Stanford ding and other updates

The big news is that the Stanford admission decisions for Round 1 are out and I, unfortunately, do not fit in their scheme of things. I am not disappointed though. A call from Stanford would have been a bonus in any case. I am, nevertheless, glad that I applied there. Their application process sure did make me think deep and hard and connect with my inner self. I attended the Ross Waitlist Online Chat today. It was hosted by Linda Abraham of the Accepted.com fame and had members of the adcom and current students taking questions. A nice initiative. The chat's transcript will be available online in a week's time. I'll post the link as soon as it comes alive.

Onto other news now. My team and I played in a soccer tournament a little over a week ago. We finished Runners-up. We did bag some of the big individual prizes though. My teammate won the 'Golden Boot' for ending the tournament as the highest goal scorer. Yours truly bagged the 'Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament' award. Then, on Sunday we played Satyam Computers in our first match of a corporate cricket tournament. We won quite easily but I didn't contribute much. Had an off-day. We are playing the State Bank of Hyderabad this Saturday in our first match of another tournament. Hope I score a few runs there.

Moving onto dance - I'll be dancing, with my team, on-stage at HICC Novotel, Hyderabad, on Jan 30th. Will be performing the salsa and the merengue. I'll try and upload pictures of the dance, if possible. Work has been rather hectic. I have a deadline to meet on Jan 30th (yep. same day as the dance). So you can imagine the kind of schedule that I have before me. I am having to balance work, dance and sports but the good part is that I am enjoying it. It has taken my mind off the recent disappointments.

Oh...before I end...did I mention that I am applying to a couple of European schools? More on that in a later post at a later time.

Waitlisted at Ross

It is, at least, better than a ding! More painful though :(.

I have already mailed the adcom that I'd like to remain on the waitlist and be considered for admission this fall. I don't have a choice. I haven't applied to any other school because I was quite confident about my chances at Ross and Darden. Darden, as fellow applicants from India would know, has hardly issued interview invites to Indian applicants - a terrible letdown. News from Stanford, though unlikely, will be a bonus.

The Ross adcom, along with current students who got admits after being placed on the waitlist, will be participating in an online chat (Jan 22nd 1 PM EST) where they will be taking questions from the waitlisted candidates - a terrific initiative. A Google group, for the waitlisted candidates, will be formed after Jan 20th.

It will be good to discuss plans and strategies with fellow applicants. Talking about strategies, I found this blog on one of the forums. It belongs to a current Ross student who converted the waitlist into an admit. Nice read.

Ross Interview Done

Back home now after the interview. It was with an alumnus, at his office. It lasted for an hour.

The interview started with a resume walk-through and had loads of questions on team activities, setbacks and my subsequent take-aways. I, actually, got a chance to tell him about every major achievement and his responses/acknowledgments sounded positive. Then, there were the usual why MBA, why Ross, goals while at Ross questions. I think I handled them pretty well. He then asked me about the other schools that I have applied to and wondered why I had limited my choices to only three schools. I told him why I thought that I best fit my target schools. I think I managed to convince him that I am an individual who is very focussed at all times.

Overall, I felt it was a good interview but I could have done better. I have a terrible cold and was trying my best not to cough during the interview. That made me pause a couple of times. Thankfully they weren't long ones. There were also a few "you know"s that I could have avoided.
So begins the wait for the results. Decisions will be mailed on January 15th. Lets hope I hear from Darden and Stanford before that.

Ross Interview Invite!

The happiness, that I feel at this moment, has no bounds. I have been waiting for this invite for weeks now. Ross has always been one of my favourite schools and now I find myself knocking on its door. Its like a dream come true.

I have been asked to interview between Dec 1-12. I will be going on a pilgrimage today and will be back on Saturday. I will fix the date of interview on my return.

Thank you all so much for the support. I will not disappoint you this time :-)

Go blue...

Ross Videos

I had wanted to post these earlier but didn't get the time to do so. I like these videos because it gives prospective students, like me, another opportunity to connect with the school and feel what it is like to study at Ross. The first video talks about how students can benefit from the Ross MBA. The second is more specific to leadership development at Ross. It talks about the measures that are being taken to tap leadership potential.






If you had any doubts about pursuing an MBA in these pressing times or about applying to Ross then this address, by Al Cotrone - Director of the Office of Career Development, might help reaffirm the value addition that a Ross MBA provides.

BW Business School Rankings

The latest BusinessWeek b-school rankings are out. As per the new rankings, the top U.S. programs are:

1. Chicago
2. HBS
3. Kellogg
4. Wharton
5. Ross
6. Stanford
7. Columbia
8. Duke
9. MIT
10. Haas

Well...I am surprised that Stanford has been ranked no higher than 6th. But I am delighted that both Ross and Stanford figure in top 7 and Darden isn't far behind (#16). My Ross and Stanford applications are currently under review and the Darden applications should be reviewed soon too. Please please send me the interview invites. I am so looking forward to them :-)


The top Non-U.S. programs are:

1. Queens
2. IE Business School
3. INSEAD
4. Ivey
5. LBS
6. ESADE
7. IMD
8. Rotman
9. IESE
10. Oxford

Here again, I was caught by surprise when I didn't see HEC Paris in the top 10. That is one school that has been consistently ranked high among b-schools in Europe. HEC, Judge and Cranfield figure in the second tier.

