GRE vs GMAT

I guess a lot of you might have already started thinking about this. GRE goes for a makeover this August and for the first time, comes closer to the pattern and format of GMAT. Why is this important?

A lot of you might already know that GRE is accepted by almost 400 b-schools, including some of the biggies like Yale, HBS, Stanford, MIT, Insead to name a few. I am sure with this change, more b-schools might consider accepting GRE scores. Basically, ETS is going for a makeover with the change in GRE format. According to Clearadmit, the follwoing changes in GRE are significant:

Quantitative Section
• More data analysis
• Less geometry
• The introduction of numeric entry questions that require test takers to provide a specific answer rather than select from multiple choices
• An on-screen calculator, which could mean more complex math questions

Verbal Section
• No more antonym or analogy questions
• The introduction of in-context questions designed to test both reasoning skills and vocabulary
• New “strengthen/weaken” reading comprehension questions, similar to those on the GMAT

Does the above changes sound similar? Yes, GRE is coming closer to GMAT. It would be interesting to see how GMAT responds to this change when it goes for a makeover next year. As of now, it is good for the applicants if more b-schools start accepting the GRE scores.

But here is one catch. It seems that people taking the GRE test in august won’t be able to get their scores till November. Personally, I feel that it is not fair and I would like to take this opportunity to appeal on behalf of all test-takes from August to all the b-schools accepting GRE scores or are planning to accept, kindly make some changes to your deadlines to accommodate special cases like this for the current year. I feel that any step by b-schools to address this concern of applicants would play a big role in their fairness to the system and the candidates.

I would also request my readers to support this appeal by just clicking on the like button or sharing this post across. Additionally, I would also request the admission consultants and Admission Committees of all b-schools, if they are reading to consider the applicants taking GRE in August fairly and not to discard them right away just because they are yet to get their scores.

Source: http://blog.clearadmit.com/2011/02/important-information-for-prospective-mba-applicants-considering-the-gre/

Happy New Year

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year

Whatever Miles to MBA achieved last year was all due to your consistent support. I hope that the support continues.

I know a lot of you might be looking for some updates from me. So, here they are:

• Got Dinged from Stanford GSB and it hurt  me the most.
• Wait-Listed at Kenan Flagler.
• Still waiting to hear from others.
• Good News: I have a small web based initiative in making and it should be up in a month. I assure you that it is going to be of immense use to you all. So keep looking information for that in future. This is what has tied me for sometime now. The good point is I have got a friend as a partner here and we are now moving at a nice pace.
• Yet another good news is my my first short film movie script is nearing completion. Simultaneously, I have started work on a story of a full-length Bollywood movie script. Now, both of these scripts are incomplete with my one of my dearest friends, Samarth. We are co-directing, co-scripting and co…

So, with a hope that 2011 will open up good opportunities for me and I would get an opportunity to finish my MBA, see you in the next post.

And don’t forget to take care of your health this year

Upcoming Webinar exclusively for Indian Applicants

This post is quick shout-out for upcoming webinar for Indian applicants by Kaneisha. Now, Kaneisha does not need any introduction on my blog. I feel this is the first time someone is attempting such a unique webinar. As an Indian applicant myself, I understand the curiosity and issues with the Indian Applicants. Being very close to Kaneisha also, I can assure she is going to give some awesome insights into the whole application process from our perspectives.

The link you can use to learn more about the webinar is here: http://buy.theartofapplying.com/india-webinar/

Rush and register yourself and let me know what you think.

A Short Profile of MBA Crystal Ball

Well, this is a special post. Sameer is the founder of MBA Crystal Ball, the company that assists Indian applicants applying for MBA. Initially, I thought they are ISB-specific but later on interacting with Sameer over email and knowing about him, I realized they are lot more., So here is a short introduction of Sameer and about his initiative, MBA Crystal Ball. Hope you guys love reading about some cool guys and their initiatives. I wish Sameer and the whole MBA Crystal Ball team a very best of Luck in their initiative.

About Sameer:

I’m a Cambridge MBA grad (got a double scholarship there) working in the area of Mergers & Acquisitions and Strategy Consulting. I’ll be moving out of the corporate world to focus full time on my MBA consulting intiative. My pre-MBA experience was in IT. So it was the usual IT/Male/Indian story with all the big challenges that come with such a profile.

