It’s such a relief. I submitted my HKUST application today (my second app). In the beginning, I didn’t expect my essays to go really well considering the word limit of 200words/1200chars for each of 6 essays. But I am pretty satisfied with 5 of them.
It was the last day of first deadline. There are still 5 hours to go before midnight but due to time difference, it is safe to submit it early. The deadline is specified as 17-Dec and no time is given, i.e. HK time or GMT. When I submitted my application fee on the night of 11th Dec, I got a message on screen – “your payment has been received on 12-Dec, 1:43am”. So it must be HK time only.
I slept at 4 in the morning. Very tired.
Thanks to my B-San and my friends who reviewed my essays and provided valuable inputs.
Thanks
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
GMAT – Step 1 & 2 - Registration & Collecting Stuff
This post is for my friends who have started thinking about an MBA in US.
If you are targeting fall 09, then you must have taken your GMAT by now. If you are targeting fall 10, then it’s a good time to start thinking about GMAT.
Go to MBA.com and take the date if you are serious about it. $250 is what makes you have thoughts like “Am I ready to take the test?” Take the date and you ll be ready in no time. Take the date now for Feb, March end or April first week so that you have good enough time for introspection and research about colleges after the GMAT.
3 months is a good enough time for preparing. I didn’t score the dream score of 770, just managed to score 7xx in 3 months. Someone can do it in 2 months and someone like me may not be able to do it in 6 months even. So it all depends on you.
So start collecting the stuff..
GMAT 11th edition
One more book you need - princeton/kaplan/etc ( I went for Kaplan and found it worth)
Power prep tests (the very first thing you need to do is take these tests)
Online tests for practice( I went for manhattan tests)
Spidey’s notes
Manhattan Sentence Correction (it’s a real good one)
GMATprep tests (these you ll get from MBA.com once you have registered for the test). Save them for the end. They are really precious.
And lot more..
Let me know if you I can help you with anything.. I have lots of lots of..... stuff
Make a folder in one of the drives of your laptop.
Put the stuff there ..
And get going..
More on how to go about it.. later
Ciao
P.S.
Feb, March dates are easily available. Just checked it on MBA.com. I guess there is fight for dates from May onwards.
If you are targeting fall 09, then you must have taken your GMAT by now. If you are targeting fall 10, then it’s a good time to start thinking about GMAT.
Go to MBA.com and take the date if you are serious about it. $250 is what makes you have thoughts like “Am I ready to take the test?” Take the date and you ll be ready in no time. Take the date now for Feb, March end or April first week so that you have good enough time for introspection and research about colleges after the GMAT.
3 months is a good enough time for preparing. I didn’t score the dream score of 770, just managed to score 7xx in 3 months. Someone can do it in 2 months and someone like me may not be able to do it in 6 months even. So it all depends on you.
So start collecting the stuff..
GMAT 11th edition
One more book you need - princeton/kaplan/etc ( I went for Kaplan and found it worth)
Power prep tests (the very first thing you need to do is take these tests)
Online tests for practice( I went for manhattan tests)
Spidey’s notes
Manhattan Sentence Correction (it’s a real good one)
GMATprep tests (these you ll get from MBA.com once you have registered for the test). Save them for the end. They are really precious.
And lot more..
Let me know if you I can help you with anything.. I have lots of lots of..... stuff
Make a folder in one of the drives of your laptop.
Put the stuff there ..
And get going..
More on how to go about it.. later
Ciao
P.S.
Feb, March dates are easily available. Just checked it on MBA.com. I guess there is fight for dates from May onwards.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Tough Times..
Just getting the taste of tough times. I always thought I will sail through easily.
Application process, work (a lot of), professional issues, personal issues seem to take a toll on me. And the financial turmoil had its first direct impact on me when I reached office yesterday morning. No no.. I didn’t get a pink slip. Each and every employee of the company is affected and is sad.It is something that can have impact on my full one year plans. Yes, I can feel the impact of financial crisis. Yes, I am hit too, Directly.
One major problem I am having these days is that sometimes in my dreams, I am writing essays and filling forms with million of other things. I watch/see hundreds of dreams every night. Its because I have been thinking about lot of things, and all seem to be important. I think I need to relax a bit. But after taking some time off every time, I think the same.
