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Updated on: 18 Oct 2018, 11:13
15 Aug 2014, 00:00
| FROM Pro GMAT: Independence Day of India: Facts and Figures |
 Yeah!! Today is Independence day of India. Congratulation to all Indians and all who are reading this post. India is celebrating 68th Independence Day today (15th August). A country to love, to respect, to care, to be the first and best. Few of the major mathematics, which we use in our daily life (specially GMAT aspirant) was discovered in India. Let us learn some facts about my Country.
  Filed under: General Post Tagged: Algebra, Facts, Geometry, GMAT, India, Mathematics, Trigonometry 
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23 Apr 2017, 20:01
| FROM mbsingh: Myths and Misconceptions |
Here’s what i have figured out about MBA application process. I am in no way shape or form, the authority figure hell i haven’t even applied yet. So it’s my opinion and you’re entitled to disagree.
 
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25 Mar 2015, 10:02
| FROM Scott Duncan: I got into HBS |
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After two years, three attempts at the GMAT, and five rejection letters, I have been admitted at HBS. I’m speechless… All I can say is thank you to all who have helped me through this process – friends, family, coworkers, mentors, and of course my readers. Thanks. The post I got into HBS appeared first on Scott Duncan. |
09 Dec 2015, 10:03
| FROM MBA For Tech: Chicago Booth: accepted! |
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Well, guess what? Yep, I was waiting for CST to show 9:00 am to start worrying, but I got so much work to do that I lost track of time and then I got a call on my mobile from a phone number starting with 1 (international code of USA): it was so amazing! I was waiting for the nice lady on the other end of the phone to tell me she is from Chicago Booth and when she did – I got some shot of dopamine in my brain. So, she told me that she was a part of team who reviewed my application, gave me some feedback (My application contained a lot of personal details, so her feedback was very important for me) and provided me with some details on admit weekend. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure on how to reply, because I was overwhelmed – but I thanked her and told her of my experiences with alums and how great I feel and I also praised my interviewer, because she was amazing and deserved that. On top of that I got a scholarship! Booth is a school that I had a lot of connection with, contrary to popular opinion, people from there were one of the most engaged, interesting and fun, alums were super nice and eager to help. I really believe that Booth and I will make a great match in terms of fit and my career goals. Well, what a great day! Good luck to everyone! And if you will not receive a call today – don’t be sad, use gmatclub to get some feedback, people there are happy to help. MBA is a great tool to achieve certain goals, but it is one among many others, keep that in mind and stay positive!  
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17 Feb 2015, 20:01
| FROM My Journey to Business School: Update from Indian School of Business |
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The results are in – and I’M IN. This officially makes it 4/4. I got into all the schools I applied to. It’s a wonderful feeling! Interview Debrief: I’ve heard a lot of ISB interview horror stories, and I expected an interview that was a complete departure from my US bschool interviews. But it was a surprisingly candid and chilled out interview. I had 2 interviewers – one alum and an adcom and it was a Skype interview. I was asked fairly standard questions most of which centered around what I’d written in my resume. I think the interview would be very stressful indeed for people who exaggerate their achievements as they specifically asked how I arrived at the numbers I listed (in terms of revenue profits) and exactly how I achieved particular things that I’d listed. I had my interview at 11.15AM. I got an admit email at 7PM. I must say, that’s quite the turnaround time! Thoughts: While I know that Kellogg and UCLA are leaps and bounds ahead of ISB in terms of rankings as well as the MBA experience, I can’t help but give it a serious thought. I intend to return to India post-MBA (in a few years) to pursue my long term goal of entrepreneurship, and ISB has a great brand name and network in India. It would also be much easier on me and my partner if I pursue a degree in India (my spouse does not intend to move to the US with me while I study) and since ISB is a 1Y program, it means that I’ll be returning to the workforce sooner. The only thing I’m not excited about when it comes to ISB is the dearth of international opportunities post-MBA and the experience of studying abroad that I’ve always craved. While a lot of people were surprised by my decision to even attend the last-minute interview, I believe I would be remiss to dismiss the many merits of the school and not consider the above factors while making a decision about my future. I’ll make a final decision by tomorrow and share it with y’all. Until then, Ciao!  
