Well, how have you been guys? Hope all of you are doing well. There are quite a lot of updates from my side. So, I am not going to go in details but with bullet them and share with you all.

1. I got promoted mid of last month, getting the fastest promotion in the batch of guys joining the organization around June-Sept 2007. Well, I am happy but at the same bit let down as the whole process took almost 6 months, which is quite surprising and discouraging being in the private sector. But, I am very satisfied with my performance.
2. My GMAT is round the corner with around 20 days more to go. I have been much occupied with its preparations and the life has really gone bit crazy with the company’s product release also almost at the same time.
3. I talked to my manager and communicated that I will be applying this season and seek his recommendation, to which he agreed without any hesitation. It was a real good sign, considering the fact that we are distant apart and are in two completely opposite different time zones.
4. I am almost there with my final list of first round of schools and I am happy with the overall mixture. Now, I am definitely inclined to Entrepreneurship and VC/PE Courses as that is target industry after my post-MBA and there has been no doubt in any form about the “ENTREPRENEURSHIP” in the long term goal. One thing that is very important for me while selecting the B-Schools is: How well I feel connected with the culture and academics of the school. A lot of top B-Schools do not feature in my lost due to my “feeling”. So, I am applying only to those schools that I feel I can fall in love with and can picture myself spending glorious 2 years of my life.
5. I have started working on my essays also but I am planning to hold them for some time now as the GMAT D-day is approaching fast.
6. As you remember, I won a book and got “Great Application Essays for Business School” by Paul Bodine couriered to me at my desk all for free. Thanks to Accepted.com and Twitter. As I am reading it, I am finding it very useful and self-revealing. As soon as I read it, I am going to post its review very soon.
7. I also got an ebook “Complete Start to Finish Guide” . Thanks to mbaMission and Twitter (again). Twitter is a great resource in all forms, if used judiciously.
8. I am trying to reach some alumni and current students to get some more detail insights about my schools and some of the responses were quite encouraging and motivating.
9. Well, I also registered for Stanford GSB admission event to be held in Bangalore on September 17 and the MBATour to be held on September 19-20. All prospective applicants can take it up because it will be a very good platform to interact and know about your schools. So, go and book your seats now if you have done it.

So, that’s it pretty much form my side. I am getting bit nervous and excited for my GMAT. The last two mocks that I took, I scored 680 and 670. I am yet to see that magical figure of 7xx. I hope that I would be able to make it. Verbal is bit annoying me, basically testing my patience. Let’s see. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

It always feel good to be a lucky winner and the timing can’t be more good when one looks for something close to it. I have been looking for some books that could throw some light on essay writing and getting something for free like this is always exciting. And to my surprise, I got lucky to win this prize from Accepted.com. Thanks Accepted.com. I am eagerly waiting for the follow-up as how can I get my copy. Meanwhile, why don’t you guys help me with book. The list of books are here. Please do suggest. Thanks Linda and special thanks to twitter. It was a real true great initiative.

Well, even though it was not the first official ding, but I will consider this to be one. I not only gave a lot of time and energy to it but also put a lot of hear into it. As per the application criteria, I doubt there could be any other reason other than “financial need” that would have ditched me here.

Anyways, learning experience is always good and I got a good insight as how much time and effort will be needed in the b-school essays if I have get my heart and soul out there to the admission committee.

Reliance Fellowship “Ding” does not deter me in applying to Stanford because Stanford is my first priority as I feel a strong connection with this school. The only way this fellowship could have made an impact is the “cost of study” tension but I am always prepared for a 50L INR loan the moment I decided to go for my MBA because MBA is something which I need and that could give some direction to my currently lost life. So, lets hope for the best and let me get my hands to the GMAT within a month now. The fight begins and the stage is set. The war is ON and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome towards the end. I am going to WIN this war.

How is it going guys? Well, I am quite a bit free now from the office perspective now and planning to jump start my preparations strongly with mock tests every weekend. I am planning to take one test every week and spend some time analyzing them on the other day.  I am hopeful of a good fight here because GMAT is going to be a big blockade in my applications as I really suck in the tests. Lets hope for the best and I am going to update on the mock this weekend for your suggestions for improvement. So, keep visiting and suggesting for improvements.

The blog featured in the Accepted Admissions Almanac Blog on the perspective of “Inside Out” based on the blog-post.  I am happy that my perspective of looking into the applicatins was appreciated. So, look out for more details there in the link mentioned above.

Well, I thought I am not going to write anything today anymore after submitting my first application, even though it was for the fellowship. But I bumped into this article at New York Times. The article talks about corporate ethics and how B-schools like Harvard, Columbia and Wharton are stressing on the needs of the ethics and social responsibility in the corporate world. Now, I am bit confused about the whole fuss. Ethics, Integrity, Values are the individual heritage of an individual that defines its characters. I understand that a lot of current financial mesh is a result of irresponsible executives but do taking oath is the guarantee of no more irresponsible behavior. How many times have we sang our national anthem and national pledges in our life till date ad how many times at least we have tried to be honest with it? The answer lies within an individual and his/her character. No matter how many courses each school teach, no matter how many oaths do graduates take, finally it comes to the work that would decide the outcome. I have an example here to give. B-Schools look at various parameters while deciding admits from the pool of applicants. If one has ever browsed through various consulting websites and applicant/current/past blogs, everyone talks about community service as a strong criterion. Now, honestly, if one has to answer himself, how many of them do community service for the sake of their interest and how many of them do it just to get an admit into a elite school after getting a big GMAT score on their application. I am not going to comment on it but each one of us knows the truth. This is the first sign of the integrity, values and responsibility.

I am not here to criticize the application process but what I want to say is probably B-schools should concentrate on some time with spending with the incoming admits so that they can know them more as a human being. Such events should not get buried in the form of marketing gimmicks. Every individual graduate should feel the essence of his MBA degree an how far one can stretch this valuable degree to serve the people and the country better.

PS: This is a complete personal opinion and has nothing to do with any other individual’s opinion. I respect the integrity of every human being as an individual and respect his/her opinion.

Well, this is almost a follow-up post to the yesterday’s post. Today, I submitted my application to the Reliance Fellowship at Stanford. I am feeling good with the overall application and I am quite optimistic. The only issue in the application could be “Financial Need” section. I accept that in terms of IT professionals in India, my earnings are bit on the higher side being working in the niece high end technological front in a leading MNC. So, I am having my fingers crossed and I hope everything will fall in line this year. The results will be declared on 1st July and if selected in 50 finalists, I could redeem the GMAT voucher given by the Fellowship program. Hence, I am going to wait till 1st July before finalizing my GMAT date. I guess it is going to be early August only. As for the application and the essay, on the personal front, I feel both shaped pretty well and I am optimistic about the outcome. So, let us wait till 1st July and I will update you about the status. I completely understand with the fact that there were about 2k applicants for the fellowship last year and Stanford is going to finalize just 50 out of them. The competition is stiff but I am prepared for it. So, you guys also pray for me and wish me luck. Also, I wish all the best to other applicants too.

- Deepak

Okay Guys, What’s up? How is life going? I guess each one of us is anxiously looking forward to the upcoming admission session. Last week, Stanford GSB and HBS released their application essays for the 2012 batch. With hem, I guess all of us must be gearing up to put our best to our dream schools.

I have lots of update from my side.

Firstly, I am done with the essay of the Reliance Stanford Fellowship. It was a fun writing the essay and changing it again and again. It becomes really challenging when reviewers try to give their comments and suggestions. I don’t know how many reviewers try to put themselves in our shoes to look from our perspective. But I fell that should be the ideal and honest approach for helping the applicants. What I found challenging while writing the essay was the topic “How do you aspire to shape India’s future?” and that too in 250 words or fewer. You gotto be kidding me. That was the first reaction when I tried to analyze the topic. I wanted to tell a lot of things but there wasn’t enough space for me to do so. What I did was I thought I should first try to understand what it really tries to mean and most importantly, what message I want to convey here. Trust me this approach helps as one knows very well where and how thought process is is shaping up. Next, I straight away sat down for almost 7 hrs to write down whatever came to my mind following those guidelines. I did not look back to re-read it at that time. Not surprisingly, I wrote almost 9 pages. It was well above 1500 words. But then, every alternate day I used to sit for 2 hrs re-reading the essay and fine-tuning it, using each word economically and appropriately. The last 2 weeks, I took advice from couple of friends and took their opinion on the essay. A lot of them appreciated the starting and the end paragraph though there was one who did not like my concluding statement but when I inquired about it more from others, they agreed with my statement. Basically, I would say the concluding sentence is the statement that came right from my heart and the only sentence in the whole essay, which I just changed in due course but never was in a mood to take it off at any cost. As for personal opinion, I feel each one of us should have his/her own USP of the essay and it should never be compromised because if we do we lose ourselves in it. Here are few guidelines when one approaches the Reliance Dhirubhai fellowship essay:

• The focus should be on giving a shape to India’s future. Remember there is a big difference in “shaping” and “changing”. A good way of tackling this is to think of a current scenario which can be harnessed further to have a strong effect. It would be really nice if someone tries to link his current professional experience coupled with Stanford MBA to address it.
• Discuss human and socio- economic issues in India and how they form part of your plan of shaping India’s future. Show your love and commitment to India’s growth and future genuinely.
• Try to link your professional aspirations to the theme of the essay. Try to dram a roadmap from your past life to Stanford MBA life and post MBA India life. Always remember, the fellowship requires fellows to come back to India within to 2 years of their graduation for at least 2 years to work in public/private organization.
• How MBA from Stanford fits into the overall scheme of things. Do your school research and try to show “HOW”.
• keep in mind the word limit (only 250 words). It is definitely too less and everyone is bound to struggle as I did. Probably, 100 words could do more justice to it.

