Whats up? As I prepare myself to re-apply this year, I am moving MBA Dreamz from wordpress blog to its new domain: http://deepakpanigrahy.com/mbadreamz.

Sp, get your feeds updated. I have written to almost all where the MBA Dreamz feeds are active but I, also, take this opportunity to ask ClearAdmit, Accepted, The Art of Applying, Beat the GMAT, Stacy Blackman, MBA Crystal Ball  and Hella to kindly update the feeds.

So, do visit the blog, where I take on another year to my journey towards my MBA.

~ Deepak

PS: Posts from hereon will come only on http://deepakpanigrahy.com/mbadreamz and I will be deleting this blog in sometime.

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/

I went to Hyderabad on train. On reaching the campus, I knew this is the place I would love to be in. After searching a little bit about the Student Village block (hostel), I reached the reception. I was almost 1.5 hours early. There were few guys from the earlier batch also. As their end time came near, they started coming out of their rooms. We introduced ourselves. Some of them started sharing their thoughts. Almost all of them described the initiative was stupid as they did not find anything relevant. They had roamed around the campus, partied in the night, boozed and slept. That is how they described their 24 hours at ISB.

But I had gone to ISB with a different set of mind. I knew what ISB is and it could do with an MBA. I was focussed more on learning about ISB as much as possible. I had taken bath and refreshed myself right after getting down at the station. So, after getting introduced among ourselves (the guys who were visiting ISB for 24 hours), we left to our rooms. I left my room almost immediately and straightaway headed for lunch. I waited for the few students who accompanied us for the lunch. They shared their stories and tried to give us some tips. After lunch, it was time for action. I had heard a lot about LRC. LRC is the Learning Resource Center, the heart of ISB, consisting of library, computer center and reading rooms. It was really great. In fact, it did beat my expectations. I spent some time reading books and decided to come back again to it before leaving the next day.

Guys, let me tell you, Ground works magic and sometimes, pleasant surprises were always welcome. One of my friends also accompanied me to ISB. We started searching for my friends, looked through our facebook and linkedin profiles. We tried to fix times with them according to their availability and we did manage to get most of them. The other most important thing that I had in my mind was to meet the club leaders because they are the ones who are going to share their first-hand experiences with us. Let me tell you, I did talk to most of them. Talking to them, interaction just reconfirmed my belief that an MBA from ISB would do wonders to my career and life. And I would love to cherish the one year at ISB for the whole of my life.

Well, to let you know that ISB is a one-year Post Graduate Program in Management. So, every semester is about 6 weeks long. People ask me why do you want to do an MBA. I know each one of us has different reasons. The biggest reason for me is “Learning and Networking”. I still could not come out of my college days and I simply love to go back. We will discuss why MBA factor in detail soon in another post.

Coming back to ISB, when majority of participants left the following day morning, I had decided to stay back. I talked to the admissions manager about the whole admission process and discussed it at its length and breadth. We requested for a class visit but unfortunately, we were not allowed to avail one due to ISB policies. One very big USP of ISB is its faculty. Almost 2/3rd of its faculty are from abroad and that is what I feel makes it a real global school.

I talked to almost dozens of students, almost all club officers and a lot of mutual students. Couple of them really shared their honest views and I am really grateful to them namely, Sandip, Sundeep and Sumit. Let me tell you, there are few honest students and alumni anywhere and these, according to me, are the real ambassadors of the school. It is difficult to find this characteristic and I am sure that most of the universities and colleges would agree with me that of all its students in batch, this number may be very marginal. We see education as a progress to career path or in fact, meeting our goals but in the meantime, we forget that we become face of some organization or school when we work or study there and it is our responsibility to improve its image. While constantly bragging about the system without concrete examples would do more harm than good, not willing to participate in the improvement process would destroy the image completely.

My visit was one of the most fruitful visits and I wish I could have visited other schools that I applied which unfortunately I could not. One suggestion that I would give to all prospective applicants is apply only to programs you genuinely feel connected, visit them and before visit, do your ground work like what is it that you would like to know, what memories would you like to carry after your visit and so on. So do your preparation properly before going. I hope that I would be able to share a good news very soon on this blog. I applied to programs where I felt connected and I felt not only it could contribute to my career but also I could contribute back as a both student and alumnus. Waiting eagerly for the ISB interview call now…

Just in case, you might not be aware, AICPA is American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Prof. Eva Lobra is a well distinguished professor of Accounting at Kenan Flagler Business School and teaches accounting, supply management and Operations Research. For her details profile, kindly visit http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/Faculty/search/detail.cfm?person_id=966

I tried analyzing the three styles of prevalent organization cultures in my own way:

• communal culture: Personally, I feel that it is very hard to define and more difficult to implement. The reason is communal means everyone grows in harmony but then a firm is not a state because even a state requires certain guidelines and rules. And when these terms come, it is not necessary that one rule may be same for everyone. Said that, I will completely agree that being in a friendly and open culture help in innovation and in turn, the firm.
• hierarchical culture: The most prominent one that I see around. Let me tell you, it sucks and it sucks big time. Reason is the person who hates and criticizes one’s position is often found to be part of the same system when he joins the herd. On number of occasions, I have seen how drastically it has failed. Honestly, we Indians, in general, love it but i hate it. It is a fact. Here, there is a time limit to every position. Earlier government firms only used to have these rules. but one would surprisingly find the same culture in private firms. Stay 5 years to get position X, 10 years for Y and 25 to be a Director and so on.
• “market pricing” or “star” culture:  Here staff are compensated according to the economic value of their contributions. Now, this is the most lovable culture at the Wall Street. Well, I would also like to have the same but at the same time, I cannot agree to the term “economic value” completely. The reason is there are nature of jobs that cannot give economical value such as the case in the software development. but yes, the nature of work and clear parameters of quality of delivery of applications can be of immense economic value in the long term. So, one needs to set very clear and transparent parameters to judge the “Economic Value” of the employees’ contributions.

Personally, I feel the last culture is a win-win situation for both the firm and the employee, provided the criteria are defined clearly and made transparent across the organizations. Additionally, one should not forget the collaborative environment that could make wonders because gone are those days when Thomas Elva Edison used to define the course of innovation; this is an era of Google where groups come together to innovate.

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

My story with Professor Jim started about an year back. When I started following him on twitter, he was very kind enough to follow back soon. He is not only a great dean and professor who shares his views on business, KFBS and academics but also a strong follower of football. I remember reading his tweets right from Soccer World Cup to UNC Football. I had a lot of personal interactions with Professor on twitter, the memories of which I cherish.

Anyways, this post is about his views on Kenan Flagler Business School on BusinessWeek. Every time I read about him and his views, it makes me really excited.

Personally, Kenan Flagler Business School attracted me due to its obvious strengths in leadership, strong focus on VC and PE and not to forget, sustainability. Additionally. professors have been very kind. They respond to emails and appreciate the ground work, if you have done so. Now, these are purely personal experiences and that is why I was an R1 applicant to the school. Last but not the least, try interacting with students and admission staff and I am sure you will feel the warmth that I feel. Hopefully, I  could join this amazing fraternity.

As for now, sit back and enjoy the videos from Professor Jim Dean.

1. How can MBA Programs stay current: http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=d0ca2b27f2a54e7a5c6787039991ac3809276dc2
2. Does Undergrad institution matter: http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=f06ab2e07d68beb674edc579d664ebf3eb25fef5
3. What makes Kenan Flagler unique: http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=8c562fdfdf418fe1f463002183c81eb16a618d43
4. How can less than stellar applicant stand out: http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=de333c1012f1016f87c309f6e73d02761831ac82

People who would like to read more about the Kenan Flagler School can do so at their blog, http://blogs.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/mba/, also

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.

I started my journey on this blog when I started my journey to pursue an MBA. After that it was on and off but I was sure I am going to do this. Nevertheless, this post is not about me. Its about you, guys.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone:

My Readers: You are the best. Without you, I would not have come this far. Thank you again. I would also request request all my silent users to speak and regular readers to speak more and let me know how I can help you out guys.

My special friends: Marquis Parker and Kaneisha Grayson. Thanks a lot, Marquis. Without you, this journey was very tough for me. Hopefully, I am going to fly to Chicago one day to meet you in person soon . Let me tell you, I can’t wait to do so. Thanks Kaneisha for your kind words and help. You are always sweet. may The Art of Applying reach the heights you have dreamed of.

MBA Consultants: ClearAdmit, Accepted.com, especially Linda Abraham, Beat the GMAT, special mentione to Eric Bahn and David Park and of course, Art of Applying, you guys are amazing and I would like to thank you for featuring me time and again in your blogs. I would also like to thank you all for recognizing my small tiny contributions to this MBA blogging community by giving me precious moments, some of which I shared on the blog back again.

Finally, last but not the least, Hella. I remember that the first time I mentioned you on my blog, I referred you as “SHE” and you corrected me by your comment. You were one of the first persons to comment on this blog, Hella. Thanks Hella for including me in your database, without which I would have never been able to reach such nice people in my life, some of whom have become my life-long friends now

To everyone, we might have problems in our lives. We might be tensed about what is going to happen to our applications. Some of us might be worried about our GMAT preparations. Honestly, I know how it feels because I am in the exactly same state. But still, I would like to urge all of you to take some time off, go back to your friends and families and ENJOY!!! Thank GOD for this wonderful LIFE, thank your friends and families without whom we would be as lonely as the only person on this planet. Because what one can do has been done and now only we can do is believe in ourselves, in our applications and hope things work out. May all of our Dreams come true

Happy Thanksgiving Again, Guys!!!

http://www.marquisparker.com/2010/11/conversation-with-kaneisha-grayson-founder-of-the-art-of-applying/

Ohh yes, thank you Kaneisha for shouting out for me in the interview. I, really, appreciate it