The sad truth

Mumbai has been attacked, ripped apart almost - thats the sad truth of the day.

Its a city I identify with most; not only because I was born there, or because I was educated there, or because most of my family and friends are there. I identify with it because it is a part of my soul. I have learnt how to cope up with things and not to let unplanned events ruin your plans - something that defines the persona of every Mumbaikar. Be it riots or rains or, people will venture out to goto work, help others and look forward to the train-rush the next day.

Some might argue that thats the very weakness of Mumbaikars - we just "move on" with life. Right or wrong, I dont know. The city taught me that, and thats how I shall always be, adaptibility is in my veins. If anything needs to be changed, it is the votebank politics that has crippled my city. It doesnt surprise me then, that terrorists enter Mumbai and target Americans, Britishers and Isarelis alongwith Indians. Hopefully now our political parties come together unanimosuly.

Today, 3 places that got targetted reminded me of my college days. Watching a movie at Metro, grabbing a beer at Cafe Mondegar or at 'Cafe Leopold', and then feasting on some kabas at 'Bade Miya' and its neighbor 'Baghdadi' were the norm after exams. Today, Leopold lies soaked in blood, Metro lies deserted, and Bade Miya is found with RDX. Thats the sad truth.

Tomorrow is a new day, and Mumbai will rise and be running again as usual. But those killed - men, women, children, cops, soldiers will not rise. I hope the terrorists dont as well.

ISB submitted

What a relief!

I finally submitted my R2 application for ISB yesterday late-night, rather early morning today around 4.30 am!

The photograph was done, thanks to this post by ICBIBIC and then some usual last minute changes followed to the forms. Finally, I was frustrated and tired and sleepy. Woke my wife at about 3.30am to make her go through my form once more, for any last minute suggestions. Using the one suggestion she had, I finally hit the submit button. I didnt want to postpone it for today any more, have had enough of it already!

Now I am planning to apply to one or two more schools. I know I am pretty freakin late in making this choice, and especially the schools on my radar are ones you need to plan months in advance about what to write etc. I hope the time I have till first week of January should be sufficient to try my luck at 1/2 top names. Hope for the best.

As for now, I am officially in contention for a R2 ISB seat. Let see how that goes! EYE-YES-BEEE!!! :))

ISB website down

Since yesterday, I am unable to access the ISB website, and hence even my online application form. We got an email, but it seemed to imply only the payment gateway will not be available due to server maintenance activity.

That's really unfair - all my plans of completing their form details over this weekend have been squashed!!! I dont think the site will be up and running by Monday morning. And with the R2 deadline so close, I may have to take off from work 1 day next week. Why the maintenance so close to the deadline?!?!?!?! :(

Is ISB trying to improve its virtual ranking??? We'll soon find out if they come up with a state-of-the-art website......

It's the ISB effect!

Yesterday I really experienced what 'excitement' is all about. The ISB R1 results were out yesterday, and most applicants seemed to have jitters all the way through since 2pm, when people were expecting to hear their fate, till about 10pm when most folks finally started receiving Rings, Strings and Dings. Frankly, I cant remember a single occasion when I have seen so many folks waiting waiting waiting, patiently and impatiently, to hear a B-school result. For the uninitiated, I e-witnessed this on the Pagalguy ISB-applicants thread- which probably registered a over 500 posts in a few hours.

I dont think any other B-school generates such a hooplah amongst candidates as does ISB. Nopes, even the hallowed IIMs do not come close. But in my opinion, what really sets ISB aoart is its fantastic community!

The ISB Admissions Committee and some current students tirelessly answered all queries on the above forum, as well as the official ISB Paagalguy thread. I saw a few other schools doing it in the BW forums, but I havent followed it so far. Yet I dont think any school, be it the M7 or otherwise, can compete with the pure and patient hospitality that the ISB AdCom has shown over the past few months. I am certainly a little sad since the official thread it now closed, but I hope they come back again after R2 deadline is done.

The little doses of advice to all applicants, the responses to repeated questions etc simply goes to show the dedication of the Admissions Committee involved. Having spent a few years in the West, I can vouch for the fact that Indian hospitality goes far beyond any other culture, and it truly reflects in ISB. I wish it also reflected in the other Indian institutes - but alas, that may take some time till privatisation kicks in. In fact yesterday, even IIML declared their shortlisted candidates- and all seemed to get a Reject posted on their application. Only after calling up the IIML office, were they informed whether they had made it or not. Hows that for starters! :)

And up next, are the ISB applicants themselves! In an amazing gesture to future applicants and R2 applicants especially, most R1 applicants completed a sheet which details their profiles. Now where else do you get that??? So many talented folks have got through, and as many talented folks have been left out. My heart really goes out to all the dinged folks who have given this application everything they could! Moreover, it is so heartening to see many dinged candidates post on the thread that they will be back next year for another shot.