So, well I am ready with my essay and I will be probably submitting it today or tomorrow. Overall, I am satisfied with the final shape of the essay.

Secondly, on GMAT preparation front, I am spending a lot of my time with the OG. I am bit terrified but I am confident. I feel I have got a good grasp on SC and CR now and have to work a bit more on the RC front. Quant section is never a problem for me as I generally score on the range of 47-51 on it. So, all the focus is on the verbal front. I will be taking the tests from tomorrow regularly to judge my course. I am yet to take a date and probably, I will wait for the Reliance Fellowship results because if I happen to be in the 5 finalists, then I can get a GMAT voucher for them. So, as of now, anytime July mid will be the GMAT date.

Finally, I have developed a strategy for choosing the schools. It is very similar to the recruitment process that is generally followed in all the institutes in India. I am going to have two Dream B-Schools and in terms of priority it is going to be Stanford GSB and Hass Berkeley. I am passionate about both of these B-Schools. In fact, they are the only two universities that I have visited on my USA trip last year. Honestly, Stanford GSB has been always been my only unchanged and permanent love because somehow I feel deeply connected to it and I feel no matter what, Stanford can understand me and my aspirations. I am going to go full guns loaded to it. In fact, I got in touch with an alumnus, who has assured me of helping to develop my profile for the GSB. While interacting with him for last couple of months, I found that we have a lot of similarities and when I approached him with the idea of helping me out, he instantly said yes.

So, apart from the dream schools, there will be 4-5 schools where I feel have a good competition to get an offer, which would depend a lot on my GMAT. I have got a tentative list of almost 12 schools in this category but have to dig around a lot more before finalizing the FOUR. Other than this, I am going to apply for ISB and NUS in Asia.

I guess starting early on all fronts will help me getting things proper at the right time and not rush. I am planning got decide on my recommenders also soon. I wrote my first essay with the Reliance Fellowship essay and I feel to get a good essay, one has to bring himself inside out. Though I always knew, what and how I think about my India, but this exercise showed me my shadow in the mirror in true sense. I am really excited about the application season and I hope it is going to be an amazing ride to hidden revelations about myself. One thing for sure is “The mantra for writing essays should be bringing one’s INSIDE OUT”. The more one knows and reveals him in the essays, the more comfortable and confident he would be with the essays.

With Almight blessings and blessings of my parents, I am going to submit the Reliance Fellowship Application today or tomorrow. Ia m keeping my finger crossed.

Wondering where I have been all these days.

Well, it was a real hectic 2 weeks. I was off to Delhi for a friend’s marriage and then went to the hometown for a minor surgical operation. I have been traveling a lot in train for all these days. The train to Delhi took almost 34hrs from here. I had to rush to catch the train from the bus stop and guess what, got a bad asthma attack, which I had to carry all through this 34  hrs. The worse thing was I forgot to carry my inhaler and medicines as I was not using it here for quite a long time as I was taking all sort of precautions. Anyways, normalcy came slowly once I reached Delhi and got fresh natural air. After 2 days of stay and marriage, I started for my hometown, again a journey of 25 hrs. After a week’s stay at home and partially recovering from the surgery, I returned today back to Bangalore after 27 hrs of train journey. I may not travel again in train as I am lose a lot of time just in traveling and sleeping.

Anyways, the good point is about the train journey was: I almost nearing to the completion of the essay for the Reliance Stanford scholarship. No  matter of what the outcome, Stanford is my first choice and I am not going to give it up so easily but this fellowship is an opportunity to do something good for my country at the same time fulfilling my ambition of doing MBA.

Initially, the draft for the essay came to around 1000 words. I felt I want to to tell my reader quite a lot of things and 250 words is a very samll amount for this. After so many edits, the draft has come down to 450 words. I know I have still a lot to do as the next cut of 200 words will eliminate some of the detailed picture I have in my mind for the essay.

I am planning to send the essay for review by the mid of this week to 3 people for their honest comments before submitting it before the deadline. Probably, once I complete this essay, I feel I can give my honest views on this essay as the 250 word limit is a very strict constraint which can change the analysis completely, at least in this essay.

On the GMAT front, the preparations got completely halted in this period as I did not do anything. I will kickstarting it from today and I am planning for sometime around June mid to July first week. I will be finalizing my date in next 2 weeks.

University of Chicago Booth announced No Co-Signer Loans for International Students in its official release. According to the University,

” The University of Chicago has signed a participation letter with the new International Student Loan Program (“ISLP”), which will provide loans requiring no co-signer to international students at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.”

So, I guess good news will keep coming now and the future students of the elite schools need not have to worry further.