I am leaving for my hometown in another 10 hours. Before I leave, to spend a couple of weeks with my family, I would like to wish all the blog-o-sphere Merry Christmas and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
May the year 2009 bring happiness to all of us!
Its been a long time since I posted on my blog and makes me wonder what is going to happen once I do reach b-school. All hell has broken loose at my workplace. Layoffs have meant that there is more work pressure on the teams that survive and its been pretty busy few weeks.
On CBS front, I am trying to get in touch with some alums in India to try and figure out some concrete plans for my future. Almost everybody I could manage to talk to has been very supportive of my plans.
As I probably already mentioned here, I plan to work till some time in June to collect all the cash I can. I have received my CFA Level 2 course material. So that is going to take up significant portion of my free time in the coming months. I also plan to travel - when and where is completely undecided. There are a couple of options - exploring south India or south-east Asia. Both of them look pretty neat at the moment.
I am little worried about how to get the Kroll scheduled. I don't want my company to know of my impending departure till around Mar/April. However, as far as I understand Kroll actually talks to the company HR or managers. On the other hand, I do not want to delay the verification that long, which may cause hassles in loand and visa applications. I have no recommenders from my current company though. Need to figure this out.
Lately, CBS has been issuing invites in bulk and I have been trying to be of help to all the prospectives. I seriously hope that a lot of them make it to CBS and am sure I will have a great time with them at the school in NY.
I have been doing a pretty bad job of keeping my blog updated. Infact, tieny has been doing a great job! Given that the work pressure is not going to subside anytime soon, I am not sure if I can improve. Lately, I have been contemplating about writing a series of posts about the application process and my perspectives on the same. There are several in the blogosphere already. I am not sure if any more are needed ;)
Thats pretty much all the updates I had. All the very best to Soni for his C-Booth interview and all other who are waiting for their final results!
I received my admit packet by FedEx today. 
And it has my official letter of admission signed by Linda. It also has a copy of the Hermes magazine and some other pamphalets containing information which is all over the website. Hermes is interesting and has a lot of information about students and alumni. The Class Notes section is particularly fascinating. Reading through it. The packet also has a note which says that the school, as of date, does not have a no-cosignor loan for international students.
On to other things, my Columbia ID activation hasn't happened yet. That means I cannot browse through CBS' amazing online resources for another weekend. I am using my time to read. Currently reading Kafka'a short stories. One of my friends, who shares the apartment with me is leaving for London tomorrow morning. He will be there for atleast a couple of years. So, its going to be a last night celebration tonight. That leaves only 3 people in our large mansion. :(
My wire transfer of deposit reached Columbia yesterday and I am now officially enrolled in the school roasters. As soon as that happened, my status changed to "Deposit Received" and the to-do list expanded from a 17 point list to a 30 point list. And this is supposed to be the beginning. Phew!
The new to-do list however, also gives me access to the Columbia University ID and the email account. Thats exciting! Besides, there is a admitted student's reception on Dec 3. I don't think I can be there even if I really want to do that so much.
I am envious of Tieny who seems to have figured out his plan for the next 10 months. I will be in all probability be working till the end of June. I have my CFA Level 2 to study for and then prepare for school. Three important to-do things amongst the millions I can see right now are - Kroll verification, loan confirmation and F1 visa. None of them begins before January.
Time to relax, I guess!
PS: All the best for HappyBunny for her final result @Columbia!
Its taken some time, but its now sinking in: I am attending Columbia next Fall! MBA has been a long time dream and I, finally, have some concrete progress on that front.
However, my weekend was terrible. Was on the bed with cough, cold and high fever for three consecutive days. Its a little better now. Meanwhile, I have been going through the admitted students website to get information about tasks for the next few months. I realize its a little too early in the process and the website itself is not really up-to-date for the Class of 2011.
I went to my bank today to find out a way to wire my deposit to Columbia. The lady handed over a 9-page :O form which I need to fill and attach it with some photocopies and submit. She said it takes 48 hours, which is not so bad. Columbia's $6000 deposit is huge, I must say. :D
I am not sure when am I suppose to receive an admit packet: now, after my deposit or even later?
Meanwhile, I have been checking a lot of stuff about the university and the school and that has got me even more excited. I can't wait for next fall! :)
PS: Thank you all for your congratulatory messages. I really appreciate it. Hope to see a lot more admits from the blogosphere! Go guys!
I had my alumni interview yesterday and it was very cordial and comfortable. The interviewer was a '71 alum and was very senior in the organization he worked for. The interview itself was also very smooth. No cross-questioning just a good conversation. I was also asked the standard 'ethical dilemma' question which I was prepared for. So, that was sail through, although the interviewer asked for another one after I had narrated the first one. Overall, the interview went well. The questions were broadly why this school, why this company, why this swtich, why mba, why columbia and a lot of discussion of my goals.
The only hitch was that I could not answer 'Why Columbia' all that well because I was cut by my interviewer twice in between and the discussion went tangential. Its common knowledge that CBS wants students with a high degree of interest in the school. Hopefully, I did enough in the interview to convince him and the adcom that I am really interested.
In the end, I asked him questions and got very very good answers to most of them. He offered to help me in networking with people in the NY area, which felt good. I hope I was good too.
Now, the wait begins. I was told that he would submit the feedback yesterday itself or latest by today. He hasn't done it yet. Hopefully, he can get it done by the weekend. It was nice meeting him!
Yeah, I received an invite to interview from Columbia. And as expected, I am really excited. I have some alumni to choose from. Let me see who responds first to my mails. Anybody, any tips for the interview?
Anybody who has heard of what GSB essays are like this year - is tensed :D
For those who have not, here it is:
http://www.chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/admissions/essays_slides.aspx
I am really stuck with essay #2. I feel uncomfortable writing on topics which require me reveal my personal self. Especially, which require you to talk about incidents where you displayed leadership, or where you failed, or you had to make a choice.
Its not that I don't have stories. I just can't put them across in a mature, professional manner. After a week of dilly-dallying I have managed to prepare a draft for the Chicago essay 2 and got it reviewed. Fortunately this time, my reviewer had a fairly positive opinion on the first draft, which is an achievement.
Hopefully, another week and the Chicago app would be ready to go. This would be the half-way mark in the whole process.
Meanwhile, Columbia has been a little slow in coming out with interview invites. Infact, haven't heard of any invites yet for Fall 2009. The next week will possibly see truckloads of invites. Hope, they want to talk to me! :)
I submitted ISB last Monday, Sep 8. It actually got a little late. But, its ok since ISB is not rolling. But, this going to add pressure on my schedule, with Chicago and Tuck deadlines looming in the early October. Have to be a little more quick with the applications. My recommenders have been pretty much on the spot till now with the schedule. I just hope, no issue crop up in the next two months, which is going to be one crazy application season.
Meanwhile, I have decided to finally add Darden to my list of prospective schools. This was a school I was researching on for a long time. I liked several things about the school - strong case-based curriculum, good recruitment in my areas of interest, good community feel.
There is something else I like about Darden - its location, Charlottesville, which is not a big city. I do not really like to study in big cities, although they present significant advantages in terms of recruiting. Chicago, Columbia and Stern are schools I like, and hence made entry into my list, not because they are in big cities. And that is one of the biggest reason why I have included Tuck in my list of schools. However, I have not been able to contact any students from Tuck and Stern yet. That is something I will work on in the next few weeks. Ciao!
When I created this blog, I decided to have a small list of student blogs to keep me in touch of the student community and provide inspiration. But, today I revamped it from a list of 10 blogs to around 4-5 now. I had to remove them as they do not have any updated content.
Why is it that students after they start their MBAs don't update their blogs any longer? Sure, time is one issue. However, it cannot be the only one. We cannot say that the applicants are jobless, right? :D
It is related to the reasons one wants to blog. For me, it is a kind of public-personal diary of my MBA quest. I want blogs to chronicle most my life's experiences. I would start new blogs in all new phases of my life - at least, that is the plan.
I am actually planning to start a new blog, parallel to this one which talks about more personal matters. That would be public or not is something not decided yet.
On the application front, there has been a lull ever since I submitted Columbia. None of my recommenders for ISB are looking in a mood to submit their recommendations. The essays have been reviewed but need to be worked on further. And I am not in a mood to work on them today. Hopefully, tomorrow is going to be a fruitful day.
and whats more, its under review as well! I submitted the application earlier in the day (early morning NY time). It went under review 10 am NY time. That's remarkable! I have been a little busy with the application because I took only 15 days to work on it.
Since, it was a reapplication, I did not have to work on the other two essays which is good in a way. I was never too excited about the master classes essay anyways. But, I had fewer words to convince the adcom of my heroics in the last one year ;)
So, the first application of the season is in, and I pray that I do not have to submit many more. Given the past trends, I should have the decision by the end of next month. Thats pretty neat. On to ISB now!
Well I am back from my vacation and joined my new workplace a couple of days. Joining was smooth and pretty professional. Should get going after the long weekend we had, here in India.
Meanwhile, I am looking at applying to Columbia much earlier than I thought, maybe even by the end of the month. I don't find a lot of work to be done for a reapplicant. My focus has to be on improvements in my profile which I am in the process of articulating. Then have to figure out a way to use the optional essay effectively, if at all.