While working on my MBA application I struggled a lot in terms getting access to the right data, the right process, the right approach. And there was very little I could do about it then as everyone in the media was hyping up the MBA without talking about the other side of the story. So it was difficult to build a complete picture of what I was getting into. The professionals (the real good ones that I was aware of) active in this field were all located outside India and their sky high fees made it impractical to even consider hiring them for help. So I went about the process the hard way, like most Indian candidates still do.

I thought it was unfair that Indian candidates, despite the potential, were not able to approach the extremely competitive international admissions in the right manner, while others who were earning in dollars could approach experts and strengthen their application further.

So I started MBA Crystal Ball to make it a level playing field as far as possible for at least the guys we work with. Most of the candidates we work with have excellent credentials (many IITians and those with fantastic corporate experience). But they also have a big huge question marks about the approach as they just don’t know how and what to present in their applications. Our undergrad education doesn’t train us to address the introspective (almost philosophical) topics that Bschools ask for.

We have been able to reach out to many Indian candidates out there and make a positive difference to their efforts (several success stories and testimonials). But we know there are many more who can benefit. So that’s our focus for now.

The vision for MBA Crystal Ball is to see many more deserving Indians the opportunities that currently seem out of reach. As I keep saying, Indians have spent a very long time in technical roles within India and outside. It’s time for us to start moving up the value chain – in business roles and in the board rooms. Deeper down, I also hope some of them will come back to India, if not immediately after graduation, then after a few years. It’ll be good if they can divert some of the efforts to stimulate our own economy.

Short profile overview of MBA Crystal Ball:

http://www.mbacrystalball.com/mba-consultant-profiles.html

• On the highly competitive Businessweek forums (where new consultants come and disappear overnight), we are currently the most popular non-American team. The USP of our advisory posts tends to be the level of detail we get into for each candidate. For regular (read commercially driven) consultants, it becomes impractical to devote so much time for free advice.
• In an area where clients usually shy away from admitting any relationship with the consulting team, many of our clients (friends now, actually) have been pretty vocal about their thoughts: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MBA-Crystal-Ball/119871008039664 So we haven’t spent a single paisa on paid advertising. Most of it happens by word-of-mouth.
• MCB might be the only Indian admissions consulting team to have its products sold by international consultants. Usually it works the other way around, bigger International teams sell their products to us. Apart from our partnerships in the US, we recently tied up with a leading consulting team in Russia.  http://www.mbaconsult.ru/ru/Partners_News/detail.php?ID=515744
• We recently got interviewed by a top international MBA focussed site as they were working on an article about international consultants who are making a splash in a niche industry. But for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me (and I’ve resisted the temptation to read between the lines) the article got shelved at the last minute. Btw, it was a very well-written article by a US-based journalist who’s been writing for the best known business magazines.

Disclaimer: I have personally not used their service. Just that my interactions with Sameer have been very good that I agreed to promote them through my blog.

Updates

Hi Guys,

Hope all of you are doing great Like you, I am also very busy with my applications and deadlines.

Though GMAT score was not what I expected, but it was nevertheless satisfying. I have already submitted a couple of applications and keeping my fingers very tightly crossed. There are some more in pipeline this month with next three weeks all tied up. So, pardon me for not being regular with my blog. It is really hectic but honestly, I am enjoying the journey with a hope that my flight lands up at its right destination without any distractions.

I, also, apologize David Park, CEO of BTG,  and Kaneisha Grayson, The Art of Applying, for not being able to write few posts as I promised to you guys. I am still on it and I assure you that I will be on it as soon as I find some time. You guys have been of great assistance to me

Between, I completed by Competent Communicator certification from Toastmasters International and recently, presented my club in the Area Level Humorous Speech Contest. Though I did not win, but the experience has been amazing. Hope to do better next time in International Speech Contest.

Do wish me Luck and give me couple of weeks more to be back on the blog with full throttle and help you in whatever way possible. Your wishes means a lot to me and they are very very important Thanks again for all the patience and support.

MBA Tour, Admission Events: Tips

Are you attending MBA Tour? or I guess you would have already started. In addition to MBA Tour, there are Admission Events that fall into the same league.

