MBAPundit: Columbia Business School, Fall 2007

Open House: The Details

2007-04-18T13:33:00.000-04:00

Overall, it was an awesome, busy, fun and exciting 2 days on campus, the weather ruining things a little bit on day 1. We were greeted with a welcome kit for breakfast, followed by a brief welcome message by Dean Hubbard and Linda Meehan.

The rest of the Open House was really meant to give us a flavor for life at CBS: the cluster system, academics, career services, clubs, social events, corporate sponsored events, happy hour and late night partying (which I had no energy left to participate in).

Day 1: After breakfast, we were divided into clusters of about 40-50 people each. The first event was an informal "get to know your cluster" thing with some team games, quizes etc. During this session, we were handed a 12-13 page case document, which we were asked to go through sometime during the day before the 4pm Management Class. This was followed by lunch with current students and an elective class on "Strategic Intuition" by Prof. William Duggan. Topics discussed were Intuition, Strategy, Innovation with some examples like Napolean, Picasso, Edison, Apple, Google etc. Quite interesting!

Next was the Management Case class conducted by Prof. Ralph Biggadike. I think about 95% of the class started reading the case in the lecture hall but it was truly amazing to see how quickly people as a group were able to dissect and analyze a situation and offer a diverse range of viewpoints. A very engaging session this one. At 5 we headed to the International House for a panel on Entrepreneurship, very very impressive. 5 or 6 recent CBS alums talked about the companies they have started, all ideas born and refined while at CBS with help from the Lang Center and how successful they have become in such a short period of time. This to me was the highlight event at Open House. The evening was wrapped up by a Deutsche Bank sponsored cocktail party, followed by more drinking at Uris Deli Happy Hour, which I attended till 10:30pm before calling it a night.

Day 2: I was one of very few people at the 9am breakfast and understandably so since several people were partying till 3am the previous night at the Latin American Business Association (LABA) dance party. I wouldnt exactly put myself as a novice when it comes to drinking and socializing but this needed a different level of energy reserves. After a non-stop day from 9am to 11pm (which included 2 rounds of drinking), I give out kudos to those who had the heart to go drink some more and party till 3am. Thankfully, there were some people like me who started showing up for breakfast around 9:30am.

Breakfast was followed by two 1-hour sessions on academics and career services. Then we had a grand lunch with faculty, where Linda talked a little bit about the merits of the incoming class (some real rockstars there). We then had 2 interactive sessions with current students and an alum, Club Fair - a glimpse of all the student led clubs at CBS and then the Bloomingdales cocktail reception on the top floor of Bloomingdales. Getting there involved a quick subway ride whcih was managed by current students. Mike Gould (CEO and CBS alum), spoke about his perspectives on the MBA, Columbia and New York (this was most important to him and it was clear how much he loves and values the city). Open House officially wrapped up here and we left with gift bags and goodies (courtesy Bloomindales). Unofficially, there was more socializing, drinking and partying but I figured I'd have plenty of opportunity for that the next 2 years.

My one key take away from these 2 days was the sheer strength and reach of the CBS community, the amazing people already there and the ones that I will be with this Fall. I cant wait to get started.

Open House

2007-03-29T14:02:00.000-04:00

In exactly two weeks from today, I'll be attending the CBS Open House. More than anything else, I am eager to meet other future classmates, in addition to the few that I have already interacted with at local events. Winter is almost gone and the gorgeous spring weather is just about kicking in. Cant wait to be on campus for an exciting, fun-packed 2 days. If any others are planning to attend Open House, feel free to get in touch with me.

World Cup Disaster

2007-03-26T14:47:00.000-04:00

Team India was never really expected to lift the Word Cup but to be shown the door in the opening round itself was a bit much. I think every cricket fan in the world (Indian or not) would have liked to see India play in the super eights and that is a very reasonable ask from a team that boasts of players like Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Yuvraj and Dhoni.

World Cup 2007 has shaken the very foundations of Indian cricket and the future certainly doesnt look exciting. I do feel the loss to Bangladesh was a one time fluke but Team India has to be above teams like Bangladesh. A general casualness, lack of accountability and no burning desire to win has plagued this team for the last eighteen months or so. I think it is this attitude that upsets fans more than anything else. We dont expect Sachin to score a 100 everytime but we do expect to see a fight in every game. We want to see Team India believe in itself everytime it walks out on the field.

The biggest culprits to that effect in this tournament have been Tendulkar, Dhoni, Sehwag, Uthappa and Harbhajan and to a slightly lesser extent Ganguly, Yuvraj and Dravid. The former set of players should be simply asked to take a break from international cricket and iron out their flaws in domestic cricket. As much as Coach Greg is at fault, he is not the one playing the game. And no matter how good or bad your coach is, you just dont loose to Bangladesh, thats plain unacceptable. Even as a huge Tendulkar fan myself, I think he is the first one who needs to go: enough is enough. It is actually painful to watch him bat, struggling against B-grade bowlers from teams like Bangladesh.

Champions exit the game gracefully when they are in peak form. Isnt that what Shane Warne did? The man took 700 test wickets and was the spearhead behind England's Ashes demolition. Anybody who follows cricket knows very well that he still has it in him to take 50-60 more wickets in no time. However, professional sport is about being, well, professional. Its about giving your best, staying honest to the game and to your team. If you cant give 110% to your team then just go before you are thrown out.

I know the coming days will present lots of discussions and speculations as the BCCI sits to evaluate what needs to be done. To start things off, some BCCI officials need to go as well. Here's what I would do next. Rahul Dravid probably made the mistake of his life by winning the toss and electing to bat against Bangladesh. However, he still is a good batsman and I would keep him in the team, specially since I'd let go of Sachin and Sehwag.

For the short-term, I'd bring back Ganguly as Captain, maybe for 1 or 2 series. I'd give Ganguly just that much time to see if things work and put Yuvraj as Vice Captain to groom him as a future Captain. If Ganguly proves that he still has the old magic then he gets the Captains job for a longer stint otherwise he gets the boot. I'd encourage Kumble to quit one-day cricket and focus on tests only. Piyush Chawla would come in as his replacement. Dinesh Karthik would replace Dhoni as wicket-keeper till Dhoni has proven in the domestic circuit that we cant ignore him anymore.

Next I'd try to hire a world class bowling coach (dont know who it is right now but on the lines of Alan Donald, Wasim Akram etc) and get on the case of Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Munaf and Zaheer. I feel we have tremendous talent here that needs some guidance and coaching to become true match winners for India. Pathan specially being a gifted batsman, needs to be mentored as an all-rounder, someone India desparately needs. I am positive there are enough talented youngsters in our domestic circuit to replace Sachin and Sehwag for the time being. They shouldnt take too long to regain their form and come back to Team India if they indeed still have the class that we think they have. The time to think has gone though and both of them must earn their place back in the team. You can save the 14,000+ runs and 41 centuries rubbish for your grandkids or whoever cares to listen.

Columbia's new campus

2007-03-13T19:13:00.000-04:00

As many of you know by now, Columbia University is planning a new campus, which will be in the works over the next 20-30 years. The plans include a new facility for the business school as well but 20-30 years??

No, the business school will be completed in Phase 1 of the project over the next 5 to 7 years. From the sound of it, it promises to be an excellent facility with good design. The project is being done by two of the biggest and best names in the industry - "Renzo Piano" and "Skidmore, Owings and Merrill."

More details here.

The Pundit is back

2006-11-20T18:25:00.000-05:00

... after being dormant for 6 months. Well, work was really demanding and busy and so was the re-app cycle. Along with that, extracurricular involvements didnt leave me with any time for blogging. However, I am thrilled to report that it all came to good use as I have an admit from Columbia Business School for Class of 2009.

Life is good again!

Man chases cop ...