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03 May 2015, 06:01
| FROM My Journey to Business School: US Visa Application and Visa Interview Process for Indian Nationals |
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Type of Visa: You will be applying for a Non-Immigrant F-1 (Student) US Visa. Applying for a Visa: Create an account on: https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/?language=English&country=India Complete the DS-160 Form which is an online visa application form. It will be available on the above website once you register. It is a long and comprehensive form, so be prepared to set aside an hour to fill it out. Be sure to read the Guidelines for Completing the DS-160 Form carefully before starting work on the form. Once the form is submitted, you cannot make any changes to it. So double-check the form and all the details before you hit Submit. You will need your DS-160 number to schedule your VAC & Visa interview. Scheduling the VAC and Visa Interview: You will first have to schedule an appointment at a Visa Application Center (VAC) prior to your visa interview. Biometric information including fingerprints and digital photographs will be collected at the VAC. You must schedule the VAC appointment at least one day before the visa interview appointment date. What to carry to the VAC –
Reach the VAC center 30mins before your appointment time. It is useless reaching there any earlier than that as you will not be allowed in. Dress Casual. Visa Interview: I was very stressed before the interview, but in retrospect there was no reason to be! I scheduled my visa interview in Hyderabad, India. There’s a lot of waiting time involved – from the minute I reached the visa center to the moment I got out, the full process took about 2 hours. The visa interview lasted exactly 2 minutes. I was asked: Why do you want to go to the USA? May I see your i20? What is this graduate program you’re pursuing? [My i20 had “Engineering, Other” as the Graduate program listed] Did you write the GMAT or GRE? How much did you score on the GMAT? [He was mightily impressed by my GMAT score, and his tone was considerably warmer after hearing it. He bantered a bit about schools in the US and GMAT scores] What other schools did you apply to? Did you get in anywhere else? How do you plan to pay for this extremely expensive program?  And that was it. My interviewer did not look at any of the papers that I took along. I even asked him to look at the financials that were in front of him to verify my claims of being able to pay for school, but he emphasized his dislike for paperwork and mentioned he would take me at my word. However this does not mean you should be lax about taking all the required paperwork to your visa interview. The documents you will need are:
You can check your visa status by entering your DS-160 number and interview location in this page: https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?eQs=WwjqOlbeRYzCYubaSQI+RA== Once your visa is approved and your passport is stamped, you will get an email from the US Embassy stating that your passport is ready to be picked up. You can track your passport here – https://ustraveldocs.com/in/in-niv-passporttrack.asp Good luck with your visa interviews and let me know if you have any questions about the process in the comments below!  
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03 Dec 2015, 02:02
| FROM MBA For Tech: Duke Fuqua Interview and Dartmouth Tuck Invite |
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Got an invite to Tuck (November round)! Feels so great! Really love the school and the people there. I spoke with quite a few alums, they were really among the most responsive ones. I especially, appreciated the honesty with which they answered my questions and their patience, as I am someone who gets to the heart of things and don’t like to have unadressed concerns. I will write a separate post about my experience with alums/current students within the research stage of application. But now, a few words on my Duke interview: it was a few weeks ago, but I was quite busy, so my post is a bit late. I was paired with an alum, who workes in MBB, we met in a coffee house next to his office, actually the same chain of cafés, where I met with Booth alumna, seems to be popular among MBB’s. But unlike my interview with Booth alumna, this interview was more formal, he had a list of questions in mind and our interview was more like a Q&A session than a conversation, thought quite relaxed; what I didn’l like about this is that sometimes he would ask about topics that we discussed before, so we discussed topic A, then B, then C, then A, then C etc. a bit haphazard. The questions were as follows:
So, now the wait! Tagged: Fuqua, Interivew, invites, Tuck  
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31 Dec 2015, 14:01
| FROM MBA Data Guru: Optimal MBA Application Number |