Meanwhile, my ISB essays have been on the backburner for a while. I have not even got my comments back from the people who are going to review my essays. Hopefully, that should get sorted out by early next week. I now plan to complete both ISB and Columbia applications by the end of August. Then attach Chicago and Tuck applications.
Meanwhile, I have been very actively considering Darden as another school I would put in application for. It is pretty good in the discplines I am interested in and seems to be a pretty good fit. Need to do more research on the school. LBS is another school I am looking at right now. Should be able to fix my sixth school also by the end of the month. For now, its beer!
Cheers!
I passed the CFA Level 1 Exam. :):)
Given the conditions I had given the exam in, it was really a very pleasant surprise.
Thank you, happybunny for encouraging me to apply so late, even after fully understanding my non-financial background. :) I hope this will help me cope with coursework at b-school better.
MBA application work has started in full force. I have written 2/3 ISB essays and they have been flayed by my first reviewer just a few mintues back. Need to rework on them and get my strategy right. After that, it goes to my second reviewer. I intend to finish this set of essays by the end of this month or latest by a week later.
Hope everything goes according to plan!
Its been a drag, this weekend. All the applications I am looking forward to are now live with the exception of Stern. Meanwhile, I have been working on my ISB essays which are of a wierd nature.
I mean, how can you convince somebody that you are the right candidate for the President of the student body in 300 damn words. That nears absurdity. Most schools will give a minimum of 600-700 words for each of these essays. Maybe, I need to learn the virtues of to-the-point answering.
Columbia is the next in line. I plan to leave for my hometown by the end of next week and hope to send my ISB essays for review by that time. Ten days at home would mean a lot of work on Columbia and Chicago applications, both of which are re-applications.
With Columbia, there is a different kind of problem. It does not give you enough space to write as a reapplicant. I have only one essay to pour out all I have this time. However, I am looking at the optional essay too. I have never used it before for any application. Now, I believe is the right time.
Thats a difficult question to answer. Was busy fixing some work-related issues before the application season firmly sets in. So, have been talking to a company which is offering me a role which is going to be great for my career. Things should hopefully work out in a couple of days.
I have been reading blogs all this while. But, could not bring myself to write.
So, what brought me to writing something on my blog? Well this piece: http://goneguru.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/the-wall/
A superb piece of writing! Just take some time out and read it. Fabulous!
On another note, my ISB application is trudging along. The more I find out about the school, the more I like it. Only concern being a lack of internship in the one-year course. However, saving a year does not sound too bad, either!
I heard from CBS on my feedback request - guess what, they denied it. I was checking out the BW Forums and I see all of them have been denied with different letters. They say they have read my application and have put in some points in the letter.
However, my letter seems to be very generic. The first line is " Check out the class profile" followed by gyan about applying ED or early in RD. Although, the first line does seem to be a little negative. I am not sure what to make of it. Are they really suggesting that my profile does not match up to the guys who get admitted. It would have been great, if they had been more straight forward about it.
Application season is on the threshold of a new beginning. One of my target schools (read ISB) has already gone live with its application. So, its essay writing time again. And this, most certainly will be my last shot.
I have for the time being decided to leave the choice of the sixth school open, which anyways is going to be my last application. So, the timeline for me would be something like:
Jul-Aug -> ISB and Columbia
Aug-Sep -> Chicago and Tuck
Oct -> Stern and XXX
All should end up in Round 1. I think it is pretty doable. Meanwhile, there is not much news on the job front. Peaceful it is, atleast for the time being. :)
New application season and a new blog look. I like this one more than the last. Changing the template has been my sole effort remotely related to the Fall 2009 admission process in the last two weeks. HBS releasing essays in May is the good news. Hopefully, others will also follow suite. I have not yet made up my mind on HBS. I have two doubts. One - it is super competitive and two - I don't know much about the school yet.
Another issue I foresee is that with TOEFL. None of my list of schools except Haas requires me to take the exam. Now, I have to be sure whether I will be applying to Haas before I take TOEFL. Otherwise, it may be an exercise in vain. Will have to figure this one out.
to REAPPLY. Well not exactly reapplication, as my list of schools is going to be altered significantly. But, I do hope to do extremely well this time round.
I am busy till May with work and other stuff so would not be as regular with my blog, but intend to be regular as soon as the application process for the year starts.
Bloggers for Fall 2009, I join your community!
and it ends on a very unsavoury note. As many of you would have guessed, I got my rejection note from Chicago. It was hard to digest, but then, do you really have a choice. 6 weeks of hard work did not bear fruit. It seems WLs are never in your control.
I have not yet decided about whether to reapply next year. I definitely plan to pursue MBA. I have a couple of options in some good schools in India. I have to decide whether to go there or reapply to my dream schools next year. Would post my decision soon!
