Expert advice for Kelley from Admissions Consultant blogs

Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has announced the MBA essay questions for the 2017-18 admissions season.
Required Essays 
1. Please discuss your immediate post-MBA professional goals. How will your professional experience, when combined with a Kelley MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals? Should the short-term goals you have identified not materialize, what alternate career paths might you consider? (500 words)

2. Please respond to one of the following short essay prompts. (300 words)

• My greatest memory is…

• I’m most afraid of…

• My greatest challenge has been…

• I’m most proud of…

3. Please share with the admissions committee an interesting or surprising fact about you (25 words)
Optional Essay
Is there anything else you think we should know as we evaluation your application? If you believe your essays and credentials represent you fairly, you shouldn’t fell obligated to answer this question. (300 words)

For more information on applying, please visit the IU Kelley MBA admissions website.
***

If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.

Kelley School of Business at Indiana University is a top-tier business school with an innovative program. From the moment you decide to attend Kelley you will be focusing on your career and leadership development. Before you start classes, you will be part of an orientation program called Me Inc.

You’ll receive personalized coaching, leadership training, and real-world industry projects within the first year of your MBA. This will help you focus on the right career and jobs for your internship and full-time job search.

Kelley’s program is unique and close-knit, so your fit with the program and your desire to participate fully will be important to the admissions committee. Kelly has an academically strong class of students, a large number are from outside the United States, and the class is diverse.

REQUIRED ESSAYS
Essay One: Please discuss your immediate post-MBA professional goals. How will your professional experience, when combined with a Kelley MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals? Should the short-term goals you have identified not materialize, what alternate career paths might you consider? (500 words)

Entering Kelley with a crystallized career vision and an idea of how you will accomplish your goals will help you take full advantage of the program. Kelley’s curriculum is tailored to help you reach your career goals. For example, students can specialize almost immediately by choosing one of the first-year Academies in your industry area of focus. Think about these opportunities at Kelley when you answer this career goals question, and specifically how you see yourself using the tools available.

The second half of this question deals with your flexibility around your career goal and your ability to handle change. The business world changes constantly and your ability to recognize opportunity, even outside your anticipated career goals, will be crucial to success. Think about the core elements that are important to you in forming your career goals.

Perhaps you are passionate about a specific industry, but you could imagine pursing either a strategy role or a finance role in that industry. Or perhaps you love marketing and are more flexible about the industry where you practice your craft. Showing that you can capitalize on change and opportunity while staying true to your core values and interests will position you well in this set of essays.

Essay Two: Please respond to one of the following short essay prompts. (300 words)
• My greatest memory is…
• I’m most afraid of…
• My greatest challenge has been…
• I’m most proud of…

This essay seeks to understand your core personal motivations. Beyond career, what have been formative moments in your life? The story you choose to tell in this essay will be revealing to the admissions committee and will show your personality and values.
Think about the moments in your life when you have changed or matured. Was there an experience that led you to learn more about yourself? Perhaps you interacted with someone who challenged you, or inspired you. Or you may have traveled outside your comfort zone, either literally outside your home country, or in a transition like leaving home for college.

Option b, “I’m most afraid of…” is the one prompt that does not specifically call on a past experience. However, it’s likely that your fear has its roots in a formative moment in your life.

Once you have a story to tell, make sure you are explaining why this moment is important to you. You can either narrate your thoughts, reactions and opinions as you retell the story, or take time at the end of the essay to reflect upon what you learned and why it was important to you.

Essay Three: Please share with the admissions committee an interesting or surprising fact about you (25 words)

The admissions committee has read your career goals, read about a pivotal experience and likely has reviewed your resume and application fact sheet. What you describe here is something that didn’t come up in any of those demographic or background data sheets in your application. It’s also something short and easy to explain in 25 words.

Perhaps you were a competitive swimmer in high school, but didn’t pursue it in college. Or your grandmother was from Sweden and taught you traditional cooking techniques that no one else in your life knows. Maybe you are heavily involved in a hobby that has impacted your life.

If you are struggling to come up with an interesting or surprising fact, this is a great question to poll friends and family about. You will want to use something that is unique about you, and that most other applicants would not be able to say.
Your friends and family likely know the elements of your background and personality that go far deeper than your resume or application fact sheet and would know what is unique about you.

