Indian IT MBA applicants, Google adsense & more

Some updates from my side.

I am leaving for a special course which will keep me away from cyberspace for 10-15 days. But before I leave I'll add a new thread on the forums. It's about Indian IT Males applying for MBA to various b-schools. Check it out in b-school in general section it will be up by tomorrow morning.

Also there are some changes I have done in my blog layout. I have removed "partner blog" part from the column. Also I have added list of recommended books for MBA preparation. I felt to add it as application season is coming soon it would be beneficial to the readers. I would recommend to buy these books. Some of the books will help you in long run, not only will help you during the application process but also during your actual MBA course. Well! you can check the amazon reviews if you don't trust me.

And last but not the least: I have removed Google advertisements from this blog. I just said "not the least" right? it's a big move from my side. I am worried if it hampers my blog writing motivation (?) But what the heck! I have decided to get rid of it.

While writing this blog post I was writing an article on my other blog (which has great scope of improvement; still) I would suggest you to go through it, as I think it's important for at least IIMs. (Indian IT Males I meant.)

MBA Fast track scholarship by Veritas Prep & Beat the GMAT

This is the last month to submit the scholarsihp application for Beat the
GMAT scholarship. I have talked about it earlier on the other blog
But I think that
was before it renamed to a new title. I want to reiterate if I havent mentioned it somewhere before that the scholarship competition is open for international applicants as well. Anyone can apply: US or non-US applicant. 
Check out the details:

Beat The GMAT is an MBA discussion community that exists to help people
achieve success on the GMAT and business school admissions by connecting them to
world-class resources. In this spirit, Beat The GMAT is proud to host the Beat
The GMAT/Veritas Prep MBA Fast Track Scholarship competition, co-sponsored by
Veritas Prep. Thanks to the generous donations made by Veritas Prep, we will be
distributing five scholarship packages valued over $20,000!
The deadline to submit your scholarship application is September 1, 2008.

 
 

& let me provide you the requirement. You need to submit two essays & one optional essay.

Essays Responses:
500 word limit - REQUIRED: Why do
you deserve this scholarship?
300 word limit - REQUIRED: Why do you want to go to business school?
300 word
limit - OPTIONAL: Are there any special circumstances you
want us to consider? Examples: financial need (proof of financial need
highly encouraged, e.g. latest pay stub), major life events, etc.

For further details I follow check out the official web page: ( click on the title of this article.)

& if you want any hints click here: http://www.beatthegmat.com/the-beat-the-gmat-veritas-prep-mba-fast-track-scholarship-f26.html

I'm back to GMAT world and kicking!

Lot of things happened during this break/phase.

Actually I had asked by my parents to stay in my native place as they were going out of town for vacation. That caused me two months of separation from net world :p I was desperately waiting to get back here. for beating GMAT and beyond (heeheee) But when I came back, a tragedy occurred. I lost my connecting device and a CELL phone. :cry:
And then it was again one more month without internet. :(

It's been five days since I'm back to GMAT world and already kicking. :D
Soon I'll add some post to this blog. Meanwhile I just changed the signature of my posts of the forums where I'm most active.
I have added the link of my other blog: "Do you Aim-WSC ? " , which I think I am going to make more happening in near future.
Not that I am going to apply this year.
As you know I have yet to take the real test oh Yeah! GMAT I mean. I am yet to take the GMAT test and I'm not thinking of it until next February.

So there's no question of applying this year.
Well You'll find all these answers about why I'm delaying this application process and hence MBA program / course on the above mention blog ( http://jc-4mba.blogspot.com ).

In GMAT front:
I've again joined all my favourite forums, BeatThe GMAT, PagalGuy and Test Magic and started contributing thier.

I'll be back within ten days and bring some food / special gifts for all you reader :D
as I promised earlier.

Thank you for patience!

Reflection to MBA tour

My some of friends asked me to write some detailed account about the tour experience and my reflection on it.

So I am adding one more article here. You might find this bit rude but that’s the way it is.

The atmosphere in fair hall was supportive. I mean, you feel nervous before entering into the fair but once you have entered you are relieved.

