extracurricular activities and what not. The mock tests were all very high scores ranging from 740 – 770. Then comes the test day, I stumbled upon one RC in the first 10 questions and was unable to solve it. From there, it was a downward spiral. The result – a disappointing 710. 4th Attempt – I was not at all happy with my score because I had put in a lot of effort. I talked to bb about it and he said 3 attempts or 4 does not make a difference. Gave a mock CAT, scored very high and booked the GMAT after a month. The test day was wonderful. I ended up with a 760 and teary eyes and even told the administrator that I will not be coming back. What in your opinion made all the difference in the last test? The biggest difference was the official questions. I made sure that I solved all the official questions I could get my hands on. The guides compiled by Souvik are gold. I was so sure of all the options that I could explain them to anyone. I knew why each option was correct and why the rest were wrong. I practiced 15 SC, 15 CR and 4 RC each day in a timed manner to prepare for the test and the hard work paid off. Tell us something about yourself. Why MBA? (We will not suggest a word limit this one time ) Hmmm, This is interesting, A why MBA question without a word limit. I am tempted to paste my response from KF application, but will not do so. About myself - I am an Engineer and have been working in the IT industry from the past 6.5 years. I have always been inclined towards education and have taken up various roles in my extracurricular activities. I was associated with Teach for India and Make a Difference and have a startup of my own - GMATIFY. Apart from this, I have been an active sports person and have played badminton at state level. I have run half marathon and a few 10k runs and the latest fad is biking. Recently completed a 50km ride. Next target 75, then 100 before moving to the US. MBA started as the next logical step after B. Tech. But slowly as I gained exposure and experience, I came to know its real worth. I am interested in becoming a consultant in the education domain and improve the education processes for the providers and takers alike. After working in the IT industry and my latest stint as an IT consultant for a US university, I knew I had to do an MBA. It will not only help me in my profession, but also expose me to the realities of the world that are not just confined to my desk and computer at my work place. I might have learnt all this without an MBA too, but an MBA will accelerate my path by teaching me a lot of things and also through my interactions with people all across the world. This pace will eventually decide where I end up at the end of my career. How did you decide with UNC and why? I want to make a career in the consulting domain and UNC is pretty strong in consulting. The STAR program at UNC is a highlight of the school and helps a lot to the hopeful consultants. This was the prime reason of applying to UNC. Once the results came, I was admitted to Tepper (I was admitted here last year too, but was unable to attend because of finances) and UNC – KF. KF showered me a with a full ride for 2 years and took away all my worries about finances. I could not have asked for more. After getting a full scholarship at a school which is strong in consulting, the decision was a pretty easy one and I politely thanked Tepper while declining their offer. Tell us something about your interviewing experience. Can I skip this question?

My interview experiences have been bad – very bad. If I have to calculate, I have given close to 20 interviews and my success rate has not been good :D However my skills have improved a lot off late. After giving the GMAT, I gave the interviews for ISB – 2, NUS – 2, UNC – 2, Tepper – 2, Tuck -1 I was waitlisted at 2 places, accepted at 2 places and rejected at a lot of places :D. But in the end I am happy to have been accepted at UNC and I think I can say that I managed a decent interview after getting a full scholarship. The initial interview at ISB was a disaster and I totally bombed it. I was suffering with fever and sweating profusely, both because of fever and nervousness. The next interview at ISB was strange, they asked me guesstimate questions and estimations and what not and as per me, I did decently. But the school thought differently :-D

My experiences at NUS, UNC and Tepper were good. I was admitted twice at Tepper and waitlisted at others. Finally I converted UNC this year. Sigh! I hope to change this trend in recruitment.

I must mention Critical Square interview help. Josh helped a lot in my interview preparations and the two mock interviews that I had with him were very helpful. Is it true that bb offered you the CEO of GMAT Club position? YES! I remember it explicitly. I got the phone call from bb somewhere in October 2014 and he offered me the position of CEO and I said an emphatic and loud YES too. But due to some disturbance in the phone call, bb heard it as a NO

The rest as they say, is history! Was your ISB interviewer surprised that you knew more about ISB than he did? ISB has been an interesting part in my journey. Some of the alums have out rightly told me that I know more about ISB and its offerings than they do. I am sure the interviewers must have felt the same and hence they screwed me.

Another interesting thing happened while I was waiting for my interview. The other waiting candidates recognized me as ankurgupta03 from GMAT Club and I would not lie – the feeling was awesome :-D

Any advice for future ankurgupta? Learn from your mistakes quickly. Do not keep on making mistakes again and again (like me). It is OK to take help from others. To the to be thread masters and moderators, make GMAT Club a part of your everyday activity. There is immense knowledge available here, not just for B-School admission, but for life too. Make sure you follow bb’s posts especially on the “Admitted – Which school to attend” forum. They are awe inspiring and give you a totally new perspective. To run a thread properly, you need to keep people engaged. Try posting useful content from the school’s website and if possible write something. Try engaging different consultants. This will help the students, forum and you. To all the users - I will always be a part of GMAT Club and make sure I take out time from B-School to help you all out. Feel free to reach me if you need any help. All the best! ankur-gupta.gif

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