McCombs submitted

McCombs follows rolling deadline and final deadline for international students is Feb1. My initial plan is to submit the application by Jan 17. But i submitted it today, six days in advance. Am i running ahead of schedule? Definitely not. Its just a change of plans. I want to finish McCombs before moving to other applications.

Last five days have been pretty hectic. Running around recommenders, polishing resume, filling online applicaiton forms for McCombs, Kelley and Rice. Adding to these woes, i am burdened with piles of office work. In the midst of all these commotion i submitted McCombs. But i made few mistakes in the application and also faced some difficulty while submitting it. Unlike other schools, McCombs doesn't allow applicant's to upload documents for the essays. We have to copy-paste our essays in a text box or their own text editor. Whatever. Also, once the essay is submitted, there is no way that you can edit your essays. After submitting first two essays, i found that their text box is not able to interpret few characters. It changes an apostrophe to an ampersand. For example, "didn't" is changed to "didn&t". I found this when i am submitting third essay and made the changes. So all the apostrophe's in the first and second essays are changed to an ampersand.

This is definitely going to create a negative impression to the adcom. I want to put 80% blame on myself and the rest on the McCombs application developer. Since i already read my essays 5-6 times before doing the copy-paste to textbox in the application, i didn't bother to check the preview of the essay in detail. And i paid the price. This is because i worked continuously for 6 hours on this application after a hard days work at office. I lost my concentration and slacked.

In the end, while submitting application, i found that McCombs doesn't accept VISA credit cards. Only Mastercard, Diners club and discovery are accepted. My credit card is of VISA type. My friend came to my rescue. He gave me his credit card details.

Also, McCombs sends the link for online recos to recommenders only after submitting the application. Just another weird policy. Why can't it be like other schools.

Next in line are Kelley and Rice. Their deadline falls on 14th and 15th respectively. Essentially what it means is that i have to work on this weekend. My recommenders have already submitted online reco letters for Kelley and Rice.

Good luck to all McCombs applicants.

UNC Kenan Flagler app submitted

Just now i submitted part-2 of the UNC Kenan Flagler application. This involves essays and work history documents. I already submitted part-1 10 days ago. This involves resume and the application fee.

Unlike Ross, UNC is highly liberal in their word limits for essays. But they limited the number of mandatory essays. The first essay is for 1200 words. I remember writing almost the same essay in 800 words for other school. I wanted to answer one of the two optional essays. Since i didn't have international experience, i couldn't answer third essay. Though i interact with my clients every other day, i never traveled to their location. Seems like UNC is very particular about international experience. I think this is one negative aspect of my application.

Fourth essay talks about how i will developed proficiency in calculus, microeconomics, statistics and financial accounting. Initially, i thought of leaving this essay unanswered. But today i felt like writing this essay. I told UNC adcom that i already did course work in calculus and statistics. But microeconomics and financial accounting are totally alien to me. i told them the steps i will take to develop competency in these areas. Though the word limit is 400 words, i finished this essay in 200 words.

Here comes the end of the application season to my dream schools. I am also applying to Kelly and McCombs. Kelly's deadline is on Jan 15 and for McCombs it's rolling. But i decided to send McCombs application before Jan 17. This will allow me a weeks time to prepare for UNC's telephonic interview.

The main disadvantage of applying in Round2 for international applicants is that we never know how strong our application is. If i have applied to 2-3 schools in Round1 and didn't get any interview calls, at least i will know that something is wrong in my application. May be my GMAT score is low considering the applicant pool. May be my essays are not top notch. It could be some reason, but i will know that i have to make some changes. Applying in Round2 doesn't provide any of these advantages. You have to apply to your dream schools as well as to your safe schools. Not every one is interested in applying to safe schools. They always aim higher and never settle for any thing less than that. Right now i am in a predicament. I don't know whether my essays are good or bad. There are moments when i felt that my essays are very good and there are moments when i felt that my essays are shoddy.

I selected one of my close friends who is doing his MBA from one of the top 10 schools to review my essays and informed him about the same. He gleefully accepted to review my essays. Since its Christmas time and holiday season he is on vacation and before that he is busy with his exams. I can't force him to read my essays when he is holidaying. Things didn't work out well for me on this front.

Anyhow, i don't want to think too much on this. All fingers crossed. I will take a break for a day or two and start working on Kelly and McCombs.

Good luck to all UNC applicants.

Ross app submitted

I submitted my application approximately 12 hours before the deadline to my dream school Ross. Ross has stringent word limits but all the four essays have come well. Now the wait starts. Lets see whether adcom likes my essays and call me for an interview.