You should avoid being idiot and ask stupid questions to the college representatives. Since the real turn off to the people standing on other side of stall is lack of preparation of visitors. You can learn a lot by simply overhearing the conversation.

Another turn off is when a visitor says that she hasn’t taken the GMAT yet. The representatives then fail to gauge your level and hence fail to give good advice. It also shows that you are not that serious candidate among all others.

Now on personal experience:

I was at Columbia desk for most of the time. No person from NewYork City had come to represent Columbia there. All people were Alumni settled in Mumbai. Couple of them were not present in the hall virtually. They were much bsuy attending their phone calls than attending visitors at their desk. ;)

The Alumni were trying to comment to visitors query as neutral as they could and ending up in no real, significant and informative reply. No inside info. The guy was even hesitant to reply-straight a question as simple as whether living in NYC is more expensive than other college campus.

But still it was an experience talking to real Alum of such a big shot school.

Some visitors were not aware how big the name Columbia is and thus asking questions like whether she would get a good placement after MBA from CBS. I moved to next desk
lol.

Some of the school representatives were so desparate to talk with visitors that they were literally calling each person and telling them about their university, giving them brouchers. And all. Yes I became a victum ot such college too. Now I have this broucher in my hand which I am not at all interested reading it. I have something better to do with this pamphlates. Yeah! I am in train right now. I am writing this (rough) article on this broucher. I don’t have a notebook to write.
Lol

World MBA Tour at Mumbai.

OK. I am lil nervous right now, since now onwards there will be two persons who know me in person will read my blog. Till yesterday there was nobody. I met these guys at World MBA tour.

I was saying NO NO to the tour till the day before the event. (Even to-day I think its bit early for me to visit such forums. As of now I am planning to apply for class of 2011.) But on last day I said OK. My cell phone was on repair & had to fo to city to get it; also I wanted to meet an online buddy, coincidently he was going to attend the fair. These reasons were enough for me to come to the city and attend the fair. But there was one more and rather important reason to attend the event.

All these days, months, I have been reading about these b-schools was checking their websites reading numorous blogs and various online forums, I was contented with the stuff I have about this GMAT and international MBA industry. But the knowledge (information) I have (had) is 2^nd hand information. I never attended such event before; never visited any b-school and never a seminar or as such. Never seen a person in flesh; how she walks, talks, presents. That’s about it. So this was the time & it hought to visit the fair.

I got a VIP pass from pagalguy.com. I appreciate this and I promise the forum ( here in public) to help and contribute, intellectually any way I can. Thank you pagalguy.com!

Since I decided to go ot fair on last day, I was not prepared neither mentally nor logistically or materialistically. I asked Iday the other day what to wear. I know it’s a stupid question, but I think, this comes to everybody’s mind when he’s nervous or visits such events for the first time. ( ane therefore I discuss about it in detail later in the article) I thought a tie + shirt & trouser would be OK.

The day started and I realised that I don’t have the list of the schools attending the fair. I requested in forums to provide the link. Apurv sent me the link. Thanks Apurv. I printed the list, invitation & VIP pass.

Oh! Did I mention that my home is three hours away (by train) from the city? It was noon & I missed 3 trains already. I was bit tensed since it was 6^th dec. the death anniversary of one of the founders ( principal fouder) of constitution of India, Dr. B. R Ambedkar. People from all places of India come to the city and gather at a place called Chaitya Bhumi.

Train had already travelled more than 1500kms (1,000 miles) and was ultra crowded as expected. I had no space to move my hip by an inch! ( why the hell you wanna move your hip johny?) I went to city STANDING all the way. Apparently the local train in the city was not that crowded I managed to get a window seat!

HOW I APPROACH TO THE FAIR (READ: PREPARE)

Then, in local train, Aim-WSC had some time to check the printed list. I shortlisted some schools. The main attraction was the Columbia. (Yeah! theres C in my userid!) I went to library @1725. checked ‘www’, checked some websites of the schools I shortlisted. I didn’t check Columbia’s since I knew already what I wanted to ask. After checking the websites I gain shortlisted the schools. The no. of schools were very small then.

Whn I checked the websites, I checked the tuition fees, living expense, fin. Aid & scholarship school can offer, & approx ranks of the schools from say BW & FT and lastly ROI. Now what( /all) I wanted to ask there at fair is ‘alumni network and demographic distribution of alumni’

By 1800hrs I was out of library heading to the fair. Am I late? Event started @1700.

The attire.

From the reception counter on the way to the Hall I received many leaflets that I blindly put into my purse.

Purse? No it was a jute hand bag actually, which some people including myself sometimes think it as awful. At least when you go to such ^posh^ area, you become even more concious. I didn’t wear a tie. I had thought to wear it in library; ( library is my second home in the city) but on the way, in local train I met a college kid who was also going to fair wore scrappy shirt and pair of jeans. I said heck! I don’t have to wear a tie. The reason: I am not gonna make any impact there or something I am just gonna sort of window-scan the school counters that’s it. So no tie for me, it’s still in the jute bag. A plain shirt, trouser with belt and leather shoes. A hand bag in hand & a pen in a pocket. That’s it. Perfect.

The Fair

The first counter I saw in the hall was Columbia’s. I nodded assertively and smiled.

By the way did I tell you Dr.B.R. Ambedkar was from Columbia University. (probably the first Indian!!) It was bit crowded so I moved on without stopping @CBS. I checked entire hall (two halls actually). You can gain a lot just by overhearing the conversation, provided you blindly jumped in such forums without doing your homework. I checked U at Buffalo, state U of NY. Enquire about financing option. I shortlisted few more state colleges which I cancelled to visit once I was in the hall. Most of the answers the rep giving I knew already.

I would have been happy if Kellogg had come to the tour. The Kellogg site disappointed me big time (and maybe that’s why theres no K in my userid :D)

Some other big schools came, like Chi GSB, Tuck, Darden. But I am not interested. Thankyou.

Now remains wharton and Columbia.

I just looked at W’s stall, the most crowded one. Sigh! I never wanna go there. I know A to Z of W’s website. Heck I have been checking the site since I got the internet connection @home. I know I am crazy. But there are many crazy people around here, reading my blog :p

I had a healthy talk with one of the CBS alumni. ~20mins I was @ CBS stall.

Asked some q about blogging ( yeah that’s right. You wanna hear it?) also whether adcoms do investigative job & check applicants other online activities? @ forums or @ blogs et al.

The answer is NO. unless you specify about it in you essay. The other alumna also gave me strat on how to deal with such situations. Haa haa though I have no bad record in cyberspace…it was for my other online buddies :D

Overall the visit paid off.

Met Rohit and Sonam, these guys work for pagalguy.com thumbs up once again thanks for the pass fellas.

My online buddy was in seminar which I missed. I attended some of the last part of the seminar which was cool. No regrets though, since I was talking with CBS people then.

I met the online buddy there were two of them. And together we complete a round in the hall. On return I saw a familiar face at the other side of the counter. I greeted him and asked whether we have met earlier? Yeah! the person has done MBA from of that particular school. I am so happy, Now. I was not aware that this guy is one of the alumni of my one the fav. School. THIS IS A BONUS.
And the best part is he’s in the same industry that I am interested in.

BONUS BONUS BONUS.

Things I regret for:

• Not attending seminars, they were good and boy it was Matt Symonds. And yet was free of cost.
• Not taking down the address/ visiting card of alumni with whom I talked. But I know I will meet him sometime in future.
• And most importantly for not asking question to alumni about the total expense in MBA education. What I mean is, is there some truth in Forrest gumps BW finding?
• You can discuss about it here. Is really Harvard or to say any top notch school’s that expensive? $345000?

I think alumni are best persons to answer this.

So all you readers/ bloggers out there please tell me the answer, sicne I forgot to ask about it in the fair.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE ATTENDANTS:

• Do good homework.
• Bring a pocket notepad.
• Check with alumni & if day is good ask for visiting card.
• Believe in yourself attire is not that important afterall, the place’s always crowded.

What it takes to be the best B-school

dear b-schools, DO YOU HAVE IT IN YOU? (lolz :p)
Check this out!!

I have a question. People normally talk about "Top Business Schools". My question is which exactly are the top business schools around the globe ? What qualifies a school to fall in this category ?

Baccardisprite answers:

It's a good question.
My answer / definition, both arguable and debatable is - A top business school (below in no particular order):

• is almost immediately recognized and recalled (instant oohs... and aahs...) i.e a well-known university or legacy brand that has built itself over many years of the success enjoyed by its alumni (both of the university and the business school)
  
• offers it's students a superior allround academic, social and cultural experience
  
• (in a stable/good economy) opens professional doors for the students in the form of strong access to its closest job market with less regard to a students back-ground, origin, or citizenship or in some cases even pre-MBA experience - in other words the opportunity to change elements of one's career (industry, function and geography). Example - a Top US school to the US job market. An INSEAD all over Europe and the UK. An LBS in London.
  
• has a strong, legacy network of alumni who are known for their willingness to help current graduates
  
• has career services that possesses the street-credibility to bring top companies from various industries to campus; therefore the oppportunity for MBAs to meet, network and interview with; and offers the right king of training, advice and guidance for students to confidently go off-campus to find their jobs
  
• offers you the ability to experience a program with smart (or smarter), ambitious, knowledgeable and wise peers.

These are the things I wanted from my school. Below are the schools that largely fulfil these criteria. These regularly turn up in the rankings NOT because the magazines think so but because they have built themselves over years of success and investment of time, money, and effort to the criteria stated above:

USA - Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, MIT-Sloan, Chicago, Kellogg, Columbia, Michigan, Tuck, Duke, Darden, Haas, Yale and a few others I might have missed.

Canada - Richard Ivey, Rotman, Queens and York - good because they're good schools and I understand that Canada has recently started offering MBAs the opportunity to work in Canada for 2 years after graduation (this needs to be confirmed).

EU - INSEAD, London Business School, IMD + more recently the European schools that made it to the UK Government's HSMP list of school's whose MBA graduates are eligible for a work-permit (NOT tied to employer) in the UK.

Asia Pacific - IIM (A/B/C) - now with the PGPX which is likely to be a success, ISB, INSEAD (Singapore), U-Chicago (Singapore EMBA for more experienced people in the region), Ivey (Part time in Hong Kong), CEIBS (Shanghai).

Notice that I would NOT rank the top 2 Australian Schools here until /unless Australia offers a good opportunity for Internationals to work in Australia after the MBA. Currently not the case as Australia is generally unwelcoming to non-Aussies or non-permanent residents. Unless the country offers an automatic opening to work there or at least a short term chance to work without having to be sponsored, this is NOT a good place to study.

If someone has recent updates that show an improvement to this, please share.

Given their weak career services I would also NOT rank NUS & NTU (Singapore) and CUHK and HKUST (both in Hong Kong).

Hope this helps everyone.


COURTESY NOTE:
Taken from B-schools-Assistance desk thread of pagalguy.com. (very heavy and informative thread by the way!

the thread is mostly controlled by the big-guy.

This guy, (calls himself baccardisprite) lives in Switzerland (spelling check :p).
Whaterver he writes is pure gold, product extracted from is wide work-experience (more than hundred months of international work-experience.) and twelve months of heavy duty MBA from one of the top b-schools in the world. JohnyCAGE recommends to go through all articles he posted.
I have extracted some of his thoughts on what it takes to be the best business school.
(reference link)

MBA Stanford admit taking queries. Senapati[at]pg[dot]com

Theres something special in this person.

This guy's got admitted in Stanford GSB for class 2008.
He started this thread at the pagalguy.com some six months ago, to help other (stanford wannabe) aspirants to make their plan. The thread is huge a success.
Mr. Senapati still takes time out of his busy schedule to answer to the queries.

This thread has crossed five hundred mark and it's till running; the mods have not made it sticky nor its something silly like longest thread making maniac attempt; its still successful, the reason for this is his(Mr. Senapati's) vast knowledge over b-schools. You name it & this person knows about that school inside out..
Though I do not have a single post in that thread, I gained a lot of information just by reading it.

You too could gain great ammount of information just by going through this thread. and the best part is you dont have to be member of that forum site to read this thread.

Just go and check it out.