My essay updates

I didn't make much progress last week. It's not that i was busy but i was some how not in a good frame of mind to write essays. So, i consciously stopped myself from writing essays and enjoyed my time with friends and colleagues :-)

I have almost completed my draft of HBS essays but i need to get it reviewed by someone. Moreover, even after writing several drafts of my career vision essay, i some how do not feel okay with it :-( I will give it another shot soon.

On the reco front, i have made some progress, I have contacted my recommenders and told them about my progress and reiterated the help i would need from them....soon :-)

I have also started thinking about my Kellogg essays and plan to start putting them into words soon. Let's see how it goes. I am waiting for Duke and Michigan to publish their essays, so that i can have the visibility of my schedule and plan accordingly.

It's raining essays...

So, the essays have started pouring in..rather raining :-)
MIT, Darden, Tuck and many others posted their essays last week. Now i need to make a comprehensive plan for the application of each of the schools. Moreover, I need to talk to my recommenders about my plan and when i need their time and help. I had told them about my intention to apply this year. But now i need to apprise them of the timelines.

On the HBS essay front, I didn't get much time during the weekdays lastweek. Hope to make some progress during the weekends as there will be no cricket or Football match to watch:-) Suddenly, I see a dearth of sport events after funfilled Cricket, Football and Wimbledon matches.

My HBS essay writing experience

I have started writing my Harvard essays.

The topics are sweet but i have to take care that i am able to convey my thooughts in the given word-limit. I started writing the essays as if there were no word-limits. But it was very difficult to trim it later. So, now, i have decided that i will write taking into account the word limit ( won't exceed more than 20% of the word-limit).

I found the career vision question (What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?) really difficult because I have to put a lot of points in 400 words!

I have really started appreciating the small word-limit of the HBS essays. It stops me from wandering away from the topic and helps me concentrate on my thought process. I edit and re-edit until i feel that the reader will be able to understand without any difficulty.

I am looking for someone from the blogosphere who can share his Harvard essays experience and who can give me some feedback. I thought about taking help from Admission consultants but I do not think I can afford to spend that much.

I plan to spend this weekend watching Wimbledon and FIFA...Come on Italy and France!!!

Books I am reading...

I am reading a lot of books these days...

1. Winning - Done
2. Execution - Done
3. The Goal - Done
4. Built to last - In Progress
5. Freakonomics - In Progress
6. Direct from Dell : Strategies that revolutionized an industry - In Progress.

Suggestions for some more good books are welcome :-)

One-year MBA or Two-year?

Recently, i was talking generally with my manager and we some how started talking about MBA. He has an MBA from India. When we were talking about international MBA, he was very much supportive of one-year MBAs, but not of a two-year course. His logic: What one gets from an MBA is contacts and tools. Contacts: You will never be able to mingle and interact with so many people togather with such closeness, once you are out on the business floor. Tools: B-school will teach you different tools to tackle various business scenario, but every scenario is unique. You may usually find some tool or the other helpful in analyzing you scenario, but you gain the best knowledge from your own experiences. When you work yourself and you crack it on the floor, that's the Aha! experience. Even if you were unlucky and didnot succeed, you will get a lot many insights, which will help you attack other issues. So, he says one should attend one-year MBA courses, which will help you get the contacts and the tools. Moreover, most of the course work which is taught in 2 years can be fit into 1 year course. B-schools admit the top of the tops, so the students can handle the rigor of a compact one-year course. You will learn a lot more if you work for the next 1 year (which you will spend at school, if you study in a 2-year course). B-schools should admit students with sufficient experience and the applicants should be sure of what they want to do going forward. Also, if you atend a one-year course you will on one hand save one year's admission fee and on the hand earn money money.

I argued with him that it will be difficult for the applicants who want to switch career to have a comprehensive idea of their new career in a one-year course. Moreover, many students are not even sure of what job they want to do. So, they learn a lot about different career paths and job functions in their first year. Then, in second year they are lot more confident in deciding their career path.

Also, If the person doesnot have sufficient experience and he is stuck in a job/position where he cannot grow much, then it makes sense to go to a b-school. In this case, he needs to have a solid understanding of all the major business areas which are essential to lead a successful company/team. Moreover, most of the b-schools which offer One-year MBA cources( read European schools) require considerable international application. So, it will be difficult for a person with say 2-3 years of experience to enter a b-school. So, in my mind, for a person with sufficient experience, going for an advanced degree will be more useful than going for an MBA.

On the money part, i agreed with him. It's really difficult for a person from middle class family of a developing country to spend so much.

Well begun is half done....

For a long time, i have been a silent reader of most of the MBA blogs. I found it opportune to start my own blog. I feel it will help me in many ways:-

1. I can Track my progress.
2. I will benefit from the comments of the visitors.
3. It may be of help to fellow and future applicants in some way...

So, Where do i stand as of today:-

1. I am through with my GMAT...scored well..700+.
2. Plan to take TOEFL soon. (I really don't know why the schools ask for TOEFL scores when they already take GMAT scores!!!)
3. I am an international candidate with 4+ years of experience in IT, Operations Research and marketing.

I have done some initial research on school selection. I plan to apply to 6 schools in Round 1 for Fall2007 admission. So, as of now my list includes:

1. Duke
2. Kellogg
3. MIT
4. Michigan
5. Darden
6. Cornell
7. CMU/ ( orYale)
8. Stanford
9. Tuck
10. Purdue


My 6 final schools will include 2 schools which will be my stretch goals to get in, 3 which i feel i can make it to and 1 for hedging.

Also, I found that CMU requires a cosigner for the loan in case of international students. So, I am kind of getting away from this school and switching it with Yale.

I have started some essay writing based on the Fall2006 essay questions...1) Career goals, Why MBA and Why now part. 2) How will i contribute back to the school. 3) My leadership experience. I feel, it will save me some effort and time, when i finaly start writing the Fall2007 essays. So, waiting eagerly for the schools to publish the essay questions and deadlines :-)

So, I have laid the foundation of this blog today :-)