Waitmania & Pottermania!!!

Hey ppl,

The Wait Is A Killer......
I had heard this a million times by the earlier applicants and thought at the back of my mind that the "airtime" given to this topic was certainly overhyped..... I used to think that "How hard can waiting be?? We'd immerse ourself in work and shall not feel a thing."

I stood corrected....

During the day, my work keeps me busy and I am actually happy to give my full time and energy to my work (benefit #113: Becoming an entrepreneur) rather than endlessly fretting over deadlines and daydreaming about miraculous essays.......... And there is a good reason why I don't have internet connectivity at my office....

But the madness begins at nightfall....... The moment I come home, I check my mail only to see that page "0 unread messages" for the millionth time........ I frantically check mail every hour or so only to be dissapointed by inactivity.........

So, to pass time I open up my copy of Harry Potter e-book (all books 1-7, which I very conviniently ripped from the net)....... It is a puzzle to me that how could I have missed such a masterful piece of literature........ Maybe I had dismissed HP series as "only for children", a ghastly mistake....... :P......... The awesome world of Hogwarts is fascinating to say the very least....... I totally used to forget that I'm an applicant who is currently in a state of uncertainity and so pissed off by that........ the time was passed in a dizzy uptill now, because, yesterday, I finished reading the seventh book, I actually screamed with joy when Potter used "expelliarmus" to repel Voldermort's "Avada Kedavara" to kill the villian......

But today, the aura of uncertainity surrounds me yet again...... yet again I am reminded by the empty mailbox that my future two years are still uncertain...... yet again I check my mailbox every half an hour or so.......... I am waiting desperately for Hagrid (read acceptance mail) to come and relieve me of my miseries (read the eternal waiting)........

Waiting still......

Peace

UCLA interviewed

Hey All,

Today I interviewed with a UCLA alum in my city. I had already met him earlier (when I was researching UCLA, hence underlining the importance of alumni meetups..... go see your alum now, he may be also your interviewer). So, there was a sort of comfort level between us. Anyways, he stuck to the sandard questions (Why MBA, Why now, Why UCLA, Goals, Strengths & Weaknesses etc.) and apart from the occassional nervous stammering, I don't think I goofed up on any of the major points.

All in all a satisfactory performance. I m pretty excited about UCLA..... If they select me (all fingers and toes cossed), it'll be like a godsend....... the wait continues.......

Peace

My first invite

Hey all,

Was so goddamned bummed after the Duke ding that I shut my laptop and slept..... or tried to sleep....... Woke up at 4 A.M. and checked my mail (just in case)........ (Yes I am paranoid :D)...... There it was...... my UCLA interview invite staring back at me....... I couldn't believe it that I could feel so tensed and so relieved in such a short span of time....... And anyways, I liked UCLA waaaay more than Duke (not the case of sour grapes.... no..... seriously).... felt a greater sense of fit with UCLA than with Duke........Actually, not getting the UCLA invite coupled with the supposed HBS ding was driving me crazy when Duke dinged me and heightened my despair.........
Finally, grinning stupidly and flushing all Duke thoughts out of my system, I was able to sleep last night.......

Thanks guys for the encouragement shown...... Helped me calm down....... And guess what...... My blog was mentioned for the very first time on Clear Admit Blog's Friday Form the Frontline...... I always supposed that my blog lacked quality posts to ever feature on Clear Admit's blog...... Or it was that they simply ignored me.......... But I never cared enough to crib about it......... Guess they really liked the long post containing all the grim updates (those sadistic bast****, seeing something noteworthy in my misery..... lol)

Shall update when my interview is scheduled...... How should I start my prep?? Welcoming Ideas, guys?? Till next time.....

Peace

Admission.....

......DENIED........

This Duke Ding was anticipated....... The first nail in my MBA coffin.....

WTF???!!?

All Grim updates in one post!!!

Hey ppl,

After about a month I dare blog again....... After the double madness, I wanted to avoid that sort of position at all costs..... So decided to push one of the applications (Oxford) to the next round.... Fully concentrated on arden and submitte on time an without any fuss.......

Meanwhile, I was seriously contemplating about the validity of a safe-school (McCombs). The points I had in opposition of applying to any safe school were very valid. The leading reason was my desire to NOT abandon my business just after startup for something which is second best...... Ya, I know I'd be bashed for saying this by the McCombs Lover Association, but hey folks, that's what I think......

So, decided to drop applying to Texas also. (After which it was truly a game of all or nothing) And so, just applied to four schools only.

After 28th Oct, I took a leave from work and went on a nice holiday for a week in the mountains. Came back and aggressively pursued my other interests which were long lost and forgotten (like reading, Gaming and hanging out)......

Was so happy and felt liberated.......But the feeling was not to last......

Shortly after, UCLA started sending out interview invites....... Was thrilled at the prospects, of course. But heard nothing till now and things aren't looking good on this front, since UCLA admits only those who it interviews.

But the real shocker came yesterday when HBS sent out a large lump of it's invites (a whooping 750 invites in a single day)...... I still haven't heard anything. Although, HBS will send another 100 invites till the notification date, it seems foolish enough to keep that widow of hope open too..... (coz statistically if 750 is NOT ME, then 100 is NOT ME in 1 MILLENIUM)..... So, that ship has also sailed........

Looking at Duke, Since I am an international, I can't interview on campus. The application had an option of requesting alumni interviews (which they'd extend by invitation only). Still havn't heard about an interview. Although they say that inteviews are not mandatory (though higly recommended) for admission. But seriously guys, if Duke were genuinely interested, I think they would have wanted to see me (at the very least). I guess I don't have to wait much for this ding coz it comes in two days.

So what is left is Darden. And looking at my rotten luck (and maybe something else, maybe my profile, maybe my essays, coz HBS was my best essay in them all), I have lost all confidence in my chances anywhere. And what's worse is that I still am not able to justify a safe school for me. Seems that my brain has completely stopped working.

The HBS decision toay has thoroughly shaken me...... I really saw myself at the place, the picture quality of my dreams was crystal clear, and my essays (or the application for that matter) was my best shot, my 101%......... and if I was incapable of landing even an interview invite there, I am unsure of landing an admit elsewhere.

It looks like a grim future for me MBA-wise, because come what may, I still (stoically) stand by my decision for the best or nothing....... Looks like I'll get the latter...... Looks like it will be a glorious case of DWI in all the four applications for me......

If that'd be the case, I am sure of one thing, that after Oxford (and with a luck like mine, assuming safely to DWI there also), my MBA reams shall surely REST IN PEACE............ :(

App 2 Duo!! Experience the power of TWO

Hey ppl,

Yessss, I managed to pull the seemingly impossible task of submitting two applications within 24 hours. My bank balance is considerably lighter due to this "App 2 Duo" effect (I urge Intel not to sue me for my pathetic attempt to impersonate the "Core 2 Duo").

In this festive season of free distribution, where you get offers like buy one get one free, I often wonder how gr8 it would have been for the credit card companies to announce such a scheme - "If you are submitting two applications, pay for one and get the other free"!!!
WOW.... That'd be some scheme.

I submitted HBS yesterday...... errr no today morning....... in fact I submitted them 5:30 AM today. Am I such an early riser?? Never!! I just didn't sleep last night!!!! I wanted to submit HBS by 12'O clock last night and go to bed. Instead, I found it extremely hard to let go of the love letter to my true love. Every now and then I would think that I can improve the app, but then after like an hour of staring at the screen, I would decide otherwise. What was more intriguing was the fact that I wanted to improve it further but didn't know how..... So, ended up checking the PDF version of the app a horrifying 17 times. Every time I opened it to see the app one last time, I thought I caught something fishy. I totally lost time-tracking ability (not that I had one in the first place...... but, well you get the point). Finally, I looked at my watch and CRAP.... it's 5.00AM!!!! I thought the batteries were dead. But I could sense some activity on the road. I cursed myself for my obsession and decided that it was time. The time to press the button had arrived.

However, HBS submission is a totally opposite end of the spectrum from Duke submission. I just wasn't ready to submit Duke as I thought my essays were not ready enough. But in the afternoon at work I realized that I cannot afford to miss a round only because of my perfectionist paranoia........ The essays were solid enough and I'm not aiming for a Pulitzer here, just a teeny-weeny B-school admit (yes, I love my hypocrisy!!). So, I telephoned both of my recommenders and told them to submit before nightfall, failing which they owe me a fortune..... :D ..... the threat worked perfectly and Recos were in by the time I reached home.

Worked on the final touches for three golden hours straight and pressed the button in the same flow....... It's all outta my hands now since two hours.........

My head is spinning from all these submissions........ Time to hit the sac......

Peace

Will this hard work payoff???

Hey ppl,

The answer to that question is..... maybe...... I don't know, don't wanna know or am not interested in knowing the answer at all. I know I'm not making any sense, but it is hard to make sense when you have to do two applications simultaneously, manage 5 recommendations, cater to 7 essays and fill hundreds of calculated characters (not words!!! that would've been easy!!)...... and still dream of making the deadline Early Action.

Yes I'm talking of course about the stress and pressure I've been in the last some days. HBS R1 and Duke E.A are on the same day, making it a Time Management-101 course for me. And then there is work. I wonder sometimes that had I not obsessed about B-School for so long, had I not had the levels of super human (nearly unvawering) motivation, or had I not yearned for that crimson envelope with every molecule of my being, I would have been easily fatigued enough to leave the process and run. The same is true for my blogger friends.

No wonder I believe that getting into IIMs is a piece of cake as compared to getting into HBS, or any top 10 for that matter. You have to do so much to show that you are a "well rounded" applicant, not some "usual" nerdo with a 790 GMAT, which BTW are aplenty in my country. It is not like you get a 99.9%ile on the CAT and POOF!!! You're in!!!!