I feel most of you are also in the same boat as me. I have already attended quite a few admission events and going to be in the MBA Tour soon. Here are three articles, which I feel you must read if you are going to attend future events.

One will not find it interesting if someone is trying to go to a B-school just for the sake of an “MBA’ but if you are serious about your future and career like me, I feel you must find some time to go through these articles. I am sure, like me, you will notice the mistakes that you have committed in your past events, if you have attended any, and will definiteiyl be much better prepared hereon.

The articles are divided into three parts: Part 1 covers what one should do before the event. Part 2 concentrates on the various aspects that one should take into consideration while he is in the event, interacting with the adcom members. Part 3 elaborates on the what one should do after the event.

Before the Event: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/10/the-mba-tour-before-during-and-after-part-1

During the Event: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/18/the-mba-tour-before-during-after-part-2

After the Event: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/26/the-mba-tour-before-during-after-part-3

BTG First Week Essay Webinars

As I mentioned earlier in my post, BeatTheGMAT began its webinars on breaking the essays. I attended both the webinars of Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business. Though I have taken notes for each of them, I feel they are kind of same from the video links. Hence, I am posting the video links directly rather than giving the gist.

Harvard Business School: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/harvard-business-school-essays

Stanford Business School: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/stanford-business-school-essays

Personally, I had to re-work on some of my essays after these webinars. Some of the tips are very useful and the presenters, including David Park, have done an amazing introspection into the essays.

Upcoming Webinar on School Choice, Quick Start Essays & Killer Recommendations

With the tremendous success of  ”B-School Despite Odds” webinar, “The Art of Applying” is proud to bring to you another webinar on 8/26 titled “School Choice, Quick-Start Essays, & Killer Recommendations”.

YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WEBINAR SERIES: http://theartofapplying.com/bdo/join/

A detailed de-brief on the earlier webinar has been covered earlier at http://mbadreamz.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/de-brief-of-kaneisas-webinar/

MBADreamz has been fortunate enough to bring exclusive interview of Kaneisha for its readers earlier at http://mbadreamz.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/interview-of-kaneisha-from-artofapplying/

Letter of Recommendation – Waive of Right

Recently, when I was about to send the links to my recommenders, I observed a peculiar question. I never heard of this right earlier. The right says,

Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, enrolled students have access to their education record, including letters of recommendation. However, students may waive their right to see letters of evaluation, in which case the letters will be held in confidence.

And The question is:

Do you wish to waive your right to examine this letter of recommendation?

What am I supposed to do? I did some online search and then thought about it. Both sides have equivalent pros and cons. But let us consider from scratch. How do you choose your recommenders and why do you choose them only? You might think that the question is irrelevant here. At first instance, even I felt so but then on a little thought, I realized that the most prominent reason of opting for a certain recommender is the trust and belief that he knows me well and he is going to project my candidacy in the best possible way possible. So, why not then give him/her a complete free hand and provide him/her the details he asks for when needed. I feel not waiving this right, might put a doubt on the trust you have on your recommenders and trust me when I say that when people start thinking, then the weight could fall in any direction. It may be possible the doubt can jeopardize your chances because a distraction is a distraction no matter what.

On the other hand, you might never know what your recommender wrote about you unless of course, he chooses to share the essays before/after submission.

Hence, it is not less than a CATCH 22 situation but still somehow I feel waving this right gives my recommenders to think openly and freely and therefore, I opted to waive my right.

What is your take on this? Do share your views for the benefit of the community and all other aspirants.

Some of the links that I found useful in this regard are:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/letter-of-recommendation-waive-of-right-t48147.html

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/recommendation-question-t1755.html

And yes, with this my application process has begun, Wish me Luck

Are you a career changer?

If your answers is YES to the blog post question, then I recommend you to kindly attend this webinar strongly.

http://info.accepted.com/mba/careerchange

Organizer: Accepted.com

Date: August 18

Day: Wednesday

Time: 10 AM PT/ 1 PM ET.

I have myself attended quite a few webinars of Accepted.com and I must say they are really good and I, highly, recommend them. In fact, Linda is one of the most enthusiastic and energetic consultants I have ever interacted with though I have not taken any professional essay guidance from her or her team.