Updates on my journey so far...

I am coming to my own blog after so long. It's a mixed feeling. I am feeling sad that why I didn't blog for so long. I think because my updates are negative, I was hiding from them and from my readers, like a child hiding from his parents after getting flunked. At the same time I am feeling good that, even though a little late, I am back to my blog and writing with a smile on my face. I have had always smiled while writing a post on this blog...somehow I loved this blog and my journey with it. And I deeply apologize to my readers, if they have visited this space with expectations of a new post or my updates.

I have lot of updates on my MBA journey and off-MBA life. Let me start with MBA:

1.      You must have guessed by now that I am not selected in any school. Even though I have a 740 score and a quite decent profile, somehow somewhere I lacked miserably. Even my MBA mentors not able to judge the reasons behind.

a.      One reason could be that I applied only to top-notch schools. ISB R1 (ding post interview), Ross R1 (waitlist post interview), Kellogg R1 (waitlist post interview), Richard Ivey R2 (interview), Harvard R2 (ding w/o interview), Stanford R2 (ding w/o interview), MIT Sloan R2 (ding post interview) and finally, Rotterdam.

b.     Other reasons could be my non-IIT college, IT background and zero international exposure.

c.     Another reason could be just above-average communication skills, which is not enough to compete; I feel so and will work upon it very seriously.

2.     Important: I feel it’s necessary to mention here that I took the services from Kaneisha Grayson of The art of applying and found them totally waste of money. I am in MBA admission process for last two years now (unfortunately though), have worked with many people in this industry, and very well understand the difference between good, bad and worse service providers. And Kaneisha Grayson’s services fall, according to me and my experience, in the last category. I would strongly discourage you to take her services. I will soon write a detailed post about my horrible experience with her. Disclaimer: These are solely my personal views based on my own experience.

3.     My Rotterdam is interview is scheduled for tomorrow and even if I get selected in this last school for this year, I might not be able to attend the school in January 2012. The reason for this I mentioned in my point 5.

4.     Important: After scoring 740 GMAT, having two years of experience in resume preparation and essay writing, working with so many amazing, good and not-so-good mentors, and interacting with many alumnus, students and applicants, I have gained a real good insight about GMAT preparation, and essay writing and reviewing. If you have noticed, I have received the interview invites from almost all the schools. This itself explains the quality of my submitted Resume and Essays. Owing to this knowledge, I consulted two of my friends, in their Resume and essays for Ross and Darden. Both of them had received the interview invites. If you need any help or reference, drop me an email.

5.     I am getting married soon with the love of my life and I am very elated because of this one reason. At least life is on progress for good, if not MBA then MarriageJ.

6.    This doesn’t mean my MBA dream is dead. I am very much planning to re-apply with full enthusiasm and stronger profile in 2012. My love will support me for my MBA, she promised. But that time only to one-year schools. I am grown old for two-years now, and practically won’t be able afford them.

7.      I am getting an opportunity to work in US for a few months. This would give me much needed international exposure and could shine in my resume. I am very much looking forward to it. Also for my honeymoon ;)

8.      I am also planning to join toastmaster to nurture and master communication skills. Hope this would help.

9.      Last but not the least, I have a passion for writing fictions and sketching portraits, which I had never shared on this blog. Follow me on my personal blog and let me know how much you like my work. I will wait for your comments there!

Seems like a lengthy enough mail to compensate my absence!

Never let yourself down by failures, God must be weaving something more pleasant for you!

Love…Cheers!

A

Let's see how was 2010 and It's time to learn How to Sell?

Yet another rejection mail, this time from Richard Ivey.

But I don't want to keep the title of this post as rejection or dinged or blah blah...It's not a failure story. So, Read on!

When 2010 started I thought this would be one of the best years of my life. I got a 740 GMAT in late 2009 and was charged high; I was dreaming of congratulations mails from big bschools in march and international plane tickets in august. 

March went by with no congratulations mail but 2 waitlisted ones post interview...Ross and Tepper. I was rather happy than disappointed as I'd just rushed through my application and still was waited in two prestigious schools. July came harsh with rejection mails from both.

I started again with full vigor and planned for round 1. But then some really serious turbulence happened in my personal life and I wasn't able to follow my plan even though I kept trying. I wasn't able to apply to the schools I wanted to and deferred them for round 2. The schools I applied rejected me after interviews with rejection from last round 1 school today.

Hmmm! the other day, I was just talking to one of my friends and was cursing the year 2010. It was really a bad year both in light of my personal life and my bschool acceptance.

But is that true? Let's think further and see!

2010 made me learn I'm not scared of rejections. I learned that failures don't affect me much. In fact they give me reasons to retrospect and fight harder. I never knew this before 2010. When I see people around me feeling dejected just by one or two failures and loosing all hopes, I thank God for giving me this amazing mindset and thanks 2010 for helping me discover this.

Since my starting of GMAT preparation 1.5 years back till now, I have genuinely work hard every single day with a few exceptions, even with rejections, even in turbulence. 2010 made me know I am not scared of hard work.