OPTIONAL ESSAY
Is there anything else you think we should know as we evaluation your application? If you believe your essays and credentials represent you fairly, you shouldn’t fell obligated to answer this question. (300 words)

Kelley’s optional question is open-ended, allowing you to add almost any story or additional background data you would like. Before you take full advantage of the extra space, make sure you are truly adding to your application. If you have done the work on a comprehensive resume, excellent recommendations and finely honed essays you likely don’t need this space.

If there is anything to explain in your application, definitely use this space to do so. That may be a poor grade in a quantitative course in college, academic probation, or the lack of a recommendation from a current supervisor. Whatever you need to discuss, make sure you are focused on explanations rather than excuses, and you provide solid, recent evidence that you have done better since the event.
***

If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.

 

Having the opportunity to learn from the best and brightest minds in business is one of the top motivators for many applicants considering an MBA degree at an elite business school. The professors and lecturers you’ll encounter have worked in the trenches, and bring an incredible wealth of real-world experiences into the classroom setting.

In our new limited series of professor interviews on the SBC blog, readers will get to know a bit more about these brilliant academics, what fields most excite them, the trends they foresee, what they enjoy most about teaching at their respective universities, and how it all comes together with their students.


Today we’ll introduce you to Greg Fisher, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and recipient of the John and Donna Shoemaker Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and named among the “40 Most Outstanding B-School Profs under 40 in the World” by the Poets and Quants website in 2014.

Education: PhD in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, University of Washington
MBA, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Bachelor of Accounting, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Courses Taught: Strategic Management, Turnaround Management, Venture Strategy
What triggered your interest in your subject matter?
My interest in strategy and entrepreneurship was triggered by my personal experience when launching a venture as an MBA student. I did an MBA back in 2003-2004 in South Africa. In the MBA we learned about entrepreneurs such as Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos and Anita Roddick. This inspired me to want to start my own business.

In the second year of my MBA I launched a venture called Learninglab with one of my MBA classmates. We developed training products and solutions (e.g., games, simulations, online courses, training programs) for the corporate market. Large corporations (mostly financial service firms) would purchase our products and solutions to train their people on issues such as financial statement analysis, credit risk analysis, budgeting, financial management, risk assessment etc.

The process of starting my own business was extremely challenging and very intriguing. It forced me to apply all my newly acquired MBA skills very quickly, and at a deeper level triggered an interest in issues related to new venture strategy and entrepreneurship. This prompted me to read more and more about entrepreneurship; I consumed biographies about entrepreneurs, studied entrepreneurship case studies and began reading some of the academic literature on entrepreneurship and strategy.

When I sold my business a few years later, I decided to formally study entrepreneurship and strategy. I moved from South Africa to Seattle to attend the University of Washington to do a PhD in Strategy and Entrepreneurship.
What’s changed since you entered the field?
When I first started teaching and researching entrepreneurship, the main focus was on business plan development. The logic was that if you planned carefully and deliberately, you could attract capital, and then execute on that plan to create and grow the business.

The problem is that seldom happens in practice. Entrepreneurship is much more of an iterative process, made up of lots of mini experiments, many of which fail. The key is to continue experimenting and to be able to learn from each failure and successes.

Scholars and teachers have caught onto this, and the field has shifted to focus much more on the process of entrepreneurship and on the actions within that process that can enable individuals to succeed. The concept of a business plan is no longer a focus; it has been replaced by concepts such a business models, mini-experiments and rapid iteration.

Within this context, I am interested in (and doing research on) a concept I call “entrepreneurial hustle” – a person’s focus, drive and creative action to succeed through setbacks and failures while working towards a goal or desired outcome in the process of launching a new venture.

I am currently examining what role hustle plays in the entrepreneurship process and delving down into all the different ways that hustle impacts what entrepreneurs are able to do. Hustle is somewhat similar to the concept of “grit” (developed by social psychologist Angela Duckworth) but it is specific to entrepreneurship and is more proactive and goal oriented.
Any surprising or unique applications of your field of study?
Entrepreneurship is everywhere. It is not confined to starting a new business. I have done research on entrepreneurship in the social arena, examining how social activists use entrepreneurial strategies and approaches to solve serious social problems and facilitate large-scale industry change.