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Optimal MBA Application Number Many business school applicants wonder how many MBA applications they should submit? In this article, I will discuss the optimal MBA application number based on real data. Deciding on your MBA application number is challenging because the more schools you apply to, the less time you have to spend on each application. On the other hand, you don’t want to put all of your eggs into one or two baskets. The data suggests that the ideal number of MBA applications is 5 to 7. For more information, check out this article on how to build your portfolio of MBA applications co-authored by Lawrence Linker and I. Distribution of Number of MBA Applications  For this analysis, I used MBA application data from GMAT Club forums, which is self reported admissions data. By matching usernames across different school applications, I was able to get the number of MBA applications submitted. It seems strange to see that a third of applicants only applied to one school. I would have expected more applicants to apply to 5 or more schools. Even if we assume the source is slightly biased and ignore those who apply to only one school, two thirds of the remaining applicants still apply to only 4 or fewer schools. MBA Acceptance Rate by MBA Application Number  This graph is possibly the most important piece of information for applicants who are considering applying to a lot of schools. It shows that average acceptance rate per application is relatively flat if you apply to seven or fewer MBA programs, at around 24%. However, if you apply to more than seven schools then acceptance rate plummets to lower than 15%. Those few individuals who apply to 10 or more schools only have a meager 6% acceptance rate. Perhaps there are alternative explanation as to why these acceptance rates drop so much, such as GMAT or GPA of the applicants. GMAT and GPA by Number of MBA Applications  Despite having the highest average GMAT and GPA, applicants who apply to 8 schools have an acceptance rate of only 13%. This supports the idea that if you apply to many schools then you don’t have as much time to commit to each application, so quality decreases. Those who apply to 9 or 10+ schools tend to have lower GPAs while those who apply to 1 school tend to have lower GMATs. People who apply to 6 to 8 schools on average have the highest combined scores. Also applicants that don’t get in for round 1 often apply during round 2 or 3. I found that 63% of applicants who applied to 2 to 5 schools applied to all schools in the same round while only 25% of applicants who applied to 6+ schools applied to all schools in the same round. Surprisingly there wasn’t much of a difference in average acceptance rate for those who applied to all schools in one round vs multiple rounds except for 8+. When applicants applied to 8 or more schools in one round, the acceptance rate was 50% lower than applicants who applied to 8 or more schools but did it in multiple rounds. So if you plan to apply to many schools, spread it out over a few rounds. Accepted to at Least One School by MBA Application Number  The next question is how likely is an applicant to get into at least on MBA program? If you want at least a 50% chance of being admitted, you should apply to 4 or more schools. The peak is 65% for those applying to 7 schools. If acceptances were completely random with a 25% acceptance rate and 7 applications, we would expect 87% to get into at least one school. This gap suggests that the applicants who are accepted tend to get into many schools while 35% are rejected by everyone. Similarly, for those applying to 5 schools, we expect 75% to get at least one acceptance but only 58% are admitted. I expect that this is because there is a major flaw in their application and they repeat it with every school. This is one of the reasons I suggest applicants use an admission consultant for at least one school. Catch the mistake early with the first school and you will be in much better shape. Average Number of MBA Acceptances  The graph above shows how many schools applicants got into, if they were accepted to at least one school. Unsurprisingly, those who applied to many schools were more likely to have a choice. MBA Rank Comparison  The final graph shows the average school rank of the schools applied to verses the school to which they were admitted. I excluded applicants who did not get into at least one school. It is not shocking that applicants tended to get into lower ranked schools than the average rank of their applications. The big takeaway here is that the gap is much smaller for applicants that submitted 5 or fewer applications. For applicants with 2 to 5 applications, the average school accepted is 2 ranks worse than the average application. For applicants with 6+ applications, the average school accepted is 3.2 ranks worse than the average application. So applying to many schools degrades your chance of being accepted to the most elite MBA programs. In conclusion, there are many considerations when deciding how many MBA applications to submit. Most of the data suggests that an applicant should apply to 5 to 7 schools to maximize their chance of getting into at least one school. If you want to raise your chance of being accepted to at least one MBA program above the 65% figure for 7 applications, I recommend you hire a consultant to help you craft your essays and avoid major mistakes rather than just submitting more applications. MBA Data Guru - Business school admissions data and analysis |
20 Jul 2016, 11:02
| FROM DLo's BSchool Debrief: b-school debrief: costs of the application process |
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So Much $$$ Business school costs a lot. This is obvious, whether you are a full-ride scholarship student or are paying fully out-of-pocket. Aside from the (constantly rising) tuition costs, you have the cost of living, external costs of the program, the utility cost for losing 2 years of income, and before everything, the cost of applying. In the grand scheme of things, the cost of applying may seem like a small, tiny teardrop in the bucket of the overall financial toll of an MBA. But for those who are still prospecting schools, still working on their GMAT, or even considering if they want to get an MBA, the costs of each part of the application process can be a large concern. Trying to be Cheap As I laid out before, my approach to the application process was to spend as minimally as possible. This wasn’t a reflection of my indecision on the MBA, but more that I have always had an internal conflict on spending money to get ahead when applying for things – I’m very stubborn about it, and always opted to self-study for the SATs and GREs instead of plunking down thousands for classes. The results, I will say, were mixed. I took the SATs 4 times before I got a great score, and the GRE was just enough to get me into grad school for my MS. For b-school, the application process was far more grueling, and it made me reconsider this mantra. If you read around or ask around these days, there are two main sources of application support people willingly drop wads of cash into for assistance and advantage: GMAT classes and, more recently, admissions consultants. GMAT Classes  I touched on the GMAT course issue a bit in the previous posts on the GMAT, but I’ll lay out how it went for me. I started studying half-heartedly with a set of Manhattan GMAT books, and found that I really enjoyed their approach. After my first diagnostics, I was dismayed at just how bad I was, not really taking into consideration the specialized approach you need to learn to master the GMAT. I saw an offer to attend the first session of a Manhattan in-person course, so I checked it out. After going through the session and seeing how structured they were in teaching + drilling their strategies, I definitely considered the course. But at $1,600 or so, I was very hesitant. I ended up not going with it and believing I could conquer it through self-study as usual. Again as I detailed in the GMAT posts, I had a great deal of luck in that a friend who had taken the course ended up with a full year extra of access to their online materials – including video lectures. I jumped on it and this definitely helped in my study process, as well as the syllabus they gave to lay out a study strategy for their 9 books. The online-only course was around $900 or so at the time, so in all honesty I might have given that more consideration if I didn’t have free access, and had known how useful it was. So for your consideration, if you’re really struggling or even moderately struggling with the GMAT, I do believe some assistance helps, but again from a budgetary perspective I found myself very much not wanting to drop so much money on a course. Keep in mind as well that each run-through of the test is $250, so if you don’t want to take my multiple-effort approach and keep spending more on re-takes, perhaps a course may work for you as well. Admissions Consultants Now we come to the truly divergent path of the application process – whether or not use an admissions consultant. A friend who had been applying to Top 10 schools had told me a few years before about admissions consultants – and I was surprised at the concept. You pay people thousands of dollars to tell you how to apply to school? Doesn’t that dilute the purpose of the application? But she was aiming for Stanford – her dream school – and was thus prepared to spare no expense. As the pressure and stress mounted on me 5-6 months before it was my turn to submit my apps, I took a good hard look at just what a consultant provided and if it was worth my consideration. Nothing about my budgetary mindfulness changed, but I knew for sure I was going to do this b-school thing, and the more real the applications got, the more uncertain it felt my future was. What if I didn’t get in to where I wanted – or worse, came out completely empty handed? I looked at the price points of some of these services – Admissionado, MBA Prep School, etc. Prices ranged from $2,500 – 5,000 per school. This was insane to me, to spend so much money to re-tool a story that I had to build myself. It appeared to just be a magic wand that people were looking for, that would give them the golden ticket to the b-school of their choice. I dove in and did my research on what exactly I could get out of a consultant, and the answers varied greatly. Some promised to get you into a Top 10 school; some were far more pragmatic and their claims were simply to build the best story you can by helping you mine yourself, and to write more pointedly. I got a quote from one of the larger consultancies for my application list – Columbia, NYU, Stanford, Wharton, UCLA, Haas and Cornell. They offered me help on one, Columbia, for a single-school fee of $4000 with additional schools at $2000 a pop.  