We're all working our asses off for that dream admit. And to think that the whole blogosphere is trembling with the Citi Assist news is disturbing. I for one am not perturbed by all of this hooplaah surrounding the $$$. Am I a direct relation of Mukesh Ambani??? No, I still haven't figured out how I will pay for the MBA (even the security deposit!!). Yes, it should sound stupid (to the point of arrogance) but guys, seriously, what are we fretting about again???
"Will we get the MONEY, IF we GET INTO one of those $150k+ schools (with <30% selectivity and uber-competition)????"
Notice the bolded uncertainity above.

Furthermore, if we do get in, we should realize that it is not a one way road. The school needs us as much as we need the school coz without us, the school would be empty. So, I am more than a 100% sure that the school will figure out something if it can't get the amount of loans as before. Maybe they'll grant more scholarships, maybe they'll increase the assistantships, maybe they'll figure something else out. Remember guys, it is not a one sided love, if it were, you wouldn't get the admit in first place, and so, still have nothing to worry about.
So chill guys, and enjoy this breakneck ride of the apps..........
Till next submissions....

Peace

Order Amongst Chaos: UCLA submitted

Hey ppl,

Just submitted UCLA application!!!!
But the path undertaken has been anything but as simple as the four-worded-sentence above. Nothing went as planned.

First, the essays weren't coming that good. I think I hit a wall on new ideas. There was a complete and utter lack of it. Not that my essays were so good that I couldn't improve on it, but I knew that these essays are shitty and can be bettered but just didn't know how. The first essay was gr8 and I loved it so much that it was finalized long ago. Readability stats : 52 on the flesch scale...... I just loved that essay. But the other two essays were killing me...... 8 reworks and still no sight of the finish line. Finally, yesterday night I had to shut my eyes (not easy but had to force myself) to not look for more errors.

The state of the govt. universities here in India is pitiful. I am talking , of course of the university to which my alma mater is affiliated. Hopeless situation. Firstly, if you are not present personally, they don't even care for your work (which actually is "their" work, so to say). Even if you are present there, you'll be on the verge of crying when you comprehend the messy way in which the documents are strewen about the place. The so-called official had to literally "fish" out my application from a pile of scrap. Even after that the story was far from over. The people incharge were absent. So, I was asked to stay in the city overnight as my home is nearly 400kms from the gates of hell. Did so. Next day, it dawned that one of the persons showed up and the otherr one called for a leave for a week. Gr8. I was stuck without a set of transcripts up untill yesterday till which time I lost my patience and cursed the university officers to hell. I went to my Alma Mater and got the work done there easily (looks like I still have influence there). All in all, an extremely frustrating trip.

The problems didn't end here, the audio essay of UCLA came out to be of 1:02 mins. Cutting that 2 seconds meant cutting a whole sentence and I was fumbled as to which sentence to cut. I tried speaking faster, but it was evident very early that clarity is essential here. Anyhow, did it all night yesterday and came up with a super sounding 4th essay.

Took a leave today to submit. Ya, those are some of your perks for being an entrepreneur, voluntary leave announcement :) But the recos weren't in yet. Completed the online app. and uploaded everything but I still did not want to submit without recos. Coz I cant stand the sight of the status changing twice: From "Submitted: waiting recos" to "Submitted: under review".

I decided to personally go to both my recommenders and talk on gunpoint:)
[DISCLAIMER: This sort of thing can be risky if you try it on your superior.]
Call it another perk of entreprenuership - No Bosses.
The personal visit had the desired effect and both my recommenders ended up submitting within half hour of each other. I pressed the submit button after that.

It is just one down yet and I am writing pages of my ordeal....... What will happen to me???? God only knows (Or does He???)....... Till next time.....

Peace

The Hare situation--->Total panic!!!

Hey guys,

I feel like the Hare in the story of the hare and the tortoise. I took the GMAT in Sep-07........ have been obsessing about B-school since 10 months before that..... and to think that at the crunch time, the steam leaks out....... Nothing is moving as per the plan......Result: CHAOS

Recommenders seem to be in hibernation...... Have told them to be punctual twice since the initial talks...... But no candy yet.....

The university seems to take it's own sweet time in delivering the transcripts....... I saw this ahead but still..... UCLA DL is in nearly 2 weeks and still no news or letter.......

The essays are nice enough but every time I open them, something or the other catches my eye and I desperately try to correct it, within the word limit of course...... simultaneously wondering what if I'd send it...... slapping myself for the carelessness and dilating my pupils to twice their usual size before going back to work....... :)

The application is the only thing which has been done peacefully...... that's the beauty of the objective data fields...... black or white........ no fuss...... no editing...... no madness.......

And in between whenever I get some time off, I wonder how will the other applications shape up, this is just the first one....... I mean HBS will be fine, but then there is Duke (only outlines have been made), and Darden, Oxford and Texas (no progress whatsoever - yes, not even outlines......) And all have to be finished in R1........ :(

Shall repost when some of the Panic and Chaos subdues....... till then pray for
PEACE......

Terrorised?? I think NOT.....

Hey ppl,
5 serial terror blasts ripped through the capital of the most Terror Victimised country (without any doubt) of the world - India. The tragic incident took the toll on nearly 20 lives with at least a hundered or so injured. I don't quite understand the philosophy of the terrorists....... What purpose does it solve if they set off a chain of explosions and cause panic for nearly an hour or so??? LIFE GOES ON!!! ...... and truthfully talking, people forget easily (of course, people who have'nt been directly effected - which, most of the time is over 99.999% of the city population!!).

This is not to say that I don't understand the magnitude of the loss of the victims' families but think of it logically, even the panic subdues for most people after a few hours ......... and the very next day, life is back to normal...... don't believe me?? go and see Gaffar Market or Connaught Place or GK-M Block for yourself today evening........ So, if the purpose of the terrorists is to terrorise, I can say with ultimate confidence that they've lost thier purpose and would never achieve it since people all over the world are now see through their acts and are standing in silent support of each other against this global enemy. Even though the countries may not say so openly but they all have one common enemy - Terror. And the citizens of this world have silently resolved that the "show will go on" - no matter what....... It is a type of satyagraha that we the people of every nation are following by not giving note to the minor skirmishes that these madmen plan everyday......
Let's pray for peace to the dead and courage to the relatives.........

Accelerating......

Hey ppl,
Yesterday GMAC "cancelled" the scores of 84 ppl for the scoretop scandal....... I am skeptical about the good it may do..... some of the alleged students are already passed out of MBA or are currently in the program...... Dont know how you can harm someone whose book is already closed?

On the applications front........ Finished the first draft of UCLA essay #2. Now working on #3........ After which... it'll be singing time.....lol....... Between us, UCLA has really innovated in their application and I think that it is for the very best....... They have lived upto their sterotype of beautiful people on the beach by encouraging the audio format...... I mean guys, seriously, you wanna hear my deep bassed voice and think if I may look good enough to fit in the program?? Disgusting..... At least that's what it looked like to me when I heard it first of all....... But first impressions are not always correct........ it now seems more logical to me now.... Even before the actual interview, UCLA wants students to show their personalities, engilsh skills, meaningful talking and conciseness all in one minute....... Awesome............ Funny how long it takes a gr8 idea to ring true with me :) I guess I was always wired the stupid way..........

Duke's outlines are finished and I am now hovering over to various school sites making IDs and checking out their applications...... Shall keep you posted....
Peace....

The idea box bursts open !!!

Hey all,
Just dropped in for a quick update...... HBS essays are now in the "polishing stage", which means that I improve on it everday. Will just have to make sure that I don't overdo it.... lol... Guess thats where the "outline" comes in handy..... ain't it??
UCLA's outilines are completed, and the first draft of the first essay is also completed..... Working on more first drafts...... Plan to finish all UCLA first drafts by thursday and then start the polishing.
Also started making the outlines of Duke.......

I am worried about Oxford though...... it seems that Saiid has not released it's application, but they said that they'll start considering apps. from 1st Sept., Am I missing the action somewhere?? Can anyone else find the application or everyone apping for OX is in the same dillemma as me?? Hard to believe the mismanagement on the part of a "management school"..... lol...... ironic ain't it??

Peace.....

A strange promise!!

Hey all,
I can't believe how fast time flies. Seems too short a time since I last posted. *lazy groan*. Actually, I have reflected on the severe famine of posts which plagues my blog and have come to an interesting observation. Earlier, I thought that a blog post must bunch some of the events and should be a bit decent lenghtwise. :P Yes, I may sound like an idiot but trust me, this is my first blog. Since my awakening, I have realized that in such a method, some of the important nitty-gritties are lost, thus defeating the whole purpose of this blog (to record my struggles). So, I promise that from now on, I'll be a much more prompt poster. The number of posts shall increase while decreasing the length; all other factors remaining constant. LOL..... the engineer ariseth.....

I saw the blogosphere bursting with activity in the time I was hibernating. People have started Submitting REAL applications.... I mean FINAL applications...... And to think that these people could be my competitors on a rolling admissions...... Good GOD..... phew....... What they've achieved is truly commendable and I "bow to the masters" of the app. process. Wish I could be as organized.......

I also saw the schools buzzing with activity during my long slumber. All the applications are out. Except Oxford and McCombs. Hope they'll be out soon enough.

But.... I've exaggerated a bit about my inactivity above.... I was not in a deep sleep...... I was working hard (not on apps. though; at work). O.K. enough of the rambling.... time to go.... lemme try and stick to my promise this time..... we'll see how far it goes.....

The 8/8/8 post......

Hey ppl,

8/8/8, the one day where the calendar fools itself. I love writing dates like these (duh.... who doesn't?). And so, today I've been writing the date all day long........ and more so like 8/8/8 instead of the regular 8/8/08.........lol.......

Beijing Olympics kicked off today in style and guess what....... the chinese are bigger frwaks than me when it comes to the whole repetitive-number-date thing. They kicked off the olympics exactly on 8/8/8, 08:08:08....... funny how the time system is constricted to 12....... otherwise the time could've been like 88:88:88....... you may be thinking that I've totally lost my mind on this....... ya a bit of...... but this has been happening since 1/1/1 and shall go on till 9/9/9...........