Its time to complete my UNC Kenan Flagler essays. Another 15 hours and i will be done with UNC application. I have scheduled my telephonic interview on Jan 25th.

Good luck to all Ross and UNC R2 applicants.

Happy new year

This is my first post in this new year and i wanted to start this by wishing everyone 'a very happy new year'. May this new year bring admits to the applicants and more importantly the courage to face the result.

I started this new year in the most amazing way. I took sometime today to read my Krannert's essays for one last time, made few changes and submitted them.

Countdown:
48 hours to submit Ross application.
72 hours to submit UNC Kenan Flagler application.

Purdue Essays

It's new year eve and i am working on my purdue Krannert school of Management's essays. I have less than 48 hours to submit my application. My recommender's already submitted reco letters and the transcripts reached purdue. This is what DHL website says.
I am currently working on diversity essay. I found valuable info on diversity here.

An eventful month

Its been almost a month since i blogged. This past month has been quite eventful for me. It started with GMAT and ended with submitting my second application. On the GMAT front, i have a good news and a bad news. The good news is that i managed to increase my score by 50 points. The bad news is that i still didn't touch the magic figure of 700. Adding to my woes, my score is a tad unbalanced. Before GMAT retake, i thought that i can boost my score by 80-100 points. But some how the whole thing didn't turn out the way i wanted it to. Looks like i underestimated those who told that increasing your score by 100 points is difficult.Nevertheless, i am able to convince myself that i did my best.

After GMAT, i have couple of weeks to send my application to Emory. I did a good thing by writing two drafts of essays for emory before the GMAT. I spent two weeks polishing the essays and ensured that my recommender's did their job.

I also submitted my application to UC Irvine. Unfortunately, Emory and Irvine share the same deadline, December 15th. I had to work real hard to submit both the applications. The good news is that i got application fee waiver for Irvine.

Its almost two weeks since i sent my transcripts to Emory and Irvine. But still the status says that my transcripts are not received. This might be because of the holiday season. I emailed the schools regarding the same and waiting for their reply.

Since i postponed all my applications to Round2, i don't have the luxury to take a vacation. But i managed to take a five day break from the whole thing after submitting these two apps.

My belated Christmas wishes to everyone.

I am currently working on my Ross, UNC and Purdue(Krannert) applications. I will try to be regular in blogging my progress. (i think this is the nth time i saying this).

High tone, Hight touch, High Octane

You would have guessed it already by the title, its the Darden schools motto. I attended Darden event recently after initial doubts of skipping this event just because of plain indolence. I lost my way to the venue and reached there half an hour late thanks to the ever-increasing traffic. I am glad that i didn't miss this event. Dean Robert Bruner (who is been with darden for mkore than 25 years) simply rocks, he spoke for most of the time on why darden and gave some really useful insights on the curriculum which is followed by quesiton and answer session. Unlike other events, this event witnessed some genuine and valid questions from the prospective students. I was a little surprised to know that very few attendees know about the high tone, high touch and high octance. Dean bruner took some time to explain in very detail about what each of the high tone, touch and octane stands for. I liked their motto.

"High touch is the unparalleled level of interaction between students and faculty. High tone refers to the core values that Darden embodies. -- values shaped by our diverse community, the influences of Thomas Jefferson and the U.Va. Honor Code. High octane refers to our strong sense of community and the rigor embedded in our MBA program.”

It may be unwritten or unofficial, but everyone who knows about darden knows that the program is highly rigorous and few are skeptical of applying to Darden just because they want to have some life apart from school. With 600 case studies to be covered in two years and 3 cases to study on each day, it definately is rigorous. But i feel this is how it has to be.
Cold calls: During case discussions, the prof may pinpoint any student in the class and ask him/her to speak on the case. The whole focus will be on this unfortunate soul and in darden they call it 'cold calls'. Intially it might be uncomfortable, but it prepares one to articulate their ideas coherently before a bunch of brilliant people.

Finally, Bruner discussed about the life in Charlottesville. A simple college town with lots of horses and few hours drive to big cities.

Towards the end of session, an interesting question popped up. Darden has 40 clubs and 3 cases to prepare for on everyday...Don't you think this is kind of contradictory. How do you expect students to take part actively in clubs when they have a lot to do on the academic front. Here comes the answer from Dean...My dear, its all about TIME MANAGEMENT. Darden will teach you how to mange your time so that you can excel in academics and take part in the clubs of your likeness.

Later, the dean left and the two alumni and admission director took places at three corners of the room and are surrounded by prospective students asking questions.
All in all, a great information session.