Holy. Crap. I saw those numbers and ran away. The biggest takeaway I got from consultant research was that nothing was guaranteed (of course), and there were no sure things. If my profile was weak, the “best” consultants in the world couldn’t help me. I felt I had a strong profile, and was confident in my writing abilities, so I decided to go it on my own, with some budget help. Budget Admissions Tools There are far cheaper options to help you through the admissions process and submitting a strong application without dropping thousands on a consultant. I searched around for some, and found some by chance, but eventually settled on two resources which I came to really love. (Note: I am neither affiliated with nor am I working in conjunction with either of these two. These are the two resources I personally came to love during my application process.) Touch MBA Podcasts – This was my first discovery. I had a long commute to work, and started listening to GMAT podcasts; once that nonsense was over, I checked out admissions podcasts and stumbled upon Darren Joe’s podcasts. He touches on a variety of topics, from interviews and Q&As with admissions officers at a huge list of schools (including many in the Top 10), as well as general admissions advice on writing, story building, defining your goals, success stories, and more. These were in convenient less-than-an-hour-long slices that I could listen to and repeat if I wanted to absorb his strategies better. He also provides a free profile evaluation and school selection advice, which helped me to discover Cornell Tech’s MBA, a program I had previously not known of. Touch MBA’s topics and overall enthusiastic approach to his podcasts kept me calm and steady whenever I was thinking about the daunting task of applying. Being a previous admissions officer at a top MBA program in Asia, I felt his perspective was sharp, but he also always had a genuine feel to his advice – he really just wanted to help people out. When I first started listening, everything was a free podcast; as he gained a larger following, he has started to create purchasable resources including more in-depth videos and tools that I didn’t personally use, but are affordable as well. Essay Snark – I absolutely love, love, LOVE this site. These guys (one person? I can’t tell) are the opposite of Touch MBA in personality – no sugar coating, blunt advice, and unapologetic topics. While still maintaining the same goal of helping you guide yourself through the b-school application, they take a tough-love approach. This is highlighted in the most part by their “blahg,” which is a daily-updated blog covering topics that are pertinent to the current position of the admissions cycle, along with countdowns and advice for each school in the Top 15. The blahg is $9.99 per month to read, which is well worth it in my opinion.  Essay Snark offers more conventional consultant packages – still a few grand – for those that opt for it, but they also provide a plethora of resources and a la carte feedback options. I used their individual strategy guides and a few other products and only spent about $250 total on help from here – WELL worth it from my perspective. I will detail Essay Snark’s guides and how I used them in future blog posts, but the three products I did pay for through them were 15 weeks of Blahg access + Weekly Countdown e-mails for $35, the strategy guide 6-pack for $99, and the customized recommender’s instructions sets for $99. I kept a Blahg subscription for a few months after apps were turned in because they were still compelling reads. These two resources made a true difference in my application quality, and I was able to do so by only spending a few hundred dollars – about the same cost as one run at the GMAT. While I set out initially thinking I’d need no external service help, I felt that there were just enough for me. EXCEPT!: Friends and Peers – This is the unspoken budget application tool. When it comes to your essays, you can do without the pricey admissions consultants by simply consulting a large range of your friends – ones who know how to write, ones who’ve gone to b-school, ones that know you as a person, and even ones you’ve just met, aka current students at the schools you’re applying to. Networking and utilizing your network is one of the most crucial skills you’ll need during b-school, so you may as well start now! Additional Costs So aside from the costs of the GMAT, GMAT resources / courses, and application resources / consultants, there’s still that last costly part of the process that people forget – the applications! When you set out to determine your school list, don’t forget that each application you’re submitting is going to cost between $200-250. If you’re peppering the entire field and trying for 10+ schools, that’s already $2500+ right there (we’ll talk about school research and choice, as well as quality over quantity, in the next entry). Don’t forget to keep this in mind too, especially if you’re still on the fence of either your chances or if you really want that MBA. Final Thoughts Like I said before, the costs of applying are small change compared to the overall cost of getting your MBA. But the amount you can spend in this process can balloon very quickly if you go resource-hungry, and can bite you back if you for some reason decide not to pursue in the end, or fail to realize just how awesome you are without the help of someone whispering it in your ear. If you’re like me and find dropping stacks of cash on external assistance a little off-putting, there are plenty of options for you to get similar ‘advantages’ while still having money to buy dinner at the end of the day. Good luck! |