I am done with 3 essays of HKUST and there are 3 more to go. Then I have to get them reviewed and have to get my recos ready too.
Reco questions are a bit different from Emory so I have to ask my recommenders to think something different and nice again.
The good thing is that I do not need to send my transcripts to HKUST by post. They asked for only scanned copies and will be asking for transcripts at the time of admit. I will be more than happy to submit the original transcripts.
Need to get ready with essays before Sunday as I have to go to a marriage on Sunday and I cannot afford to delay it further. 17-Dec is the day.
Application process, work (a lot of), professional issues, personal issues seem to take a toll on me. And the financial turmoil had its first direct impact on me when I reached office yesterday morning. No no.. I didn’t get a pink slip. Each and every employee of the company is affected and is sad.It is something that can have impact on my full one year plans. Yes, I can feel the impact of financial crisis. Yes, I am hit too, Directly.
One major problem I am having these days is that sometimes in my dreams, I am writing essays and filling forms with million of other things. I watch/see hundreds of dreams every night. Its because I have been thinking about lot of things, and all seem to be important. I think I need to relax a bit. But after taking some time off every time, I think the same.
I am done with 3 essays of HKUST and there are 3 more to go. Then I have to get them reviewed and have to get my recos ready too.
Reco questions are a bit different from Emory so I have to ask my recommenders to think something different and nice again.
The good thing is that I do not need to send my transcripts to HKUST by post. They asked for only scanned copies and will be asking for transcripts at the time of admit. I will be more than happy to submit the original transcripts.
Need to get ready with essays before Sunday as I have to go to a marriage on Sunday and I cannot afford to delay it further. 17-Dec is the day.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Emory submitted, HKUST next
Yesterday, I submitted my Goizueta Business School application. My recommenders still have to submit the recos in a day or 2 and my application will be complete.
It is such a relief to submit essays. Thanks to my reviewers, they did a great job in pointing out gaps, mistakes in my essays and adding a lot of value.
It was my first application and I took a long time to complete the process. I hope that the process for next applications will be accelerated as I know things better now. I thought to take a day off and I did.
Due to time constraint, I had to push CEIBS to 2nd round :(
HKUST is next
But now I realize the next deadline is just 2 weeks away. I need to start working on the essays, though not from scratch but HKUST people are not very generous with word limits. There are 6 essays and word limit for 4 essays is only 200 words and for rest of them, its 300 words.
How am I going to compress everything to just 200 words?
I have got a bag full of things and I need to put everything in small pockets now. Lets see how things go with HKUST.
The first deadline for HKUST is 17-Dec. I will need to submit everything by 14-Dec so that my recommenders get good enough time to submit the recos.
HKUST Essays:
1. Please tell us your motivations to pursue an MBA program, and why is now the best timing to do one.
2. Please elaborate on your career goals. How will your academic training, professional experience coupled with an MBA education at HKUST help you achieve your goals?
3. If admitted, how can your participation at HKUST MBA enrich fellow students' experience inside or outside classroom?
4. Please pick and answer ONE of the two topics in the space below.
4a. Describe a situation where your initial attempt to solve a problem failed. Tell us how you get around to finally solve the problem.
Or
4b. Describe a situation where you created opportunities for yourself and led to a favorite outcome.
5Please pick and answer ONE of the two topics in the space below.
5a. Tell us a situation when you experienced challenges in team setting, and what you have done to help the team achieve its goals.
Or
5b Describe a situation when you got frustrated over differences in culture or work style. What have you learnt from that experience?
6. What do you want the Admissions Committee to know about you as a person?
Zaijian (Good bye)
It is such a relief to submit essays. Thanks to my reviewers, they did a great job in pointing out gaps, mistakes in my essays and adding a lot of value.
It was my first application and I took a long time to complete the process. I hope that the process for next applications will be accelerated as I know things better now. I thought to take a day off and I did.
Due to time constraint, I had to push CEIBS to 2nd round :(
HKUST is next
But now I realize the next deadline is just 2 weeks away. I need to start working on the essays, though not from scratch but HKUST people are not very generous with word limits. There are 6 essays and word limit for 4 essays is only 200 words and for rest of them, its 300 words.
How am I going to compress everything to just 200 words?
I have got a bag full of things and I need to put everything in small pockets now. Lets see how things go with HKUST.
The first deadline for HKUST is 17-Dec. I will need to submit everything by 14-Dec so that my recommenders get good enough time to submit the recos.
HKUST Essays:
1. Please tell us your motivations to pursue an MBA program, and why is now the best timing to do one.
2. Please elaborate on your career goals. How will your academic training, professional experience coupled with an MBA education at HKUST help you achieve your goals?
3. If admitted, how can your participation at HKUST MBA enrich fellow students' experience inside or outside classroom?
4. Please pick and answer ONE of the two topics in the space below.
4a. Describe a situation where your initial attempt to solve a problem failed. Tell us how you get around to finally solve the problem.
Or
4b. Describe a situation where you created opportunities for yourself and led to a favorite outcome.
5Please pick and answer ONE of the two topics in the space below.
5a. Tell us a situation when you experienced challenges in team setting, and what you have done to help the team achieve its goals.
Or
5b Describe a situation when you got frustrated over differences in culture or work style. What have you learnt from that experience?
6. What do you want the Admissions Committee to know about you as a person?
Zaijian (Good bye)
Monday, November 17, 2008
First Interview Call
One must go to all the MBA fairs happening all around in Sep-Oct for many reasons. You get to know a lot more about the schools when you meet the alums, current students or some one from Adcom who come as a representative of the respective school.
I went to one such MBA fair at the Intercontinental in New Delhi, on September 27, 2008. It was great to hear from the representatives of the schools about the school, course structure, scholarships, fee, student profiles, numerous questions from applicants and answers. I met 2 of my batch mates too and we exchanged our phone numbers. :)
Because of attending just one fair, I got umpteen mails from many schools. 2 days back, I got a call from recruitment officer of HULT International Business School. He was calling from Boston, and at first I thought it was a friend calling from US :)
Then I realized it was someone else. So I apologized and started a conversation. He offered me an interview which was to be held today. I had heard about this school but had done no research. I accepted the offer as I had nothing to lose. If the school is good I would go for filling applications, if not then it will be kind of a dry run for things coming in future.
The time was set 4:30pm New Delhi time but I got a call at 4:38pm. I was told that we would be talking about my career till date and my short term, long term goals in the next 20 minutes. Simple questions were asked and I was ready for things to come thus did a decent job.
US schools and may be all global schools except Indian schools, want to know more about you, your goals, where as in India, their focus is more on asking questions like finance, current market situation, companies and their CEOs and they judge you on how much you know what is going on. US schools ( I have read so much on threads and blogs) ask about you, your goal clarity, why MBA and why their school/university.
I will not be applying to HULT because of many reasons but it was a good experience.
Emory still not submitted and CEIBS first deadline is approaching. m dead.
Zai Jian (its pronounced as Chai chian, correct me if m wrong)
I went to one such MBA fair at the Intercontinental in New Delhi, on September 27, 2008. It was great to hear from the representatives of the schools about the school, course structure, scholarships, fee, student profiles, numerous questions from applicants and answers. I met 2 of my batch mates too and we exchanged our phone numbers. :)
Because of attending just one fair, I got umpteen mails from many schools. 2 days back, I got a call from recruitment officer of HULT International Business School. He was calling from Boston, and at first I thought it was a friend calling from US :)
Then I realized it was someone else. So I apologized and started a conversation. He offered me an interview which was to be held today. I had heard about this school but had done no research. I accepted the offer as I had nothing to lose. If the school is good I would go for filling applications, if not then it will be kind of a dry run for things coming in future.
The time was set 4:30pm New Delhi time but I got a call at 4:38pm. I was told that we would be talking about my career till date and my short term, long term goals in the next 20 minutes. Simple questions were asked and I was ready for things to come thus did a decent job.
US schools and may be all global schools except Indian schools, want to know more about you, your goals, where as in India, their focus is more on asking questions like finance, current market situation, companies and their CEOs and they judge you on how much you know what is going on. US schools ( I have read so much on threads and blogs) ask about you, your goal clarity, why MBA and why their school/university.