For example, in one of my research studies we used an entrepreneurship lens to understand how the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) forced change in lumber sourcing practices in the home improvement retail industry (at firms such as Home Depot, Menards etc.).

Social activists are very similar to entrepreneurs in that they are under-resourced, they need to identify opportunities for impact, they need to mobilize stakeholder support and they need to hustle to get things done. Hence, entrepreneurial principles and practices can make social activists more effective as they push for social change.

Entrepreneurial principles and practices are also relevant to healthcare professionals and medical researchers. I have recently been doing consulting work with medical researchers and physicians at the IU School of Medicine.

These individuals, although they operate in a very risk averse and bureaucratic environment get great benefit from combining entrepreneurship and design thinking principles to consider how they can solve some of their most challenging issues related to patient care, infant mortality and smoking cessation.
What do you like about the school you are teaching at?
The best thing about Kelley MBA is the culture. The culture on the MBA program is amazing – it is one of caring, friendship, camaraderie and respect. Almost all the students know each other and interact with one another like one very large family. With a class size of 200 students per year this is possible. As a professor on the program I get to know all the students.

Because we are in a college town, almost all the students come from out of town to attend the program and they create a community among themselves. As a professor I get to be part of that community. The students arrange tons of events and include us in many of them.

This year I am running a half-marathon with 30 of the MBA students. We are training together and supporting each other. For many of the students this will be the first time that they cover that distance.

Overall, being part of the Kelley MBA community and experiencing its culture is very special.
What can you do in the classroom to best prepare students for the real world?
The concept of a flipped class has become popular where you provide a lecture before class (usually via video) and then discuss key issues and solve problems instead of lecturing during class time.

I take this one step further and create a flipped course. Because strategy and entrepreneurship necessitates integrating many different concepts and ideas simultaneously, I cover all the core concepts, theories, tools and frameworks in the first four or five classes. I provide the students with a book and videos covering these key concepts to support what we do in class.

Then for the remainder of the semester, we integrate and apply those tools and concepts as we work though case studies of actual business challenges in class. This forces students to confront the messiness, ambiguity and uncertainty of real world analysis and strategic decision-making.

Some students feel very uncomfortable initially – they want things to be more clear-cut and more obvious. But over time most students get used to the messiness…and…in the long run, they are grateful to have the opportunity to work with complex, unstructured problems and challenges.

I work though the case studies we do a range of real-world activities in the class. Students are required to make strategy presentations, they negotiate strategic partnership with classmates, and they participate in a board meeting. All these activities expose them to different elements of corporate life.
What are you most excited about that’s happening in your field?
I am most excited by the democratization of entrepreneurship. It is easier and more affordable than ever to launch a meaningful business. The Internet and mobile platforms have created access to markets that were not previously accessible. The cost to start a business is lower than it has ever been and almost everyone has access to the necessary technology and computing power to launch a sophisticated venture.

Crowdfunding platforms have increased access to financial resources and early customers. So entrepreneurship used to be something that was restricted to those with connections, education and elite status. Now, more than ever, it is accessible to anyone with drive and hustle.
What are you most excited about in your classroom?
I am excited by the caliber of students passing through my class. Each year I am convinced that we must have hit the high point, and then the next group is even more energized, engaged and ambitious. The diversity of the students coming through the school is amazing. Each class is made of students with unique backgrounds, skills and experiences.

In the last few years I have had everything from a major league pitcher, to a professional opera singer, to an NFL linebacker, to a helicopter pilot, to an inner city schoolteacher, to a veterinary surgeon, to a high-school football coach from a rural Indiana in the class. This diversity adds richness, perspective and nuance to each class.

I am also excited by the opportunity to keep redesigning what I do to improve the student experience and to maximize student learning. The more I teach, the more I discover novel and interesting ways to engage students and make their experience meaningful. My class design is a constant work-in-progress. I am excited to keep making it better and better.
What’s the impact you want to leave on your students? … On the world?
I want my students to be comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. I hope that they can make sense of complex and messy scenarios, grapple with paradox, and find a way to hustle out of challenging situations. I want them to realize that strategy is not necessarily easy, but it is very impactful and often the best strategies are ones that are incredibly simple in the face of the complexity around them.