While writing so many essays for my applications, I discovered I write quite well and started writing fictions and started a blog (other than this blog). And people quite loved my stories and I won one writing contest. 2010 gave me happiness.

I learned that there are 2 parts of getting into a bschool. Your written application in which you need to market yourself and your interview in which you need to sell yourself. Due to same reason of working on so many applications and getting them reviewed from quite good consultants, I gained a good understanding of addressing bschool essays. Now, I do review essays of my friends and my blog readers, and they quite feel my comments convincing and sensible. 2010 has made me proficient in marketing, but I have to work harder in selling myself.

2010 gave me a chance to talk to a lot of MBA students and alumni, and to understand better what I want to do post MBA. It also gave me a chance to be a fellow of SLP (Startup Leadership Program) and to be in the closest network of India's budding entrepreneurs. I'm getting encouraged to start my own MBA consulting services now :)

I became friends of David Park, CEO of Beat The GMAT. We have met on skype 10 times now, and  he truly believes in me. He is an amazing mentor and friend and motivates me like no one else does.

My friends and family were there with to support me throughout 2010. I didn't loose any friend and got quite new ones. I attended a lot of family celebrations, spent time with my family and friends far more this year.

And most important, 2010 has gifted me an amazing girl friend who makes me believe that all my failures are lessons and learning, and something really best is waiting out there for me.

I think 2010 made me a better person who knows more about himself now than ever. As they say, "if you have never failed, you have never lived." I have lived 2010.

Tonight was the last rejection of 2010, and I know I have to work harder to learn how to sell! 

If I deserve it, I'll get it sooner or later!

A

The fight is on

So yesterday ISB broke my heart once again, don't know what's the problem...so the fight is still on and for the much better.

Congratulations to all who are in, and for those who are not, don't loose hope and believe in yourself. The best is yet to knock the door...and the life would change forever!

A

Interview calls update

I'll keep it short and sweet...

2 days back, I came from my office, tired, to see a rejection mail from Cambridge. Quite fast and shocking. Didn't know why I got dinged in round 1; to find the reason I logged onto a few forums like pagalguy and guess what many Indian aspirants were shocked like me. Don't know what has happened.

Many of my friends have received ISB interview calls, and I was hearing that today is the last day to receive a ISB call for people located out of Bangalore. I have lost all hopes, in fact I think i was not hoping, and suddenly my cell beeped at 7 PM...yeah, you guessed it right :) So have to prepare for interview now...5 days to go....

All the best...to me ;)

A

Why I had to defer Kellogg to R2?

This was not an easy decision – to defer an application to R2 on which I was working so excitedly from last 5 weeks, yes 5 long weeks!

I started the Kellogg leadership essay on September 1st. I was writing day and night but it took me to 8 days to jot down 2 success and 1 failure leadership story. I tried to write them in a narrative style, taking reference from Harvard 65 successful essays book. I send them to my reviewers; only one replied after a week and found my stories pretty weak and suggested a lot of rework. By that time it was around 15th. I have already sent my goals essay for review. He replied pretty quick and a few places he mentioned gaps, with a very typical long term goal. He mentioned your profile is strong but is coming out well in this essay.

It was 18th and I was at square one. I went home to attend my cousin’s engagement which ate my 3 days. Just 2 weeks were left for Cambridge and I left Kellogg and picked up Cambridge, which has one atypical IT problems essay. As the time was running and none of my reviewers were replying, I decided to take help of a professional reviewer. She seemed very confident, but I always had a suspicion owing to my last year sad experience, and she transformed my suspicion into a belief. She wasted initial 7 days saying “she was busy with other clients; don’t worry, you are in safe hands.” It was 29th when she actually looked on my essays. I was hoping for see the best reviews ever but to my disbelief she return back the same essays - no review comments, just deleted a few lines – the lines which according to me were my strengths. When I tried to ask the reason, she replied I’m trained in this – I mean that could never be a justifiable explanation. Finally, I dismissed her service and prepared all my Cambridge essays myself. I feel they are pretty good. Fingers are crossed!

It’s was 6th Oct and none of my Kellogg essays was in submittal state. Further, I had Richard Ivey to submit on 12th. It was freaking me out. I knew how hard I would try I won’t be able to complete Kellogg and Ivey essays in a week without an outsider eye. One of my friend introduced me to another professional reviewer (pretty expensive), stating they are awesome. Can you believe after having bad experience twice with consultants, I took their service for Kellogg. Again to my disbelief, they turned out to be – awesome this time ;) I was like wow. I wanted a sanity check and the way they reviewed my essays, I was surprised. I have already incorporated my reviewer comments, but still so much to change. From 7th till yesterday, I wrote essays around 14 hours every day. But was able to transform just two Kellogg essays into a decent version, and still have scope for improvement. It was so tight, almost impossible to do another essays in 2 days when I had to submit my Richard Ivey (managed to write decent essays and also get reviewed by a student) as well. I was feeling worse thinking how I got stuck in this situation. I finally took decision to submit Ivey and defer Kellogg to round 2.

People say it’s not much difference between round 1 and 2 evaluation, but somehow I personally feel round 1 is always a edge. Time will tell...

Don’t know this is a wise decision, but I know I have to plan a little wiser now!

I hope this post might help others also to plan a little wiser in R2 – because time fly fast!!

A

Cambridge Judge business school - submitted

Just submitted my Cambridge Judge business school after multiple reviews and spell-checks with few friends and myself. The Cambridge announces the interview decisions in November first week and result in just 2-3 days post interview. I was just talking to my friend today in London that if I get an interview call, I might fly to Cambridge for the one day exclusive school visit plus interview. So, the fingers are crossed as usual and a little tighter this time ;-)

A few updates:

1. ISB interview calls are floating in pagalguy forum but I'm still checking my inbox for the same.

2. Planning to submit Richard-Ivey in two days.

3. Post which I could concentrate completely on Kellogg.

Time to sleep!

A

Northwestern Kellogg - Part I submitted

This time I didn't cross checked it hundred times before clicking the submit button. Just twice. One alone and one with my brother for spell check. Feeling pretty confident and hoping for the best.

Next one is Cambridge on Oct 4. I'm a re-applicant there. Drafts of 2 essays are ready and sent for review, and today I would work on 3rd essay. Will try to finish it as soon as possible so as to move on Kellogg ones again.

Day after tomorrow is my first SLP full day class. Pretty excited about it.

Feeling tired and not in a mood to write more, so winding up!

A

ISB - A last moment hitch in submission

I never thought it would take me so much time to finally freeze my ISB essays. I gave myself the target of 15th August to complete the first version, which drifted to 22nd, when I wrote my last “yippie” post. Then my reviewers sent over comments, and I incorporated them. I myself didn't like few parts and rewrote them completely. And it was today i.e. 29th morning 6am, after editing my essays whole night, I was completely satisfied with them. I was all set to submit my application by today evening.

I completed the other sections of the application and uploaded all documents, to realise in the evening that I don't have scanned copy of my latest salary slip, but thankfully had a hard copy in my Visa documents folder, writing which makes me realise that I never posted about my US B1 Visa which I got stamped last Tuesday only. I should have blogged about it ya! Okay, then I got my salary slip scanned and uploaded it. I asked my reviewer to go through the entire application once for spell check, and though she was dead tired, she did that will as usual enthusiasm. It was 10:30pm and my ISB app was all set for submission. I was so happy that the first time I would submit my application not on its last day of submission i.e. 30th Aug, but seems it was not meant to happen.

I clicked on the last page and there was something new, “Upload scanned signature”. What the heck, it was never there before in any of the applications I submitted last year, it was totally unexpected. I somehow managed to get the scanned signature, and then the worst happened. I tried several times, but I am not able to upload it. It says saved successfully but when I go back to the screen, I am not able to see my uploaded signature and hence not even able to submit my application. Just wrote a mail to ISB and will call them tomorrow morning.

Just imagine if today were the last date, as it was last time when I was rushing through my app to submit it at 11:54pm, just 6 minutes before the closing window. Thank God this time it is not, but my excited feeling to submit my app before deadline date is vanished.

Lessons learnt:

1. Check all the sections of your application very minutely and try to complete them much before deadline, best even before you have started your essays.

2. Your targeted date to complete essays would definitely be missed, how hard you try to meet it. So always keep some buffer days for essays completion.

I’ll follow these lessons,

A

How I managed to upload signature?
I'm not able to post comments from my office system due to some weird reason, so I am updating my post itself with steps I performed to upload signature.


1. I signed again on a clean A4 white sheet.
2. Scanned it in 150dpi in jpeg format.
3. Changed its attributes using MS paint to 150 * 50 pixels. But this didn’t work and I was not able to see my signature.
4. Then I undo the same, and cut the piece around my signature, and saved only that piece as a new image.
5. Open this image and resized it to 150 * 50 pixels. This time it worked. Note: This time did not changed attributes but I actually resized the image.
6. Uploaded it successfully. You will see a link “click here to check uploaded signature” under the browse button, which would open a separate window with signature on top left corner, which means you are done.
7. Said “Thank God!!” and submitted my application.

It's kinda weird, but it worked for me. All the best!!

Round 1 deadlines

Round One deadlines for the top MBA programs:

August 30: ISB (for Indian Passport Holders)

September 29: INSEAD (September Intake)
September 30: Duke / Fuqua (Early Action)

October 1: Harvard
October 4: Wharton, Cambridge / Judge
October 5: Cornell / Johnson
October 6: Stanford GSB, Columbia (Early Decision and January Term)
October 7: Yale SOM
October 8: Oxford / Saïd
October 11: Michigan Ross
October 12: Richard Ivey (Round 2)
October 13: Chicago / Booth, Berkeley / Haas, Dartmouth / Tuck (Early Action)
October 14: Northwestern / Kellogg, UVA Darden
October 20: UCLA / Anderson
October 22: UNC / Kenan-Flagler (Early Action)
October 25: CMU / Tepper
October 26: MIT / Sloan

November 1: Duke / Fuqua (Round 1), UT Austin / McCombs
November 10: Dartmouth / Tuck (November Round)
November 15: NYU / Stern
November 19: Queen's

Plan well!
A