I will not be applying to HULT because of many reasons but it was a good experience.
Emory still not submitted and CEIBS first deadline is approaching. m dead.
Zai Jian (its pronounced as Chai chian, correct me if m wrong)
Friday, November 14, 2008
Essay Reviews
Hey Guys...
Once you start writing essays, you will realize that its really tough to answer the simple questions. I wont tell more as you will get to know for sure.
Tip:
Get reviews from someone (read somemany) ..
You should get your essays reviewed from a number of people. My mentor told me this and I read it in a book, that there are 5 kind of people, you should get your essays reviewed from:
1. Your really close friend who knows (almost) everything about you
2. Someone who knows everything about the application process (current student, alum or even co-applicant
3. Someone who doesn't know anything about Bschool application process
4. Someone who has good writing skills and who can point out grammatical mistakes and can help you rephrase some lines/language
5. mmmmmm... who was that..? I guess it was who doesn't know anything about you and your profession.
These people will help you look at your essay from different directions. The thing is when you are writing and reading the same thing for days or weeks, you tend to overlook a lot of things. So these people will question you and tell you about things which you cant exactly see.
So get a good review from some good reviewers.
I have got just a few reviewers and I would like to thank them, especially my mentor B-San. He has spent a lot of time with me, discussing things and re-reading my crude essays and helping me overhaul them. Thanks B-San. And thanks to other guys as well. I still need some more reviewers and if you think you are fit to be one, please do let me know ;)
Zai Jian ( m not sure how to pronounce this.. :) its Chinese )
Once you start writing essays, you will realize that its really tough to answer the simple questions. I wont tell more as you will get to know for sure.
Tip:
Get reviews from someone (read somemany) ..
You should get your essays reviewed from a number of people. My mentor told me this and I read it in a book, that there are 5 kind of people, you should get your essays reviewed from:
1. Your really close friend who knows (almost) everything about you
2. Someone who knows everything about the application process (current student, alum or even co-applicant
3. Someone who doesn't know anything about Bschool application process
4. Someone who has good writing skills and who can point out grammatical mistakes and can help you rephrase some lines/language
5. mmmmmm... who was that..? I guess it was who doesn't know anything about you and your profession.
These people will help you look at your essay from different directions. The thing is when you are writing and reading the same thing for days or weeks, you tend to overlook a lot of things. So these people will question you and tell you about things which you cant exactly see.
So get a good review from some good reviewers.
I have got just a few reviewers and I would like to thank them, especially my mentor B-San. He has spent a lot of time with me, discussing things and re-reading my crude essays and helping me overhaul them. Thanks B-San. And thanks to other guys as well. I still need some more reviewers and if you think you are fit to be one, please do let me know ;)
Zai Jian ( m not sure how to pronounce this.. :) its Chinese )
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Final tentative list..
So for me final list goes like:
Emory - 2nd round and rolling :(
CEIBS - first round - 30-Nov
HKUST - First round - 17-Dec
NUS - its rolling so after HKUST, I ll try to close this one
Dropping Queens most probably, becaues its 2nd deadline is 28-Nov and its rolling as well. Moreover I do not have much time. CEIBS and Queens deadline is clashing. so will drop Queens most probably.
Other schools, I may think about if I submit the apps for above schools in time and am satisfied with the applications/essays I would submit
Krannert. Depends on when I take TOEFL
NTU - have to do the research
AIM - would not go for it because of the political situation there.. but would do the research.
Adios
Emory - 2nd round and rolling :(
CEIBS - first round - 30-Nov
HKUST - First round - 17-Dec
NUS - its rolling so after HKUST, I ll try to close this one
Dropping Queens most probably, becaues its 2nd deadline is 28-Nov and its rolling as well. Moreover I do not have much time. CEIBS and Queens deadline is clashing. so will drop Queens most probably.
Other schools, I may think about if I submit the apps for above schools in time and am satisfied with the applications/essays I would submit
Krannert. Depends on when I take TOEFL
NTU - have to do the research
AIM - would not go for it because of the political situation there.. but would do the research.
Adios
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