Thank you Professor Fisher for sharing your time and insights with our readers!

 
***

If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.

Admissions Preview Day at IU Kelley School of Business

If you’re an MBA candidate who has received multiple offers of admission to business school this season, you’re probably weighing where to spend the next two years of your life – not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Step one is to attend each program’s admit or welcome weekend. Spending time on campus around current students and other admitted applicants will go a long way in helping you decide which program is the better fit.

In addition to paying close attention to your overall gut feeling about the culture and energy on campus, you should keep these three goals top of mind during these events.

Tip 1: Network with potential future classmates. A hugely valuable component of an MBA program is that, over the next two years, you’ll create a network you will tap into for the rest of your career. Also, the intense nature of the business school experience bonds students and makes it a wonderful place to make lifelong friends.

During a welcome weekend, gauge your comfort level with the current students. How do you feel about your potential future classmates? Did you develop a nice rapport with any fellow attendees? Did you meet someone who could be a possible roommate, if you are looking for one?

While you’ll likely gravitate toward people with similar professional or cultural backgrounds at this type of event, take advantage of the fact that your possible future cohort is an extremely diverse group. By making an effort to meet people outside of your comfort zone, your admit weekend experience will be greatly enriched.

Tip 2: Learn all you can about student life. Of course, you already conducted exhaustive research about your target schools during the course of your applications and interviews, but now that you’re admitted, bring on the questions.

This is your chance to find out answers to all of the lingering doubts in your mind. Ask tons of questions about clubs, classes, favorite professors, travel opportunities and study abroad programs from current students who can fill in those remaining blanks.

Think of questions in advance and do a bit of research so that you know if there’s someone you want to talk with, a meeting you want to set up or a location you want to explore. Keep your interests and passions at the forefront of your mind during the visit to make absolutely sure the school in question can satisfy your nonnegotiable needs and wants.

If possible, stay in student dorms during your visit. Even if you have other housing plans, this is another valuable opportunity to meet current students and observe daily life on campus up close.

Tip 3: Get an authentic sense of the city or region. Candidates often apply to business schools in geographic areas that are new to them. Think about where you want to end up working after graduation.

Is the program in your desired city – or at least in the same overall region? Does it have a reputation for helping its students land jobs in the area you want to live?

Use this visit to get a better feel for housing options, too. Explore the neighborhoods where students live, and ask questions to clarify anything you would want to know before moving to a new city.

If location isn’t a major concern, then focus on what does matter most to you, whether that’s recruitment stats for certain industries, diversity or international opportunities. More than likely you reviewed all of this information when you were deciding where to apply in the first place, but now it warrants a second, closer look.

For applicants attending admitted student days at more than one program, go with an open mind and be prepared to reflect on the experience afterward. If you have already accepted an offer and visited the campus prior to admission, still attend the welcome weekend event and experience the school again without the anxiety you probably felt last time, particularly if your visit was for an interview.

The decision where to attend business school are personal, and every candidate has unique needs to fulfill. Use the preview weekend visit to make sure that you’ve found the right school for you.

***

If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.

Kelley School of Business at Indiana University is a top-tier business school with an innovative program that cultivates strong recruiting relationships with companies. From the moment you decide to attend Kelley you will be focusing on your career and leadership development. For example, even before you start classes, you will be part of an orientation program called Me Inc. to help you refine your career goals.

After you start school you will continue to receive personalized coaching, leadership training, and real-world industry projects. This will help you focus on the right career path and job openings for your internship and full-time job search.

Kelley’s program is unique and close-knit, so your fit with the program and your desire to participate fully will be important to the admissions committee. Kelly has an academically strong class of students, a large number are from outside the United States, and the class is diverse with a significant number of women in each MBA class.

REQUIRED MBA ESSAYS
1. Please discuss your immediate post-MBA professional goals. How will your professional experience, when combined with a Kelley MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals? Should the short-term goals you have identified not materialize, what alternate career paths might you consider? (500 words)

Entering Kelley with a crystallized career vision and an idea of how you will accomplish your goals will help you take full advantage of the program. Kelley’s curriculum is tailored to help you reach your career goals, and students can specialize almost immediately by choosing one of the first-year Academies in your industry area of focus. Think about these opportunities at Kelley when you answer this career goals question, and be specific about how you see yourself using the tools available.

