Most Creative Essay question

One of the schools that I am applying to has one of the most creative essay questions that I have seen till now. The school is Kelley school of business and one of its essay question goes like this:


Suppose you had to choose three people-people alive now or people from another era-to travel with you on a cross-country automobile trip. Who would you choose and why? What would you hope to learn from them? (Think carefully about the company you want on those long stretches through Nebraska and Kansas.)

I know this essay will enforce many applicants to burn the midnight oil and think carefully. It sure will entangle all my brain wires.

TOEFL results out

Before going to sleep last night, I somehow remembered that I had given TOEFL almost 3 weeks back and the results should have been out. So, I thought I would give it another day and wait for an email in my inbox. To my surprise, even till now there was no email. I really do not know if they send a score report by email.

I decided to check the website and login into my account. The scores were available and I just wished that I could get at least 100. And yes I did get above 100. The score is 107 and I am delighted. On seeing the detailed results, I was somewhat bemused. I did very well in my speaking section and that was the section where I got the lowest marks. Huh...

Anyways, one hurdle gets out of my way and I feel a little relaxed now. The mounting essay pressure is not yet relieved. Next thing to do is to send my gmat and toefl scores to all the schools that I am applying.

A turning point

I was watching this movie on Youtube when I suddenly realized how important a dialogue in this film was in the context of finding some motivation while writing my essays.

Here it goes:
"Zindagi mein ek zabardast ghumav dena hai"

Have a look yourself:

Intellectual Atyachar

After writing so many essays, I have literally become frustrated. So, what now ? I was searching for some motivational videos on the internet and I actually found a very good movie scene that I will post in my next blog post. I was also listening to some songs and somehow I came with this:

Dedicated to the essays:

Shabdo ka hai dhoka ya hai koi bar...
tera intellectual atyachar....


(inspired by the song Emotional Atyachar Rock version from the movie Dev D)

Phew....some more drafts

Since the last 4 or 5 days, I have been busy writing HEC essays. I planned to spend the whole weekend on them and finish at least the draft versions. But, when did life go along with the plans ? So as usual, I finished the first draft 3 days late i.e. just now. It was painful. This is the first time I am feeling this type after writing B school essays. I did not know that it was so tough to answer the unusual questions apart from the goals or the challenging assignment questions.

HEC Paris has some really unique questions. Take this:
Imagine a life entirely different from the one you live now. What would it be ?

It took me 3 weekdays to finish it. I thought of a thousand possibilities and then finally narrowed down to one.

Another one:
What figure do you admire most and why ?

Apart from the normal immediate goals, short term goals, long term goals essay and significant life achievement essay, they have this:
Leadership and ethics are inevitably intertwined in the business world. Describe a
situation in which you have dealt with these issues and how they have influenced you.


Although I have written this essay, but I am not satisfied with this one.

Another incredibly intriguing one is:
Which other MBA Programs are you applying to and why? (100 words)

Man, for some of these essays, its difficult to find out what to write.

I have now exactly a week left to submit them and I have to go through all my essays at least 3 more times. May be I will get some reviewed from my friends.

Kaminey - itf fantaftic

After a long time, I got to see a gangster movie. Not exactly like Satya or Company, but more like Johnny Gaddar. The difference was there were multiple gangs involved here and the dialogues were unconventional. The movie was definitely fast paced like Johnny Gaddar, but the ending was not as thrilling as Johnny Gaddar. I think I should not compare the two of them here. All in all, a must watch. Vishal Bharadwaj stands up to his reputation yet again.

The movie's cinematography is really admirable. The background scenes are excellent in showcasing the Mumbai monsoon season with heavy rains and grey skies all throughout the movie. The music is good and the background sounds are awesome. I remember a scene where the brothers are to be exchanged among 2 gangs and the sound of the local train gradually increasing its pace is a perfect complement. Coming to the dialogues, without them, the movie would not have been that good. They are not exactly mind blowing, but they somehow add substance and at the same time make you laugh. Acting wise, everyone seemed to be good especially Shahid Kapoor. The song fatak is one of the most creative things I have seen for a long time in Hindi movies. It is an aids awareness song and the way it is choreographed and its lyrics and the music make it special.

Some dialogues in the movie are really memorable. Like the last dialogue of the film "yeh fofia hai aur yeh f ko f nahi bolti". The film's ending was a happy one and not unlike other anti-hero movies where the protagonist dies after doing what was necessary.

One more school starts accepting GRE scores

Just read this feed from ClearAdmit:

http://blog.clearadmit.com/2009/08/nyu-stern-school-of-business-to-begin-accepting-gre-scores/

So, now there are 4 schools accepting GRE scores and that too some of the top schools in the world.
1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford Business School
3. MIT Sloan
4. NYU Stern

I have not given GRE but just wondering if its verbal section is as good as GMAT.