Ok, before I get slapped with court summons for boring you to death, let's get to the news from the MBA world. As should be expected, a lot has happened since I last posted. Should be the case, since I am darn lazy to post and post only once in a blue moon........

1) Firstly, I'd like to thank all the ppl who supported me on the TOEFL......... I finally blasted the required 109 for meeting HBS's eligibility criterion and that too by a big margin...... The test sure was easy as hell and the scoring, easier.
2) I've been debating lately about applying to Oxford. After seriously pondering over the pros and cons of Saiid, I've decided to apply. Granted, the age may be a factor to consider (since the avg. age is like 29, much-much older than me), but the benefits are many. One yr. program, London, Oxford Brand, Entrepreurship focus, lesser cost and a relatively newer, fresher program to name a few.
3) Due to above, the list is now truly set in stone. I've pledged now not to look at programs other than these since they can waver my focus. I've done enough resaerch to know that if not checked, this habit of MBA related website surfing is addictive and a time-cancer. To help me focus, I've included my list on the right side of this page.
4) And oh, by the way, all of my deadlines are out in the open. I'm glad that the deadlines are spread out all over the month of Oct. This would give me a fair amount of time for applying properly. And yes, I am attempting the Herculean task of finishing all the six schools in R1 !!!
No, I'm not crazy..... yes you are...... no I'm not....... yes you are......... no I'm not...... Ok go **** yourself......... :)
5) I've nearly finished working on the first drafts of the HBS essays....... the first drafts look like cat-poop but I'm sure they will improve with time........ Hope to finish them by the weekend.....
6) I've chosen and approached my recommenders........ given them the deadlines and warned them (on gunpoint) not to fool around the deadlines but instead submit much earlier......
7) I just love the new HBS website...... (hope you like it too)....... But whats more, I am shocked by their numbers...... GMAT range: 550-800....... wtf, a 550??? Should've been like God in other application parts ............... Avg. GPA : 3.67...... wtf again.......... AVG IS 3.67........ I am doomed......... But wait wait......... Number of students with less than 3 yeras of wrk ex......... 41%.......... WTF again.......but it is gr8........ WOOOWWWW....... I'm IN........ with a Scholarship......... alarm rings........ and back to reality..........
The above now happens almost daily....... :P
8) This long post is another attempt to run away from working on my drafts........ And yet again, I've succeeded in procrastinating and killing time......... Cheers to my genius........
Peace.........

How much to dream??

Hey all,

Thanx everyone for your supporting thoughts onToefl. Actually, you guys and the other nett communities had me pretty convinced that TOEFL is waay too easy. So, I didn't study at all. Only gave TOEFL two of my nights to give sample tests and cruised through them. On the real test day however, I was caught off guards by the reading section with long GMAT type essays to read but very foolish questions to be asked on it. Got thru them anyways........

Now a week has passed and Ive been checking my Inbox like 8 times a day only to find spam in there. Looks like it's the trailer of the Ultimate Waiting game that'll be played after the submission deadlines....... lol..... Shall keep you updated as and when my scores come out......

Pls. let me thank Josh Hohman for a nice interviewing spree he has gone on for applicants like us. He has interviewed mnay current students in his complation, mostly from Stanford, which makes sense since, he is a current student there. But the book also has HBS and Columbia students' interviews. Though I was a bit dissapointed due to the fact that HBS students' inteviews were very less in number (only like 4 or 5). The book claims that it has "insider knowledge" on applications. I am very skeptic about such "insider news", and the book did not say much new stuff than you can fid on the net (but mind you, it would take a lot of time and surfing to get close to the truth). The book does a good job of putting various different perspectives on admissions at one place. The book is very good if you are considering Stanford, and, especially helpful for international students like me who cant visit the school to see how its like there. Do try the sample copy FREE of cost. www.ExpertCollective.com
DISCLAIMER: I may sound like I've been paid a seat in Stanford by Mr. Hohman to praise his book. But HELL NO........... lol........ :)

On the essays front, I've started to think about my essays for HBS. I've started with the career vision essay and made an outline of it. Actually it was quite easy to make an outline of the goals first of all. Not to brag, but I do have a very good feel of what my aim is, and how an MBA fits in it all. Actually, it comes naturally after you have to convince everyone you meet about your decisions' sanity; when people question the validity, the benefits and the apparent crazyness of starting a business and leaving it just to go for an MBA abroad. After some time, it starts running in your blood and you get a deeper understanding of why you want to tread this path.

Anyways, I think I am quite happy with my career vision essay outline. But since, it is about the "vision", in my outline, I have dreamt a lot. I dont know if that is good enough, since I've heard at countless places that the adcom looks for depth and not general dreams of what-you-ought-to-do. Since my dream is specific to the ompany I've started, it may not essentially be the same as the crowd, but, then again, are we required to plot out our expected real trajectory, or the trajectory we would like to attain?? I mean, I am confused about the extent to which we have to be grounded in reality in this essay. So, if it's the uber-dreams that are OK to state, then I like the outline I've made. And also, if we have to be firmly grounded in practicality, why use the word "vision" and why not use "long term goals" or something like that. But then again, the ulatimate dreams of most people are similar, if not the same: satisfaction, happyness, positive impact on others' lives, blah, blah and blah again.

The dilemma rages everyday and every alteranate hour I am switching sides......... :). I think leaving the outline alone for a day or two and just not thinking about it will spark a moment-of-realization.

Shall have to put a rest to this and start working on the accomplishments essay, which is the heart of the HBS essays..........

Shall keep you guys posted........
Peace......

Resume done!! TOEFL's next... bring 'em on!!!!!

Hey ppl,

Thanks to your support, I've finalized my resume. I think that the resume will be the only thing constant between all applications. But I am unsure even on this...... I mean, won't it be great if I can tailor my resume to every specific program. But then again, a resume is a collection of bullet-facts which can't be "tailored" per se....... In conclusion, I don't know what to do next on the resume front. But for now, I'm satisfied with the shape it has taken. Detailed yet specific yet comfy-spaced, I like it. Also, the facts I jotted down for my resume but couldn't fit in due to space constraints would now form a part of my essay fodder for thought...... lol.....

The TOEFL exam is on coming Saturday and I dont know what's gonna happen. Yes, people tend to think less of the TOEFL but when you have a minimum 109 to achieve, you tend to get a bit jittery since it's your dream school (read:HBS) hanging by that magical number. And recognizing the fact that i get stone tongued in the speaking section, I am especially worried. In more ways than one this is a strange revelation. I have absolutely no problem talking to a real person either on phone or face to face in english, but when you have to stare at the screen and look at the 45 second timer run out while speaking sense and not blabbering, it tends to be a bit difficult. Leaving speaking aside, I am confident about other parts of the test.

But knowing that your speaking section practice is waaay lagging behind and still not studying even till a week before a standardised test is the mark of a first-class-procastinator. While we all procrastinate a bit, I am sure that few people can even think of reaching the high standards of procrastinating that I set and better each day :D .

On the essay front, shall start work on the HBS essays after Saturday (another way to procrastinate, since we all know that I'm not really gonna study for TOEFL properly...... but still, can make an excuse on the HBS essays due to this event...... :D).

Can anyone share any last week pointers on the speaking section?? Shall be helpful-aplenty.
Peace......

Resume Fun!!

Hey all,
Just started to chalk out my resume yesterday and I discovered that i totally suck at it. Since I have never made a resume in my life, (since I've never job hunted) I discovered that it is increasingly difficult to make your resume for the first time (and that too for B-Skool purposes..... would u believe my hard luck...... :( )

The first draft that i wrote was a total of two pages detailing my responsibilities and accomplishments in a tiny enough font. I used Calibri 10......... Still two pages......

I have read Montauk and MBA Game Plan. And if their advice is any yardstick to follow, adcom do not spend more than a minute scanning the resume. By this I can guage that a resume should have less complicated language and business speak. It should also not lose it's visual appeal and stick to showing your key strengths at the same time besides being strictly confined to one page and still not being overly crammed and looking more black than white. Just picture the Adcom officer reading hundereds aplication...... blah blah blah......... :)

When people write about how tired adcom officers are, I hate it. I hate it even more when I gauge and realize the correctness of their claims. So, weather I like or not, it's is not a good idea to mess around with the mood of an adm. officer by boring her with details.

So I took a long hard look at my resume and saw that I've repeatedly said the same very things in different, fancier vocablary. I began trimming but could not get it below one & a half pages without cutting some of my details.

Still working on it, have seen many resume teplates and I dont know which to choose. Of the few people who read my blog, I would like to strike an active discussion on pros and cons of various formats, level of detail they would give in their resumes and many other resume related talk..... We can help each other by discussing this issue out......... Anybody game???? Peace.....

P.S. : I would really find it helpful and be grateful if someone posted (or linked) the actual resume book of any school.

Took the TOEFL Date.... Now Worried

Hey ppl,
I took the TOEFL date yesterday....... So, my T-day is 12 JULY....... I think I went a bit overboard with all the GMAT confidence bubbling up in me and I took a date less than a month away........ And now I am worried.......

Is this much time sufficient to prepare well for TOEFL?? Various blogs and forums tend to think so, but I shall not follow them blindly. Oh God..... I m so kicking myself for taking a date so soon...... Since I only want a super score......... nothing less than a 109 will do........ 109 being the cut-off for HBS, thats why the affinity for this magical number.........

Shall begin my prep on the morrow........ Anyone has any ideas about how to go on hunting this one??? I've downloaded Longman and Kaplan CD's...... But, are they suffiecient??? We'll see...