When you discuss your career experience, make sure that you are focusing on the most important moments in your career, not reciting your jobs like a resume. Think about the times when you had to stretch to accomplish the goals set out for you, when you had to step up to be a leader, or when you learned more about yourself and your aspirations. Those are the stories that will explain how your professional experience will help you achieve your goals.

The second half of this question deals with your flexibility around your career goal and your ability to handle change. Change is constant in most industries, and your ability to recognize opportunity, even outside your anticipated career goals, will be critical to your success. Think about the core elements that are important to you in forming your career goals and how they can be realized in different career opportunities.

For example, perhaps you are passionate about the food industry and want to be involved in updating the world of packaged goods, but you could imagine pursing either a strategy role or a finance role within consumer packaged goods. Or perhaps you love marketing but could see yourself either marketing a film or a jewelry line, as long as you are practicing the craft of marketing. Showing that you can pivot while staying true to your core values and interests will position you well in this set of essays.

2. Please respond to one of the following short essay prompts. (300 words)
• My greatest memory is…
• I’m most afraid of…
• My greatest challenge has been…
• I’m most proud of…

While the prior essay focuses on your career path and goals, this essay seeks to understand your core personal motivations. Beyond career, what have been formative moments in your life? The story you choose to tell in this essay will be revealing to the admissions committee and will show your personality and values.

Think about the moments in your life when you have changed or matured. Was there an experience that led you to learn more about yourself? Perhaps you interacted with someone who challenged you, or inspired you. Or you may have traveled outside your comfort zone, either literally outside your home country, or in a transition like leaving home for college.

Option b, “I’m most afraid of…” is the one prompt that does not specifically call on a past experience. However, it’s likely that your fear has its roots in a formative moment in your life.

Once you have a story to tell, make sure you are explaining why this moment is important to you. You can either narrate your thoughts, reactions and opinions as you retell the story, or take time at the end of the essay to reflect upon what you learned and why it was important to you.

3. Please share with the admissions committee an interesting or surprising fact about you (25 words)

The admissions committee has read your career goals, read about a pivotal experience and likely has reviewed your resume and application fact sheet. What you describe here is something that didn’t come up in any of those demographic or background data sheets in your application. It’s also something short and easy to explain in 25 words.

Perhaps you were a competitive swimmer in high school, but didn’t pursue it in college. Or your grandmother was from Sweden and taught you traditional cooking techniques that no one else in your life knows. Maybe you are heavily involved in a hobby that has impacted your life.

If you are struggling to come up with an interesting or surprising fact, this is a great question to poll friends and family about. You will want to use something that is unique about you, and that most other applicants would not be able to say.

Your friends and family likely know the elements of your background and personality that go far deeper than your resume or application fact sheet and would know what is unique about you.

OPTIONAL ESSAY
Is there anything else you think we should know as we evaluation your application? If you believe your essays and credentials represent you fairly, you shouldn’t feel obligated to answer this question. (300 words)

Kelley’s optional question is open-ended, allowing you to add almost any story or additional background data you would like. Before you take full advantage of the extra space, make sure you are truly adding to your application. If you have done the work on a comprehensive resume, excellent recommendations and finely-honed essays you likely don’t need this space.

If there is anything to explain in your application, definitely use this space to do so. That may be a poor grade in a quantitative course in college, academic probation, or the lack of a recommendation from a current supervisor. Whatever you need to discuss, make sure you are focused on explanations rather than excuses, and you provide solid, recent evidence that you have done better since the event.
***

If you are looking for guidance on your IU Kelley MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.

Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has confirmed that the MBA essay questions for the 2018-19 admissions season remain the same as the previous application cycle.
Required MBA Essays 
1. Please discuss your immediate post-MBA professional goals. How will your professional experience, when combined with a Kelley MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals? Should the short-term goals you have identified not materialize, what alternate career paths might you consider? (500 words)

2. Please respond to one of the following short essay prompts. (300 words)

• My greatest memory is…

• I’m most afraid of…

• My greatest challenge has been…

• I’m most proud of…

3. Please share with the admissions committee an interesting or surprising fact about you (25 words)
Optional Essay
Is there anything else you think we should know as we evaluation your application? If you believe your essays and credentials represent you fairly, you shouldn’t fell obligated to answer this question. (300 words)

For more information on applying, please visit the IU Kelley MBA admissions website.

