Questions from prospective MBA applicants

It has been quite some time since I published my last post. The amount of work that I am doing in my college and the time I am spending to prepare my applications was keeping me away from blogging. Anyways, I thought I will publish one more post before I break off for semester exams.
Yesterday, we had an event conducted by our professor of entrepreneurship class. In that event, we were paired up with a random partner and told to come up with a viable business for one day. I chose the idea of mentoring but at the end of the day we shifted to food as it was much more demanding and we earned the same amount of money in 1 hour by selling food as the amount we had earned in 6 hours of mentoring.
Anyways during mentoring I came across some important questions which I thought I would put in this blog so that people are more aware at least of the basic things (though some of the things I might have already covered in my previous posts). All the statistical data are taken from the blog by the director of the admissions and financial aid (http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog-all.html)
I must also say that the opinions that I give here are entirely my own and opinions may vary among people. All the information that I give in this blog are based on my experience and my interaction with different kinds of people.


Q) I am very interested in this HBS 2+2 program. Do you recommend me to write the GRE exam or the GMAT?
A) The admission committee for the HBS 2+2 program as well as the director of admissions tell that they accept both the tests and they don't give any preference to any of the tests. The average GMAT score for HBS 2+2 class of 2014 admitted applicants is slightly below 730 and the GRE score is a shade below 1450. But the range of GMAT score is from 510 to 790. So whichever test you take, ultimately you being selected or dinged (rejected) depends upon your overall application including your essays, recommendation letter, GPA, extra curricular activities etc... If you are very interested in doing an MBA, I would recommend you to take the GMAT exam as its score can be used for other b schools too. Some top colleges like Harvard and Stanford does accept GRE scores but not all b schools.



Q) When is the latest that I can take my GMAT / GRE to apply for the HBS 2+2 program?

A) I booked for my test dates quite late and this turned out to be a mistake for me. I booked my test dates earlier this February to write my exams in June with the dates being as follows
June 21 -TOEFL
June 24 - GRE
June 25 - GMAT 
This turned out to be a mistake as the last date for submitting a score was July 1st. So, I didn't have my AWA scores to report, also I didn't have my percentile scores so I just rounded off my percentile scores to an approximate figure as I couldn't submit my application without entering my percentile scores.
I will highly recommend a candidate to write the GMAT / GRE sometime in February, so that you will get everything in hand before submitting an application. Also, if you happen to score lesser than what you were expecting you can always write the exam once more in the month of April / May. 



Q) I have a low GPA. Will it affect my chances of getting admitted?
A) The average GPA of the HBS 2+2 class of 2014 students is around 3.75. So one has to be really exceptional to get admitted into the program. The grading system is different in different parts of the world and what is 3.75 in the US may be a slightly lower score in some other part of the world. So you need to see how you have performed with respect to your peers and how you have best utilized the chances that are around you. Most of the students who have been accepted to the 2+2 program did their under graduation in colleges like Harvard, Stanford etc. So you will be competing with those students. Therefore, I will say the GPA does matter and you will have to try to be the best or at least in the top few students of your class if you are not from colleges like Harvard or Stanford. However, if you have a very good reason to say why you didn't do very well in your under graduation then you probably have a slight chance to get called for an interview.


Q) I am going to apply for the HBS 2+2 program next year. What can I do in the next 8 months to get admitted?
A) This is a question which most students asked me and I never give a direct reply to this.
The students must do whatever they are passionate about and see that what they do matches with their career vision. You should not do anything just because you think that will help you to get an admit. I am very sure that the admission committee will be able to see right through your essays or at least it will be evident in the interview if you did some things just for the sake of doing it without showing any real interest.
The things you can do to improve your chances are study well for the GMAT and get a high GMAT score, research well on the colleges and apply to those colleges which fits you, visit the campus if you can (you tend to learn a lot more than just browsing through websites)

Off Campus Visit - Duke Fuqua

It would be great if you can go and visit the campus. But if a candidate is not able to do so, one should try to learn as much as possible about the b school through off campus visits or friends, alumni etc. I attended an Off Campus event conducted by Duke Fuqua in August. In addition to learning a lot of things about applying, what the college is expecting from a candidate, speaking to an alumni, I also got my application fee to be waived. One of the most important thing that I had learned when mingling with an alumni was that it is not easy to change your career path once you have been in it for sometime. Harsha an alumni of 2005 batch had also suggested to read a few books like 'Marketing yourselves in business Schools' - By Carpentor and to go through the business week guide to the top business schools. The session that I had attended was for Duke MBA- Daytime and they focussed on how the business school helped us to become a "leader of consequence". They also gave us an estimate of the cost, the program overview, the life in NC (North Carolina) and the entrepreneurship culture that prevails there (North Carolina Triangle). I was however disappointed in learning that there is no deferred program offered by the Duke as of now. Other reasons why attending the information session will prove to be helpful is that, the college officials, alumni get a first hand experience of who you are, what you want to do and so forth. So it is important for the persons to connect to the right sort of individuals in the admission event, ask "intelligent & meaningful" questions. Sometimes, the person who comes to give a talk may be from the admission team and if you are able to portray yourself as a deserving candidate you will have more of a chance to get selected. Take the information session seriously as you are being monitored and judged constantly and this could be one of the things that could change you from being rejected to being called for an interview / getting selected.