Waiting to listen for inputs from anyone who's "Been there, Done that" with the TOEFL..... Peace

School shortlisting

Hey ppl,
Things are now starting to gather a bit of air......... won't call it "steam" yet......... schools have started to come out with deadlines and I guess the questions are not far behind. The schools which have come up with deadlines, as of today, are: HBS, Stanford, Haas, MIT, Michigan, UNC. Did I miss anyone?? If so, I'm terribly sorry for my lack of awareness. :)

Actually waiting for the questions to appear is another of my mind's genius plan to procrastinate. Actually I've noted that the core questions don't change over time for any school, since they are always looking for the same type of qualities in a person. So, if I wanted, I could have started to work on questions right away, now that I've somewhat finalized my schools. But no, I'll not do it. I'll probably put 'em off more and may even not do 'em when the questions actually come out (like in HBS's case). But then, you may wonder, when am I gonna do them??? This is THE question which evades even the almighty. :D

And did I say I finalized the schools?? Yes, I had a personal deadline to finalize them roughly by the end of May, and I'm glad to tell you, I totally screwed up on my own personal deadlines....... a whooping 10 days late......

O.K. Since I'm the official "Ultimate Cut-Copy-Paste" guy of the Fall-'09 blogging community (any challengers????), I'll ctrlC + ctrlV from my "thought document", which I created as I was pondering over why I want to do an MBA and what do I want from it. Here is the "what do I want from it" part of the document. (Pl. ignore the caps, I write my personal docs in caps....... they look cooler :D )

1) PRESTIGE: IT MEANS ONLY THE TOP 20. IT MAKES SENSE TO ME TO GO ONLY TO THE TOP....... EITHER GET AN ADMIT THERE OR DONT GO AT ALL.
2) SHOULD BE A RENOWNED GENERAL MANAGEMENT FOCUS……… (OR ENTREPRENUERIAL FOCUS OR MANUFACTURING FOCUS…OR OPERATIONS FOCUS…….. I DON’T KNOW THIS VERY WELL :( )
3) THE PROGRAM SHOULD BE COLLABRATIVE, NOT COMPETITIVE TO FACILITATE HEALTHY EXCHANGE OF IDEAS
4) NON DISCLOSURE OF GRADES WHICH MEANS MORE FOCUS ON KNOWLEDGE GAINING AND LESS OF MUGGING…….
5) SHOULD PROVIDE AMPLE FUNDING OPTIONS
6) ALUMNI SHOULD BE POWERFUL AND HELPFUL……
7) MOST STUDENTS SHOULD BE OUT OF STATE TO DISCOURAGE THE COMMUTER CULTURE……. SO THAT IT FACILITATES PEER-2-PEER CONTACT……
8) AVG. AGE SHOULD BE LESS THAN 29.
9) SHOULDN’T BE A NERDY CULTURE (HAVE STUDIED 4 YEARS OF ENGG. AROUND NERDS)……I HATE IT

I want to apply to 6 schools: 2 in the Ultra Elite, 3 in the Elite and one in the Near Elite. (To see full classification of schools based on cluster system see Hjort's Classification on GMATClub)
Plus, I don't want my app. to be concentrated only in the U.S. I mean I'll have 3 yrs. Wrk Ex. on matriculation, so might as welllook up some European programs as well. They are shorter, cheaper and some have gr8 reputation.

So, I started to shortlist and strike schools out of the top 20. Every school had some weakness and some strengths. I noted all of these. Went on eliminating until I was left with 10. It looked like this:

Tier 1 :
HBS, Wharton, Kellogg
Tier 2:
Duke, Darden, UCLA, Tuck, Ross
Tier 3:
McCombs, Emory

I figured, that I'll chose only 1 from tier 1 (since I figured that I could be focusseed only on one school), the other spot would be given away to a Euro-school (Insead, Oxford or LBS). 3 from tier 2, and 1 from tier 3.
The first choice was relatively easy. Chose HBS. It is by far the school that I've daydreamed about the most. I'd absolutely love to get to that magical place. Among the Euros, I easily eliminated INSEAD, sinceI stand a very slim chance due to non-international experience. I eliminated LBS, since Oxford looks much stronger for entreprenuership and has the benefits f the greater university.

The second choice was the most difficult. UCLA was a definite in leaving 2 spots. I was torn between my choices. After much thinking and researching, I eliminated Tuck, since, the togetherness at Tuck is to an extreme level. I mean, if you look at it, Hanover supposedly has no life other than Tuck and due to it's small class size, ppl are so bumping into each other everytime that it starts getting too much really fast........ (heard it from an alumni somewhere).
Got down to Duke, Darden, and Ross. I'm still very confused between these three. But chose Duke and Darden over Ross somewhat. Ross prefers older candidates more than these two.

Now on to3rd tier. This was more of a safety zone. i visited the sites and consulted the brochures and talked to people and found Austin to be a much better fit for me. So, Austin it is.....

So, the final list looks like this:
HBS
Oxford
UCLA
Duke
Darden
Texas
Ross (A maybe, still wondering......)

Take care guys, do share your insights........... peace.......

Wazzup..... Long time.... no c

Hey ppl,

The lazy ass procastinator is back on blogspot......... ya I know..... who cares and stuff...... :) .......

Enough has happened in the MBA world (and also my world) in the last few days. Let me capture some of the highlights for you:

1) Visited ISB Hyderabad, just for fun...... I never even thought of applying there but turned out that I had gone to a client in ISB's vicinity and, so, just dropped for saying Hi to The Dean (who, btw is a close friend of mine.........*wicked grin* .......... kidding, but if you fell for that - Go to the top right corner of this window and click gently on the white colored "X")....... Just went in with my client who, on listening about my MBA day-dreams, insisted that I see the facilities and atmosphere @ ISB........ Although good as far as Indian standards go but still a no-go........

2) I've been feverishly researching schools on the net to find out more about the culture and fit. Hope you guys know that I've decided to apply to about 7 schools from the Top-15 list. My funda is - That if you have to do it, do it from the best, or else, don't do it at all........ And ppl, I know that "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" but I suppose that I'm now turning to the Dark Side........ So, from the top 15 schools I've been able to eliminate some and retain some and the tedious and heart breaking process just goes on and on (I simply hate it when everything (read pros & cons) is in the shades of grey and not black and white)

3) Delhi Daredevils, started sucking so bad that I've stopped supporting them altogether........ Btw Since Sachin's return, I'm supporting Mumbai Indians..... and by my support, they seem to be on a roll...... ironically, Sachin hasn't done much yet in the IPL.......

4) I've successfuly survived the ongoing threats by my parents to marry me off, as of today - 19th MAY 2008......... Being an Indian, Marriage is the act, that people normally do in my country in the phase of their maximum heat ( 24-25 yrs. in the case of Males) thus contributing heavily to the fastest growing (still!!!) population in the world........ accelerating forward with blinding speed......

5) I was unsuccessful of convincing my dad for letting me go to persue an MBA (and, according to him WASTE 3 years of my prime (Read : marriageable) life and $150K ( which, when converted to INR, is a ridiculous amount))........... This unsuccessful attempt at convincing him made me increasingly sad by the days coz I realized that if I cannot win arguments with my parents (who, btw, are impossible when it comes to defend their point), how am I gonna convince the adcomm.??? It was then that I realized(after watchin Russel Peters and many others like him) that parents are like that all over the world....... Maybe they are wired that-a-way........ This realization restored some sanity to my system....... (Or so I am led to believe by grey cells)

6) HBS released it's deadlines and essays for Fall-09 applicants...... Come what may, I am gonna apply to HBS most definitly, since, I day-dream about this school the most......... In a lucky scenario, who knows what might happen?? ;)

So, after about a month I am here, furiously typing away, sharing my anguish and excitement with fellow bloggers......... Promise an update on shortlisted schools as soon as I am finished with them........

Peace......... (I really need it.....)

Top B-School Stereotypes

Hey all,
Another in my copy paste zone......... although a hillarious read, it is quite an interesting piece of literature.......... check out the various stereotypes painted by the author.......... For those of us internationals, who can't visit the schools, these sort of articles paint a modest picture of what-is-what..........
Ok, enjoy the article.........

