Journey to CBS

Question

TLDR  
Country: France, living in the UK
Stats: 760 GMAT Complicated GPA (retook 2nd and 3rd year)
Age: 30+
Industry: Transport
Previous occupation: Senior engineer
Applications and admissions:
 Columbia - Admitted (with scholarship)
HBS - Rejected with no interview
Insead - Admitted

Brief background  
I'm in the transport industry, have an MSc, did 2 exchange semesters abroad and worked in about 10 different countries, all in transportation.
 
 GMAT and TOEFL Experience 
When I moved to the UK, I took English lessons to soften my accent and improve my grammar. 2h a week for 5 years, on top of a FT job with writing and reading in English every day. This I think helped a lot with the Verbal part of the GMAT. Although GMAT Ninja’s videos helped as well.
As an engineer, nothing was new for the Quant section, the timing was the issue as well as some shortcut and GMAT specific traps. The math class from GMATWizz helped with revisions during the summer.
I trained daily, reading all the Manhattan books first, then doing at least 20 PS and 20 DS per day. Over the weekends, I did 1 full CAT from all the sources I could find or one made up using the official guide (especially in early days to do only easy, then medium) and 1 LSAT reading. On Sundays I spent time going through my wrong and lucky answers. This was mostly true over the summer as I had more time. My very first CAT not knowing what GMAT was like was around 550. Then the official ones went from 710 (around May 2020) to 780. I bought 2 extra official tests.
I scheduled the GMAT for June 2020, the online version with no white board. Unfortunately, the proctor didn’t show up. I received a full refund late July 2020.
So I rescheduled an in person exam in July 2020. This didn’t go as expected. It was the first time I went out on the tube since the COVID outbreak and the other exam taker took it in a different order making a lot of noise typing, so I got distracted. I didn’t answer the last quant question and I kept thinking about quant during the verbal section. I scored 690, which I think is good enough for any school, but not reflective of my level.
I took a 2 weeks break from GMAT, and only did revisions.
I rescheduled the GMAT for end of August 2020, from home again, with the white board this time, hoping for the proctor to show up. I went way too fast in quant, not wanting to repeat my error of the first exam, ending with 20minutes for the last 5 questions. I slowed down, making sure my last answers were correct and using the extra time at the very last question to relax and set myself ready to tackle verbal. Timing was right; I finished the verbal section with 2 extra minutes. The IR section was surprisingly difficult. I thought I had done better than last time, although I feared that the extra time I had in quant was because I failed some hard questions (by the end of the exam, I knew at least 2 questions I had done wrong and moved on too quickly). Scored 760, so very pleased with it.
I scheduled my TOEFL the weekend after my GMAT (which was cancelled). I didn’t prepare much for the TOEFL. Mostly understanding the exam format, understanding the structure of the speaking test and passing the free exam online. I scored 113. Speaking was the most challenging in my opinion.

Application Process: School selection  
I wanted to apply R1 as it has the falls reputation to give you more opportunities to get in. I selected:
 HBS because it is the only school with a class made by their local transport authority (as far as I have found).
Insead because Singapore has a fantastic transport system in a fast growing region. 
Columbia because it sends students to the transport industry and NYC has a great transport system. 
Plus all those schools are very good with excellent people attending.
My safety school would have been Warwick university online MBA, but I haven't had to apply.

Application: Rushing the essay 
Initially, I had planned to pass the GMAT in June and to spend 2 months on my essays using ApplicantLab (bought at the end of June 2020). But due to GMAT issues, I didn’t spend enough time looking into the schools and decided to focus on HBS.
This is not the way to do it. GMAT and application to HBS cannot be done properly in parallel and I favoured the GMAT. I only had about 2-3 weeks dedicated to HBS. I got the help of a neighbour who is an American journalist to spellcheck my essay and of my best friend to check that it was me. The essays were personal, but not deep enough I think. So I got dinged by HBS. ApplicantLab is a great tool, but it isn't a magic stick. Maybe I should have hired a consultant or asked Maria for Help but cost wise it'd have been above my budget.

Following that disaster, I focused on my INSEAD and CBS applications. Round 2 fo Insead, Regular Decision for CBS. I had about 3months to prepare. I made a lot more research and discussed with quite a few alumni and current students. I attended online events with adcoms. In January 2020 I had attended an in-person event with INSEAD in London before lockdown; it had been a good place to understand the school culture. I also discussed with senior managers from my industry in the US and Asia-Pacific regions to ask them about their MBA journeys. This made, I believe, a huge difference in my essays. They were more intimate and I think a lot clearer.

