Yay !! Clear admit BOB top 3..

I was out of town yesterday and when I opened my laptop today, I realized that Clear admit BOB results are out. Much to my pleasure, I have been voted among top 3 applicant bloggers. My dear friends, Dream chaser and Hari have bagged the top spots and am so so happy for them. Here are the top ten spots for mba applicant bloggers. Congrats all :)


Top Applicant Bloggers
1. Dream Chaser http://dreamchasermbajourney.blogspot.com/
2. Hari http://hariformba.blogspot.com/
3. Madalogue http://mad-bubbles.blogspot.com/
4. Rocky http://yoadrian.wordpress.com/
5. Beautiful Mind http://abeautifulmind1.wordpress.com/
6. XLick http://xlick.blogspot.com/
7. Steve http://sgargiulo.wordpress.com/
8. The Dreamer http://mymaidenjourney.blogspot.com/
9. Braveheart http://iamalittlemorethanuseless.blogspot.com/
10. Biz Wiz http://bizwiz-blog.blogspot.com

From MBA thoughts till acceptance - my MBA story (till now)

Nomination to Clear Admit BOB awards inspired me to sit back and think through my journey on the path of MBA till now.. Last one and half year has been a life changing period since I started my MBA quest. This post is my dedication to that wonderful journey which is now the prelude to more exciting journey that awaits - the journey of 2 year MBA.. So here it goes.

Why MBA ?

Why I decided to do MBA roots from the kind of person I am. Am a people's person who always strives to achieve something everyday at the same time making a difference to the world around me. I am highly multidimensional with varied interests in life. Naturally I felt my engineering education is not sufficient to quench my thirst to master different facets of this world such as business, people management, innovation and more. So MBA was a natural next step for me after an year in software industry and non profits. But I had my share of doubts and uncertainties about opting for an MBA from a US B school. After careful deliberation I decided to go for an MBA in US with a confidence that it will be a decision I will justify any day in my life . Here are some posts which reflect my thoughts during this decision making phase. If you are trying to decide if the MBA is a right thing for you, be sure to check them out.

• To do or not to do MBA
• Special considerations for women and minority applicants

Why now ?

So I knew MBA was the right thing for me. Next step was to check my readiness to take the next big leap. In this post about early career MBA,I share few pointers about how can I justify my decision to do MBA just after 2 years of work ex.  I also on that point of decided that I would like to come back to India. 

GMAT & TOEFL

Then I booked my dates for TOEFL and GMAT. I have always been comfortable in excelling at exams so these 2 happened without much ado.

TOEFL exam (31 May 2009) was bit screwed up due to crappy facilities at the test center. Exam kept postponing and finally when I exam begun I was out due to hunger and boredom.  I finally finished all 4 sections and managed to score 111/120 in the iBT format and headed straight to airport to see my cousin off to London. One helluva day..

GMAT in August was a breeze. As I had written the coveted CAT exam in 2008, quants was pretty easy and hence I mostly concentrated on verbal section during GMAT preparation.  Had taken a week off from office to prepare but to my luck it turned into sick leave as I was down with fever till 2 days before exam. But probably not over preparing helped me to be fresh on the exam day. Once I finished my GMAT, a score of 750 popped on the screen and I did few yeahs , yuhoos and all that in the test center and went back home.. 

over to more real stuff like essays n i/vs.. 
 

B-school research
Though I had started spending significant time on browsing through MBA rank lists, B School websites from early 2009, finishing my GMAT was the time I turned serious about shortlisting my target B schools. 

• As a first step I choose 2 year MBA over 1 year MBAs 

• Then I did informational Interview with current mba student to get a better understanding of MBA life 

• Then it was time for me to sit and decide the characteristics of my dream school.
  
• I also improved my US geography knowledge by finding out the locations of the top B schools of US
  
• Next was to find out the and then dividing them to round 1 n round 2application deadlines and essay questions of MBA programs
  
• Next up I did some research on international loan program in Top schools and about how to finance my MBA . This is still on with my quest to find a us cosigner or contemplating about peer to peer lending for MBA

Blogging opens a whole new world

Meantime my blogging was reaching new heights with me making several new connections with fellow MBA bloggers, my blog readers and more. Few things which marked my progress was 

• addition of my blog to the Hella's list of applicant bloggers
• my selection as the 1st global mba blogger for MBAinTheUSA
• my selection to the team of mba bloggers on MBA-channel
• addition of my blog to the Clear Admit Fridays from the frontline blogs list which followed by the exciting nomination to BOB awards.

Applications and MBA admission interviews

This was one of the most challenging and stimulating periods in my journey. Every essay I wrote enhanced the understanding about myself and my goals. Each self reflection gave me such fresh perspectives about my life and I loved it. Applied to Tepper and Darden in round 1, Olin and Haas in round 2. Interviewed with 1st 3 except for Haas.
 
The coveted acceptance call and Forte Fellow twice. 


Tepper was the 1st one to embrace me. The 1st acceptance news will be cherished all my life. What made the moment more special was the honor of being selected as the Forte Fellow. I was twice lucky when I got acceptance from Olin and was selected for forte fellowship again by Olin too. 


I got my share of dings from Darden and Haas.
 

So its Tepper, CMU - my MBA destination
  Now it was my turn to decide btw Olin and Tepper. Both were great schools but Tepper scored in terms of fit and career goals in technology.  Am totally kicked about attending Tepper and also attended few Tepper events in Bangalore.   I recently declined the Olin MBA seat and am still feeling kinda bad about it. But I had to choose one and let go another. 

Self reflections

In the process I learned 2 major lessons which I will take with me whole of my life

• No matter what Be yourself
• Always give time for yourself when things are happening at the crazy speed. Don't forget to enjoy the little cheers that life offers to us. 

Pre-Matriculation craziness - loans, visa, I20 and more..

This section deserves multiple different posts and I will continue to write on it.. 

So that's the story till now.. I apologize for being too long but I hope this helps the readers who want to tread this path themselves to pursue their dream MBA. 

Cheers !!

Clear Admit Best of Blogging Nominee !!!

Am really humbled to be nominated for Clear Admit BOB awards. My hearty congratulations to other nominees. As I have said multiple times, I love the MBA fellow blogosphere. My fellow bloggers have been a source of support in my journey and some of them have even become my good friends. So here it goes to all my dear friends -

CHEERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darden Interview Preparation & Few Userful resources

After tasting the 1st moment of success this Monday for being admitted to Tepper and being selected as Forte Fellow, its time to get more enthusiastic about the MBA application journey and my next important milestone is the Darden Admissions Interview which is scheduled on January 7th. It will be a telephonic interview and I don't know who my interviewer is. I have read that Darden conducts blind interviews where the interviewer knows nothing about the applicant and has no previous access to applicant's applications.

I have always felt a great fit for Darden. The Darden admission reception and brainstorming/writing/rewriting the Darden essays were all great experiences. Now that Darden has embraced my thoughts in the form of my essays and extended interview invite, I hope I can articulate my fit with Darden and project my candidacy the right way in the interview so that I can get accepted at Darden.

I feel the key to succeed in interview is to clearly understand the natuhre of the interview and its a bonus to know the interviewer. But we should never over do the latter part to the extent of pestering our interviewer or scaring him/her away with a sense of over enthusiasm. But it definitely helps to have a clear idea about how the interview is going to happen. One major resource that has been helpful in my interview preparation is the "UVA DARDEN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: CLEAR ADMIT INTERVIEW GUIDE"

what I liked about this i/v guide

This I/V guide is a well researched, extensive guide to applicants. ClearAdmit has compiled many relevant data points regarding the interview and compiled it in a very readable way in this guide. Applicants can gain all the relevant information at one place through this guide. My specific takeaways from this guide which will also help fellow applicants are

• Darden conducts blind interviews where the interviewer is either an adcom, trained second year student (for on-campus interviews) or Alumni (for international interviews).
  I would like to add here that as in my case, Darden also conducts telephonic interviews when alumni is not available in the applicant region. And blind interview gives you the freedom to reiterate your skills/achievements/aspirations that you have already expressed in you essays without the risk of sounding repetitive to the interviewer.
  
  
• Darden Interviews are by-invitation-only and every applicant is interviewed prior to getting accepted. So interviews are an essential part of the admission process and hence to be dealt with meticulously
  
  
• The interview typically lasts for 30 - 45 minutes but might stretch upto 1 hour when alumni is involved so its important to be flexible and prepared. Darden is famous for asking just one question in its interview which is "Tell me your story from cradle to chair". So be ready to present your life story in a way which makes sense in a MBA interview.
  My idea is to touch all the important milestones of life and articulate the reasons for my choices in life. Why I chose a particular college, company, career path, community activity and why it makes sense to my overall career vision.
  
  
• Guide also has first hand interview experiences from past applicants and also a set of expected questions.
  I have found that the Clear Admit wiki page http://www.clearadmit.com/wiki/index.php?title=DardenInterview and http://www.accepted.com/mba/InterviewFeedback.aspx  contain useful i/v feedback from previous i/vs.
  
  
• For those going on campus for interview, this guide gives all information needed to reach, visit, stay and interview at Darden. So US applicants watch out for this section. 

Things I had wished to see in this guide

I am a international applicant who won't be doing a on campus interview but a telephonic interview. So it would be a real value addition to this book if it has a dedicated section for "remote interviews" like telephonic and skype interviews.

And the book should provide links to the Darden Interview page on Clear Admit Wiki to help the readers. This will give some extra resources to the readers and at the same time readers will be encouraged to share their interview experience with the world through this wiki. Other than these I feel this guide can be really useful to applicants preparing for their Darden interview. The last section - "General Interview guide" can help you out in any MBA interview not only Darden.
I am also planning to talk to current students about the remote interviews to get some sense about how it usually goes. So that's about my Darden Interview Prep. All the best to fella applicants who are getting R1 decisions or submitting R2 apps. Happy holidays and a Merry Christmas !

P.S - Thanks ClearAdmit for providing me with a copy of "UVA DARDEN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: CLEAR ADMIT INTERVIEW GUIDE.  You can check out more about the available clear admit i/v guides here