Happy birthday BLUE :)

Here's wishing a very happy birthday to Ms.inblue :)
May you have a wonderful day, a great year and a wonderful life ahead :D

The first hole in the purse

A hole as big as the first installment of the Chicago GSB enrollment fee :)
A hole as big a US$1000 :)

I just got back from the bank, after submitting the documents to obtain a draft in US dollars. Since this if foreign exchange, i was asked to fill as many as 4 different forms to enable them take the money from my account and issue me a draft payable to the school. Since most of the forms were in "Tick mark against appropriate option" format, it took my just more than 30 minutes (thanks to my really really long full name) to fill the forms. I think i am getting a taste of the paper work to be done in the next fews months.

Anyway, i'll get the draft tomorrow and i need to go gather the official transcripts (and official certificates as well) which have been with a friend for quite some time now. And i need photos as well. Sigh :(

Once i get all these done, I'll be sending in my enrollment package to the GSB. I hope to finish all these before the end of the month.

All this amongst crazy work.

Run Iday Run :)

Twelve months later...

I started my investigation about GMAT, US MBA and everything related to these terms in early February 2006. Today, January 2007, I am here to sum up my MBA application journey. No more speaking about all these tests or schools. So i thought i'd put everything in one place and get a move on. From now on, thou shalt hear about Chicago GSB and only about Chicago GSB :)

For info reg GMAT and TOEFL, please click the respective labels :)

GMAT prep books:

• The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
• The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review
• The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
• Kaplan GMAT 2006, Premier Program
• Kaplan GMAT 800, 2005-2006
• Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT, 2006

TOEFL preps:
I did not do any preps. Just read the TOEFL info booklet and got myself familiarized with the test, practiced with the sample tests and took THE test.

Before getting to the applications themselves, here is a dump of all the websites, each of which i must have visited at least a 100 times during those days. Note that i said "at least" :)

• Applicant Bloggers (Hella's List)
• PaGaLgUy
• accepted.com
• ClearAdmit Blog
• ClearAdmit Wiki
• BW MBA Game Plan
• admissions411.com
• BW Forums
• Wharton S2S
• Chicago GSB Forums
• Chicago GSB - DSAC Blog
• BW BSchool News
• The Economist BSchool News
• FT BSchool News

Now to all my applications. Again, click on the Apps label to trace my MBA application journey. To summarize it all in one sentence, i applied to five schools(H/S/W/Chi/K), got interviewed by Chicago GSB and Kellogg (not the usual guaranteed one. My interview was waived initially and i was invited later after they evaluated my application) and got admitted into Chicago GSB.

This has been a long journey, often tiresome and frustrating. I am sure that after the 12 long months, i have re lived my previous 25 years of life and probably planned for the nest 25 :) No one but a B school applicant can make a statement like that. No one but a B school applicant can understand that :)

From now on, i'm gonna trouble all ya folks with info on how i tackle the next few months, when i am probably gonna sign more documents that i've done all my life and definitely gonna sign up for loans which will push me to great new heights (or rather depths) of debt :) More on these as and when they happen.

The app saga comes to an end

And not in a good note - a ding from Stanford :(

On raw terms, i applied to 5 schools and got into one. A success rate of 20% is not what i hoped for, when i started the whole process. Many would say i applied to schools with perhaps the toughest competition - but i already knew that when i started applying :)

As i traveled the journey, i surprisingly found that the priorities kept frequently changing and as a result, one school would outweigh the other and win my "top choice" spot. Surprisingly, if i were to rank these five schools today - my top choice today would be the school that first denied me :)

If i look at what i have in hand, and i have only one, i am extremely glad with what i have. Oh, glad would be a huge understatement. At the beginning of the process, i kept telling people that i'd be glad if i get one admit from any of the five schools i was applying to - because i was applying only to those schools where I'd be glad to get admitted. While i'd only be glad to have been admitted to some schools in the five, i am really really excited that the only one turned out to be Chicago GSB. This is it - a school that is perfect for all my needs.

Time to paint the blog red - expect some changes over the weekend :)

News after a long time

The blog has been sleeping coz there is nothing worth posting :)

I do have something to say today - the ding from HBS. It was anyway expected - it was only made official today. So it doesnt hurt much :)

Tomorrow would be similar news from Stanford. Damn, i threw my heart in at those Stanford essays. All for nothing :)

Life has been full of Chicago GSB for these days. So these dings are just like a deep sea diver's temporary views above water level, before he takes the deep plunge once again :D

Dinged at Kellogg

My big bang beginning of 2007, continues :)

On New year day, i spilled water on my mobile. Then my right knee swelled up and gave me problems. It was so bad that i had to spend yesterday at home, unable to move my knees. Things are okay now - thanks to the medicines.

And now a ding at Kellogg. This defies any logic i can think of at the moment.

I thought my personality suited well with Kellogg. I thought my app was strong, strong enough to get one of those "post-waiver" interview invites. My interview was good - so good that i initially thought my Kellogg interview was much better than my Chicago interview. This has now changed coz i realize my Chicago interview was actually spot-on in many fronts. But still the Kellogg interview went on very very well. In spite of all this - i cannot understand how i can get denied :)

I guess I'd be losing a lot of hair analyzing this one, if i had no admits. With Chicago in the box, this doesn't hurt much. It does, a little, but i guess I'll wake up feeling no pain :)

I have ruled out the possibility of any news from HBS. And hopes of Stanford are almost gone as well :) So i think Chicago will be my only admit. GSB is a school i love (to put it mildly) and so i have no worries whatsoever.

Okay - i need to get back to that investigation i was doing about housing options in Chicago. This is one puzzle...

Cheers to everyone and good luck to all other Kellogg R1 applicants.
Tow more ding posts (after official news) and my app saga will be officially over :)

New year - "Unplugged"

What is the first thing that comes to your mind if i ask "How will you spend the new year?"
Definitely not what i did. Definitely not...

I spent the new year "unplugged", incommunicado, out of reach!!!

Now, neither did I go for a wild trek on the numerous hill stations around, nor did I visit one of the beautiful back water resorts which are only a night's travel away, nor did I hit the highways for a long trip with my biker buddies - even though i would have preferred to have done any of these.

None of your "ideas" on what i could have done will match what exactly happened.

I slipped water on my mobile.
How bad is that to begin a year :)

It happened in the noon, after lunch. I was crouching on my bed and was deeply engrossed in Straight from the gut. I had the mobile to the right and in a moment of carelessness, i toppled the water kept near the phone on to the phone. I switched the phone off immediately and tried cleaning all the water from the phone. I frantically blew out water from all possible locations, but was not sure whether i had completely removed all water or if a little water had entered inside.

After about 30 minutes, when i restarted the phone again, the display was screwed. It was as if i was looking at it through a thick layer of fog :( Some of the keys were also not working. I was able to make calls and send/receive messages though - so i know the phone works well. I switched the phone off again and decided to drop in at the service center tomorrow.

So for the entire day, i was all that i said above - out of reach :(

I just started the phone again - and to my delight, everything seems to be back to normal. The keys which were not working are working again and the display is absolutely perfect. I still did not want to take any risks - so i have switched it off again. I am visiting the service center anyway tomorrow - and will let them confirm whether the phone is okay or otherwise.

Great way to start a new year!!!
I've been using mobile phones for almost five years now (and this is my 4th model) and this has NEVER happened. I've been caught in the occasional rain, but nothing more than that.

This really is a funny thing - now that everything seems alright :)

New year wishes

Here's me wishing all you fellow B School applicants and everyone else who drops by a very happy and prosperous new year 2007. May you and your family see the best of your lives this year and may you taste success in all your endeavors :)

I was on leave from Wednesday. Tomorrow is Eid-ul-adha and hence a holiday again. That makes it 6 days of no office and it was a break I'd yearned for quite some time. I really enjoyed the break.

Since the AdComm offices were closed for vacation as well, there is no news. For me, the coming week is interesting because Jan 8th is Kellogg's decision deadline and Stanford said they will extend interview invites only till the first week of Jan.

On the Chicago front, there is a lot happening. Housing seems so complex, i dunno how we're gonna sort it out. Eventually, it will all be sorted out, i know. But at the moment, there is more chaos than clarity :) The paper work that lies in front of us is really scary and for the next two or three months, i guess i'm gonna spend a lot of time with all the paper work.

Happy new year to you'll once again and rock the part floor tonight :)

Christmas Wishes

To each and everyone of you - here's wishing a Merry Merry Christmas.
Forget the whole MBA Admissions business, take time out with family and friends and enjoy the holidays :)

Chicago reaches out

1. I get a mail from an officer of Admissions promising support all the way through the process from here on. This is the same person who called to inform me of my admit. I think they assign groups of admits to an officer and then the officer handles everything for them.
2. The mail also gave me my GSB id and hence access to the admitted students portal. The site is A.W.E.S.O.M.E. Can't take my eyes off it - the amount of info is overwhelming at times and one has to read and re-read multiple pages to visualize the complete picture. But the site has info on everything i need.
3. The admit packet reached home yesterday. The AdComm seems to have mailed the packets on Monday. Speaks so much for their efficiency. They handle way too many applications compared to last year, still prepone the result by 2 weeks and still finish all work 3 full days before the new deadline. Cool...
   I was kinda of worried abt how the Financial Aid and Visa processing process would work out. I was not clear and hence worried. But a single letter in the admit packet put all my doubts to rest. Now the whole process seems a lot lot simple. The admit packet also has a "Curriculum Guide" that provides info about the faculty (lots of Indians), the curriculum and also the individual courses. I have already started trying out various permutations and combinations :)
4. Today morning, i get a mail from a current first year student saying he'd call me on Monday to explain what he went through one year ago and also to dispel any doubts i might have at this point of time. I am impressed. Eagerly expecting his call...

The last few days have been full of results.
Congrats to all who received good news from their dream schools.
For the unlucky ones - tough luck folks. All the best for your alternate plans.

PS: The Dean's Student Admissions Committee (DSAC) of Chicago GSB has setup a blog to communicate with prospective students and admits. Check out the link under the Resources section.