2006-05-24T15:40:00.000-04:00

This post is totally unrelated to business school admissions. However, the story referenced is an interesting one on standing up for what one believes and iniative in action to make a difference. Its not a heroic story about saving lives or leading a revolution but a simple everyday event that I am sure most of us have come across sometime or the other.

I was browsing a friend's blog yesterday and through links to other posters in the blogosphere I chanced upon this post. Definitely worth a read and thought!

The wait is over ...

2006-05-18T10:41:00.000-04:00

at Wharton, did not make the cut. That wraps up my applications for Fall 2006. There is a price for rushing your apps and as I found out, applications to the top programs do not happen in 2 months, including studying for the GMAT. Its time to take a step back, learn the lessons, figure out a plan and start implementing it. I take encouragement from the fact that I was waitlisted at 2 top programs and was very close to getting in. I have to convert those into an admit next time and hopefully will be able to do so.

Unfortunately, I will not be an MBA Class of 2008 but its been great to know many of you and I wish you all the best. For the many others who were not successful this year, there's always next time and the story will be different next year with the right plan and focus. Cheers!

Investment Management jobs at IIT

2006-05-15T12:23:00.000-04:00

The article below is from yesterday's Times of India. It looks like these jobs are for analyst level positions and in many instances these jobs would go to MBAs from the IIMs, atleast till a few years ago, even though MBAs from the IIMs did enjoy associate level offers too. From that perspective, its a plus for IIT grads to be able to make an entry at the analyst level and then move up to an associate level in 2,3,5 years based on performance. However, an MBA, specially from a top 10 is more than just about the first job on graduation so I am not quite sure that securing a $100k investment management position from IIT makes the MBA experience redundant. Afterall, there are several bankers, consultants and entrepreneurs who give up low to mid $100K packages (some even more) for the 2 year b-school experience, not just for the education and on-campus job placements but for the lifelong success potential, network, friendships and access to those elite clubs.
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MAY 14th, NEW DELHI: Brand IIT may have just got bigger. This year, for the first time, investment firms, which usually hire management graduates from Princeton, Wharton and MIT, were seen knocking on the doors of IIT Delhi to recruit engineering graduates for finance jobs. The annual pay packages are in the range of $60,000-100,000 . the same amount that a Wharton or MIT graduate for the same position would be offered. Out of the batch of 450, about 25 have got offers from I-banks like Merrill Lynch, PIMCO, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, UBS and Lehman Brothers.

Rachit Jain,who has got an offer of $100,000 from Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), is elated. "I had planned to do an MBA and only then was I expecting to be made such a lucrative offer. Had this not worked out, my career would have charted a different course.' Geetanjai Mittal, an associate with Merrill Lynch, said: "We usually hire students from MIT, Wharton and IIMs, and many of them have an IIT degree too. So this year, we decided that we might as well hire directly from IIT.' Students are essentially being hired for finance jobs . which have traditionally been considered the preserve of MBA students. "An MBA degree is not mandatory for these jobs.What's actually required are number-crunching skills which are well-possessed by these engineering students," added Mittal. What this also means is that many of these students have quit the idea of pursuing an MBA since it would be precisely for such jobs that they would want that degree.

Akhilesh Chaudhary, who has got an offer from Merrill Lynch, has dropped plans to go to IIM Bangalore where he had been selected. "I've been offered an annual package of $60,000, plus a $10,000 sign-on bonus and performance-based incentives, and I'll most probably be posted in London or New York. So this just changes my career plans,' he says. Amit Aggarwal, who has been offered the position of an analyst at Merrill Lynch, says: "If I went into management after this, it would be because that would allow me to shift into finance. I had got a job with Google, Bangalore and after a few years of work experience, would have gone in for an MBA. Now all these plans appear to be pretty much redundant.'

Back

2006-05-11T14:07:00.000-04:00

... from a week-long Europe trip! It was just plain awesome to say the least. Its 2 weeks of work and then I go away for another week. In between, I'll get to know of my Wharton fate, whatever it is. The vacation was a great idea as I didnt for one second think about applications, re-applications and got a much needed break. I certainly seem to be less anxious about Wharton now and am prepared for either decision.

Some positive developments did occur on the work front and that has been exciting, a big high-visibility project, a promotion to a more senior role ( I wish this had happened 4 months ago so that I could have written about it in my app) and a little PR plus being nominated for an award. I have something to talk about in my re-app, although I will need to come up with more solid growth and evolvement stories than the above.

Its good to read that fellow bloggers are finalizing plans of moving to their schools and taking trips around the world and preparing for the next 2 years. Good luck to all of you in your respective schools and to all Round 3 and waitlisted applicants still waiting for a decision.

2002 & 2005

2006-04-25T16:35:00.000-04:00

Many schools have reported an increase in applicant numbers this year. Naturally, this has led some to believe that this was an unbelievably tough year to get into business school. Something to note here that the increase in applications is only in comparision to last year (which probably was the easiest year to get admission in the last 10 years) and nobody knows yet how much the increase is. Another thing to factor in that the increase has been widely observed for international applicants, it may or may not be true for domestic applicants.

It is therefore quite possible that the "difficulty factor" has only been restored to previous normal levels from an apparently easy 2005. Now I dont mean to take anything away from people who applied and succeeded in 2005 or make assumptions about those who applied and didnt succeed. Applications are very subjective and anything could happen, such is the nature of the game. But it begs the question of why? and was this the same at other schools as well?

Here are the numbers for HBS (source: Sandy on BW) I have changed graduation year to their respective application years.

Year of Application--No. of Applicants
2000--8124
2001--8893
2002--10382
2003--8526
2004--7130
2005--6552
2006--????

The above data is for HBS and we dont even know for a fact if 2006 numbers have actually gone up. But 2 numbers come out clearly - a) what the heck did one have to do to get admitted in 2002? and b) 2005 indeed looks like an easy year in comparision although numbers dont reveal everything. A difference of almost 4000 applications to a top business program is a lot by any standard, it almost doubles the acceptance rate for HBS.

2001 was a bad year for the economy so that probably explains the spike in 2002 numbers. At the same time, 2005 was not as bad as 2001-2002 but it wasnt kicking ass either so these numbers cannot be influenced by the economy alone. Whatever it is, it does make one (atleast me) think "what if I had applied last year," albeit only for a brief moment.

Decisions

2006-04-14T08:26:00.000-04:00

My re-app efforts will officially kick off in June. I will do a little bit of research on schools and stay engaged on the extra-curricular and community fronts but will not be in a position to actually write essays and visit schools. Speaking of schools, some of the schools that I might re-apply to have already been visited multiple times so I dont know if I'll do that again. Luckily, I have made some good friends with people who got in to various schools this year so I can approach them for help.

One major decision made in the last few days was to not re-apply to Harvard. I loved the school, facilities are top notch, students are sharp and its a great experience for anyone attending, but after repeated self-evaluations I dont think I am ever getting in there (or let me say the chances are really slim). But isnt that applicable to most applicants who still get in? Yes it is, but my candidacy lacks certain elements that seem to matter a lot at HBS. I have plenty of leadership experiences to share but none that are full of 'stardust' as Sandy puts it. The time and effort needed to write those 7 essays will be well spent on another school. I tried once, put in a solid app and didnt get in, time to get real, so goodbye HBS.

The other decision I took was to not take another attempt at the GMAT. Again, when I look over my application, I dont think the GMAT was my undoing. I have a balanced score (both Q and V above 80%) so I guess it was ok on that count. Agreed I dont have a 760+ that most guys from my demographic seem to have but I have seen too many of those guys get dinged this year as well. Also, it will require intense preparation to get that score. With the time I have (aside from work, extra curricular and family commitments), at best I may raise my score by 20-30 points and I seriously doubt that will have any impact on my overall application. I could use that time to make my essays as close to perfect as they can get instead.

What else can I do? Differentiate my story, make it unique, compelling and strategic. How? Dont have a clue right now but am working on it. I do think my story is compelling and strategic but probably is short on the uniqueness. There is not a lot I can do to change that but better presentation and style of story telling might do the trick. I can see how my HBS essays read so much better than my Columbia ones, even though they communicate the same story.

Lastly, why wait till June? Because May is vacation month for me and my wife! We go for a back-packing trip to Europe and then to a Carribean cruise. I dont want to be thinking anything even remotely close to business school in May.

The Beer Challenge and Beer Facts

2006-04-13T15:38:00.000-04:00

I see people are getting really excited about the upcoming NYC Blogger Meet. Too bad I wont be able to make it to the East Coast Beer challenge, it certainly would have been nice to meet fellow and future b-school applicants. Not to mention that I am quite the beer consumer and would have been up for the challenge. Maybe next time! So are there official contest rules and prizes for tomorrow's challenge?

Hope you guys have a blast and drink good! On that note, here are some beer facts that were circulated to me by a drinking buddy on a "friday fun email."
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FACT: A lite beer has between 70 and 100 calories, is almost all water and the part that isn't water is almost pure carbohydrates.

FACT:The average diet recommends a daily calorie intake of 1,200 calories for women, 1,500 for men, if you want to lose the medically safe two to three pounds a week. That equates to 12 beverages a day for women,and 15 for men. A measurable goal.

FACT: Beer is diuretic, which causes the water to flush out almost immediately, leading to a consistent workout regimen including deep knee bends (getting out of the chair), fast walking (very good for your heart) and squats (as the case may be).

FACT: Drinking beer actually helps you sleep - even when you aren't necessarily tired. All that added rest is certain to help any problems you may have experienced in sleep deprivation, counting calories on those other fad diets. In addition, you may experience the occasional "Howdid I get here?" when you wake up, which always makes for lively conversation, and possibly additional exercise if you have to sneak out and run home.

FACT: Beer is good for your heart. After just one day of consuming your required 12-15 beers, you will certainly want to consume some aspirin, which is medically proven to help prevent heart attacks.

Political Games

2006-04-10T10:18:00.000-04:00

So the Mandal Commission report continues to haunt thousands of applicants seeking admission to the famed Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). According to the announcement, the reservation quota has been more than doubled to 49%. This means that several bright and deserving candidates who do not enjoy reservation quotas will be left out of the IIT race, which is fiercely competitive to begin with. To make things worse, IITs now have a cap of 2 on the number of times you can apply to seek admission.

Its amazing how the government interferes with the administrations of these elite educational institutes to suit their political motives of securing vote banks around election time. In the name of bringing oppressed segments of society forward, such decisions will harm the intellectual fabric of India in a severe way and further worsen the caste dispute in the country. At its basic level, this decision virtually nullifies any chances that a reasonably smart and hardworking individual might have had of getting into one of the best undergraduate institutions in the world.

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NEW DELHI, APRIL 6: The Centre said today 49.5 per cent of the total seats in IITs, IIMs and Central universities, including Delhi University, would be reserved for OBCs, SCs and STs. At present, 22.5 per cent seats are reserved for SCs (15%) and STs (7.5%) in these institutes.

Full article here

Reapp time

2006-04-03T11:25:00.000-04:00

So after over 3 months of waitlisting Columbia decided to end my misery and ding me. I'll admit it was painful and really hard to come to terms with, unlike the HBS ding. Columbia was the first school I applied to, did tons of research, visited the campus, attended every single event they had on campus, met with students, faculty and alums over a dozen times. It will need some serious introspection to figure out what went wrong, at this point I am unable to pin point anything.

I was so dead sure I am getting in at Columbia - strong app (atleast in my mind), did all the research one can possibly do on the school, applied ED, had a great interview. I didnt take the Reconsider Later decision too seriously, hoping it would all fall into place eventually. Ofcourse, this has been a tough year for applicants and many fine candidates have been unsuccessful. There is always hope and I will give it another shot next app season - unless my Wharton waitlist converts to an admit with an absolute miracle.

Unfortunately, I have had several positive developments since I applied to Wharton but going by their strict "no updates" policy, all I can do is sit and wait. I think mentally I am more prepared for a re-app now than have any hopes for Wharton, which for the most part looks like a loosing battle. Also, some of you noted in the comments that I have an NYU admit - I dont! I was dinged, didnt care too much for NYU to begin with and I think my essays failed to communicate my story.

Congratulations to all in the blogging community who have secured admits this year. It just goes to show how strong your profiles are to have been successful in a clearly "very tough" year. As for me, Wharton will happen if it has to, I cant control it and wont worry about it. It is evident that applications to top schools dont happen in 2 months (including preparing for the GMAT). Hopefully I can get some feedback from the schools and get cranking on my re-apps as quickly as I can.

and finally sunk at HBS

2006-03-29T12:38:00.000-05:00

Dinged.

Winning

2006-03-27T08:31:00.000-05:00

I read this amazing entry on the Dilbert blog, posted below. I first noticed Blake in last year's US Open and his match against Agassi was just awesome.

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Recently there was a tennis tournament in Indian Wells. It’s one of the biggest tournaments not counting the four “Grand Slam” events. Because tennis is an individual sport, there are always great stories within the game. This year’s biggest story was James Blake’s comeback.

If you don’t follow the game, let me give you some background. Blake is the son of an African-American dad and an English mom. He was raised in Connecticut and had to wear a back brace for years when he was a kid. He took up tennis, excelled, and went to Harvard for two years before going pro. He looked promising, along with a number of other young Americans, but not top 10 material. He was most noted for his sex appeal and great personality.

I became a fan after watching him play Lleyton Hewitt a few years ago. After some calls that went against Hewitt, the Aussie singled out an African-American linesperson and complained to the chair umpire. Hewitt used a poor choice of words that led observers to think he was complaining of racial favoritism. Hewitt says he didn’t mean it that way, but nonetheless it became the story. And the media tried hard to get Blake to bite. They wanted him to complain about racism, maybe get a little mad about it. That’s good TV. But Blake didn’t take the bait. He politely pointed out that people say things in the heat of the moment, and whatever Hewitt said was Hewitt’s problem, not his. It seemed to me the perfect response. Sometimes trivializing is the best strategy.

Blake’s ranking bobbed up and down, peaking at 22 in the world. He shaved his dreadlocks and gave up his sex symbol image along with millions in potential endorsements. (I’m guessing his hair was prematurely thinning.) Then in 2004 he had the year from Hell. He ran into a tennis net post and broke his neck. Then he got a shingles virus in his face that paralyzed it on one side. Then his dad died.

There was some doubt that Blake would ever play tennis again. He watched the major tournaments from his couch and wondered about his future. In time, his body recovered, and he felt that he had been given a second chance. He grabbed it by the neck.

I don’t know what kind of training he did, but oh-my-god. I watched him play in person during the first week of the Indian Wells tournament and thought it couldn’t be the same guy. There was ferocity to his strokes. He wasn’t just hitting the ball, he was punishing it. His court speed was breathtaking. His shot selection was brilliant. His backhand, previously a weakness, had become a rocket.

You only needed to listen to the court sounds to know that Blake was heading deep into the tournament. When a tennis racket strikes a ball perfectly, it creates a sound wave that spectators can feel in their entire bodies. If you play tennis yourself, you can practically close your eyes and know who is winning.

Blake blasted through the field of world-class tennis players and found himself in an unlikely semi-final with a Spanish force of nature named Rafael Nadal. Nadal is the #2 player in the world. He hits with brutal topspin. It’s a relentless attack that less than a handful of elite players have been able to withstand in the past year. Nadal brought his best, but Blake blew past with a combination of game and gamesmanship that surprised almost everyone, not the least Nadal himself.