HBS 2+2 Career vision essay question initially misunderstood

I had at first misunderstood the question that comes in the optional part of the essays where they ask about, "what is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?" At first (sometime last October), I was thinking why choosing HBS or in particular the 2+2 program was meaningful to me. But, after browsing a lot, I had found out that it is not why the HBS or the the 2+2 program in particular but your career vision is meaningful to you. This was a tricky question. For the 2+2 applicants, I would advise that unless they are very focussed on what their career vision is they should not answer this question. The other two questions, in the optional about how one has engaged with the community or which part of the world are you most curious about and why, should be answered by the students who do not have sufficient focus on their career vision.

While answering the career vision question, one should be able to mention how they have grown over time and should be able to connect what they have done previously to their career goal. Being a college senior, with little work experience, one might find it difficult to write about the career vision part. He however should not be tempted into answering this question thinking that this will impress the admission officials the most. If the candidate is not very strong in his career vision part, it could have an adverse effect on his application.

First round deadlines over in many colleges!

A lot of things have changed over the past week. The first round deadlines are getting over and I unfortunately haven't been able to apply for the first round. The extra time will definitely help me to submit a much better application and probably the best one. In college as semester is coming to an end, I have to study for exams. Thesis submission is due next week and so is my final project review, viva and practicals. However, after my exams are over I will have more time in preparing my applications. I am considering whether to go the US to visit the business schools. My internship in the US did help me to find out about the business schools in the eastern side. The western side is still remaining with my heart shouting "go and visit Stanford", "go and visit Stanford"...

Harvard 2+2 Program

If you want information about the HBS 2+2 program, you will be interested in a specific post on HBS 2+2 by me. The following post is about my experience in applying to the HBS 2+2 program. 
The deadline for application was July 1st and I submitted my application for it on June 30th. Looking back, I think I should never have submitted my application because I didn't put a lot of effort in making a nice one. But at the same time, I learnt a lot from just applying to the college. The next application which I would be submitting to Stanford will be polished to the maximum. I am not going to have any slip-ups in the application. If I had been selected in HBS I would probably never have applied to Stanford. So I think this is God's way of telling me that I belong to Stanford, after all I have a strong passion for entrepreneurship and is there a better place to be than stanford?

I came across HBS 2+2 program around the same time last year. Ever since I saw the application essay, I would be literally dreaming of what to write about career vision, the three most substantial accomplishments, what have I learned from a mistake and so forth... So any candidate who is planning to apply for HBS should start preparing early for the applications. It is important for a candidate to have a good GMAT, GPA, leadership skills. Though this year an HBS 2+2 admitted student got 510 in GMAT. So thats where the essays and the recommendation letter comes into play. On the whole if you are able to market yourself very well then you will have a good chance of getting admitted.

Continuing with MBA applications but slowly

I am continuing with my MBA applications but at a slower pace not only because of my college work but also because I am applying to the deferred program. So even I apply in the third round since they would be taking me in after 2 years, I don't think it will make a difference whether you submit before the first round or the second round. It is very important for me to get a deferred MBA program due to personal reasons (I hope to get into Chicago Booth or Stanford). The other significant reasons why I am applying to the deferred programs are I will get to work for 2 years and thereby be able to better to participate in the case studies discussion and also when I apply for jobs when I am finishing my MBA it would be easier for me to get recruited compared to a candidate with no work experience. My essays for Harvard were not very done. I will do better for my Stanford and Chicago Booth applications. To better I am taking a lot of time especially in my essay part and hopefully it comes out very well. I will most probably apply to those two colleges late december or early January.

Meeting with the Alumni Batch of 1983

For the past few days, I had been planning to start a mentor forum in my college, more specifically to start a website where the alumni who had passed out from the college can help out the students studying in that college. All these plans where in the ideation stage until I met the batch of 1983 who had come down to speak to the students in college (I think their batch is the first one to do so). I met up with them after their talk and put forth my idea of starting this mentor forum which they liked immediately and told that they'll take the necessary steps in starting out this program. I will be doing my best to start this as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, in college I am getting very busy with my third review in design and fabrication project coming up in another 2 weeks. Hopefully everything goes fine.