1.) Harvard -
Pros: The best academic brand in the world, people from East Timor will know where you went to school. Graduates are extremely polished and dynamic leaders. its no coincidence that so many politicians these days are HBS grads.
Cons: Students are about as pompous and pretentious as possible. Polish is a fancy way of saying full of s**t. its no coincidence that so many politicians these days are HBS grads.
Office Space Character: Lumbergh (Peter’s hated boss). He’s a quintessential Harvard grad; in charge and full of platitudes that sound great but on further inspection don’t make any sense. He also drives a nice car and makes a lot of money while being universally loathed. Kind of sums up every HBS grad you’ve ever met, right?
2.) Stanford -
Pros: Small class size and focus on do-gooders leads to an incredible array of backgrounds and accomplishments of students, who thrive in tight knit community. Haven for the really interesting superstars out there. Tremendous brand. Beautiful weather.
Cons: It may be interesting to be classmates with a Buddhist monk-fighter pilot, but its also hard to relate to anyone (”So, did that vow of peace make it hard to take out bogeys?”). For super accomplished business students with the world at their fingertips, it sure doesn’t seem like any of them actually like business.
Office Space Character: Peter (main character). He seems like the most level headed, likable and down to earth of any of the characters, but for all his talents, he ends up as a damn construction worker. He’s also a major league flake, showing up to work only when he feels like it. Can you say entitled?
3.) Wharton -
Pros: Arguably the best technical business education in the world. Great brand name, and the job placements are second only to H/S.
Cons: Not sure if it’s the ultra rigorous curriculum, the competitive culture, or the fact that they have to live in Philly for two years, but Whartonites are paranoid bordering on psychotic. The odds of having a nervous breakdown in your life triple after going here. Double that if you actually ask anyone at Wharton to calculate those odds.
Office Space Character: Tom Smykowski (Co-worker that invents “jumping to conclusions mat”). I’m assuming that Tom was actually an excellent technical employee, but that his constant fear of losing his job made him batsh*t crazy. Most fitting quote “I’m a People Person!!!!!!” when yelling at the consultants.
4.) Northwestern -
Pros: Strong team culture and arguably the best marketing program in the country. Incredibly collaborative for such a large school. Great location next to major financial center (Chicago).
Cons: Very soft curriculum, these guys are poets. I’m pretty sure that Kellogg finance classes are prerecorded cartoons taught by Disney characters. Is it really worth it to pay $10000+ to drink every night? I mean, couldn’t you just do that without the degree?
Office Space Character: Joanna (Peter’s girlfriend). Like Peter, she’s very likable, level headed and likes to get around. Unfortunately she’s also vastly less skilled than many of her fellow characters. Thank God she’s hot.
5.) Chicago -
Pros: Finance education is second only to Wharton globally (and even that’s debatable). Probably the best facilities of all the top business schools. Fantastic job placements and close proximity to Chicago. Academic horsepower of profs is untouchable.
Cons: Socially awkward is an understatement. Unlike Whartonites who are just high strung, Chicago GSBers either never learned or quickly forgot how to communicate with peers. Make sure to wear a face mask if they’re talking to you ’cause spits going to fly.
Office Space Character: Milton (Co-worker that loves red swingline stapler). Milton seems like a nice enough guy, and he might be the smartest guy in the office (he pulls off the grand caper in the end). It’s just that he’s about as charismatic as a toilet bowl. Hire ‘em, just make sure to get GSBers an office in the basement.
6.) Columbia -
Pros: Great location in the middle of global financial center (New York). Most diverse student body in terms of minorities and women. Very strong finance program. New York allows great social and job placement opportunities, and draws worldly, cosmopolitan students.
Cons: Cliquish and commuterish. Columbia is like a high school with super rich kids. High ***hole factor. This isn’t the kind of school where you’ll be going to house parties, its more like the kind of school where you’re expected to order bottle service for twenty guys on a student budget or else be ostracized.
Office Space Character: Bobs (consultants that lay off workers). They seem smart, they have great jobs, but c’mon, these guys are douchebags.
7.) MIT -
Pros: World class entrepreneurship program, and probably the best supply management program in America. Attached to world class research center, and location in Boston is strong. Great job placement, especially in consulting.
Cons: For all their unique academic offerings, the overall school is like 90/10 men/women including undergrads. Takes the term sausage fest to a whole new level. Nerdy culture.
Office Space Character: Michael Bolton (Peter’s co-worker and friend). Michael Bolton desperately wants to be cool, listening to rap music, talking in slang, but lets face it, he’s a dork. He’s also hampered by his dorky namesake, which seems to attract a lot of nerdy people (to his obvious dismay).
8.) Tuck -
Pros: Small class size and tight culture leads to maybe the most enthusiastic students in any school. Great respect from recruiters. Alumni network is arguably the most responsive and helpful of any top school. Strong rigorous program.
Cons: Very conformist culture, and really limited social options. These guys seem so enthusiastic about their school that I’m almost certain that all students are given ecstasy at orientation. Listen, if two years in the middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire were to constitute the best two years of my life, I would kill myself.
Office Space Character: Brian (Works with Joannas at Chotchkies, wears 37 pieces of flair). Brian is well meaning and LOVES his job. Never mind that he’s a waiter at a glorified TGIF, he still loves it with all his heart. They say ignorance is bliss, in which case, maybe Tuckies have the secret after all. That or, like Brian, they’re borderline retarded.
9.) Michigan -
Pros: Maybe the most hands-on practical curriculum of all the top schools. New facilities coming up in 2009. Largest alumni network of any business school. State school, so the 2nd year is cheaper.
Cons: Location proximity leaves something to be desired (Detroit? Why not put it next to Beirut). The overall atmosphere here is very fratty and college like. Every single UMich student and alumni I’ve spoken to say the highlight of their experience was tailgating and watching football. EVERYONE. Not that football isn’t awesome, but no one else had any other experience that was noteworthy? They probably forgot the rest after beerbonging Jagermeister.
Office Space Character: Lawrence (Peter’s next door neighbor and friend). Lawrence is a good guy. He’s loyal, and salt of the earth. He also has a few rough edges, and would use 1 million dollars to be intimate with two other women. Have a great time with old Lawrence. Just don’t be surprised if all you end up with is a job he hooked you up with at the local quarry.
10.) Haas -
Pros: Great location in the bay, and strong ties to Silicon Valley. Great weather. Small class size and tight culture. Berkeley has very strong international brand name.
Cons: Weak ties to financial sector, and east coast in general. The culture here is definitely about as PC as it gets. This seems like the type of school where you’d need to get a permission slip before you held a woman’s hand on campus.
Office Space Character: Stan (Joanna’s manager at Chotchkies). Stan wants Joanna to do more than the bare minimum. After all, people can get an MBA anywhere, but they come to Chotckies/Haas for the atmosphere! Don’t you want to do more than the bare minimum? Then put on your flair, burn some bras and save a whale you selfish jerk.
11.) Duke -
Pros: Maybe the best health care management program in the country. Great brand name, especially in the south. Strong team culture.
Cons: Relatively young MBA program, so alumni network is small. As such, the brand cache just isn’t there yet. People that come here seem very cookie cutter to me, not in a bad way, just very comfortable and relatively unambitious.
Office Space Character: Samir (Peter’s co-worker and friend). Samir is a nice guy, very practical and unassuming. You get the feeling that he’s happy as long as he has a job in hand. Won’t make waves, won’t screw up, and won’t take any risks. But he’s a happy guy, and will have a house with 2.2 kids and a dog in a suburb somewhere (probably Durham).
12.) Darden -
Pros: Strong Case method program and rigorous curriculum is universally respected. Alumni network is very strong and active with current students.
Cons: Middle of nowhere. Intellectual horsepower not as strong at a lot of the other top schools.
Office Space Character: Anne (Peter’s ex-girlfriend who was cheating on him). Anne just seemed really high maintenance and uptight. You try doing twenty cases a week for a year and see what happens to you. Just don’t be surprised if it’s a bigger bi**h than you imagined.
13.) NYU -
Pros: Great location within spitting distance of Wall Street. Strong finance curriculum, and media program.
Cons: Location in downtown Manhattan make this the ultimate commuter school. Weird inferiority complex with Columbia. If you don’t go into finance or media, good luck.
Office Space Character: Other Lumbergh (ex-co-worker of Peter, Joanna’s ex-boyfriend). From all accounts, the other Lumbergh was a likable guy who was good at his job and got a great job offer to move on somewhere else. We just never actually saw him. Kind of like your NYU classmates.
14.) UCLA -
Pros: LA! Sun, beach, beautiful glamorous people everywhere! Strong ties to Southern California business and great real estate program.
Cons: LA. UV rays, crowded beaches and shallow, materialistic people everywhere. You get the feeling that UCLA students are there just to spend two years in SoCal rather than to get jobs. As such, this place draws vapid, materialistic people. But damn they’re hot!
Office Space Character: Drew (Peter’s co-worker, describes the famous “O-face”). Drew’s a fun-loving guy that people like. He’s also the kind of guy that would tell anyone who was willing to listen graphic descriptions of all his sexual exploits. I liked Drew when I was 19. When I’m 26..?
15.) Cornell -
Pros: Maybe the best Hospitality management program in the country. Ivy league brand name, and strong ties to some top consumer management companies. Small tight knit culture.
Cons: In the middle of nowhere, and it’s definitely a cut below a lot of the top tier programs. I mean, hospitality management? Seriously?
Office Space Character: Peggy (Lumbergh’s secretary). She’s kind of in hospitality: “Initech, can I put you on hold? Thank you! Initech, can I put you on hold? Thank you! Initech, can I put you on hold? Thank you! .”
16.) Yale -
Pros: World class brand name. Arguably the best social enterprise program in the country. Relatively strong job placement for the rank.
Cons: Newer program means little real rep with employers or alumni to lean on.
Office Space character: Dr. Swanson (Peter’s psychologist/hypnotist). The Dr. has a very strong reputation, and he makes Peter go from depressed to happy (what a do-gooder!). But when it comes to the rankings, he just falls over dead.

The author, as (s)he claims it, comes from a top b-school and works somewhere where all of these schools have an alumnus at least..........I don't know much, but from whatever I've read everywhere, I agree with the big picture that the author paints in the article......... What do you guys say???

B-School Sucks???

DISCLAIMER : Pl. dont read this post if you realllly LOVE MBA..........

Hey all,
I am currently in a daze as this hit me with full force........

This is so bad and shouldn't happen to someone who is reaching inside for the WHY MBA question........ I am now on the backfoot as I am unable to deal with such deadly bouncers the net throws at me every now-and-then...........

But is the MBA so bad??? Although I understand that nothing is black-and-white, it strikes my observation that nobody on the discussion (in the above link) actively denied the accusations on the b-skool and its people.........

What if its all a marketing gimmick?? What if I discover the truth only a bit too late?? What if.....

It is strange that how the smallest amount of negativity can offset a large amount of positivity....... But that said, it is also true that only the minority knows the REAL picture and even fewer dare to open it to public........ While I m still very bullish on MBA, Ill have to do a lot of research to offset this newfound doubt...........

Comments are valuable on this one.....(Calling all admits, alumnii, admission consultants et al)..... If you've got anything to say, pls don't be uber lazy and do comment........ i'd love to hear what you guys think about this one.........
Peace

P.S. : Copy pasting for lazy folks like me........

