School Selections and Progress

Its been sometime since my last post. Since then, I've decided on my schools, spoken to my recommenders and started working on my essays.

Here is my school selection and deadlines:

* INSEAD, France - October 1st (Round 1)

* London Business School - October 19th (Round 1)

* ISB, Hyderabad - December 1st (Round 2)

I picked LBS and INSEAD for the following reasons:

- Top notch MBA curriculum

- International Focus

- Collaborative cultures

ISB is an up and coming school with a great curriculum. There are a lot of good professors teaching at ISB. In the long term, I see myself going back to India in the long term so its a good option for me. The environment is quite competitive though and the international placements are still picking up. 

I would have preferred to apply to ISB in Round 1 but if I am admitted, I need to make a decision by first week of December. I probably would not know the results for INSEAD and LBS by then.

As I mentioned in my last post, I would have liked to apply to schools in the US but as a result of my immigration status I will be denied the F-1 visa.

I had the chance to speak to ISB and INSEAD alumni. I really feel that INSEAD is the right school for me. 

I spoke to my two recommenders this week. I had the chance to go over my profile with one of them who is a past manager. I've decided not to ask my current manager for a recommendation as it can be detrimental to my career prospects in the short term. The other person was a Tech Lead on one of the projects I worked on. Both are pretty senior in the organization and know me quite well.

When contacting recommenders, I wrote out some notes on my profile, highlighting the things I had done in different scenarions. This will help them answer the different types of questions they will encounter.

I'm currently working on the INSEAD Essays. I think I have the content for the Achievements, Failure and Culture Shock essays but they are still drafts that need to be refined. The Career Goals essay has troubled me for some time but I've got some clarity and momentum now. The Personal Characteristics essay is another that I have to tackle soon.

The LBS application will start in September. I've taken at last years essays and have an idea of what to write in each of them. I will start the ISB essays once I'm done with the LBS and INSEAD applications.

The issue with the F1 visa

I'm in a strange predicament about immigration status. Apparently a lot of people are in the same position:

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=69702

Many of us in the US have applied for the green card and are in the queue waiting. The GC queue for India and China is very long and it doesn't look like it till get cleared up anytime soon. There are people like me who are willing to forgoe the GC process to attend business school. Unfortunately, the F-1 visa which is required to attend school in the US requires applicants to prove that they have no intent to immigrate. Since we've already applied for the green card, its impossible to prove this even if we abandon the GC process. 

I was thrown off balance for some time because of this. I just needed a change of strategy to get me back on track. I've decided to apply to schools in India and Europe and not to the US schools. I spent a lot of time thinking about this and I've realized that this is a good thing for me since I want to move back to India sometime. 

If there is a change in the immigration policy after the elections next year, I can wait a year or two before going off to business school. If not, and I get admitted to school this year, I'll start my MBA.

More on my school selections in the next post.

GMAT is done

I wrote the GMAT exam last week and my results are in:
Verbal: 47 (99th Percentile)
Quant: 50 (95th Percentile)
Total: 770/800 (99th Percentile)
Writing Assesment: 5.5/6

First, HERE is a pointer to a post by babayaga at the pagalguy.com forum. I took his advice on studying for the GMAT. Its a good read.

Now onto my own experience.

I used the following material to study:
* GMAC software: I took both the tests and took one test twice. The questions are not static so you will have a different test each time (till it finally runs out of questions). I also has a quant review section and this is where you should review the quant material from. It covers all the required topics.
* Official Guides 11th Edition - Quantitative(green), Verbal(purple) and the Verbal+Quant books (orange). These are indispensible. Purchase the books and work through them. If you are short on time these are the only books you should use. I went through the Sentence Correction sections twice. I kept track of the difficult Quant problems and did them again before the exam.
* Kaplan 2007 Premier Edition + CD: Questions are harder than the actual GMAT. Verbal is tough and Reading Comprehension is really difficult. I scored 630, 650, 640 on the tests on the CD.
* Manhattan Sentence Correction book: The Manhattan books on other topics were not as helpful. 
* Google and GMAT forums: I didn't use a grammar text, if I had a question I googled it or asked it at a forum. I learnt a lot by answering questions at forums too.

Used but not recommended:
* Kaplan 800: Questions are difficult but I didn't see much value in using this book.
* Tata McGraw Hill: I read some quant basics from here and also a paper test. It wasn't really necessary.

I started with a Diagnostic test from the GMAC Software. I scored a 720 but I felt the score was incorrect because I had answered quite a few questions wrong. I later realized that this was because of a number of factors - some aren't scored and difficulty level increases as you get questions right, some questions weigh more, etc.