For more information, please click here. You may also wanna read about the crisis at the schools.

Hedge fund - a solution for loans without co-signer??

A well-wisher forwarded this piece of information to me. It is from the BusinessWeek forum. I am not sure how true it is. Here is the link.

For those who don't have the patience to click on the above link, here u go...

All those international students who are looking for loans without co-signer, here is a ray of hope for you. Currently all the b-schools who were dependent on CitiAssist for such loans are talking to each other to get a solution to this problem. They all are now planning to set up a hedge fund that can guarantee the loans for you guys. The schools include Chicago, Ross, Harvard, MIT and Wharton. Many more may join it but nothing is for sure. The source of this information is an adcom head from one of the schols mentioned above.

Ross MBA Event

Just got back from the event and my first impression...I am happy that I applied to Ross...the event lived up to my expectations!

There were three people, representing Ross, at the event - Ms. Kelly Kong Rogers (from the adcom. She is also an alumnus) and the alumni (Mr. Gautam Rao and Mr. Vikram Polavarapu) . The event started with a short (15 minutes) presentation on Ross MBA and what it has to offer. The presentation was precise, mostly bullet points with the speaker having to elaborate on the contents. It was ideal as it allowed people to listen to the speaker rather than continuously stare at the screen. Kelly stressed on the importance of teamwork throughout the presentation. It was typical Ross. Matt, if you are reading this - I liked it!

After the presentation, we had the alumni taking questions. As expected, one of the first questions was about the financial crisis and its effect on placements. Its difficult to predict the markets' future but the alumni, going by past trends, sounded optimistic. They felt that the market situation would improve over the next couple of years.

Then, there was the question about the cancellation of the Ross CitiAssist loan. Ross is doing its best to find alternatives for the cancelled CitiAssist loan that didn't require a US co-signer (applicants still have the option of leveraging the UoM CitiAssist loan that requires a US co-signer) Finding a solution for this situation is at the top of the Dean’s priority list. The School is actively exploring loan options to ensure that Ross continues to be financially feasible for high caliber students from around the world. At this time, however, the program also advises international students to explore all sources of funding within their own countries, such as government scholarships and loans, private agencies, and bank loan programs, as well as personal funding sources. It also encourages early applications because a majority of the merit scholarships are available to those who apply in Rounds one and two. Like Darden, Ross too is taking into account its international students' concerns. I am happy!

I had earlier mentioned in the blog that all the adcom members are away conducting information sessions. I was contacted by the adcom this evening and was informed that they have started reviewing the applications. Now that's good news - applicants can hope to hear from Ross in the near future!

To be honest, my interaction with the Ross alumni and a current student, prior to my application submission, had had me amazed. The loyalty within the community is overwhelming! It would be awesome to be a part of such a close knit group.

On this note I'll end my post...its late and time I crashed...

Go blue! :-D

Ross app submitted and happy Onam!

The big news today is that I have submitted my application for MBA to the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. My evaluators have submitted their recommendations and I had had my score sent to Ross three weeks ago. So, my work is done and I'll now wait to hear from the adcom.

Today, we also happen to celebrate Onam, the national festival of Kerala. It is a harvest festival that is celebrated by Malayalees all over the world. For more information click here. All the malayalees, including me, in my company are clad in traditional Kerala wear today. We met up and had 'sadya' together.

In other news, I hope to submit by Stanford app on the 17th of this month and I'll be out partying tonight, with colleagues.

C ya l8r

Runners-up at Mir Khasim Ali Cricket Tournament!

The D. E. Shaw cricket team played brilliantly today but lost to a superior team, TCS. The TCS team has been our nemesis on previous occasions as well. But today we ran them close. Scoring 25 runs of the last over was a tall order and we failed to knock them over. We beat HSBC, the tournament favourites; for the first time in the company's history; in the semi-finals. As the Captain, I am extremely pleased with the team's performance. It is a good start to the season - reaching the finals of our very first tournament!

Some good news on my MBA app front. My one-page killer resume is READY. It comprised two pages earlier but now the one page thingy looks absolutely fabulous...I hope it does its bit in helping me get into a school of my choice.

I have one more essay to write for my Stanford application - "What matters to you most and why?". I have the answer ready. I just need to pen it down and weave it into my application's theme.

The Ross essays are done. I am waiting on my current supervisor to submit the recommendation. I'll probably submit the application this coming week.

That's me signing off...