I'm a second-year in a top 5 b-school. Before my mba, I was a consultant with one of M/B/B. I did my summer internship in S&T with one of GS/MS, received a FT offer, but decided to go to one of the top hedge funds instead. (All of this just to point out that I'm not bitter because I'm not being successful or something. As thefox mentioned, that's often the real reason behind people's complaints.) Having said that, while I enjoy certain aspects of b-school and I wouldn't call myself unhappy, I'm definitely quite disappointed by the experience overall.
First of all, the academics are completely and utterly worthless. If you're even remotely smart, don't expect even the slightest bit of intellectual challenge (unless you're taking some PhD courses instead of the regular MBA ones, which I highly recommend). The issue is that professors are usually trying to keep their classes as accessible as possible, and are therefore targeting the greatest common denominator among a highly disparate range of student backgrounds. As a consequence, most classes and homeworks are necessarily of the "feel-good" type, rather than work that really pushes your boundaries. Unless you're a complete moron, it's almost impossible to do worse than a B. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that school work doesn't take up a lot of time (you still have to physically go to class, meet up with teams, read the cases, do the write-ups, etc.), it just means that the work isn't very helpful or rewarding relative to the time invested in it. In addition, there's the well-known adage that "those who can, do it, those who can't, teach it", which definitely applies to b-school professors... I definitely feel I learned more in a day of work during my internship or as a consultant than in a semester at b-school. And in terms of intellectual stimulation, my undergrad was much more rigorous and entertaining.
The worst part, however, are the people. I'm obviously generalizing here, but B-school classes tend to be dominated by shallow, aggressive type-A personalities: people who are arrogant, loud, flat as a pancake, and in general incapable of introspection or reflection on anything beyond sports, sex and money. They are usually also of very mediocre intelligence (as compared to e.g. law school or PhD students), have poor real-world skills (other than superficial self-confidence), and they also tend to have a surprisingly uneven professional track record. (For those who don't believe this: remember that the smartest, nicest and most successful people in business obviously never have to go to b-school in the first place: they get directly promoted to Associate, go to PE after a consulting or banking stint, or continue running their own successful business...) While there are obviously exceptions, social life in b-school is therefore centered around parties, clubbing and drinking binges. It is easy to make small-talk, but hard to have a meaningful conversation with anyone. Easy to make acquaintances, hard to make friends.
And then there's the high level of phoniness in business school. A lot about this environment feels very fake. The learning is fake (as discussed above), the leadership positions usually are fake as well (most club officers don't even try to hide that they're doing it as a resume-builder), and many people's optimism and confidence is fake (many, many mba students are worried as hell about student loans, not finding a decent job, are desperately looking for a boy-/girl-friend, and are pretty miserable in general, sometimes leading to alcohol/drug abuse and random sex with strangers and prostitutes - I'm not even kidding). And even a lot of the superficial friendliness and camaraderie is fake (there's a lot of backstabbing going on, especially in recruiting season). The seemingly highly selective admissions are fake too: there's a lot of people here who haven't accomplished anything meaningful in their lives, but are just riding on daddy's success as a well-networked entrepreneur, CEO, banker, or PE/HF manager.
Lastly, let me add that for some of the very best jobs out there (in terms of compensation / lifestyle trade-off), an MBA degree is more of a liability than an asset. Last summer, I felt I got an offer from some of the more quantitative (and profitable) desks on the trading floor *in spite of* me being in b-school. In some of the very best hedge funds out there (think Shaw, Citadel and obviously RenTec), the title "MBA" is almost used as an insult (although some of them definitely do have a couple of groups that recruit MBA's, so it's not all black and white). Nevertheless, my point is that there are definitely better and more stimulating ways to get high-paying recruiting opportunities than doing an MBA.
Of course, after this long rant, I have some good stuff to add as well. While most of the people here suck, I have made some lifelong friends as well. I have tons of free time compared to when I was a consultant, I get to travel a lot, have worked on some pretty interesting projects outside class, and I've been fortunate enough to land some pretty good job opportunities... But overall, I'd highly recommend people - especially pretty smart and successful people - considering b-school to think twice. It's definitely not as good as it's made out to b.

Rankings Dissected

Hey all,
Wish to share with you the version of rankings I find the most appropriate.......

I sincerely believe that schools cant be ranked since majority of them have such unique specialities that comparing them seems apples and oranges...... But still for simplification of choice (on where to apply, makes sense on the $s and the effort to apply to handful of schools.... and blah blah blah...... How many times have this been said on the net) I am a huge rankings fan........

All magazines have their own method of producing rankings....... But all of them have the same weakness........ they follow a set method....... I mean, look at WSJ for example (I Love To Dump This Ranking)...... it's methodology involves taking views of corporate honchos........ But since it adheres to this method, it is forced to put THE Harvard at 14 and THE Stanford at 18!!!!!

Similarly, Look at Forbes rankings, it takes majorly into account the ROI (return on investment) And so, This method forces it to put Tuck on #1 ignoring programs which may be much better but have a much wealthier intake.......

I believe I've made my point on the absolute ranking system....... Now lets come to the cluster classification of schools....... While this sort of classification is much more sensible and true to the real picture, it has far too many schools in each cluster for it to be of any gr8 use (This is my personal view...... since it was not very beneficial to me...... just gave me an idea of who-is-where)

Then I found a guy JayMaven, who produced a rankings system called the Felt Sense Rankings. After reading his rankings, I felt that the shortcomings of both the absolute rankings system and cluster sytem is removed....... You should take a look at the whole article HERE..... Copy Pasting the relevant rankings for lazy folks like me :P..........

Here, are my “felt sense” rankings:

1-2. Harvard and Stanford

3. Penn (Wharton)

4-6. Chicago, Northwestern (Kellogg), MIT (Sloan)(Any of these 6 can be considered “Top 5”)

7-9. Columbia, Berkeley (Haas) and Dartmouth (Tuck)(Columbia and the previous 6 form the so-called “Magnificent 7,” or “M7.” It is often theorized that the Deans of these schools conspire to keep their schools at the top, and this group has become a kind of de facto “Ivy League” of B-schools. However, Columbia is commonly seen as the 7th of the M7, and has fallen below Tuck and Haas in this year’s US News Rankings.)

10-16. Michigan (Ross), NYU (Stern), Duke (Fuqua), Virginia (Darden), UCLA (Anderson), Yale SOM, Cornell (Johnson)(Any of these 16 can be considered “Top 15,” and I would say any of the top 9 plus Ross, Stern, and Fuqua could make legitimate claims at “Top 10.” Anderson is the oddball here, since it came in at #10 in the 2007 US News Rankings but dropped all the way to #16 for 2008.

17-22. UNC (Kenan-Flagler), Carnegie-Mellon (Tepper), Texas (McCombs), Emory (Goizueta), USC (Marshall), Indiana (Kelley)(Any of these 22 can make claims at “Top 20.” USC has traditionally been lower, but seems to have risen in the rankings.)


I find this ranking to be a marriage between the cluster system and absolute ranking methdology........ gave me fair idea of the starting point on shortlisting schools.
Hope these rankings help in some way....... Peace

Essay advice

Hey all,

Ok I am the culprit for not creating anything new in my posts. But that said..... there is absolutely nothing going on at such an early stage except for the gyaan that i am collecting from different sources.....

So, I've made it a good point to copy paste all the good articles at one place...... this way i'll keep track of them together....... and share with you guys........

The following is quoted from Princeton Review..... using quote unquote except for italics because I dont know where did all the options for italicizing go???? Can someone help me with this???? I am still such a newbie at blogging..........

O.K. enough with the rant....... Here's the Essay Advice......


This article is an excerpt from the book Business School Essays That Made a Difference


"Being a great storyteller and gifted writer can be a major advantage to the prospective b-school student. But be forewarned: A wonderful answer to a question not asked will not help you here. We can't stress enough that you must answer the question.

Each school has its own set of questions. Although posed differently, all search for the same insights. Here's a list of commonly asked questions and what's behind them.

Theme 1: Career Goals and the MBA
Describe your specific career aspirations. How will your goals be furthered by an MBA degree and by our MBA program in particular? How do you feel the "X" school MBA degree can help you attain your specific career and personal goals for the five years after you graduate? Discuss your career progression to date. What factors have influenced your decision to seek a general management education? Based on what you know about yourself at this time, how do you envision your career progressing after receiving the MBA degree? Please state your professional goals, and describe your plan to achieve them.

TRANSLATION:
What do I want to be when I grow up, and how will the MBA get me there?

This may be the most important essay question. It lays out the reasons why you should be given one of the cherished spots in the program. Even if your post-MBA future is tough to envision, this question must be answered.

A good way to frame this essay is to discuss how the MBA makes sense in light of your background, skills, and achievements to date. Why do you need this degree? Why now? One common reason is being stymied in your work by a lack of skills that can be gained in their program. Or you may want to use the MBA as a bridge to the next step. For example, an actress who wants an MBA to prepare for a career in theater management. The more specific, the better.

It may be easier to provide specifics by breaking your plans into short-term and long-term objectives.

Don't be afraid to present modest goals. If you're in accounting and want to stay there, say so. Deepening your expertise and broadening your perspective are solid reasons for pursuing this degree. On the other hand, feel free to indicate that you'll use the MBA to change careers; 70 percent of all students at b-school are there to do just that.

If you aspire to lofty goals, like becoming a CEO or starting your own company, be especially careful that you detail a sensible, pragmatic plan. You need to show you're realistic. No one zooms to the top. Break your progress into steps.

Finally, this essay question asks how a particular program supports your goals. Admissions committees want to know why you've selected their school. That means you not only have to know, but also show, what's special about their program and how that relates specifically to your career aspirations. Hint: Many admissions officers say they can tell how much someone wants to go to their school by how well their essays are tailored to the offerings in their program.

Theme 2: Extracurriculars and Social Interaction-Our Nonwork Side
What do you do for fun? What are your principal interests outside of your job or school? What leisure and/or community activities do you particularly enjoy? Please describe their importance in your life.

TRANSLATION:
Would we like to have you over for dinner? Do you know how to make friends? What are your special talents-the B-school Follies needs help. Are you well-balanced, or are you going to freak out when you get here?


B-school is not just about business, case studies, and careers. The best programs buzz with the energy of a student body that is talented and creative and that has personality. You won't be spending all your time in the library.

Are you interesting? Would you contribute to the school's vitality? Are you the kind of person other MBAs would be happy to meet? Describe activities you're involved in that might add something to the b-school community.

Are you sociable? B-school is a very social experience. Much of the work is done in groups. Weekends are full of social gatherings. Will you participate? Initiate? Get along with others? Communicate that people, not just your job, are an important part of your life.

Can you perform at a high level without being a nerd?

B-school can be tough. It's important to know when to walk away and find some fun. Do you know how to play as hard as you work?

How well rounded are you? Business leaders have wide-angle perspectives; they take in the whole picture. How deep or broad are your interests? A warning: Don't just list what you've done. Explain how what you've done has made you unique.

Theme 3: Whom You Most Admire
If you were able to choose one person from the business world, past or present, to be your personal professor throughout the MBA program, who would this person be and why? Describe the characteristics of an exceptional manager, using an example of someone whom you have observed or with whom you have worked. Illustrate how his or her management style has influenced you.

TRANSLATION:


What are your values? What character traits do you admire?

This is the curveball question. The committee isn't looking to evaluate your judgment in selecting some famous, powerful person in your firm or in the world. What they're really after, which you reveal in your selection of the person, are the qualities, attributes, and strengths you value in others, as well as in yourself. Some important qualities to address: drive, discipline, vision, ethics, and leadership. As always, provide specific examples. And avoid choosing anyone too obvious.

Since the person you select is not as important as what you say about him or her, your choices can be more humble. You might write about a current boss, business associate, or friend. Bad choices are your mother or father.

If you like, it's perfectly fine to go for a famous figure. Indeed, there may be someone whose career and style you're passionate about. Make sure your essay explains why you find this person so compelling.

Theme 4: Teamwork-How Do You Work with Others in a Group Setting?
At X School, a team, which consists of approximately five first-year students, is often assigned group projects and class presentations. Imagine that, one year from now, your team has a marketing class assignment due at 9:00 A.M. on Monday morning. It is now 10:00 P.M. on Sunday night; time is short, tension builds, and your team has reached an impasse. What role would you take in such a situation? How would you enable the team to meet your deadline? [Note: The specific nature of the assignment is not as important here as the team dynamic.] Feel free to draw on previous experiences, if applicable, in order to illustrate your approach.

TRANSLATION:
We need cooperative, one-for-all-and-all-for-one students here. Are you cut out to be one, or are you a take-over type who has all the answers? Are you likely to help everyone get along and arrive at solutions? (We like those kinds of students.) Can you lead others to order and synergy? (We especially like leaders.) Or do you retreat or become a follower?

This, too, is a curveball question. But you can't afford to get it wrong. After the career goals question, it probably ranks as the most critical essay you write. Here the committee isn't looking to see how you save the team (so put yourself on ego alert as you sit down to write this one), they want to see how you can create an environment in which everyone contributes so that the sum is greater than its parts. Bottom line, the admissions committee is looking to see whether you have "emotional intelligence."

Understand that schools today believe that emotional intelligence, the ability to navigate emotion-laden situations, is as important as strategic and analytical skills. This question is intended to illustrate this particular type of ability.

Expect to shift gears with this essay. Almost the entire application process thus far has asked you to showcase "me-me-me." Now the focus of your story needs to be on the "we" and how you made the "we" happen.

As you write your essay, consider that when you get to school, some team members will be from different countries where cultural attitudes play into team dynamics. Your sensitivity to these cultural differences, as well as to personality types, will go a long way toward demonstrating your emotional intelligence. For example, a team member hailing from a certain culture may withhold an opinion in an attempt to foster consensus. How can you help this person make a contribution? Likewise, consider differences among team members in terms of their academic and professional strengths. If the assignment is heavy on numbers, finance students may dominate teammates from softer sciences. How can you ensure that everyone feels valued? Teams are inspired to success when everyone is motivated and taking ownership within a context of respect.

Remember, the team in this particular essay is at an impasse, as most teams are at some point in time. Write about how you "unjammed" the jam. Ideas: A change of scene, food, twenty push-ups, a quick round-the-room confessional about why you came to b-school. Introducing some process is also useful; ground rules such as voting, speaking times, a division of labor, and a time line all create a method out of the madness. Perhaps you encourage members to adopt roles-business or otherwise. Hint: The leader or CEO in this case might be your most soft-spoken team member. Whatever you do in this essay, be careful not to present yourself as the one who single-handedly gets the team dynamic going.

Theme 5: Diversity and What Makes You Unique
Our business school is a diverse environment. How will your experiences contribute to this? During your years of study in the X program, you will be part of a diverse multicultural, multiethnic community within both the Business School and the larger university. What rewards and challenges do you anticipate in this environment, and how do you expect this experience to prepare you for a culturally diverse business world?

TRANSLATION:
What about you is different in terms of your background, your experience, or your cultural or geographic heritage? Can we count on your unique voice and perspective in our wide-ranging classroom discussions? How will you support the diverse cultural climate we are fostering here?

This essay gets at two concerns for the admissions committee: (1) how will you enrich the student body at this school and (2) what is your attitude toward others' diverse backgrounds? Today's business leaders must be able to make decisions in situations that cut across geographic and cultural boundaries. If your essay reveals that you have dinosaur-era, only-white-males-rule thinking, you're going to close the door on your candidacy.

So what if you are a white male? Or you have no immediate point of distinction? Maybe a grandparent or relative is an immigrant to this country and you can discuss the impact of his or her values on your life. Perhaps you are the first individual in your family to attend college or to attend graduate school. What does that mean to you? Perhaps you are involved in a meaningful or unusual extracurricular activity. How has this changed your perspective? Perhaps you did a business deal with a foreign country. What did you observe about that culture, and how did it affect your decisions?

Whatever you write about need not be dramatic-maybe you take art classes, coach a little league team, or race a motorcycle. Sound goofy? It's all in the framing. Racing a motorcycle might be about the physical and mental stamina, the ability to take risks, the commitment to learning something new.

This question can be relatively easy to answer if, of course, you have diversity or some unique element in your background. If you don't have something obvious, then you're going to have to dig a bit and find something you can amplify to suggest you bring a unique voice to the school.

Theme 6: Your Greatest Personal Achievement/Accomplishment
Describe a personal achievement that has had a significant impact on your life. In addition to recounting this achievement, please analyze how the event has changed your understanding of yourself and how you perceive the world around you. In reviewing the last five years, describe one or two accomplishments in which you demonstrated leadership.

TRANSLATION:
Do you know what an achievement is? Have you done anything remarkable? What made it remarkable to you? Bonus points if you showed leadership or inspired others in some way.

This is one of those maddening essay questions. On the one hand, b-schools seek out applicants whose average age is twenty-seven (a relatively young age to have achieved much of anything). On the other hand, the schools want to know what miracles you've performed. Don't pull your hair out yet. There is a way out. Like all the others, this essay is just one more prove-to-us-you-have-some-character hoop you'll have to jump through. It's less about the achievement and more about who you are and how you see yourself.

Again, this question can be easy to answer if you have some clear accomplishment or event in your background. But if you're like the rest of us—you guessed it—you'll have to rely on framing.

Let's cover bad essay topics for achievements. Getting straight A's in college is not an achievement because everyone else at b-school has probably done the same. Surviving a divorce or breakup is a bad accomplishment topic. Personal stories are acceptable, but one taboo area is romance and marriage. If this is all you can come up with, you're going to look like you're as deep as a doughnut.

The accomplishment you choose might show some of the following qualities: character, sacrifice, humility, dedication, high personal stakes, perseverance over obstacles, insight, and learning. You need not have published a business article or won an award to answer this question. This essay is not about excellence of outcome, but what it took for you to reach some personal worthy objective. Maybe you didn't lead a sports team to a victory. The victory may be just that you made it onto the team.

Theme 7: Failure/What Mistakes Have You Made?
Discuss a nonacademic personal failure. In what way were you disappointed in yourself? What did you learn from the experience?

TRANSLATION:
Can you admit to a genuine failure? Do you have enough self-awareness to know what kind of failure is real? Can you learn from your mistakes? Do they lead to greater maturity and self-awareness? Do you take responsibility when the fault is yours?

Many applicants make the mistake of answering this question with a failure that is really a positive, such as "I'm a perfectionist and so therefore I was too demanding on a friend when she was in a crisis." Or they never really answer the question, fearful that any admission of failure will throw their whole candidacy into jeopardy. The truth is, if you don't answer this question with a genuine failure or mistake, one that the committee will recognize as authentic, you may have jinxed your application.

In this essay you want to write about a failure that had some high stakes for you. Demonstrate what you learned from your mistake and how it helped you mature. What's the relevance to b-school here? Your ability to be honest, show accountability, and face your failures head-on reflects what kinds of decisions and judgments you will make as a business professional.

Can't think of a time you failed? Discuss the essay question with a friend or family member. An outsider's perspective may jog your memory. Remember, if your whole application has been about work, work, work, this is a great place to convince the committee you're a real person.

Theme 8: Ethics
Describe an ethical issue you have faced in your professional life and how you dealt with it. What was the outcome?

TRANSLATION:
Do you even know what an ethical dilemma looks like? Are you tomorrow's corporate miscreant? What kinds of decisions and judgments might you make in your future practices as a business leader?

The last few years have brought attention to the ethical issues of the business world and the failure of corporate self-governance. In the aftermath of the Tyco and Enron scandals, b-schools don't want to turn out graduates who are fast into their suspenders, fast into a deal, and fast to swindle their clients and shareholders.