20 Jun 2017, 00:51
| FROM lillianmbula: Scholarships |
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So Africans are the most underrepresented demographic in the top business schools in the world. Why is this so? Well for starters the cost. Paying for an international MBA from an African (Kenyan in my case) salary is tough. Very tough. Most African currencies are weaker than the US dollar so its just a dream for most to attend Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, INSEAD etc That said there are scholarships for us Africans. Yup you heard me right.  Some scholarships I found are: Stanford Graduate School of Business https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/programs/mba/financial-aid/international-students/stanford-africa-mba-fellowship Harvard Business School https://www.hbs.edu/mba/financial-aid/Pages/external-funding-opportunities.aspx#international Specifically the Olam International Africa Graduate Scholarship Wharton https://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/mbaprogram/financial_aid/outside_scholarships_1213.pdf  
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28 Jul 2017, 09:01
| FROM MORENA MBA: July Update | Hate Is A Strong Word |
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Hey girl (or boy) Hey! So I’ve been MIA from this blog for two months. I took the GMAT in June and have yet to write about it, but that post is coming. Really all you need to know is that I am still studying. Sometimes I feel I am in a black hole of sentence correction and word problems. I promise I don’t hate the GMAT. I just want our relationship to be over! My next test date is the end of August which is cutting it close to my first school deadline. I will need to make some decisions about Round 1 vs Round 2 applications. Studying is tough, especially when you have a long commute and don’t feel that you have enough time to dedicate to get where you want to go. I do have a tutor (I will do a full review on the good and bad of finding a tutor/ using one) which is helpful. I neeeed to do more Verbal. All my time has been dedicated towards Quant. Sometimes it feels that my to-do list is quick sand. I think the only thing that is going really well is my ability to make contacts at my target schools, attend events, and network. I feel I have a strong sense of where I want to go and what I want my experience to look like. Stay tuned for more updates that are actually well thought out and organized.  
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09 Dec 2013, 13:00
| FROM Domotron's Blog: State of lethargy |
 I have descended into a state of lethargy after my interviews. I know that I have to finish my Kellogg app as soon as possible to make sure I get a shot at an off-campus interview. However, the motivation really is not there at the moment. Rather than being ruthlessly efficient and shutting out all the distractions to work on my essays, I find myself counting down the days until decisions come out. Wharton is first with their decisions being released on the 17th before Booth on the 19th. By my count that’s 12 days away. This could be the longest 12 days ever. Luckily, I am not the only one who feels this way. If you survey the various Calling All Applicants threads on GmatClub you will notice that all the applicants’ nerves are equally frayed. Whenever I speak to current students or alums, they have always said the waiting was the worst part. One thing is very clear in my mind though. I only need one school to say yes. If I get an admit in a couple of weeks then all pressure is off. However there is every chance that I am left without an admit after the decision dates, at point which I will need to re-evaluate my R2 options or even thinking about re-applying next year. I don’t want to think about the worst case scenarios but I can’t help being pragmatic! As for my other school Tuck, I have a MUCH longer wait since I applied in the November round. The decision date is not until early February. To be completely honest, I have gone slightly gaga over the school. Of all the schools I have applied this, it’s the one where I have gone above and beyond to engage with students, alums and admissions. All this work inevitably builds a level of hope and expectation. It’s going to bea long 2 months with frequent daydreams of getting that admit call. Best of luck to everyone waiting on decisions in December. Hope you are all just about coping with the looong wait!  
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06 Feb 2014, 15:00
| FROM The MBA Journey of an African Doctor: Coping with a ding |
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I saw it coming. I definitely did. When the email did not come last week, I prepared mentally for a ding, and that was exactly what I got. Harvard Business School obviously did not like me as much as I liked it. The feeling of getting dinged by your dream school is better imagined than experienced. I went through all the gamut of the Kubler-Ross grief stages (denial, anger, bargaining, grieving, and acceptance) in different cycles.When the ding finally came, I was ready for it. But it still stung. It is hard to give up, but my real source of concern is what exactly caused the ding. After searching high and low, four reasons came up for why I was rejected. There was really nothing I could do about them because they were not my fault in the first place. I happen to be in my mid thirties, work in an unknown firm, graduated from an obscure university in the backwaters of west Africa, and had an un-explainable academic performance (there is no GPA for medical degrees in my country). After a little research I came to the realization that all of the people who went to HBS from my country that I know all had their undergraduate degrees from either the US or the UK. My real concern now is whether Stanford also operates through the same set of standards. If it does, it simply means that I stand no chance there either. However, if the Stanford Africa Fellowship page is anything to go by then I may have a chance because they encourage Africans who got their undergraduate degree to apply for the fellowship. Well, one can only apply for it if one gets admission in the first place. Oh well, I have started shaking the sting out of the ding. I have my second INSEAD interview in a few days. The first interview went really well. Even though the first interviewer was supposed to be the bad cop, we ended up really connecting and some of our future goals were in alignment. My full debrief for the interview will come up after the second interview. I think the second interviewer will be the good cop because of the way he sounds on the phone and the tone of his e-mails. But I have no intention of taking anything for granted. Yikes. This application process is really tough, and it can be quite emotionally draining. But I am so glad to have the opportunity to put everything down in writing because I know that five years down the line, I will be glad that I did. I know this because I have full confidence that I will get admission to a really great school where I will be able to fulfill my destiny. Warren Buffet was dinged by Harvard Business School. He went to Columbia where he met his mentor whose ideas ended up making him one of the richest man to have ever lived on this planet. He probably wouldn’t have fulfilled his destiny if he went to HBS. So I guess I am in good company after all. Okay Stanford GSB, I am waiting for my interview invite. INSEAD, I am glad for the interview invite. Wharton, I will make up my mind about you on February 21, 2014. And Harvard, thank you for the opportunity. But if I had been admitted by both Stanford and Harvard, I would have chosen Stanford, even though Harvard was my dream school. No hard feelings. That’s how the world works.  
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11 Feb 2014, 08:00
| FROM Domotron's Blog: Tuck bound! |
 I’m in at Tuck! Last Thursday I got the all important call and I was/am still absolutely ecstatic. For those that have followed my journey so far, they will know that Tuck has been my top choice since I visited. It was incredible to finally wrap up my b-school application journey. I have to thank a few people because honestly without them I doubt I would have survived this whole b-school application ordeal! First of all, my fellow applicants hamm0 and jumsumtak from Gmatclub. It’s been great sharing all the ups and downs with you guys. I am really glad you guys got into Johnson (hamm0) and Fuqua (jumsumtak). Finally thanks to all the readers of this blog. It’s been fun keeping you guys in the loop even during the tougher times! Next steps By my count there are only 6 months before I land in Hanover but there seems to be a ton of things on my to do list already:
One thing I am extremely conscious about is making time for my friends and family. This whole process has been pretty time consuming and it means I have not spent as much time with friends, family, girlfriend as much as I wanted to. I will definitely be making the most of the next 6 months making up for lost time. This brings me onto the Tuck Admitted Students Weekend (ASW). I’m not going to lie, it sounds absolutely amazing and I am really eager to meet my future classmates as soon as possible. However there is a relatively substantial cost involve for me to get to Hanover. Also it may mean sacrificing a last holiday with my girlfriend before I set off. It’s a very tough decision but having visited Tuck last October, it may be that I will give it a miss. Plenty of time still to change my mind! When I get a chance, I am going to start a series of posts about the different aspects of the application process and giving a flavour of how I tackled each portion. Hopefully, it will prove useful for future applicants.  
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27 Feb 2014, 08:00
| FROM Defying Gravity - The MBA Journey: Holy crap, I've been invited to interview by Stanford! |
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There's one school about which I've been pretty quiet. It's that "other" school on the west coast. You know the one I'm talking about, the one and only Stanford GSB. I applied to Stanford in Round 2, after having received a couple of acceptances from other programs. I had already written my Round 2 essays, before having any acceptances, so I decided there was no harm in just submitting the application. Even though, to be honest, I wasn't expecting much. After all, the GSB now has an acceptance rate below 7%. Those are some crazy odds. I figured my application fee would probably be more like a $275 donation. So, as the weeks went by and I didn't hear anything, I really wasn't stressed. Then, February 25th passed, the day by which "the majority" of interview invites would have been sent. People on GMATClub started to go a little wild, and speculations were running rampant. "Welp, guess I didn't make it," I thought. I've been oddly calm about this one. Thus, imagine my surprise when I casually checked my email last night and saw a message inviting me to interview. Holy crap, I was invited to interview by Stanford GSB!! I was, and still am, in absolute disbelief. I read the email about 5 times just to make sure that it was real, and then I checked it again this morning. I now have 10 days to arrange a mutually convenient time and location with my assigned alumni interviewer. Hence, I am kicking my interview prep into high gear... and trying not to freak out... |
15 Aug 2014, 08:59
16 Aug 2014, 14:00
| FROM Farhanc85: Finally a 700!!!! |
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After 14 Mocks and almost 10 months I scored a 700. I am afraid it might be too little too late. Anyways key takeaway was, I wasn't at all stressed today and was focused only on problem. Trying to actually imagine them. Q49 and V37, well lets see where I max out before 4th Sept. On the research front, I am completely focused on INSEAD right now. Speaking to current students, students entering Jan 2015 Batch and also few alums. Everyone has got a story and the most common theme from each of their stories is "Its a transformational experience". I believe that should be the theme of my essays. Till now I am just creating an outline for the essays, need to start writing asap. Fellow applicants have already started submitting their apps. 4th Sept GMAT, 26th Sept INSEAD submission. Wish me luck Cheers |
18 Aug 2014, 09:01
| FROM Pro GMAT: Productive Me: The Morning Mantra |
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An individual’s success depends upon his/her ability to be productive. Being productive means not to devote your maximum time to the task, but to get most out of your time that was spent on the task. It may be a day, an hour, a minute or a moment. Most of the creative people doesn’t spend 10s of hours on a thing and get the idea, but they generate the idea when they are most productive during the day, that is directly proportional to their success. The same funda is applied not only to creative people but to each and every one of us. Everyone had the best time once in their lifetime when they were most productive and got most out of their time they spent on something. From last few weeks, I am also trying to figure out the best time to study for me. Experiments that I did to study and results:
Making a small experiment and finding the best time could be the break-through mantra for anyone, who wants best out of their time. Few things to focus upon:
Yes, it helps.  Filed under: General Post Tagged: Analysis, Inspiration, Journey, Study 
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12 Nov 2014, 14:01
| FROM ConstructionToMBA: Interview invite at Johnson |
The first good news of the admissions cycle – I’ve been invited to interview at Johnson! This news felt particularly uplifting, especially given my ding at Booth last month. I’m a HUGE fan of Johnson. I remember visiting Ithaca in HS, and I loved the campus, and community at Cornell. I’m excited to interview next week!  
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 11:30am NY / 3:30pm London / 9pm Mumbai Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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:star:
