Plenty of free time...

So there's plenty of free time now...and i feel as if i have become addicted to this app process ;-) But this break has provided me an opportunity to catch up in other fronts. I am now able to devote sufficient time to my office works. Also, I met with some of my friends this week and we had a small get-together. It was great to freely hang out with friends after almost 2-3 months:-) We are planning for one big party this weekend...I hope this would be fun!

On app fronts...let's see when interview invites start pouring in.

Catch ya all later!

My Kellogg interview experience

I had my Kellogg interview today at 10am with an alumni. It was interesting and interactive:-)
No tough questions...he was very cool and enthusiastic person. Most importantly he allowed me to guide the interview the way i wanted. He started with "walk me through your resume" and he followed up with questions on each of my experiences, which covered my learnings, leadership style, teamwork, challenges and the way i approached them, etc. These questions covered all my professional and community experiences. Then he told me that you seem to be pretty much enjoying your current job, so why MBA now? Then why Kellogg? He then asked which other univs am i applying to. Then my GPA and GMAT score. Then it was my turn to ask questions...I asked him a few questions which provided me more insights on the communal learning environment at Kellogg.

All in all it was a good interview. I hope AdCom love my essays and provide me an opportunity to be a part of Kellogg SOM :-)

My Wharton app finally changed to Complete -Round 1. Lets see which univ is interested in interviewing me next.

My Cornell Interview Experience

I had my Johnson interview this week with one of the AdCom members. It was good to have an interview after 3 years :-) The interviewer was very skilled and made me feel comfortable. We shared some laughs and also talked about some of our other interests. The questions were pretty standard though at times he asked follow-up questions.

Some of the questions were:-

1. Why MBA? Why now?
2. Career goals and how would Johnson help?
3. Tell me about your leadership experience. There were some follow up questions on this.
4. Tell me about your team-experience. What do you don't like about working in teams?
5. What other activities are you interested in?
6. What other programs are you applying to? what is common between these programs and what are the distinguishing points of Cornell.
7. What are your strengths? Which three of your qualities would you like me to tell the AdCom?
8. Then he passed the ball to me and said i can ask some questions to him. I asked a few questions.

So, all in all it was a good interview. It was very interactive and interesting. Lets see what happens :-) The result would be out on 17th Nov.

Catch ya later...gotta rush to sleep..:-)

My first post-application interview invite - Cornell Johnson

I just received an interview invite from Cornell :-))
I was feeling low as i had submitted my application on Oct 4th and some of the guys who had submitted after me had received an invite! But most of them were from USA, so my hopes were alive :-)

The AdCom invited me to visit Cornell for an interview but as I am not in the USA so I called them up to check if they provide an alternative way. They have alumni interviews but they didn't have any alumni from my city. So he suggested me to get in touch with the alumni in other cities in case I could travel to those cities. If not, then they would conduct telephone interviews.

Let me see what works out best for me:-) What do you guys suggest??

PS: My Wharton status still says "Received" !

Kellogg part 2 submitted!

I just submitted the part 2 of the Kellogg Application.
So that's the end of my 5 application submissions.

All my recommenders have submitted the recommendations.

Now the wait begins...

I have to start preparing for my Kellogg interview now. I have sent an email to the alumni to suggest me a time and place for the interview, as per his convenience.

I have to start focussing now on job also. The last 2-3 weeks were almost fully devoted to the applications.

catch ya all later...

Kellogg Interview Invite

I received an email from Kellogg with the name and contact address of the interviwer (alumni interview). I haven't yet contacted him. I plan do so soon and fix a date. I think now I better start preparing for the interviews !

I am yet to submit my Kellogg application though. It's done and I would submit it tonight.

My Kellogg Application updates...

As promised, I have completed my Kellogg application. It looks good. I enjoyed writing the Kellogg essays. Kellogg doesn't provide specific word limits, so i didn't had to go and check the word-count after each and every modification :-)

I have not yet submitted the Kellogg app though. My recommenders have not yet submitted the recos. They have promised me to submit it tonight or tomorrow. So, I would submit the apps once the recos are submitted...Tuesday at max.

Chicago GSB Application Submitted!

I just submitted my Chicago GSB application. That makes it four application submissions.

On first look, the word-limit of 1500 words for career progression essay looks a lot of words. But there's so much to cover in 1500 words: Career progression, why MBA, Why now, who influenced your selection of schools, Why Chicago, and how will Chicago GSB help you succeed!
Moreover, the other essay questions provide little chance to elebaorate on your professional experiences. So, you have to cover the professional experiences and key learnings in detail in the career progression part itself. In the end, I feel I did my best in this essay.

The second essay -- What aspect of your personal development would your colleague talk about if interviewed by the AdCom? OR What is the most pressing issue facing humanity? -- was a great chance to show your personal attributes and aspirations and how would you contribute to the Chicago community. Also, how would the opprtunities at the GSB help you hone your skills. I chose to write about the most pressing issue facing humanity.

The 100-word essays were a great opportunity to further show-case your personal and professional characteristics.


Now, my next target is to complete my Kellogg application. I hope I would be able to submit it by this weekend or late-est by Tuesday.

Wharton Application Submitted!

I just submitted my Wharton apps. It was a relief! I was working on it since sunday. I had to stop the count-down for Chicago apps and launch my Wharton apps :-)

Now, I hope I would be done with my Chicago apps by Friday.

Catch ya later!

HBS Application Submitted!

I just submited my Harvard Business School application :-))

I must say it takes a lot of time and effort to revise all the application forms, the last time. I edited some of the information several times...replaced some of the words in the activity description fields, essays, and what not. In the end I was satisfied with the apps. So, i paid money and clicked "submit".

Next to go is my Chicago application...I plan to submit it today. The only recommender, who had not submitted the recommnedation as he was on leave, surprised me by submitting the recommendations letter :-)

So, let me start the countdown for my Chicago apps....

P.S.: Wharton to go tomorrow.

Cornell Application Submitted!

So, finally I started the next phase of admission process with the submission of my Cornell application today (Deadline : Oct. 9). Cornell asks for 2 essays ( 1 leadership experience and 1 career goals) of 400 words each. I made it a point not to go beyond the word limit by even one word. These word-limits were not intimidating after writing the HBS essays.

I have my HBS and Wharton essays ready, I would submit them this weekend. The most difficult part was to make sure that I strictly adhere to the word-limits (they must have provided the word-limits for a reason and it doesn't make sense to go beyond the limits.)

2 weeks ago I decided that I would apply to Chicago as well. I had the career progression essay ready and I modified it to fit with Chicago. The other essays were also kool. So, I am done with the essays. I opted for 3 recommendations, 2 professional and 1 community. 2 of my recommenders have submitted their recos. The other one is on leave and would be back only on 14th. So, I have to wait till 14th or 15th Oct to submit my Chicago apps.

The Kellogg essays are ready but I have a little work left on the 3 small-questions and self-assessment essays. I would be ready to submit by next weekend(14th Oct).

So, all my applications would be submitted before the respective deadlines.