An interview to remember

I have attended quite a lot of nightly work related meetings/conferences in office. I have given some MBA admission interviews on phone (mostly night time). And I have given few MBA admission interviews by the day when I was all dressed up wearing a coat and a tie. When you combine all these, what do you get ? An MBA admission interview at night on Skype video chat. What does it mean ? It means I had to dress up in formals wearing a coat and a tie (its a different thing that I wore formal pants as well) sitting in front of my computer and giving an interview.

This was an important interview and I could not have taken the risk of not sitting in the full interview attire. So, I got all dressed up at 11:30 pm roaming in my house in all formals. A lot of people laughed when I told them that I will be sitting in front of my computer dressed up in formals at midnight. Well, even I laughed at myself. But, what needs to be done needs to be done. The internet worked fine (thanks to BSNL's uninterrupted service since the last few days) and there was no power cut (thanks to the government for not considering 12 am to 12:30 am time slot in their daily 5 to 6 hour power cut schedule.....frustrating it is, I know).

The interview went well and I answered almost all questions. I know I am yet to post questions of my previous interviews with Foster and Kenan-Flagler. But I will do it sometime this month. The questions for this interview will also come sometime soon. Well for now, this interview will be remembered for its awkwardness. I hope I also remember it for all the good reasons. If you know what I mean. MBA. Admit. McCombs.

PS: I would like to thank Hari (fellow MBA blogger) for his tips on a Skype interview.

Still running....

While most of the MBA Applicants would have already zeroed in on the B Schools to apply for fall 2011, I am still running with my fall 2010 application process. To be more accurate, I am slated to give an interview this coming week and I am waiting for the final result of another school.

I know the competition is much tougher than the first round, but I do not have any other choice except to give my best. On the other hand, there have been so many months of MBA Application process that I find it hard to give my best. It has become a little "same thing, different day" kind of thing. Anyways, I am looking forward to overcome that feeling and try my best. Oops I said it again.

Having an offer in hand sometimes is very helpful. It may make you complacent but it also gives you the confidence. Another thing I am looking forward is to completing ahem actually start writing my scholarship essay for the school where I have been already admitted.

It becomes all the more difficult when IPL is going on and especially if RCB or MI are playing.

Application Status

Its been a long time since I have updated the blogosphere with my application status. Getting yourself involved in so many activities always keeps you super busy. That is exactly the case right now with me. I have lots to tell and lots to write about my MBA Application experience. It will be done gradually. Here is a summary:

1. ISB (Round 1) - Interviewed and Dinged
2. Fuqua (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
3. Foster (Round 1) - Interviewed and Admitted
4. Haas (Round 1) - Dinged without interview
5. McCombs (Round 2) - Submitted.
6. Kenan-Flagler (Round 3) - Will submit by this weekend.

Blogs about my interview experience will be up shorty. All I needed was a "wake up sid" type of blog by MBA Bubbles to get me started on my daily blog writing activity.

Well, I do feel sad when I think I came so close, but I understand the decisions of all those schools that have given me rejects.

PS: MBA Application process is Rocket science :)

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.

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 :)