Calling Judge(Cambridge) Applicnts(2015 Intake)Class of 2016

Same here... i am lost too

Did anyone call/email adcom to check whether it gives us any chances at all?

Hi all, I got the invite for the 23rd of February. Coming to Cambridge for the first time ! Anyone going on the same weekend ?

FROM Cambridge Admissions Blog: That Cambridge-Oxford rivalry

Recently, my Facebook timeline was flooded with our alums posting an article written by the Economist about how the city of Cambridge was pulling ahead of Oxford in terms of economic growth. There was, as you can imagine, a certain sense of good-humoured triumphalism in some of these posts. I am not a subscriber to the Economist (I was until their iPad app kept breaking some years ago and I never went back) but someone drew my attention to an exchange of letters to their editor following this article. The first was a letter from the University of Oxford refuting the central hypothesis that Oxford was trailing Cambridge and the second was a response from Sherry Coutu, Sir Herman Hauser (one of the founders of ARM) and other prominent figures in the Cambridge entrepreneurial scene. I can’t even pretend to be an expert on this issue but I was drawn to the following section of Coutu’s letter. “a much more important reason for Cambridge’s success is that it has developed a culture of collaboration. Cambridge has more than 60 networks bringing together academics, industry and capital to help companies succeed. We said as much in our report.Collaboration and networking are a better way forward and we would like to see Oxford and Cambridge working together for the benefit of Britain. Let’s be positive about what both cities have to offer, rather than seeing each other as opponents. After all, the issue is global competition, not local rivalries.” This sentiment resonated with what I have felt with respect to both business schools. While some friendly rivalry is useful to spur each other to innovate and improve, there is also much to be gained from collaboration. Having said that, collaboration is easier said than done. I remember someone who was involved heavily in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race telling me that there is a significant difference in the way both teams approached the Boat Race. The Cambridge team would motivate itself by trying to be the best that it could be. The Oxford team motivates itself by the thought of beating Cambridge. Now I can’t attest to the accuracy of this statement but if true, it does suggest that collaboration might come more easily to Cambridge. And maybe that’s why collaboration is one of the key pillars of the ethos at the Cambridge MBA. One final note. Oxford’s team holds a commanding lead in recent years when it comes to wins at the Boat Race. Which just goes to show that collaboration alone doesn’t get you success.

Hi all,

I have recently been accepted into both the Oxford and Cambridge MBA programs and am struggling to decide between the two schools. I visited both schools for interviews in February and definitely got a better feeling from the Cambridge program (more intimate program, incredibly diverse, slightly older intake and very applied / entrepreneurial). That said, both schools have a lot of history and extremely well regarded and it is a tough decision.

What are you thoughts? Would you choose Cambridge over Oxford.

Before my visits to the school I was going to choose Oxford over Cambridge (for no other reason that perceived brand) but I think my view has now changed.

Best, D

Hi Minty,

I would go for Cambridge. Cambridge is the silicon valley of UK and you will be 1 hour away from London. Plus you will find the strong collaborative environment not only in JBS but also in the people and the companies in Cambridge.

Good luck

Quick question: It will cost me upwards of $1500 to fly from NA to the UK for a Cambridge interview. Is it worth it for the face to face time, or can I safely opt for a phone call interview?

I just applied to Round 4, so I haven't been invited yet and I may be jumping the gun, but I'm just trying to plan ahead.

I think that if Judge is one of your top choices, you should probably go. Judge doesn't do "Admit Weekends" after you get in; that aspect is covered the day-before and day-of your interview. Also, it's a strong indicator of interest to fly all the way to visit Cambridge.

That being said, I don't think that doing the phone interview will harm your application aside from usual phone vs. in-person interviewing challenges.

I visited Cambridge for my interview and found the experience to be much more than I expected. I don't think it would hurt your chances. But it will let you know how you'd feel if you decide to go so that is worth your investment on one hand. On the other just visiting a school that is 800 years old and that has has Newton and Darwin on its campus is worth the trip.

Best regards and good luck,

Posted from my mobile device

hi all,

anyone applying for R5?

Hi Guys,
I have applied for R4. Anyone in the same boat?

Any idea when will the interview shortlist be out?

Thanks

I am also waiting to hear on my application.