Now it was time for the championship match against Roger Federer, the best player in the world. Correction – make that the best tennis player who has ever lived. That’s not just my opinion. He already has seven Grand Slam wins. If he stays healthy, many people expect him to hold every important record in tennis.

Against all odds, Blake blazed to a 4-1 first set advantage against the all-time greatest player on earth. It seemed as though nothing could stop him. And then something happened. The momentum shifted. The rest of the match was all Federer. Blake seemed to fade away, settling for runner-up, but his effort that week was enough to put him in the top ten in the world.
At the trophy ceremony, Blake spoke to the crowd. He said that in 2004, when he was in the hospital with a broken neck, only one tennis player sent him a note to wish him well. It was Roger Federer.

I wanted Blake to win that match, yet somehow, by losing he found perfection.

Sinking at HBS

2006-03-21T10:33:00.000-05:00

HBS Round 2 decisions are out exactly 8 days from today. I dont have an invite yet so 99% chances are that I am sunk at HBS, however to quote HBS Adcom "interview invites go out till the very last day" leaves a glimmer of hope, albeit fast disappearing. I am almost prepared to get the ding on March 29th barring a miracle at this point.

Now, the HBS app took up most of my time and it was the toughest as well. A back of the envelope calculation reveals approximately 150 hrs of my time working on those 7 required and 1 optional essay and atleast 80-90 hrs of my wife's time helping me with drafts, revisions, activities sheet, resume etc. The result of this massive effort? An HBS application that both my wife and I were quite confident and happy about. Got my HBS app read by an alum and a current student and got both their blessings. But, still no interview and doesnt look like I am getting one either.

Another thing the massive HBS exercise did was that it left very little time for Wharton which was due only 2 days after HBS. Not that I didnt work hard on Wharton but the fact is that I am waitlisted and perhaps spending some more time on the app might have led me to do something differently or better. I will never know that for sure and it is futile to go back and think about these things now.

What I have thought about though is Wharton's waitlist process. In the spirit of fairness they refuse to accept any updates or additional information from a waitlisted candidate. However, they accept the same (ofcourse only genuine updates) from a candidate before the decisions are released. One doesnt know how their internal decision making works so outsiders wont have a clear picture of why it is so. I am still alive at Wharton so I'll draw away positives from that, I just wish that waitlisted candidates were given the opportunity to atleast present any significant updates regarding their application.

Very close but not quite ....

2006-03-16T10:18:00.000-05:00

Waitlisted at Wharton! So the wait continues till May 18th when they release their next round of decisions. I actually fancied my chances at Wharton so this was somewhat of a disappointment. Perhaps I am classic waitlist material - singles here and there but not a home run. 2nd waitlist in a row - Columbia and now Wharton, this is going to be a real test of patience.

Unable to get a read ...

2006-03-08T12:34:00.000-05:00

... on my Wharton interview.

So I had my interview on campus last week with a second year adcom member. The interview lasted exactly 30 mins and was pretty uneventful, ie no trick questions or mess ups from my side. I was told at the beginning of my interview that my interviewer would take detailed notes and keep track of the time so I should not take it otherwise.

And it was exactly that! I was asked the standard questions - Walk me through your resume, Why current job/role, Short-term and Long-term goals, Why Wharton, Why Now, Example of Leadership, How do you motivate people on a team, any potential weakness or concern on the application and if I had any questions for my interviewer.

What alarmed me slightly was that no follow up questions were asked based on my responses. My interviewer spoke for about 6-7 minutes to ask the questions and I talked for the remaining 24 minutes. Despite my every effort to turn it into a two-way conversation, it didnt happen that way. My interviewer gave out no clues at all (facial expressions, nodding of head, smile, frown - zilch) about how my responses were being received, but took notes furiously - probably every word that came out of my mouth is documented in that interview report.

I left the room with a mixed feeling - good that nothing was botched, bad that I didnt seem to have too much control on the flow and couldnt engage in a conversation during the interview.

Either way, I will find out in 8 days.

Microsoft redesigns iPod packaging

2006-02-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

This is quite funny, check it out!

Found Footage: Microsoft redesigns the iPod packaging

From 1/7 to 1/4

2006-02-15T20:22:00.000-05:00

While a Wharton interview invite is heartening and I am certainly excited and optimistic about possibly attending the school, a quick glance at some stats and conversations with current students revealed some hard (even harsh) facts.

The Indian applicant pool is as competitive as it can get. Wharton being perceived as Indian/techie friendly encourages many Indians to apply but there are only so many spots.
Wharton interviews more applicants (as opposed to some other top schools), so getting an interview invite even though a positive sign, still leaves quite a margin to be covered to get an admit.
There is this theory (or rumor) on BW that Wharton extends interview invites even to candidates who are considered what is called as 'Dead Meat." That is Wharton has almost decided against this candidate but still wants to interview them. In other words, even a super star interview wouldnt do much to get this applicant in at Wharton. I dont quite get why this could be true and what the point is but something I came across on BW. I would imagine Wharton sees potential in an applicant's file to offer an interview invitation.
After submitting the application there is a 1/6 or 1/7 chance that an applicant will get in. After receiving an interview invite, those odds improve to about 1/4.

So only 1 out of every 4 interviewed candidates will hear the good news from Wharton on March 16th. Now, none of these are things I didnt already know before applying to Wharton but like they say, it takes time to sink in.

Clustr Maps and Four Things

2006-02-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

This Clustr Maps thing is cool. It gets updated everyday and displays the geographic location of visitors to my blog. A simple concept but nevertheless interesting to see a graphical depiction of visitor locations.

Apparently playing tag is another cool (or hot) thing in the MBA blogging community. Looks like everybody I know has been tagged already so here I go -

Four jobs I've had in my life:

Faculty / Teacher
Consultant (IT)
Consultant (Marketing Strategy)
Photographer

Four movies I can watch over and over:

Lord of the Rings
T2
Die Hard series
Andaz Apna Apna

Four places I have lived in:

West Bengal, India
Uttar Pradesh, India
Bihar, India
New Jersey, USA

Four TV shows I love to watch:

National Geographic Channel
Friends
Seinfeld
CSI

Four places I have been on vacation:

France
Southwest USA
Rajasthan, India
Rocky Mountains, USA

Four of my favorite dishes:

Rogan josh (or most Indian/Arabic lamb dishes)
Tandoori chicken
New York cheesecake
Philly cheesesteak

Four websites I visit daily:

Google
Yahoo News
Crickinfo
Times of India

Four places I would rather be right now:

Business school
Anywhere in Europe
With my wife
California (I hate the east coast winters)

Four bloggers I am tagging:

This is a tough one, everyone I know seems to be tagged already!

Movement at last

2006-02-07T14:05:00.000-05:00

After playing the waiting game for quite some time, there is finally some movement on the application front - an interview invitation from Wharton. I wont look into it too much as many interviewed applicants at Wharton dont make it in finally but it is the next step in the process and confirms that I am still in the game, which is always heartening to know.

"The Admissions Committee would like to discuss your application in more detail through an evaluative interview." Thats what my status page says although I thought I read somewhere that the Wharton interview is completely blind, in other words the interview has nothing to do with the application but is based more on the applicant's resume. I may be wrong but atleast I can pretend that I am looking for something tangible on the BW forums now.

Done with Applications

2006-01-17T15:43:00.000-05:00

Its been a long four months since I started working on my first application. At that time, I had not imagined that I would be applying to more than one school. Probably because I was more than hopeful that I would get admitted if I gave my everything to the application and demonstrated my passion towards the program.

Things didnt exactly work out as planned and I was put on 'Reconsider Later' at Columbia. While there is still hope left and I will do my best to convert that into an admit, I did apply to other programs as well. Some may argue why apply to Wharton and Harvard (both better ranked and presumably tougher to get into than Columbia) but I firmly believe that I will not benefit as much from a business program outside of the top 5 schools. After many long conversations with alums, friends and mentors, the general consensus was 'do it from a top 5 or dont bother.'

I still feel I know Columbia's program most closely and will be most comfortable there. Given my background, I also feel that Harvard is a long shot for me but it was worth the effort once. On the positive side, I did apply to NYU Stern which I think is a very good program too. Working on three applications in the past one month has taken absolutely everything out of me - specially HBS with 7 required and 1 optional essay.

Its a relief to have submitted all my applications and just hope for the best now. Its also time to start thinking of a Plan B, incase I get dinged from all of my schools. Hopefully it wont come to that. Good luck to all of you!

Entrepreneurship at Columbia

2005-11-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

Even though I continue to wait to hear back from the Admissions Committee regarding my application (applied ED around deadline), I read more about the school everyday. Last evening, I attended my third on-campus event in 2 months and had a great time as usual. This time they had multiple sessions, organized by focus areas which really gave applicants the opportunity to look closely at their intended specialization at Columbia. There were faculty members, current students and admissions members.

I promptly entered the lecture hall hosting the entrepreneurship talk. Dean Hubbard has categorically stated "Entrepreneurship is in everything we do." One really gets this feeling by talking to current students as they talk about 'how they saw an opportunity and captured it." The 'Incubator' (an office space in the meat packing district for budding entrepreneurs) was discussed in some detail last evening and this is a perfect example of the true entrepreneurial spirit that Columbia talks about.

I continue to learn new things about the program, even though my application is done and gone and I guess there are just too many facets of this powerful program that one can possibly know about in a mere two months of research. Its funny that even though I am preparing my next application (yes I know I am an ED applicant but one never knows), I continue to spend more time reading up on Columbia.

A three week break ...

2005-11-02T18:03:00.000-05:00

After submitting my previous (and only) application to Columbia, I had decided to take a short break. First because I am going to Columbia if accepted (so the need to work on other applications wouldnt arise) and hence the ED submission despite a very tight timeframe. Second, this process has been so intense (as it is for everybody I am sure) that I desperately needed to keep my mind off applications for a few days.

The initially planned 3-4 day break has now extended to its 3rd week and needs to end asap now. I need to do research on the other schools and get cracking on their essays. I have also been worrying about a few things on my Columbia application that now seem could have been better. This has been further escalated by the fact that other applicants who have applied around the same time as me have already received interview invites and some even admits. Hindsight is always 20/20 and the best way to get out of this 'worry mode' is to get cracking on the next app and forget about what has happened.

Then I also see many applicants who have applied way before me and are still waiting to hear, so I am hopeful. Its easy to get carried away but I am sure the CBS Adcom is doing its job as best as they can with the thousands of applications they must have received. It was great to not think about apps for the past 3 weeks but I guess its time to get started.

One down ...

2005-10-11T14:17:00.000-04:00

I feel relieved after finally hitting the Submit button on my Columbia app. Its a mixed bag of emotions - relief, anxiety, mental tiredness and hope. I have barely slept the last 2 nights so I am going to catch up on my sleep today and tomorrow. Overall, I feel good about my application although I realize most other applicants have stellar backgrounds as well. I will try not to worry about too much and not check my email every 2 minutes. I have stayed away from BW Forums for 3 weeks now, which is a huge accomplishment (my app would not have been done otherwise).

I am dead solid on attending Columbia Business School if accepted but in this day of competition one can never be sure. I will take a break this week and probably start on a safety school app next week. As I reflect back on the last 6 weeks (time it took to prepare my Columbia app), they were full of late nights, multiple drafts of essays, conversations with friends, recommenders and reviewers, introspection on my career and personal goals and a lot of hard work trying to balance work, personal life and MBA apps.

Irrespective of whether I get an offer or not, I believe I have put my best possible foot forward. This would not have been possible without the untiring and dedicated support from my wife, who always encouraged me to go for it and did everything possible to help me put a decent app.

I owe it big time to her!!!

Life after GMAT

2005-09-19T21:18:00.000-04:00

I finally got done with the GMAT 10 days ago after about 7 weeks of preparation and managed to get 700. Had I managed my time better on the Verbal, I would have done much better. Nevertheless, its done and I feel ok having crossed the 700 barrier. Its not a great score for my target schools but it wont keep me out of the race either. If I can manage to do a decent job with the essays, I should have a reasonable shot.

The last 10 days have kept me busy with work, personal stuff, the US Open amidst which I have spent some time writing essays, working on the resume, mapping out my extra-curriculars and so on. A couple of first drafts went out for review to multiple people and came back with more or less the same feedback - "Nice ideas, but lacking in presentation." I guess the good news is that my reviewers felt the choice of my subject matter was fine, the bad news is that I am way over the word limit, have spent way too many words on unnecessary details and overall the essays are not flowing as well.

The next few weeks will be crucial to get my first application done on time. I am glad I spent soem time with my recommenders also and gave them a good enough overview on the process, my goals, Why MBA? Why this school? and so on. They have verbally assured me that they will submit their letters on time so as of now looks like thats the only component of my application that might get done on time.

Columbia admissions event on campus

2005-09-08T14:28:00.000-04:00

I attended the Columbia on campus event yesterday evening. The event didnt start until 6:30pm so I took advantage of the 45 minutes that I had before that and took a self-guided tour of Uris Hall.

Uris Hall has a very positive energy about it and you feel that the moment you walk in. In the entrance lobby there were 2 giant flat screen TVs, notice board with upcoming classes, electives and seminars displayed, groups of students huddled together going over documents together and discussing various things. As I walked in further, I saw the display of books written by CBS alumni and it is quite a stock.

I had the CBS MBA brochure in my hands, so it might have been obvious that I was a prospective candidate. Some students having seeing that were kind enough to approach me and ask me if I was lost or if I needed any help. I politely mentioned I was just taking a tour and would appreciate if someone gave me a 30 second overview of what was where. A second year student told me quickly how to get where and then rushed to meet a professor. People were generally friendly and helpful and I felt at ease walking around the place.

After my 30 minute tour, I headed back to Amsterdam Avenue, filled in more quarters to the meter and headed back to the event. At the entrance, I briefly talked with a few current students, exchanged background information and then took a seat. The place was packed with about 250-300 people in there. There was no slideshow or presentation. There was a panel comprising of 3 alumni members and 1 current student. Dean Hubbard gave a 5 minute opening talk about CBS and then Linda and the alums took over answering questions from the audience.

The one thing that came across very clearly was the alumni loyalty and their passion towards CBS. It was obvious that the network is solid, people can bank upon each other and the alumni will try and help out CBS grads as much as possible. Some more general applications related questions were answered and around 8pm the group was split to interact with individuals in smaller groups. I spent some time talking to a few other fellow applicants and some current students as the alums and admissions officers were totally surrounded by prospective candidates.

If yesterday's visit is anything to go by, the campus and environment can simply be described as 'high-energy', 'action-packed', 'interactive with full of outgoing people.' I have visited the Columbia campus over a dozen times before but this was my first visit in the last 2 years. It was a gorgeous day and walking by the brick paved pathways was just a nice feeling.

Countdown to the GMAT begins

2005-08-31T20:45:00.000-04:00

In about 10 days, I should be done with my GMAT, hopefully with a satisfactory score. It has been a good 6 weeks since I started my GMAT prep with the momentum being positive overall. Obviously I wish I had more time but I'll have to do with what I have. I aim to kick it into top gear the next 9-10 days and get done with it.

As part of my final stretch of preparation, I started with doing more OG questions, exclusively from the hard bin. I completed the 127 hard Problem Solving questions at a hit rate of ~90%. I will be happy if I can maintain the same on GMAT day. I'll focus on the Data Insufficiency for the rest of this week, do a couple of tests over the weekend and revise Verbal sections along with pointers on AWA next week.

I have been working on my essays as well. 6 weeks ago when I made the decision to apply this Fall, I couldnt imagine doing everything together along with a rather hectic work schedule but things seem to be falling into place, they always do. I hope I will look back to these days on a positive note 2-3 months from now and it will all be well worth it.

HBS Info Session

2005-08-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

I attended the Harvard Business School info session in New York today. The session was scheduled from 6pm to 8pm and started promptly at 6:05pm after people had settled down. HBS was kind enough to arrange for some refreshments and snacks considering that people had come after work. One guy had flown in from Lebanon (apparently a 12 hour flight) just to attend this event.

The session was setup in an auditorium on the 12th floor of the Citigroup building and was full for the most part. The admissions committee members gave a powerpoint presentation which talked about the leadership focus, general management education and so on (stuff that most people know). That was followed by a video of campus showing professors talking, students in class and the gym and so on which was packaged pretty well and was nice to watch for the 3-4 minutes it ran. The admissions officer pretty much said the same things as seen elsewhere, be honest in your essays, its about you, tell us your story beyond what your transcript and resume indicate, apply early but only when you feel ready, interviews are mandatory, funding is available, loans are guaranteed, lots of housing options available on campus ...

A career services officer then briefly ran through some placement numbers for the Class of 2005 by job function and location. This was followed by a Q&A session conducted by 5 alums who were present. They talked about what they did before HBS and what they were doing now, underlined the essence of people and study teams at HBS, the strong network. The alums were very friendly and gave crisp but thorough answers to most questions except to some stupid questions like "How long should I prepare before I apply?", "I work in an investment bank in London and studied in the London School of Economics and am a lawer, should I apply to HBS?"
To such questions the alums politely responded with the standard "It depends on your goals and your vision for your career and your life. We cant answer that for you."

Overall, I didnt learn much that I didnt already know from my research on HBS, however the Q&A with the alums was insightful and I could relate to some of the experiences and challenges they brought up that people face at HBS. They were extremely proud of being HBS alums and the loyalty and allegiance clearly showed. After the event, I somehow managed to spend 5 minutes with an admissions officer to ask some application specific questions before she had to run to the next info session at 8:30pm. I would be happier if they had made arrangements for personal time with the alums instead of them taking questions from a vast audience, something that I found very useful at a previous Wharton info session. Today was well worth the trip and I had a good time nevertheless.

A good OG day.

2005-08-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

Just got done with a 3 hour Saturday morning practice session. I started off with the 11th edition OG Sentence Correction diagnostic test and got a rating of 'excellent' (17/18). Then I went on to do 35 PS (32 correct), 18 DS (16 correct), 30 SC (27 correct) and 25 CR (22 correct) questions. I must say I feel much more confident with SC these days than I did 2-3 weeks ago. The key is to understand the 8 SC concepts being tested and just practice as much as one can. The OG 10th edition has an exhaustive set of SC questions that test every concept thoroughly.

Overall, a good practice session, will do a full length test later this evening.

Official Guide 11th edition

2005-08-19T01:04:00.000-04:00

I recently ordered the Official Guide 11th edition and it was delivered to me today. The book begins with some general info on the GMAT exam and then has a Diagnostic Test. The test is paper based and has a number of questions (around 25) on each section. After the test, it has a chart which takes your score range on each section and assigns you a category - below average, average, above average and excellent. This tells you which area you need to put more emphasis on. The rest of the book has 800 questions in all from supposedly recently retired tests.

I took the Problem Solving diagnostic test and scored 17/24 which gave me a rating of 'above average.' Even though the diagnostic questions were pretty tough, 7 wrongs are concerning at this stage on Problem Solving, which I consider one of my stronger areas and rely upon to bump up my score on GMAT day. I know DS and RC are my weak spots and I will get a few wrong. Also it took me a little over an hour to do these 24 questions suggesting that my 17 right answers came at a higher average time per question than I will get on the actual GMAT.

Next, I decided to tackle some practice Problem Solving questions and did 85 questions (in about 2.5 hrs) randomly out of the 249 so that I got a mixture of easy, medium and hard questions. I got 84 of these correct. Atleast 12-15 of these 85 I have seen on the 10th edition, so there is definitely some overlap (atleast in PS) between the 10th and 11th editions contrary to what many people believe. The questions on the 11th edition were no more difficult or easy than those on the 10th edition but they are different.

So today was just 11th edition problem solving practice, did 109 questions and reviewed their solutions in about 4 hrs. Phew!

Upcoming B-School events

2005-08-18T13:42:00.000-04:00

I will be attending the HBS event in NY on August 22nd and the CBS on-campus event on September 7th. Will be happy to meet up with other applicants attending. Just email me.

Essays begin

2005-08-15T21:55:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I did not do much GMAT studying. I spent some time on the OG and other than Data Insufficiency and Reading Comprehension (which I dont prepare for at all), I hit a 80-85% hit rate on all other sections. I have realized that Reading Comprehension practice will not sharpen my RC skills. Sometimes I get all questions correct on 2-3 passages and sometimes I dont. My RC performance on GMAT day will depend on specific passages that I will get and no degree of practice can assure me that I will nail RC. SC and CR on the other hand are getting better with practice so I have hope there.

On Sunday, I worked on some essay drafts just because I felt more like writing than studying. I have made decent progress on first drafts of a couple of essays so the weekend was productive. I'd have liked to take another full length test but with my schedule it was not possible. I hope to get 2-3 first drafts done this week so that I can get some feedback on them next week. I started by reading all the general essay topics that my target schools have - goals, leadership, ethical dilemma, substantial accomplishments and made a list of potential experiences I can write about. Today, I also spent some time working on my extra-curricular / community work list. This is getting really exciting now and I am happy that my non-work related activities are consistent and follow established trends over the years. I cant wait to get done with the GMAT and start totally working on the essays.

4th week on the OG

2005-08-11T23:35:00.000-04:00

Covered about 20 questions each from SC, CR, PS and DS sections of the OG today. The hit rates were 90%, 78%, 100% and 70%. I did not touch any RC passage. Generally speaking, the full length tests have been my only source of RC practice and it is just impossible to do each and every RC passage on the OG. Time permitting, I will do a few passages from the difficult bin of the OG. On my fourth week, I have completed about 50% of CR and SC questions and about 30% of PS and DS questions.

As I do more practice questions from the OG, I have gained confidence on SC and CR. I seem to be consistently hitting a 80-85% hit rate on the Verbal now which is in line with my target score of42+ on the GMAT.

Also spent some time on the Wharton Adcom blog and the Columbia Business School site to do some research and read this blog on the OG, 11th edition. This weekend I hope to take atleast one more practice test and continue to work on the OG.

The Official Guide Grid & Princeton Review CAT

2005-08-10T11:22:00.000-04:00

I found this very helpful grid on The Official Guide questions at Beat the GMAT. It has a breakdown of all OG questions in terms of difficulty levels - easy, medium and hard. For someone like me, who does not have enough time to go through each OG question this is a great way to cover atleast the hard and some medium questions.

I took my first Princeton Review CAT last night and didnt realize I needed an internet connection to authenticate my account first. The test seemed to be a little easier than GMAT Prep or Kaplan although I was stumped by 2 probablity questions on the Quant section and the RC passages were longer. After I finished the test, it asked me authenticate my account and having no internet connection on that particular computer, I am not sure my test has been saved. Bottomline, I didnt get my score and was a little disappointed with the Princeton Review test setup.