Time Management

To those individuals who wanted to know how to manage their time here is an excellent article from Harvard Business Review

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day

The author for the above article starts by saying that, Do you have too much time and not enough to do in it? If your answer to that above question is No then you'll have to read the article

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/07/an-18minute-plan-for-managing.html

Meeting with the founders from 3 different companies

In my last post I told that I would be talking about time management skills in my next post. But I am postponing that as of now as todays meeting with the founders of Bharat Matrimony, Semantics Learning and Dexterity was just awesome. It may well prove to me the defining moment of my career. Murugavel Janakiraman, founder of Bharat Matrimony was the first to talk and there was so much to learn from him. Bharat Matrimony was a company that he had started, while working in the US. After his layoff, he devoted 100% of his time towards this business and this business has seen tremendous success and in general due his extreme hard work and devotion. He has now expanded it to different fields. One of the most important things which he had mentioned was the seemingly insignificant tasks like going out for movies with friends, we'll have to seek our parents approval but for significant tasks like marriage (he is after all the owner of Bharat Matrimony) and starting a business, we should not do according to what our parents say. If we have the passion for something we just have to go ahead and do it, whatever the idea may be, whatever the opinions of out family/friends may be because when we think ahead of our time, other people will just not know where the idea will take us. The next speaker was Pravin Shekar, co-founder of Dexterity and also a serial entrepreneur with intercontinental experiences. Pravin Shekar and I have similar interests, we both love travelling, we love photography, he is a serial entrepreneur, and I most probably be one too. He has been instrumental in building the KPO into a multi million dollar business unit. He is aware of the culture of Europe and how people work there. He is good in incubation and might later on venture out into a venture capital fund related company. He is also a silver medal rank holder from Indian Institute of Management (IIM). The next speaker was George Anand, Founder CEO of Semantics Learning. He was the youngest of the three speakers and again an alumnus from IIM. He spoke about his experiences and how important it is for entrepreneurs to be passionate about what they do and also at the same time they'll have to spend judiciously.

Overall, it has been a great day interacting with those high profile speakers. My next post will definitely be on time management!

B schools that contacted me over the past week and entrepreneurship awareness camp in Anna University

Everything, for the big day, has been arranged for the event tomorrow which is conducted by the students of entrepreneurship development (ED) club of Anna University. This event is being conducted in coordination with IIT, Kharagpur. The event includes guest talks by George Anand, Founder CEO, Semantic Learning, Pravin Shekar, Co-Founder, Dexterity Ltd. and Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder, Bharat Matrimony. This is the first time that founders from 3 companies are giving a talk on the same day to the students. The ED club is showing good progress after it was inaugurated on April 3rd 2009. We had the first event called the "First Step" on September 11, 2009 for which the chief guest was Chandu Nair, who is the President and Director of Scope eknowledge centre. He is an alumnus from IIM, Ahmedabad, the most prestigious management school in India. And the event to be conducted tomorrow is our second event and we hope many more will follow. During the "First Step", we not only had an insightful talk from Chandu Nair but also various events were conducted by the members of the ED club for the college students. The events ranged from business quiz, marketing a product to generation of ideas and creation of a business plan to use the money allocated to them judiciously.

Also, last week, since I had taken the GMAT and subscribed to one of its services (GMASS) in which I could be contacted by bschools, I was initally contacted by Jarrod Goentzel, Executive Director, MIT for Master of Engineering in Logistics for a degree in the same. The master program in supply chain management will probably be a good option for me but after some years, considering the fact that I haven't yet finished my under graduation and also the fact that I have been employed in BEROE which is mostly related to supply chain management. So I might probably apply for it after a few years but at first I will have to compare how it will help me in achieving my career vision and whether it will be a better fit for me than the MBA option. A lot of things to be considered!

I was also contacted via email by shealyn.rentschler@chicagobooth.edu for applying to the Chicago Booth summer scholars program. I don't know as of now whether I will be applying to that as the dates of its program are clashing with my starting dates of my job. So I most probably will not apply to that.

One more bschool which had contacted me through GMASS was willamette university which has a specific program meant for college seniors which had really excited me. Moreover there is no application fees for submitting an online application. This was a school which I had never come across. It was nice that they had contacted me. The only fees I would paying for applying to that university is to send my GMAT score report to that college. This college is located in Oregon and the tuition fees and the cost of living are very less compared to other b schools like Harvard and Stanford. The only thing which perturbed me was its ranking and also the schools average GMAT and GPA was much lower than I had which made me think whether this school is really worth applying to. But anyways I have decided to apply to just find out where I stand and whether I will be selected for its program. If I don't get selected for this, I would definitely drop my plans for applying to Stanford and Yale this academic year. I will work for a couple of years and then apply to the top universities across the world.

INSEAD, LBS, IMD which are very good business schools like Wharton, Chicago booth and so on, want work experience which is why I am not applying to those schools as of now. I really wish they start accepting individuals with no work experience but superior academic ability and leadership skills like Harvard, Yale, Stanford at least by providing them with a deferred admission.

I think I have written a lot now. A lot of students whom I have met have asked about time management skills and strategies. So, my next post will be based on it. I remember reading an article based on it some time back in Harvard business review. I will link that to my next post.