Interviews 
I had prepared for the interview with HBS. ApplicanLab offers quite a lot of questions. And the whole process from ApplicantLab helped me with coming up with examples to potential questions. I think this also helped me for my Insead and CBS essays.
The Insead recorded Kira interview is somehow similar to the speaking test in the TOELF. A prompt, time to think, limited time to deliver a structured answer.
I interviewed with 2 Insead alumni in December 2020 and you can find the debrief on GMAT Club. In short: Alumni are very nice and more or less want to know who you are and what your plans are.
With CBS, I had an interview early January 2021. You can also find the debrief on GMAT Club. The Alumni was really supportive.

Results 
I stressed quite a lot when I was waiting for HBS. With Insead and CBS, their invitation to interview came relatively shortly after I applied and their decisions came relatively fast as well, especially CBS.
The following weekend, I paid my deposit to CBS as I prefer NYC over Singapore and the scholarship makes attending CBS possible.
I withdrew my Insead application the following Monday without waiting to ear back from my scholarship application.

Getting ready for NYC 
As soon as I secured my spot with CBS, I started my loan application and planed the move.
The loan application took about 2months. The visa application only a few days (sent my paperwork for the I20 on April 9 and my visa has been collected by the carrier on April 23rd).
I have my home booked on CBS student housing, my flight is booked as well for August.

Cost 
I allocated $2.000 for my MBA application in March 2020 which I spend on 3 school applications, 2 GMAT, GMAT tests and books, 1 TOEFL, Applicant Lab.
Since being accepted, I spent about $5.500 (school deposit, visa fees, flight tickets, house deposit).

bb · Answer

Wow! I missed this! Congratulations on an awesome admit to CBS and thank you for sharing your experience! Did you have any hesitation on CBS vs. Insead? Are you planning to stay in transportation or thinking of going into consulting or? I think Columbia + Scholarship is an awesome choice. The landing in the US may be a bit rough (though nothing rougher than living in UK for a French person is my guess

) but some aspects of the US need some getting used to. You do have to embrace the culture though to fully take advantage of the experience so encourage you to be very open minded and extra flexible and don't scoff at the American Football

would recommend learning about it a bit and trying to watch may be some of the recorded games. It is a big part of the culture that understanding it would go a long way. This could be your first test of keeping that mind flexible! (if you can master American football, you can switch to baseball, I am still trying to get into it... much easier to follow but a lot slower game; i have not been able to get into it). I would say it is worth spending a bit more on a better location/apartment. I would advise, if you can, get an American roommate rather than an international one; it will be a lot more fun and helpful with the culture shock, but make sure you have personal space so you are not in each other faces all the time.

hacorus · Answer

Thank you bb.

I had hesitations when I played scenarios in my head when applying and would have selected INSEAD as there were more transport opportunities, the class is older and I only know people from INSEAD.
However, with the scholarship, the time to explore a few opportunities (as it's 20 months instead of 10), the NYC Subway and the new administration being transport friendly, I didn't hesitate for a second once I knew the results. Plus my spouse has more opportunities in NYC than Singapore.

I'd really like to stay within my industry. But then reality has to be taken into account. I have a 6 figure loan to repay within 10 years; salaries within the transport industry aren't always great; and opportunities for sponsorship in the USA are scarce within my industry. With 2 years at CBS, I'll join the Consulting and the Tech clubs, and I'll take advantage of in-semesters internships during the 2nd year to explore a few companies and hopefully still keep a foot within transport. And maybe I'll discover something new that I'd like to try and move away from transport. I don't think that'll happen but who knows?

The USA will be the 10th country I live/work/study in, so I've had some cultural training (and numerous faux-pas). In the UK I've survived cricket (never understood it) and in Japan I survived baseball (not my thing). I think beer is the main ingredient to survive those long games. I look forward to see some basketball and American football. And for other American things, I guess NYC is a good place to transition from Europe.

Finally, in terms of living, I took student housing as it is super convenient (no need for guarantor, no need to look for it right when I arrive, no need to set up bills, no need to buy furniture). And with my spouse, home sharing would have been tricky.

Journey to CBS

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