Also did DS questions exclusively from the hard bin on the OG and scored at a 68% hit rate, so I need to work there.

Full length tests - Summary

2005-08-07T22:36:00.000-04:00

As the end of my 3rd week prep is approaching (in 2 days), here is a breakdown of my full length tests so far:

Week 1
=====
ETS Powerprep Test 1 :: 700 :: Q48 :: V38
GMAT Prep Test 1 :: 710 :: Q48 :: V40

Week 2
=====
Kaplan CAT 1 :: 670 :: Q41 :: V40

Week 3
=====
ETS Powerprep Test 2:: 720 :: Q49 :: V40
GMAT Prep Test 2 :: 700 :: Q39 :: V48

My performance on Quant in today's GMAT Prep Test 2 was pedestrian. My pacing was totally off and I ended up not even getting the last 4 questions (33-37) as I had run out of time. Out of the 32 I did, I got 9 wrong! Most of these were stupid errors because I was rushing myself and taking too long to solve.

Probablity and standard deviation are still my weak spots and they need a lot more work. I find that it is more out of panic than actual problem difficulty that I loose focus on a probablity question and it seems impossible to solve. I knew I had messed up in the Quant today and was extra cautious during the Verbal and did well to get a 48. It certainly helped to take that 5 minute break in between sections to clear my head off.

I'd not believe myself if I can pull off the Verbal performance from today on actual GMAT test day.

The low 700 block

2005-08-07T00:13:00.000-04:00

As part of my third week GMAT prep, I took yet another full length test from GMAT Powerprep (the second test) and scored a 720. During the test, I felt like I would get all the Quant questions correct but I ended up doing 3 stupid mistakes and my score fell to 49. The Verbal was a bit weaker at 40.

So far I have pretty much scored in the 700- 720 range, except the one Kaplan test on which I did 670. This is both good and bad. Good from a consistency standpoint but bad because I just dont seem to break beyond 720. I need to be scoring higher than 710 and 720 in my 3rd week if I am to entertain any chances of doing a 740+ on the real test. If my peak is really 720 and this is what I am going to score, I might as well take the test now and then start working on the essays, instead of doing GMAT prep for 3-4 more weeks.

I do have 4 more weeks before my test but a couple of weekends will go to some other commitments I have (far more important than the GMAT or the MBA), so I'd say I really have about 2 solid weeks to prepare for the GMAT. The plan is to do as much of the OG and Kaplan as possible and take 2 to 3 full length tests more.

If I dont hit a 750 in any of the practice tests, I dont see how I would do that on the real test. On the other hand I'd be happy if I got a 720+ even, given that its hard to predict performance based on practice tests and even after scoring 700 plus consistently, people do end up with a 650 on the real GMAT.

I just want the GMAT done and out of the way so I can seriously start finalizing my essays, recommendations etc and also have something else to write about on this blog.

In between GMAT practice

2005-08-04T21:07:00.000-04:00

It felt a little better today to do some Quant practice from the Kaplan GMAT 800 book as the questions seem to be more in line with the real GMAT. I went through the arithmetic, algebra and geometry sections in one session. Over the next 2 days I plan to complete the word problem section and then move back to the OG again and hunt for some tougher Quant problems.

Meanwhile, I have also to figure out how to approach my boss for a recommendation and in the process reveal that I will be going away next year. While I anticipate getting a good letter of support, it might mean me having to forego my promotion. I dont know that I will be promoted for sure but the signs are telling that I have a good shot. It would have made my b-school case stronger to show 3 raises and 2 promotions in the last 3 years but I'll take it as it comes (or doesn't).

My 5 minute break is up, back to doing some Verbal for the day.

GMAT 800 for Quantitative

2005-08-04T15:45:00.000-04:00

I am in my 3rd week of GMAT studying now and have primarily focussed on questions from the Official Guide. I have done about 100 questions from each section, except Reading Comprehension and have been generally unhappy about the quality of the Quant questions. They seem to be much easier than questions on the real GMAT. The Verbal questions are more accurate in terms of difficulty.

Given the short amount of time I have, it seemed that I needed to look for another source to work on my Quant skills rather than do all the OG questions. Beat the GMAT is a wonderful blog for GMAT test takers and I read it everyday so it was great to get in touch with Eric and exchange some GMAT prep thoughts.

My recommendation for anyone who is a Quant geek and is looking to tackle more tougher questions right away is to get a hand on GMAT 800 by Kaplan. The questions test your GMAT Quant concepts more thoroughly and help you prepare better in my mind. For Verbal, the Official Guide is very good and is a must to do. Kaplan and Princeton Review practice tests are useful as well.

I have 4 weeks left before my GMAT and lots to do!!!

End of Week 2

2005-08-03T10:07:00.000-04:00

Week 2 was slower than week 1 in terms of the amount of time I could devote to my GMAT preparations. Deadlines at work, fatigue, not enough concentration, school research and thoughts on admission essays were all contributing factors.

Assuming my GMAT goes well (good enough to compete in the top schools), I will in all likelihood try to meet Columbia's ED round. Essays are never easy and need a lot of introspection, careful evaluation of career goals, writing multiple drafts and getting feedback from other people. Aside from Wharton and Harvard, neither of which I am applying to at this point, Columbia is a top school for me given my post MBA goals. I have visited the campus multiple times in the past, talked to students, alumni and read enough from their site, brochures and other material on the Internet and it seems to be the best fit for me.

Its a top MBA program, not easy to get into (which ivy league is?) but I think is within my reach if I am able to put together well constructed essays. In terms of credentials (GPA, Work ex, leadership etc) , I believe I have all those elements, however I need to weave the whole story together and present it to Admissions.

Back to the GMAT, this week will obviously see some catching up on my part as I just did one full length test and about 150 OG questions in all last week. Honestly, I am beginning to panic a bit but I'll do my best to keep my focus on the task at hand, which is to get as much GMAT practice done as possible and nail the GMAT.

Verbal Worries

2005-07-31T18:28:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I had planned on doing some extra practice questions along with taking a full length test. Due to some immediate family needs, I didnt get a chance to even touch the GMAT yesterday. Between taking a practice test and doing more practice questions from the OG, I decided on the latter and tried to keep the breakdown of the questions similar to a full length test. Essentially I did 42 Verbal and 37 Quantitative questions roughly broken up equally into the SC, RC, PS, DS and CR.

So far I have completed about a fifth of the OG questions (300 or so in total or 60 from each section), and the Quantitative seems to be well under control except for the ocassional twister. Verbal continues to be more of a worry with a hit rate of about 70-75% on an average. On today's practice set, I got 34/41 in Verbal and 36/37 in Quantitative. I was also thinking, perhaps the tougher sets are yet to come given that I am only in the 60s right now. That underlines my need to improve on Verbal even more.

Hopefully with more practice this week, I will continue to gain confidence on Verbal.

Kaplan rubs it in

2005-07-27T19:26:00.000-04:00

As part of my GMAT prep plan dictates that I take 2 to 3 full length practice tests a week in addition to working on other questions, I took another full length test today, this one from Kaplan. I am not sure if the Kaplan tests are actually more difficult or Kaplan just has a stringent grading system. Having read on so many other blogs that Kaplan scores are comparatively on the lower side, I wasn't too disheartned to see the 670 that I got today.

However, on closer examination of the scores, I found that I got 31 right out of 37 in the Quantitative section (6 mistakes) and 35 right out of 41 in the Verbal section (6 mistakes). That accounted for a scaled score of 41 on Quantitative and 40 on Verbal. This in is contrast with Powerprep or GMAT Prep where I got more questions wrong and yet scored higher (700 and 710 respectively). Since all questions on the GMAT are not counted towards your score as some of them are trial questions, it is possible that PP and GMAT Prep are structured in a way to somehow account for that, I dont know.