This is really turning out to be a nightmare. Another ding without interview comes my way and I did not apply to too many. :(
Now, my only hope comes out with results within 24 hours. If its good news, I am likely to hear sooner. The wait could not have been more painful.
Its been a long long time that I have had any updates on my MBA journey. After getting dinged from Kellogg, it has been very very quiet. There has been a small mail exchange with Chicago when I confirmed my interest in being on their waitlist. Thats about it.
Columbia AdCom has been sitting on my application for more than 1.5 months now. And that is after they took almost 3 weeks to make it go under review. After my application to Columbia, my interest in the school has grown considerably and I would really love to go to both the schools I am yet to receive decisions from. My concern is that is it too late to have any realistic chance at Columbia?
In the meanwhile, there have been lot of updates in the blogger world with lot of interviews being scheduled and conducted. Good luck to all my blogger friends.
HappyBunny, All the very best for your GMAT!
I have been waiting and waiting for any news to update my blog with. But, alas, there has been absolutely nothing. The wait is getting too edgy now.
Congrats Oops and Miss Bee for their interview invites. All the Best!
This is one of the slowest period of the application process. No progress on any of the applications and none expected over the next 2-3 weeks. Columbia interview invites have started trickling. However, all the recipients submitted their application before December. And I did so on Jan 3 which went under review on Jan 17. So, there is still a lot of waiting to be done.
Till now, I have never gone back to any applications after submitting them (except Chicago, of course). But now the urge to do so is growing. The fact that I have precious little to do at home is also adding to that urge.
At work, I have just finished a project and the chip is out for manufacturing, and I have a free interim period. Irritatingly, work at office was at its peak when I had to submit two applications in 15 days after Chicago WLed me.
So, I have gone back to books and started reading 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini. I love books. :)
Yes, after 15 days of wait, my Columbia application has now gone 'Under review'. So, I should get my decision within 12 weeks. Frankly speaking, its too long a time. I am not sure what does the AdCom at Columbia do to take so long. All schools applied to took 2 months to give out final decisions.
Meanwhile, A very BIG congrats to all the HARVARD and DUKE R1 Admits! Enjoy your success, folks. Next week in another big one, Stanford.
Any news on the admission front is exciting. So, I now share with you that:
As I feared, my Kellogg interview requirement has been waived. My application will now go straight to the AdCom for review. And probably, if they think its necessary, I may get a telephonic interview.
Turning in the Part I late had almost sealed the fact that I will not be granted an alumni interview. One of my colleagues, who had submitted on Nov 17 got her interview assignment yesterday.
Meanwhile, Columbia, it seems, has decided that it will review my application last. It has been two weeks since I submitted on Jan 3 and have got no response from them. I wanted my application to go under review at the earliest. But, the AdCom in NYC has other plans.
The Kellogg Status Check Website showed me something new last night. It now says:
"All the required elements of your application are complete.
If your interview has been completed, the application has been submitted for review to the admissions committee. If your interview has not been conducted, the application will be submitted to the admissions committee upon completion of the interview. The next status check update will be the admission decision (Admit, Waitlist or Deny)."
I had submitted the Part I on Dec 20 and Part II on Jan 10, i.e. I submitted both of them a day before the deadline. However, there is no news on the interview front. I would love to have an alumni interview rather than the interview being waived. But then, that is not in my hands.
However, Columbia application hasn't gone under review yet. I had submitted on Jan 3. Hopefully it should be 'Under Review' by this weekend. All the best to fellow bloggers waiting for R2 interview invites and for those who are interviewing in the next few days.
I have been missing from the blogger for a week now and the update is - I have submitted Kellogg! In the end, I felt it was not my best application. That honor probably goes to Columbia. I think thats the strongest of the 4 I have submitted.
So, the waiting period starts from now. Chicago wants me to wait till Mar 26. Columbia should give me a decision in 12 weeks and my application hasn't gone under review yet. Kellogg too is somewhere in early April. So, its time to chill out a bit.
I am still not sure about how Columbia invites for interview. I mean, when is the earliest you can get an interview invite after the application goes under review? Any ideas?
Done. My first application for Round 2 admissions, and the third overall. This was the application which was the least painful to submit. Maybe hitting 'the' button is becoming routine for me. That leaves only Kellogg Part II to be submitted. I am done with two of its essays and the third is under construction. All the four should be ready for review by Saturday.
It might have been relatively easy to submit the Columbia application, its strange how the feeling of freedom and accomplishment envelopes you as soon as you do it. I am in a mood to relax. And I have six more days of essay writing. :)
Wishing all my blogger friends A VERY HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR! Hope all of us do get into our dream schools this year :)
Cheers!!!
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