 



***

If you are looking for guidance on your Kelley MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.

The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University has published the following MBA application deadlines for the 2018-19 admissions season.
Early Round
Application due: October 15, 2018
Decision released by: December 20, 2018
Priority Round
Application due: January 5, 2019
Decision released by: March 15, 2019
Third Round
Application due: March 1, 2019
Decision released by: April 30, 2019
Final Round
Application due: April 15, 2019
Decision released by: May 31, 2019

***

Early application is encouraged. The first two deadlines are priority deadlines for merit-based financial aid consideration. For additional information on applying, please visit the Kelley MBA admissions website.
***

If you are looking for guidance on your Kelley MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.

Paramvir Sawhney, a former MER (myEssayReview) client, is working as a senior staff engineer at Stryker Corp. He graduated from Kelley part-time MBA program last year. In a candid conversation with Poonam, Paramvir explains how the MBA program was the best ‘fit’ for him.

In this video interview, Paramvir talks about the
following:

And now presenting Paramvir:

https://youtu.be/Eln6-mJa6Zw

Poonam: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Congratulations on graduating from Kelley.

Paramvir: Thanks, it has been
a long time coming. I can't believe the last time we connected was back in 2017,
time flies for sure.  Thanks for all the
help. I appreciate it. I think I wouldnot have been able to get in without your help. That's for sure.

Poonam: It was a pleasure to assist you with your application. Can you introduce yourself to our viewers?
Where are you from? Where and what did you study as an undergrad? What was your
pre - Kelley job? What are you doing now?

Paramvir: I am Paramvir Sawhney. I grew up in India, in a city called Chandigarh, where I completed my undergrad in Biotechnology and came to the US to pursue my master's in biomedical engineering in 2007. Most of my experience has been in Medical Devices. I have been in various Senior Engineer and Project Management positions in medical devices over the years. I graduated from my MBA from Kelley Business School last year. Currently, I am working as a Senior Staff Engineer at Striker Carb. I am also a private pilot.

Poonam:  It has been a year
since you graduated. Are you happy with how your career has shaped up post MBA? How did Kelly MBA help you achieve your short-term
goals?

Paramvir: Well, I see myself in a product leadership role, preferably in medical device space in the future. I can say that Kelley Part-time MBA prepared me precisely for the short-term goals that I was looking for. Kelley has not only equipped me with hard skills and knowledge that I will need actually to navigate the business and the corporate landscape but also soft skills to build relationships and become a better negotiator in different aspects of life-professional and personal. To climb up the corporate ladder, one needs soft skills as well as hard skills and technical expertise. In that aspect, Kelley has helped me become a better leader and a better speaker, which helped me land a new job after I graduated from Kelley. I am thrilled with the program.

Poonam: Good to know that. What is your favorite thing about your program?

Paramvir: The best thing I liked about Kelley was that it was a
part-time program. It was a combination of online and on-campus instruction. Online
lectures were conducted using Zoom sessions where the professor and the
attending cohort were present in live discussions. This format enhanced and
encouraged live discussions among participants, and professors generally
moderated them. These live discussions and the entire session were recorded and
provided for later review. Since I was working full-time, it gave me the
flexibility to attend classes in the evening and work, completing my
assignments during the weekends. That was a significant part of the program for
me. Since it is a part-time program, it gave me the flexibility to apply what I
learned in the class in the evening to my job the very next day. It was almost
like following experiential learning modal. So, those were the aspects of the
program that appealed to me, and I am glad that I was able to apply what I
learned.

Poonam: Good. Kelley Part-time MBA is a hybrid program, a combination of online and on-campus teaching. I am curious to know how this works. Could you please throw some light on the hybrid format of the program?

Paramvir: Yes, the program is in a hybrid format with on-campus classes twice a week and twice online. Also, depending upon the courses, the Professors try to balance by having half of the course online and the other half on campus for face to face interaction. It is a kind of 50-50 mix for each course. Online lectures are conducted using Zoom sessions where the professor and the attending cohort are present in live discussions. This format enhances and encourages live discussions among participants, and professors generally moderate them. These live discussions and sessions are recorded and provided for later review. If you have multiple courses, there are also weekend events, corporate events that are separate from your core courses.

Poonam:
Is there anything about
the program that you would like to change?

Paramvir: I wish I could
spend some more time there and could take a few more courses, but overall, it
turned out to be a great experience.

Poonam:
What did you wish you had known before you started, and what was a
challenge?

Paramvir: I wish I had a little
better time management skill before I started this program. Being in a part-time
program and balancing a full-time job can become a bit of shock as one enters
the program. Initially, you take core curriculum classes, which sets the tone
for the rest of the program, so adjusting quickly in a new routine becomes very
important to make the best out of your program. If you are not good at time
management, it becomes challenging. These programs are very condensed and fast-paced.  The people that you meet in your cohort are
very ambitious. So right from day 1, you must bring your A-game. Time
management is one of the most vital skills that you will learn in an MBA
because you have your professional life, your school life, and you also have a
little bit of your social and family life. So that was one skill that I wished
I had developed out of the gate. Apart from that, I learned quickly, did my course
correction, and as I went through the program, I was fine. The other thing that
you develop in a professional program like MBA is the habit of saying 'no'; it
helps you prioritize things in your life. If you are not able to say 'no,' the
things that matter can just fall off; it enables you to prioritize things in
your life and teaches you better time management skills. 

Poonam: So
this is the advice you have for the incoming students who would aim for any
part-time MBA program, specifically Kelley?

Paramvir: Absolutely. You must
come with an expectation. You must temper your expectation. The hope is that
you really will not have your social life for the duration of the program. It
is just because of the workload of the program, and if you are also doing a full-time
job, then it does not leave you much time. So, my advice is - have the right
expectation, develop your time management skills, and make sure that you have
an open mind to prioritize what is essential in your life. Opportunities are
going to come your way, and you just must have a belief in yourself and take a
plunge. You learn from your failures, and things will fall in place. That is
the confidence you need to have.

Poonam:
How well you were able to apply classroom learning to your work while pursuing
your MBA?

Paramvir:  That
is the beauty of the part-time program. Whatever you learn, you can
translate that to your work-life right away. It
is not only book learning. In my case, most of the projects that I completed as a
part of my MBA related to developing a solution towards a work problem I was
involved at that time. So, I could apply my new skills to
the project I was involved in. It was a win-win situation for me. Secondly, all
your batchmates and the cohorts are working professionals who bring in
different perspectives from diverse industries and different corporate levels.
So instead of just learning from books, you learn from others' experiences that
give you many opportunities to think about the problem more broadly. One of the
highlights of my MBA was an interview with the CEO of Ambu. It is during
interactions such as those that one realizes the real value of an MBA as one
can confidently and intelligently hold a conversation with accomplished
leaders. Additionally, MBA gave me an understanding of how my role fits into the
overall picture.

Poonam:
As a part-time student,
how often did you get opportunities to participate in any extracurricular
activities (student clubs, organizations)?

Paramvir:
Often, people think that if you are
in a part-time program, you do not get many opportunities to socialize. But
that is not true. It depends on how much you want to get involved with extracurricular
opportunities. Again, prioritizing things is what you are challenged with. I
can give you an example of myself. Every Wednesday night, we had a class, and
after the class, we had trivia nights and social activities of clubs. I was a
part of a venture club, which had events every Thursday during lunchtime, so to
be a part of that, I used to keep my schedule flexible at work. My involvement
in the venture club allowed me to develop a professional network, which is essential
to help you advance in your career. So, there are always opportunities
available, and it just depends upon the individual if he/she wants to get
involved.

Poonam:
Yes, some people
are concerned that as part-time students, they will only be engaged in classroom
learnings, and they will not be able to participate in any other activities.
You have addressed those concerns.

Paramvir:
Yes. If you talk to your Professors,
there are always opportunities. You just have to seek out those.

Poonam: You pursued an MBA along with your full-time job and family responsibilities? What challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them? Can you share some advice regarding the work school-life balance?