What is clear though that in order to break the 700 mark on Kaplan, there is scope for only 2-3 errors in each section. I didnt find any section on the Kaplan test to be particularly difficult, they were at par with any other test I have taken so far in terms of difficulty, maybe 1 or 2 questions made me think a little harder and took a bit longer to answer.

Anyhow, now that 1 full length test is out of the way, its back to OG for today's quota of questions.

End of Week 1

2005-07-26T23:07:00.000-04:00

Today was more OG day, I did 15 questions from each section except for RC, from which I did 6, adding up to a total of 66 questions. I got all the 6 RC questions right and atleast 1 question wrong from each of the other 4 sections. The RC passage (I did only 1) was relatively easy, related to excavation of artifacts in Cyprus and the impact of open market trading on illegal diggings. I somehow find it easier to tackle science/history passages than the ones which involve trade unions and labor laws.

Anyhow, coming back to the questions, I made some silly errors in Data Insufficiency just because I didnt read what was being asked. Focus and stamina over a 3 hour period on the GMAT is key and I need to sustain that. I caught myself looking at the watch twice today, wondering when my 2 hour study time would end.

With those 2 hours also ended my first week of GMAT preps. Its been a satisfactory first week and I did have fun everyday with the practice questions but I have ways to go. Its been fun reading up on schools, other blogs (Dave, Beat the GMAT, Accepted.com and others), thinking about potential essay content for schools, debating which recommenders to use and pondering over personal and career goals.

Overall a good close to week 1 and now onto week 2!

Officially on The Official Guide

2005-07-25T23:34:00.000-04:00

Today I started working with The Official Guide, 10th edition and I am almost about to end week 1 of my GMAT preparation. The initial questions looked familiar from Powerprep and I knew that, having read this blog. Today was an easy day because 1) the early questions on OG are relatively easier than the later ones and 2) because I had come across some of those questions earlier. So my near perfect results on the OG today probably is not of much consequence but it felt nice to hit OG from question 1.

I also had a chance to read through some Probability and Permutation/Combination theory stuff during my lunch hour at work and do a couple of quick practice questions just to test the concepts. Also went through the Kaplan Reading Comprehension strategy. Overall, a good day GMAT wise but looking forward to more real/tougher questions from the OG this week.

I'd still be a 600

2005-07-24T23:34:00.000-04:00

This weekend was productive in terms of my GMAT preparation. I bid adieu to Sentence Correction finally and will start with Reading Comprehension next. Although I am a day late to start Reading Comprehension, I feel good about gaining some degree of confidence on Sentence Correction. All in all I did about 110 practice SC questions and also took another full length practice test (GMAT Prep - sorry I mentioned Kaplan before) and did decently okay on it (710 Q 48 V 40), although during the test I didnt think I would cross even 600; it seemed so hard and felt like I was guessing on many questions. I hope I retain the same guessing skills on GMAT day.

I was also surprised to note that the Quantitative section seemed to be much harder than the Verbal, normally its the other way round. For the first time, I wasent able to finish the Quantitative section and had to randomly guess the last 3 questions. As usual, Reading Comprehension bothered me yet again and it felt like I would learn all about prehistoric dinosaur bones, comets hitting the earth, socio-economic theories of 17th century trade unions in Britain and the role of women in the early 20th century american labor unions not to forget how positrons bounce around each other and the atom is split; all in those 75 minutes of Verbal torture.

After this, I'd almost like to think that my GMAT score is my IQ level, no matter how badly I did, I'd still be a 600!

Day 4 Summary

2005-07-21T14:05:00.000-04:00

This is my fourth day into the GMAT prep and the momentum has been good and positive. Ofcourse 4 days is a very small timeframe to measure anything, I just hope I can sustain it for the next 8 weeks or so as I will be hitting the Round 1 deadlines.

I met my daily goal of studying for 1 hr and doing 30 practice questions, infact I did 50 Sentence Correction questions from Powerprep and Kaplan and got 42 of them right. More than the fact that I got 8 wrong, what worried me was the fact that I didnt agree with some of the explanations to the right answers as given by Kaplan. So it boils down to training myself more the ETS way and how they think what is right on the GMAT, rather than what my conventional English grammar knowledge suggests. I have gone through the theory behind Sentence Correction both from Kaplan and Princeton review (found the latter easier to follow) and today is my last day on Sentence Correction questions before I move on to the next topic, Reading Comprehension.

I admit, I dread this the most; Reading Comprehension is like a nightmare to me and can actually put me to sleep during a test. Its my weakest spot and I need to work the most on this.

Let's see if my love for RC improves after 3 days.

Keeping it Simple

2005-07-20T14:22:00.000-04:00

This whole application process for me has to revolve around "making the maximum impact with minimum effort." When I say minimum, I mean the maximum possible in the time I have available, which is not a lot.

I came across atleast 10 different guide books and plenty of sites related to the GMAT and I cant possibly go through each one of them even though I would have loved to. So on the "Keeping it Simple" philosophy, I started with the GMAT. I have decided to focus my GMAT efforts only on Kaplan 2005 (with cd), Princeton Review 2005 (with cd), Gmat800 and The Official Guide (10th edition).

I have worked my study plan to do atleast 1 hour of studying everyday on one topic only and do atleast 30 practice questions on that topic. I will do this for 3 days and move on to the next topic. In parallel, I will take a full time test every 3 days (2 a week). The key right now is to keep it very focussed and streamlined and thats what I am going to do.

P.S. Studied the SC section from PR and did soem practice questions from PR. Then took the SC test on Powerprep and got 15/22 (68%).

Tackling the GMAT

2005-07-20T01:40:00.000-04:00

I need to get cracking on the GMAT right away and I need to take the exam quick and do well in my first attempt. Having said that, its not going to be a cakewalk. Its been years since I have done much quantitative work (my job doesnt require me to) and GMAT specific grammar and verbal expertise are not my strengths either. Everyday reading and taking 2-3 tests a week is the plan at the moment. The challenge lies in my highly intense work schedule and my need to parallely research out schools, given the time constraints that I have imposed on myself.

I decided to take an ETS from Powerprep test just to gauge where I stand even before I start preparing. I actually did pretty well for my first test (700 Q48 V38) but believe it was more of a fluke. I know for a fact that I need to work hard on the verbal specially and I cant consistently score the same on other practice tests right now. My target score is 720 or above as I believe the other elements of the application make the difference beyond that point. I have the Kaplan Guide, Princeton Review, GMAT 800 (also by Kaplan), Arco, Peterson's, Barrons and The Official Guide. Realistically I wont be able to go through all these books as I plan to take the GMAT in 4-5 weeks time (if I am going to make any Round 1 deadline).

Its looking like a very tough 4 weeks ahead!

Late in the game

2005-07-19T00:47:00.000-04:00

I know people have already taken their GMAT, arranged for their transcripts, probably talked to their recommenders and are working on their initial essay drafts. My decision to apply for Fall 2006 was rather immediate, taken over the last 3-4 days. I had started preparing with the aim of applying for Fall 2007 and thought I would do my homework right by starting the game early on. However, a few personal factors and aniticipating progress at work over the next 2 years, it feels like now is the right time and I should just do it a year earlier.

The bad news is that I have yet to take the GMAT for which I have just started to study, have yet to do research on any of the schools that I want to apply to, have no recommenders lined up and am pretty late in the game now. The good news is that I am up for the challenge, I think it will be a lot of fun, I am motivated and fired up and think I have a pretty good story to share with the admissions committee about my professional and personal goals and achievements so far.

This is my first post and I prefer to keep myself anonymous for the time being. There is a lot to be done to make any sort of an impact in the highly competitive b-school admissions process. At the end of the day, I am going to have fun with it and do the best possible. Good luck to you all!