I think thats the ISB effect. An AdCom that is willing to help you always, current students who take time out of their studies to answer your queries and the applicants themselves who have not only helped each other, but also helped future applicants! Such is its warmth, that people want to be a part of the magic. India has many great educational institutions in the IITs, IIMs, IISc, AIIMS etc, but few can generate singular passion amongst others to help take it from a great institution to an iconic institution! Most unfortunately just remain brand names.

ISB is certainly a magical place and I am sure it will go places! As magical maybe as is the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!!!

My congratulations to all ISB R1 admits and best wishes to those who have been unfortunate to miss out on the next year's class. Keep the faith! :)

- MBAlmighty

The 20 year Rankings @ BWEEK

As is the case with all ranking systems good or bad, the latest rankings of BW too are interesting! Some highlights, if I may call it that.

>> Ross beat Stanford, Kelly beat Darden, Cornell beat Tuck! - Interesting! ?!?!?!
>> MIT, Kellogg, Wharton & Stanford all scored B in 'Teaching'! - How?!?!?!
>> Yale moved out of the Top-20 list by a huge margin!

This is the TOP-30 list courtesy Businessweek.

Businessweek has been ranking B-schools since the last 20 years! Here is a quick snapshot of how all the top names have been doing over the last 2 decades.

The international rankings seem pretty much the same as always. I am waiting for the day ISB makes it into that list!

- MBAlmighty

Cornelled

My first submit of the season, my first submit ever. Cornell has been submitted, and now I officially join the bandwagon of applicants waiting to hear back from schools.

Lessons learnt from this submission -

1. I was so keenly waiting all day to press that SUBMIT button. Well turns out, Cornell application doesnt have a "SUBMIT" button per se. The moment I paid my application fees, I got a nice Thank You screen saying my application had been submitted! I was like.. "whaaaattt!!! whereesss my submit button???" I wonder if ISB has one?

2. Writing a resume for b-schools takes time!!! I started at 11pm with a supposedly completed resume, ended at around 4.30am! Well, I already had a resume ready. But then I came across some pretty helpful resume tips and realized what I must add. All you techie-applicants out there - usually we folks always write software languages known in the resume. Did you write these in the resume? I did, but condensed it a lot.

3. Filling in all the activities, work-experience sections takes some serious thought and time. Never underestimate the effort required to fill in these sections. If you would concentrate on the essays and resume, but these sections too would hold good value.

4. Essay formatting can go for a toss in these application submission tools. I wrote my essays in Word, but when I pasted them into the application 2 things happened:

• All quotes ' " etc got converted to question marks??? I didnt realise this at first, only when I took a printout, the obvious errors resurfaced.


• I had used some " - " in my essays. In Word, these did not count towards the word-limits, but when i pasted it in the application editor, and back into Word..... the longer dash (dont know the technical name) got converted to a shorter dash " - " and this one is counted as a word. So all my essays suddenly went over limits. Has anyone else come across this? Anyways, I simply removed all these dashes and submitted within the limits.

As per BW's Cornell forum, looks like 250+ applications have already been submitted in R1 for AMBA. Now starts R2, probably Cornell is amongst the first R2 deadlines amongst some of the top schools. Assuming a same number apply till R3, and Cornell chooses ~60 for its AMBA class, thats still around 10% intake. Doesnt look easy at all!!!

Anyways I've done my bit, time to move on. ISB beckons! Good Luck to all you folks awaiting ISB R1 results! May the force be with you.

- MBAlmighty

The Ratan Tata Scholarship is......

not for MBA aspirants at The Johnson School @ Cornell. :(

I got in touch with the Financial Aid folks at Cornell, and this is what they had to say: "The Tata Scholarship Fund for Students from India is available to undergraduate students only."

I wonder why only for undergraduates?!?!?!? IMHO, the number of Indian students who go for graduate studies is significantly larger than the number who go for undergraduate studies, and more often than not, the Indians who complete their undergraduate studies in the US are quite affluent. Well it is a great gesture nevertheless, hopefully someone can make good use of the money.

My 'tata' to the scholarship! :(
- MBAlmighty

The Booth School

This is the very first time I have seen how many b-schools got their names, which are distinct from the Universities they are affiliated to. Yes, its pretty obvious that it happens due to sizeable donations, but I never saw it first hand...... till today!

Presenting......... The Booth School of Business!!!

Indian corporate houses aren't really known for their generosity, but who knows, some day we might have a familar sounding name attached to some top school! ISB??? (Hope not!)

- MBAlmighty

MBA value & Case method

Fox Business News' Shibani Joshi (HBS '04) interviews Harvard Professor Bill Sahlman. Nice insights into the concept of Case Study. I'm quite certain studying at HBS must be a surreal experience! :)

Enjoy the video here