Paramvir: Sure, as I have
previously mentioned that time -management is the most critical skill
one would need to master quickly to be successful. These programs are as
demanding or maybe more as the full-time programs. One should be ready to give
up any aspect of their social life while in the program, and they should be
able to protect their time by saying 'no’ to a lot of things/events in
their lives. It forces you to prioritize what is essential in your life.
Additionally, it helps you become a better negotiator as you would need
this skill with everyone, whether you negotiate with your boss for a salary or with
your spouse forcing you to go to a social event. It also helps you become a
better team-player among your cohort as you would be able to help people
when they are in a crunch. Overall, I think it helps you develop into a better
person.

Poonam: Given the chaos and uncertainty caused by COVID 19, the virtual format of education has gained more importance than ever. Since March, all educational institutions had to move to virtual classroom instruction and outside -of- class events. In the AIGAC virtual conference that I attended last month, representatives from European and US B- schools talked about phydigal environment- a hybrid world that combines both virtual and physical elements.

At Kelly, you went through a similar experience in the phydigal environment.  What insights you have to share regarding your experience with online learning? What advice you have for those incoming students who are considering deferrals or are just nervous about starting the fall semester in an online format.

Paramvir: I can understand
the concern around online instruction. Initially, I also had reservations
with online learning. But in hybrid classes, most of the lectures are recorded,
and that gives you the luxury of learning at your own pace. You are not time-bound
that you have to be in the class at a particular time while you are working
full-time. So, that flexibility helps your time management and prepares
you in a better way as you go through the hybrid part of the program.

In an online format, though you are
missing out on the face -to- face interaction, these courses are structured in
such a way that they foster a healthy discussionamongst the participants. The discussion part from which you learn the most is
already present. The professors are getting creative in delivering these online
classes. So, in my opinion, one should not be concerned about missing out on-campus
learning. Moreover, in these exceptional times, when a lot of work, corporate
structure, and organizational situations are also going to be moving online, we
also have to think differently about the hybrid programs. The hybrid program
prepares you to get into a new type of corporate world, where most of your
work is possibly going to be on the laptop without being physically there. It
will help future managers learn the skills to manage their workforce
remotely.  The hybrid program equips the
students with those skills. In this changing world, the skills need to be
updated, and soft skills are much more important to pursue/promote your career.
So I think people should not look at online learning as a negative thing;
instead, they should look at it as something that will prepare them for the future
workforce that they are going to enter. I found the hybrid format of
learning very beneficial. It helped me give a little bit of freedom to balance
things in my life.

Finally, the Hybrid
program gives you much more face time with your cohort and builds a better
relationship with them. You are not only dependent on-campus classes since
you are interacting off-campus, too. So, it helps build those relationships
much quicker.

Poonam: What are your interests/
hobbies? I remember you are a private pilot. Would you like to share your
experience with our viewers/readers?

Paramvir: Sure. I am a private pilot. I have not flown for a
very long time now. The last time I flew was after graduating because when you
are in the program, you don't have time for anything except for studies and work.
However, once I graduated, I had a ton of time on my hands, and since then,
apart from getting a new job, I have dabbled in standup comedy routines and
learned to play Ukulele.

Poonam: Is there anything you would like to share that I have not
asked?

Paramvir: I think we covered
everything in our discussion. The only thing I will say that an MBA is a big
step for anyone so goes ahead with an open mind. Do not focus only on the hard
skills. It will help, but an MBA will also help develop your personality. It
will help you become a better person and a better leader. Apart from that, I
would like to wish everyone the best of luck in their future endeavors and hope
that programs prepare them to tackle the challenges of the 21st
century.

Poonam: Thank you for sharing your
story with us. I am confident your insights will be a helpful resource for the
incoming students who have concerns about remote learning in Fall. We wish you
good luck and continued success in your career.

You can connect with Paramvir via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sawhneyparam/

Related Resources 

Success Stories of MER Students

Case Studies

Since
2011, MER (myEssayReview) has helped
hundreds of applicants get accepted into the top 20 MBA programs (Poonam is one
of the top 5 most reviewed consultants on the GMAT Club.)

You
may email Poonam at poonam@myessayreview.com with questions about your application for the 2020-21
admission cycle.