Next I went onto the Manhattan Sentence correction book. Unlike the GRE, the GMAT follows patterns. You don't need to be proficient in English to do well. Most SC questions can be broken down into a few categories. The trick is to identify the problem and this book will help you do so.

After this I got into solving questions from the Kaplan and the Official Guide(OG) books. As I mentioned above, Kaplan is a lot harder than the usual GMAT so solve this for practice to improve your speed but refrain from using Kaplan materialwhen you get close to the exam. The Official Guides are more IMPORTANT.

I used a small diary to keep track of some grammar quirks, the more challenging Quant problems and the weird sentence correction sentences I came across.

I practiced actual tests using the Kaplan CD and the GMAC software. I tried to take a test every week but it wasn't always possible. The day before the test, I took a test from the GMAC software again. Its very important to simulate the actual test experience as many times as possible before taking the actual test.

For the analytical writing assessment, I used the Official Guide again. There are two sample essays in the Orange book that I read. The book also contains a list of all the writing topics that appear on the test. I wrote around 4 Argument essays and 4 Issue essays. I started with section a week before the test and was not too confident about it when I appeared for the test. I should have done this earlier. I used the introduction and conclusion from the essays in the OG book for all my essays. Don't reinvent the wheel!

I spent close to 3 months studying for it but it was only the second month that I was really serious. I couldn't spend too much time studying in the last month since I had some issues at work that I was trying to figure out. I took the date pretty late and only after my cousin insisted. In retrospect, I would have focussed more on the test I had taken the date earlier. In the end, my test got rescheduled to a few days later at a different test center because there was some construction going on at my original test center. The important point here is that your preparation should peak just before you take the test.

Test Date: The test center is 50 miles away from where I live and my test was at 8:00am so I woke up pretty early to beat traffic and get there early. The center was quiet and the administrators gave me a pair of ear plugs. My Argument essay went well but my Issue essay did not. I took too much time to answer it and I didn't get time to proofread it. A little upset, I started the Quant section. IMPORTANT: You have to use an erasable clipboard that you write on with a sketchpen for scratch work. I didn't know this before hand and I had a VERY difficult time. On the page, I couldn't tell the difference between my 7's and 4's while doing my calculations. If you can, please purchase the erasable sheet and marker for practice before the test. As I progressed through the quant, the questions started to get difficult and the erasable sheet didn't help. There was a point of time when I almost decided that I had answered too many incorrect and that I should cancel my score. I'm glad I didn't :) . The Verbal section on the other hand was much better.

Thats about all I can remember about my preparation right now. If I do remember something else I will update this post. If you have any questions, leave a comment below and I will respond.

The next step is to decide which MBA program to apply to, whom to ask for recommendations etc. Right now I'm looking for ways to improve my application.

Setting out on this Journey..

I've finally become serious about pursuing my MBA degree. I've been procrastinating for the last year or so but I've finally made a decision.
I prepared for my GMAT for the last two months and I'm finally done with it (next post will be on my GMAT experience). That's the first hurdle crossed and I've decided to start blogging about my journey to an MBA degree.

First, here's my profile:
Years of Experience: 3+ (Worked in India for 2 years and then took up an offer to work in the US for the same company)
Profession: Engineer at a Systems Company (I've been with this company since I graduated)
Education:
* Undergraduate: Computer Engineering at an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) (my GPA is average at best).
* I've started to take weekend MBA classes and plan to complete a Certificate Program in Business Administration before I apply for my MBA.
Extra Curricular Activities:
* I was involved in a few activities in college - Music and Dramatics Society, organizer for a few Technical events, etc
* At work I'm involved with some volunteer activities and organizing some technical events.

Next, the reasons I decided to pursue an MBA:
* Career Change: Engineering is fine for now, but I don't see myself doing this in the long run.
* More Opportunities: The developing world is where the action will be in the for seeable future. I could go back home and work in a technical field but an MBA would allow me to rise up the hierarchy faster and give me a better understanding of the processes involved in running an organization. It will also allow me to work in more places and industries than a technical degree alone will.
* My eventual end goal is to start a tech entreprise. The current trend of IT enabled services will not benefit the country in the long run. To really make a difference we need more technology product companies and not just in the software field.
* Personal Reasons: The US is a nice place to live, but I don't see myself living here in the long run. I have responsibilities to my family and an MBA would give me more choices.

I will be applying for Fall 2009. I haven't decided on schools, geographies, whom to take recommendation letters from etc. I'm still working these out. All I have is my GMAT score and my decision to apply for my MBA. Stay Tuned.

"When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into this strong current that will carry him to places he never dreamed of when he first made the decision"

-- Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist".