Chicago Essays

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! :)

ISB Essays and the weekend

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.

Application season over

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!

No News

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!

Life is slow

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. :)

Waiting game begins after Kellogg submission

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?

Waitlisted@Chicago

Yes, thats how my application has turned out. I really want some help as to how to navigate this wait list. Anybody and everybody who has an idea, please let me know if you have any information about the Chicago wait list.

I now have to go ahead with my Kellogg and Columbia applications. The Kellogg Part I deadline is in two days. I better get back to running.

Chicago updates again!

I just received an email from Chicago Adcom, and it says that the revised decision deadline is Dec 19. Yes, a full 2 weeks before the original deadline. Thats so cool.....only thing is, I do not expect the result to be that cool.

Chicago interview completed and I feel.....

not really happy! :(

Yup, done with my Chicago interview. It did not go as well as I wanted it to. The interviewer was an executive MBA alumnus who had done his MBA after 12 years of experience. And here I was trying to convince him about my career plans and the need of an MBA after 2-3 years of work experience. I was good in core 'Why?' questions. But, some questions about failures and success at work did not seem to convince him entirely. I guess, he was looking for more experience and depth in these roles. Rest of the interview was reasonable and apart from some of my patented ramblings, I did hold his attention. He did not take any notes. He was writing about the candidate after the interview was over. I asked him questions in the end and he was impressed with my depth of research on my area of interest.

Now after analyzing and over-analyzing, I think it would be difficult for me to make the cut, given the fact that I did not have a very convincing interview. Although, I hope its not so gloomy as it seems to me. I am looking at my R2 schools now. They are on my blog sidebar and I need to shortlist them to 2-3. December will be hard work with renewal of essay writing spree. I sincerely hope something good comes out of the whole thing.

Your shipment delivered!

Yes, thats what the DHL Courier Tracking site says. My transcripts have finally reached the GSB after the Thanksgiving holidays! So, thats relief :)

Meanwhile, preparation for my GSB interview are ON and I intend to be well prepared before I appear in front of my interviewer. That reminds me, GSB has not communicated the details of the interview venue and interviewer information, yet.

Preparing for MBA interviews is not a very easy job, especially when you are not sure of who would take your interview. This is my first MBA interview for a US school. Hope I do well.

Wish me luck! :)

Transcript woes!

For some time, I have been struggling to send my transcript to Chicago GSB so that they can process my application further. But for two weeks, the registrar of my university was on leave. He finally came on Monday, sent out the transcript and it was supposed to reach me today.

BUT, it has not reached me for I had given an incorrect Postal Code in my address to the university. I discovered this on the delivery status report at the website of the courier service. I have mailed them and will call them tomorrow morning. Hope to get this sorted out as soon as possible and send it to Chicago at the earliest.

On the preparation front, I am done with CAT. Pretty ordinary, the way it went. Now, hope to pack some punch in my interview preparation for Chicago. ClearAdmit Wiki, here I come.

Dinged at Wharton :(

Yeah, after my first interview invite, I received my first Ding today. And that too without an interview. I had seen this coming for some time now and feel rather relieved that the agony is over. All the best to all fellow bloggers who received an invite from Wharton!

Meanwhile, CAT is round the corner and I have shifted focus for the next week to prepare for the exam. After that its preparation time for the Chicago Interview. I have scheduled it on December 1 at Bangalore! Post-interview, I will focus on my R2 schools. Thats the plan as of now.

Chicago GSB invites for interview!!!

Yes, Chicago GSB extended an interview invite right on the first day of their window. And I am elated!!!! Got to get it scheduled at the earliest. I am at my hometown, so will have to figure out a way to send transcripts to them.

Relieved to find that somebody from the Adcom actually liked my essays :)

Cheers!!

Chicago submitted!!!

I have completed my Round-1 applications. Submitted my application for Chicago today and there is a strange sense of calmness ever since I hit that button.

I owe this blog an explanation for the extended absence and update it of the latest happenings in my life. For some reasons, this blog had to go underground for some time. Now, its back and has been refurbished. So, time to update it!

It all started in May when I decided to give GMAT and explore MBA options in the United States. Gave the test next to the Independence Day and scored high :) Exploring schools gave me a list of 5 schools which I wanted to apply to:
- Wharton
- Chicago GSB
- Kellogg SOM
- Stern
- Columbia

I have decided to push the last 3 to the second round because I cannot do justice to them due to paucity of time. This is on the application front. I very seriously intend to keep this blog updated from now on.