Cheers,

Posted from my mobile device

FROM Cambridge Admissions Blog: Compare the Meerkats

Many of my friends and colleagues know that I love tech and social media although I am not the early adopter type. More like the person who comes in after that first adopter wave. Last week, I broke that pattern by being an early adopter of an app that, had taken SWSX by storm. Meerkat is a live-video streaming app where someone logs into the app using a twitter account, and then you can stream live video through your twitter feed. Once you are done with streaming and hit the stop button, the feed disappears ala SnapChat. It is currently only available on iOS but anyone can watch your live stream through their twitter feed. Whether Meerkat follows in the footsteps of Twitter and Foursquare which made their breakthroughs in SWSX is still an open question. But you know that there is potential when mainstream media write about Meerkat and celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon and Julia Louis-Dreyfus start to use it. I might have been the first admissions professional to use Meerkat last Friday. I had it all planned out. I used Meerkat’s scheduling function to announce to my 1750 odd twitter followers that I was going to speak at 4:45 pm GMT about the Round 4 applications. @CambridgeMBA retweeted that to their 16,000 followers. At 4:45pm, on the dot, I was all ready. I had positioned my iPad so that it wouldn’t show the mess on my table or the confidential charts, I had a last sip of water, cleared my throat and pressed start. There was no one watching. I tried to act cool. It was probably just a timing issue, maybe people were fiddling around with their phones or refreshing their desktop browsers. I waited. The seconds turned into minutes. Suddenly one viewer came on, then another and another. I started talking about how most of the Round 4 applications had been read and decisions would be emailed out in the next hour. I talked about the number of interview invites and some of the common reasons why people were rejected in this round, and that there were still places available for Round 5. I showed some of the office, again trying to avoid any confidential material related to applications. And after five minutes I was done. So was it worth it? Given that it was free and only took 5 minutes of my time, I would say there was little downside. I did enjoy the live-streaming experience but then again I wasn’t watching myself so I am a bit biased here. Would I do it again? Very definitely yes. I am a firm believer that podcasts, videos and now live-streaming can give applicants, students and faculty an insight into a business school, the personalities and our values. So I will definitely try live video-streaming again but it is still too early to decide whether Meerkat will be the preferred platform — Twitter has already acquired a competitor to Meerkat. One thing I did learn from being an early adopter is that in social media, size does matter. Jimmy Fallon has 23 million followers on twitter. He had only 2000 people watch him on Meerkat doing a rehearsal for his show. Now you could argue that viewing a Meerkat stream shows a higher commitment than following someone on twitter and that Meerkat is still in its early stages but that’s still a big drop-off. As for me, I drew some comfort from the fact that my drop-off percentage was better than Fallon’s. Until my colleague Luisa told me she was one of the three viewers. Bah.

R4 Applicant... I just got dinged today via email. Good luck to the rest of you!

FROM Cambridge Admissions Blog: Building on the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew

In the early morning of the 23rd of March, Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of independent Singapore, passed away. Lee had been Prime Minister for 31 years if one includes the period when Singapore was still under colonial rule and the two years when Singapore was part of Malaysia. However one felt about Lee, one could not argue against the tremendous impact that he had on a country that defied all expectations to become one of the richest countries in the world as measured by per capita GDP and one that is widely admired for the lack of corruption, good infrastructure, educational systems and generally strong social bonds. I have been fortunate in that I have enjoyed many of the benefits of growing up, and living in the Singapore that Lee and his team built, without having had much experience of the sacrifices and hardships that the first generation of independent Singaporeans had to endure. Lee’s death has unleashed a huge and, I would say to some extent, unexpected outpouring of emotion amongst Singaporeans. Hundreds of thousands of people have queued for up to ten hours at a time in the hot sun to view Lee’s body at the Lying of State in Parliament House. My Facebook timeline has been taken over by my friends posting and reposting articles or their own reflections about Lee Kuan Yew. I myself,took a half day of leave yesterday to travel to the Singapore High Commission to sign a condolence book. I never knew Lee Kuan Yew personally so I don’t know what he would have made of all this. He would probably have disapproved of all this fawning attention and the time taken off productive work. As it has become clear through the reflections of those who have worked with him, Lee worked tirelessly for Singapore, even asking his security detail to take a photo of some litter floating on the Singapore River that he had seen, so that he could get the relevant agencies to more thoroughly clean up the river the next day. This on the day his wife of many years had just passed away. I did attend one meeting when Lee Kuan Yew was present. I was sitting in the corner of the Cabinet Room as the designated note-taker and I of course can’t reveal any details of the meeting as I am bound by the Official Secrets Act. But I do remember the combination of Lee Kuan Yew’s intellect, wit and steely resolve were all on display that day to great effect. Many people have shared their own experiences of Lee’s softer side. This was not one of those occasions. One comment that Lee did make in that meeting, and which I feel comfortable to write about because he has spoken about this at many public occasions is why Singapore struggles to produce entrepreneurs to the same extent as Hong Kong. I am a good example of this. I attended the top schools in Singapore, where admission is based purely on merit, was awarded a government scholarship to study in Stanford and later London Business School and joined the public service where I was surrounded by others who had similarly strong academic backgrounds. And yet, I cannot think of one person in our cohort that started their own business. Everyone either joined the civil service, a profession such as medicine, law or engineering, or worked for a large MNC mostly in finance. It is a question that I have been thinking about much more frequently as I watch my daughter, who is now three years old, grow up. I wonder what sort of career or careers she will have. And while I would be happy whatever career she chooses so long as she can morally defend her choice, it would make me so proud if she were to choose to become an entrepreneur. Lee has spoken about how Singapore managed to catch the right waves at the right time and I believe that one big wave in the next 20 years will be changing societal attitudes that will see the emergence of women entrepreneurs. I hope Singapore and my daughter will be able to catch that wave and that will be the best way to build on Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy. For my part, what I lack in entrepreneurial DNA, I hope I have the foresight and strength, to always create the conditions under which my daughter can develop entrepreneurial instincts and traits, and not extinguish them by telling her to embark on the safe, tried and tested path. As a last note, I want to thank the candidate from Saudi Arabia who wrote to me personally after he learnt of Lee Kuan Yew’s death. This candidate could not attend the Cambridge MBA for various reasons but he wrote extensively about how he admired Lee, especially for suggesting that Saudi Arabia start a massive scholarship programme to help its youth develop.

Anybody applying in Round 5?

I am planning for R5 but have absolutely no idea if it is worth trying in R5.