Revisiting the deadlines

Now that almost all the schools I am applying to have come out with their deadlines, I need to document them and remember them by heart. Here are they (in order of dates):

1. HEC, Paris -- 2nd Sep, 2009
2. ISB -- 15th Sep, 2009
3. Fuqua School of Business -- 6th Oct, 2009
4. Foster School of Business -- 15th Oct, 2009
5. Haas School of Business -- 20th Oct, 2009
6. Kenan-Flagler School of Business -- 23rd Oct, 2009
7. Goizueta School of Business -- 1st Nov, 2009
8. Kelley School of Business -- 1st Nov, 2009
9. McCombs School of Business -- 2nd Nov, 2009

The online applications are open for HEC, ISB, Foster, Kenan-Flagler and Goizueta. Other schools will also be releasing their online applications pretty soon.

Essays are out for all the schools except Kelley.

Cafe Masala - Everything good except the name

Last Sunday, it was a friend's treat and he did not know much about Bangalore's restaurants. There were only 4 of us and he had set a limit of 500 per head for the dinner. One of my room mates asked for my suggestion for a place not tried before. So, I suggested the 3 restaurants located in the Eva mall. We finally decided on Cafe Masala. Little did I know that their buffet would cost us 490 Rs, but my roommate insisted that it will be fine and then we are only 4.

There was no reason for me to say no now. Although there is this Vaayu Lounge right in front of it, but it is more suitable for a nice evening with a date. We wanted a wholesome dinner type of place. And I would say that Cafe Masala did not disappoint at all. If you see the price, then you would definitely say the opposite, but then most of the good restaurants in Bangalore cost more than 300 Rs nowadays. We sat down and the starters were served on the table. We did not have a look at the main course before munching on the starters. I wish we should have. So, the starters were very impressive and they were of all kinds. There were even prawns for people who like them.

We were quite full with the starters. Then, after some 15 mins, we decided to go and have a look at the main course and the deserts. On first look, it looked as though we should not have given so much importance to the starters. But what the hell, the starters were so good. We decided to take very small quantities and hence taste everything. There were around 6 or 7 varieties of vegetables, Pulao, 3-4 dishes of Non-veg, biryani and different varieties of Salad. We tasted almost everything and they were all delicious.

The deserts were the best part. particularly the moong dal ka halwa. Again, there was almost everything that you can think of. From jalebi to ice cream to gulab jamun to rasogulla to cake to jelly to fruits. All in all, a nice place if you sometimes have this itch of splurging. The only thing not good about the place is its name. It should have been something else. Cafe Masala does not sound like a place serving such delectable dinner.

The new TO DOs

Some of the to dos in my Gmail Task Bar are:
1. Complete HEC application.
2. Start writing Fuqua essays
3. Start writing Haas essays
4. Start writing Goizueta essays.
5. Start writing McCombs essays.
6. Prepare a one page helper write-up for my recommendation writers.

A long, long way to go.

The Reapplicant Essay - Profile Aaj Kal

I finally finished writing up my re-applicant essay for ISB. Although I have put it in exact 300 words, I am not very sure if it is fine. Although, there is almost one month to review and edit all my ISB essays, but the re-applicant one is the most daunting one. It is analogous to someone's profile Aaj Kal or rather Kal Aaj. My apologies for a very poor attempt at making a mockery of the "re-applicant essay".

I think I will have to dig one webinar from Accepted that focused on re-applicants. I would be really surprised if my essay has all the necessary ingredients that the webinar or the experts suggest. But all in all, ISB's "first draft" round is over. It may get revived if I come up with something for the optional essay.

If anyone reading this blog can give me tips on writing a re-applicant essay, it would be awesome.

Now, I would like to concentrate on HEC Paris, for which the deadline is almost a fortnight before ISB. I know I am talking crazy, but HEC's essays are similar to last year. Nothing new. So, some of the essays might remain same. For example: who do you admire the most and why? And some will definitely change. I dont know what I am gonna do with the recommendations. Might as well carry over my application to the second round.

Draft Versions for ISB essays

As i write this, my eyes are half closed. I really admire the speed at which time flies. Ok, that dialogue seemed to come out of a person half drunk or rather half asleep. But I wanted to write this post to express some happiness on finishing the "initial draft" versions of the first 3 ISB essays. The day was quite productive ehh... Although I decided I would finish at least 4, I eventually had to settle with 3. The re applicant essay is the most important essay, which is yet to see the light of the day. If I find something interesting, I might write the optional essay as well. Lets see..

More Updates from the MBA world:
Emory Goizueta released its deadlines and the entire application to public.

Done with TOEFL

Finally, the TOEFL phase is over. I was not able to even start writing the first draft of my essays because of the exam. Now that its done, I should start writing asap.

Some news:
Duke Fuqua has released its essay topics last Friday.
Berkeley HAAS has already released them some time back.

Although the application is not accessible for any of the US B schools where I am applying, the essays for 2 of them have been released.

Looking forward to the essay writing phase.

I know, you know, we know, they know

Many people have told me that you have the most common profile for an MBA applicant. These "Many people" also include one of the B schools which was kind enough to give me a one line feedback. A decent GMAT score, IT engineer, 4-5 years of work experience and a Male. All these parameters have made my profile the most common among MBA applicants. It is sad but true.

So, does that mean that you give up applying to schools. No. definitely not. All these parameters are pretty much hard coded i.e. you cannot do anything about most of them right away. MBA Admissions are all about selling yourself. Making a brand out of yourself. Marketing yourself using the limited resources available. Well, that is what an MBA (especially in Marketing) all about. No, i do not think so. It has to be much more and that is why my profile is common :)

Its all about your application: your essays, your short answers and the other activities that make up the whole application. They sell. And you have to be the Ad man here. You have to be the product here. A product that the MBA admissions committee remembers for long. A brand that the MBA admissions committee associates its school with. Yes, all this can be achieved with the help of essays. Its all about self-study and finding out the little little things that you do, change and achieve in daily life.

A software engineering job is different from many other jobs where you can demonstrate the so-called qualities of initiation, leadership, handling people and sometimes entrepreneurship. I think, in a software engineering job, you demonstrate all these qualities sometime or the other without knowing that you did it. Sometimes, you do it so many times that you start thinking that it is routine and does not qualify as "special" for an MBA essay. Its all about finding all those instances in your job and daily life that will help in writing the essays. If you cannot remember, then make a note of them.

Coming to the common profile mystery, there are a lot of male IT engineers who want to apply to B schools. Now, since they are Indian Male IT engineers, they must have good scores and GPAs. But why are they most common at this point in my life. Well, there are a lot of reasons for that and none of them is sufficient to answer the question. Some of them are:

• Indian IT males are bored of their jobs
• Indian IT males are very ambitious
• Most of India's population is young and the amount of people working in IT is also significant
• A lot of Indians are suddenly realizing the value of post graduation than ever before
• Indian IT males want to switch careers
• Indian IT males want to attain high positions in their own industry, albeit quickly.

Well there can be many more, but the point is "I know, you know, we know and they (MBA schools) know"

The most important List

Now that the research into finding the most suitable schools as per my profile has been done, its time to publish it and see for myself how it looks. Although I have prepared many documents that contain the list i.e. word, excel etc., but nothing beats the Web. Here it goes:

1. University of Berkeley, Haas School of Business (A little too ambitious)
2. Duke University, Fuqua School of Business (Very competitive)
3. University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler School of Business (Very competitive)
4. University of Texas, McCombs School of Business (Very competitive)
5. Emory University, Goizueta School of Business (quite Competitive)
6. Indiana University, Kelley School of Business (quite Competitive)
7. University of Washington, Foster School of Business (competitive)
8. HEC School of Management, Paris (again a little too ambitious)
9. ISB, Hyderabad (again very competitive)
10. ESADE, Spain (depending on priorities)

Tip for school selection: Goto each school website, figure out their courses, their electives, what you want to do after MBA, what you like, average class Profile, placements, faculty, sometimes location, out-of-class activities etc. etc. Once you see the Class Profile, decide on

1. one or two dream types of schools where the average class profile is your profile.
2. four or five competitive schools where the average class profile is little below your profile.
3. one or two safety schools where the average class profile is far below your profile.

By profile, I mean the gmat score, work experience, age, background, interests etc.

The journey begins

Its been a long time since I wrote a blog. I promised myself that I will be more regular, but somehow due to multiple reasons, I was not. I regret that a little bit, because blogs can really take you to places, albeit the chances are very rare. Coming to the post title "The journey begins", I wanted to indicate that my journey to applying for an MBA from some of the best schools in the world begins now.

I wanted to write regular blogs about my experience of applying to B schools since quite some time i.e. almost a year. The last year went through pretty fast and I did not get the time to apply to many schools and even did not apply to any school in the first round. So, I did not get the chance. But now, I really want to do it, want to write about the unique experiences that I would go through while applying to the best B schools. I want to win the Best Bloggers Award from ClearAdmit. OK, that was a joke. The real reason to start the so-called "MBA Blogging" is to get rid of the writers block. Somehow, today I found the time or the opportunity to put finger to key.

The season starts now and although its not very much alive, it still gives me that feeling to start preparing right now. Its partially alive because most of the US schools to which I am applying have not released their essays. While most of the European and Asian schools have released their essays.

I hope the season ends well this time :)