Planning for MBA..

HI Guys,

While working on the applications I came across some thought provoking stuff..



B-School applications are all about planning. From the time you plan to apply to MBA and schedule a date for GMAT, you have to plan a lot.

1. Decide to do an MBA:

Once you decided that your not doing the job you are worth doing or you are fed up with the boring stuff you decide go for an MBA for the obvious reasons: Recognition, Money and other personal goals.
For myself, I decide to do an MBA when I was at National Institute of Technology Warangal (1999-2003) doing my B.Tech in EEE. I requested brochures from all the top schools and looking those pictures I relished the scenes of team studies and the environment. But I knew that we have to have atleast 4 years of experience before applying to MBA in US because my profile is not stronger till that point of time.

2. Taking GMAT:

It is the easier step of the application process. But not the easiest. It is important to get a good score in GMAT. But you will later realise that it is easier to write GMAT than the essays of a business school application.
resources: 1. www.MBA.com
2. www.scoretop.com
3. www.pagalguy.com
For myself I have taken the latest copy of official guide (11th edition as of now) and Kaplan. I am an engineer with a strong Math background. So concentrated mainly on English. I used to get around 650-700 in the practice tests but my intution says I will get a little more on the actual GMAT. And it did come true.
I scored a 50 (95 percentile) in Quant and 38 (85 percentile) in verbal with a toatl of 720 (96 percentile). As expected the score in verbal is less. But I am happy that I am able to cross the magic mark of 700.

My main aim in taking GMAT is to apply to ISB, where I thought I can complete the whole thing in an year and get back to work as I have many personal commitments.

3. MBA Applications:

This is the hardest part of the process. You have to do a lot of research on the schools of your interests and start writing those essays. I got a good score in GMAT and along with my friends suggestions and my interest I got towards applying to US schools.

So subscribed to US news and did some research in rankings and the curriculam and narrowed down to applying some of the best schools.

But I thought that TOEFL is not necessary for all the schools as it is not required for Wharton and Tuck, the schools that are of my most interest. But later realised that I have to write TOEFL. So scheduled a test and wrote it with in a week.

Again Wharton and Tuck wants to have a self reported Transcript. So thought that it is the same for all schools. But realised that it is not so. Many deadlines are approaching and when I contacted NITW, they told that the registrar is too busy and can not issue the transcipts to me at that time.

The whole planning of submitting almost all the applications in Round-I has gone waste. I was able to submit only Wharton and ISB.

Moral: Know the requirements of the schools and not just the superficial stuff. Go to each school website that you want to apply to and take down the requirements and consolidate.

I wrote the basic essays and revised the same with some my friends and edited them again and again.

Check out the application for typo errors and leaving the important fields blank.

4. Decisions:

This is the most awaited part of the process. The first thing to come is ISB decision. I was shortlisted for the interview. It is a good news as I made many typo mistakes in the application and thought that I may not be able to do it. The interview went fine but have to wait a long 1 and a half month to know the results.
Next came wharton As expected I got DWI (Deny witout Interview) from Wharton. The 2 months effort preparing and editing the essays went down the drain. But its good experience to get a thumbs down from a top schools, the only one I applied in Top 10.

I am applying to some more schools and post the next step in the journey Here.

When I look back, there is a whole lack of planning in my steps. But I am trying to balance myself and hoping for the best.