The above question tests your judgment, integrity, and perspective. It's most important to present a legitimate ethical dilemma here, one that has consequences. Applicants often write about the dilemma of not obeying supervisor's orders because they wanted to do things their way, a known better way. But this is not an ethics problem (unless the order was improper or illegal); it's a management problem. Likewise, handing in a report to your boss that you know is full of errors is also not an ethical problem; it's a trivial, single-impact, easy-to-fix problem.

If you were thinking of telling a story like one of those mentioned above, it may be because you wanted to play it safe. This is one of those uncomfortable, hot-seat essays after all. But playing it safe here would only make you appear clueless or morally bereft.

This essay requires you to roll up your ethical shirtsleeves and get down in the dirt. True ethical issues are neither clean nor pretty. Don't shrink away from a discussion of failure here or present an overly optimistic, no-loose-ends solution.

It's key that you write about an ethical dilemma in which there was no easy course-one that entailed costs either way. For example, let's say you sold a product to a client and later discovered the product was faulty; your employer wanted you to keep mum. You'd built your sales relationships on trust and personal attention, so you wanted to be forthcoming. What did you do? This essay must show that you can work through a complex ethical impasse, and it must highlight your sense of honor and conduct. This essay screams relevance. Make sure you shout back that you know right from wrong."

That looks so simple on theory....... I know the practical is a different ballgame altogether but simple theory can be a real morale booster..... ain't it........ peace

Harvard isn't THAT gr8...... enjoy.... :)

Hey ppl,
How Harvard achieved it's miraculous brand always remained a mystery to me. Resigning to it's awesome yield, I decided that it is really the school of the GODs...... until about 3 months back or so, I got this somewhere......

"A Flood of Crimson Ink", By Michael Steinberger
Another academic year is drawing to a close, another year in which Harvard has generated vastly more headlines than any other American university. Most of these, of late, have concerned Lawrence Summers, Harvard's president, who famously suggested that there may be a biological explanation for the paucity of female scholars in the hard sciences. (He hasn't stopped apologizing since). But a single controversy doesn't account for all the interest. Two recent books are decidedly unflattering to the school: Richard Bradley's "Harvard Rules" is, among other things, an assault on the entire three years of Mr. Summers's tenure, charging him with arrogance and bad manners, among much else. And in "Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class," Ross Douthat, class of 2002, describes his own Harvard education as a combination of vacuous classroom assignments, cruel social climbing and feverish networking.
Of course, a fervid interest in Harvard is nothing out of the ordinary: It is the country's most famous university, with a long claim on distinguished scholarship, political influence and high SAT scores. Most important, the media have long fawned over Harvard, treating its "brand" as pure gold. But while the school may have merited obsessive coverage in the past, it no longer does: Harvard is diminishing in importance as a factory for ideas and a breeding ground for future leaders. In all sorts of ways it is not nearly as pivotal to the life of the nation as it once was. You just wouldn't know that by reading the papers or browsing the bookstands.
Take politics. Harvard has long prided itself on being an incubator of political talent, and for good reason: It has educated seven US presidents, more than any other graduate university. But only two Harvard graduates have been elected president in the last 45 years, and one of them, the current occupant of the Oval Office, holds a Harvard MBA. By contrast, four of the six most recent presidents earned degrees from Yale, and two Yalies squared off in the past election. Moreover, for Democratic office-seekers at least, a Harvard education, with its suggestion of Eastern privilege and liberal elitism, is probably more of a liability than an asset these days.
Harvard also matters less in the business world. It is true that a few Harvard graduates (and one dropout, Bill Gates) have figures prominently in the digital revolution - unquestionably the biggest story in the past decade - but Stanford is a much more prolific supplier of its brainpower. Google, Yahoo!, Cicsco, Sun Microsystems and a raft of other marquee tech firms were partly or wholly incubated on the Stanford campus.
Meanwhile, there are fewer Harvard diplomas hanging in corporate boardrooms. According to the executive search firm Stuart Spencer, the percentage of large-company CEOs holding Harvard MBAs declined to 23% last year from 28% in 1998. Of the Fortune 1000 CEO's appointed so far this year, just one, Corning Wendell Weeks, earned a Harvard MBA. Asked about Harvard's declining presence in the executive suites, Mr. Weeks jokingly told USA Toady, "I've yet to see a study that Harvard creates value."
Quite the opposite, actually. Two years ago, famed hedge-fund manager Victor Niederhoffer (himself a Harvard alumnus) and Laurel Kenner did a study measuring the performance of Nasdaq 100 companies run by Harvard graduates, of which there happened to be an unusually large number at the time. The results were not pretty. Mr. Niederhoffer and Ms. Kenner looked at the nine Nasdaq 100 firms headed by Harvard grads and found that they had, over a five-year period, dramatically underperformed Nasdaq firms run by graduates of the other Ivy League schools, Ivy League equivalents (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley) and state schools.
Harvard is also a much less important intellectual hub than it once was. The University of Chicago, for one, has wielded much more influence in recent decades. It is not an exaggeration to say that Chicago laid the intellectual foundation for the conservative ascendancy and nurtured the ideas that now drive the debate over economic policy, legal theory and foreign affairs. The key ideas of the so-called Reagan Revolution, including monetarism and deregulation, trace their origins back to the free-market theorizing of Chicago's economics department. (One striking measure of the department's clout: Of the 55 economists awarded the Nobel Prize since 1969, when economics was added to the roster, 10 have taught at Chicago and an additional 13 either trained at Chicago or have had previously taught there. Harvard, by contract, has had 4 faculty winners.)
One of those Chicago Nobel laureates, Ronald Coase, is acknowledged to be the godfather of law and economics, unquestionably the most influential branch of legal theory in the past quarter-century. (It applies economic reasoning to legal questions). And while Harvard certainly has its superstars, when you look at the people who have taught at Chicago in the past 40 years or so - Milton Friedman, Richard Posner, Allan Bloom, Leo Strauss, Robert Lucas, Albert Wohlstetter, Richard Epstein, Leon Cass, Saul Bellow, Martha Nussbaum - it is pretty clear which school has been giving off more heat.
So why does Harvard continue to get so much more press than Chicago or any other American university? One possible explanation: Harvard graduates are disproportionately represented in the upper echelons of American journalism. Harvard far surpasses any other university when it comes to cultivating journalistic talent, and all those Harvard-trained reporters and editors do an excellent job of keeping their alma mater in the news.
Young Mr. Douthat is a case in point. In a recent profile of him published in the New York Observer, he explained that he landed his current job with the Atlantic when David Bradley, the magazine's owner, walked into the offices of the Harvard Crimson looking for a few recruits. As for the book, it was commissioned by an editor who had graduated from Harvard several years ahead of Mr. Douthat. Nice connections, if you can get them.

After reading the above.......I get a sense of why HBS ranked so low in the WSJ rankings..... maybe the skool is not so gr8........ I feel that maybe humans like me can also get into THE skool........ oh no....... wait........ I DON'T want to get into Harvard....... I want you to join me in shunning HBS completely so that they stop playing this black game........*wicked grin*...........(A miserable attempt to mislead the competition) ........ lol....... So lets start this movement guys.........*evil everywhere*......
Enjoy life....... peace.

Got W910i

Hey all,

Got a sony ericsson w910i. Of the two colors i chose hearty red........ it's slim chic and shiny nd its so light that its a pleasure to hold. The slider is bit woobly but ill soon get used 2 it........ :P ...... Still experimenting with it........ hope to lose its charm by 2 more days......... happens all the time...... :)

In MBA related news...... Ive been scrolling through Richard Montauk (hereafter reffered to as RM only...... :( .......should spare my lazy fingers all the rest they can afford :D....) lately and looks like the book is extremely dense. The book does a good job of gathering all of the related advice in one package. I have started to realize that so much info would be difficult to gather by myself and even if i did, it would hardly be properly placed and classified....... most of the info i have is through random blogs and forum browsing which are highly unorganized......... So, i am proud of this investment i made..........

The book is so down to business that even i felt a bit bored from all the info at one time.........(or maybe i really am tired from all the greedy reading ive done in the past couple of days).... i mean that i am sort of a person who can never tire (at least i thought so.......) thinking of b-skool and browsing MBA related stuff........... But reading this book even i have started to realize that GMAT was indeed the easiest step...... the real battle is yet to come........ All in all a great book and one of the best to-the-point book ive read in a long time (about any subject for that matter).

Here's a pat on my back for getting my first century...... (of website hits :D) ...... seems like im not alone anymore......... thank you pals.......

W910i, N95 or LG Viewty??

Hey all,
Lost my cell phone some days ago and have been stuck up with my old phone ever since......... Now, I have to make a choice between 3 fones on the mkt..........
1) Sony ericsson W910i : My personal favorite......... slim, light, nd cool sleek looks with all the necessary functions........ plus the recent rates slash makes it look ever more enticing. Price :Rs.14800 (for 2GB model)
2)Nokia N95 : The unbeatable choice for a tech geek......... beats every other phone on the mkt. habds down in nearly every feature. But is pricey and its nokia ----> Nokia's phones get common the fastest. You spend your wad on one of these and next month you see 70% of your freinds are carrying one..... takes all the fun out of a new fone......
Plus, it's Nokia ------> great quality fones for long term usage (I actually have a Nokia which I have kept functional for the past 7 years......... yeah, I am a preservation monster......lol)
I also hear that this baby has a very lousy battery life........... That said, Nokia still commands the best resale value in the mkt.
Price : Rs.21,000 (for the 1 GB model)
3) LG Viewty : Gr8 looks (Although a bit on the fat side), big screen......... plus touchscreen....... plus the best 5MP camera out there(gets beaten by only N95)........ from my research i know better than to spend my babies on only a good 5MP camera...........
Price : Rs.20,500

So, basically boils down to SE v/s Nokia......... I personaaly am favoring SE........ since after the nearly Rs.4000 price slash, it is even more interesting as a choice.........

What do you guys suggest??? Any user of these fones out there who can enlighten me whith her experiences?????????