A bad start indeed. Got a mail today that I got waitlisted. Don't want to dig into it right now. I've had a very bad day today. Messed up with my lead. Have a tough weekend again with one approaching application deadline and one verdict (personal life) pending.
On top of that I am expecting some work in office in near future.
I've already had a bad experience with waitlist (IIMI call). Now what should I do. Or rather is there something I can do about it?
Any expert advice.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Death Sentence for Kellogg Essays
Two of my reviewers gave a plain death sentence to the first draft of my Kellogg essays. I wasn't happy with the first draft when I wrote it but its always painful to see a brutal murder of eight pages of life story.
Actually I wrote them few days back in very disturbed state of mind. And because I knew that the disturbance was there to stay, I chose to write the essays in the situation of writer's block I had. Now today I got unhappy replies from two of my favorite reviewers. Both tore my first essay and suggested loads of improvements in other essays.
And I went into the mode of introspection for my essays. Following are some ideas I could gather as a checklist for consideration while proofreading essay before giving out for reviews.
1) Follow SAR wherever applicable... SAR is Situation > Action > Result flow for putting an idea in essay.
2) Locate a what/how in every sentence you read and answer it in the next sentence or the same sentence.
3) Condense ideas wherever possible.
I'll keep updating this space as I find more on this. Till then let me get back and work on the kellogg essays draft 2
Actually I wrote them few days back in very disturbed state of mind. And because I knew that the disturbance was there to stay, I chose to write the essays in the situation of writer's block I had. Now today I got unhappy replies from two of my favorite reviewers. Both tore my first essay and suggested loads of improvements in other essays.
And I went into the mode of introspection for my essays. Following are some ideas I could gather as a checklist for consideration while proofreading essay before giving out for reviews.
1) Follow SAR wherever applicable... SAR is Situation > Action > Result flow for putting an idea in essay.
2) Locate a what/how in every sentence you read and answer it in the next sentence or the same sentence.
3) Condense ideas wherever possible.
I'll keep updating this space as I find more on this. Till then let me get back and work on the kellogg essays draft 2
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Long Term Goals
How much of clarity is needed about the long term goals? I was discussiong this with Chaos the other day and we though we need to be as clear as it can be. So I have to think what it has to be. I am not completely confused about it and my short term goals are pretty clear in my mind. Long term goals have not taken a definite shape maybe because I am still working to realize my short term goals.
So I sat down to explore what should a long term goal be like. When I am confused, the first thing I do is to type it in google and hit search (sometimes I am feeling lucky). And good gracious there are so many guys out there to help me on this. Well let me go through some of these texts and then I'll sit down thinking what next to do. I am targeting to write the first Kellogg essays draft over the weekend. I am thinking of taking a leave today for the same. Over the weekend if all goes well, I am planning to go and visit my cousin. The school where I go to teach is celebrating its annual foundation day so we don't have the computer classes this week.
For the sake of publicity (PR cell would become happy with me on this), I work for Pankhudi, which works specifically for upliftment of unpreviledged kids. Would write a post on pankhudi sometime (in my other blog).
Ah!! By the way. I clicked a submit on ISB application last night. They made me download a pdf of my whole application and I was done.
Next target: Kellogg Part 1
So I sat down to explore what should a long term goal be like. When I am confused, the first thing I do is to type it in google and hit search (sometimes I am feeling lucky). And good gracious there are so many guys out there to help me on this. Well let me go through some of these texts and then I'll sit down thinking what next to do. I am targeting to write the first Kellogg essays draft over the weekend. I am thinking of taking a leave today for the same. Over the weekend if all goes well, I am planning to go and visit my cousin. The school where I go to teach is celebrating its annual foundation day so we don't have the computer classes this week.
For the sake of publicity (PR cell would become happy with me on this), I work for Pankhudi, which works specifically for upliftment of unpreviledged kids. Would write a post on pankhudi sometime (in my other blog).
Ah!! By the way. I clicked a submit on ISB application last night. They made me download a pdf of my whole application and I was done.
Next target: Kellogg Part 1
Exploring Kellogg
This MBA application is becoming fun. Whenever I delve deeper into a school, I tend to think that I want to be at that school. It started with Tuck. I loved Tuck when I went through the blogs and their website. Then it was MIT, and now Kellogg.
Kellogg offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of courses and a lot of activities to keep one busy through a wide variety of student clubs. I was taken aback when I saw the long list on their website.
Want to know what is it like to be at Kellogg? Just go through the pages on student life.
The information on the website is pretty connected and written from the point of view of applicants. Would defininitely leave you thinking that you are missing something.
Kellogg offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of courses and a lot of activities to keep one busy through a wide variety of student clubs. I was taken aback when I saw the long list on their website.
Want to know what is it like to be at Kellogg? Just go through the pages on student life.
The information on the website is pretty connected and written from the point of view of applicants. Would defininitely leave you thinking that you are missing something.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
ISB Done Kellogg Next
ISB Over!!! After so many drafts I finally finalized my ISB essays and now have a much better idea of what to write in essays.
Kellogg essays are much better in terms of word limit. Writing an influential Prizes would have been much easier for Eric Segal than an influential Love Story. The more we get to talk of, the better we paint ourselves. And Kellogg essays give doubly spaced 2 pages. Almost double of ISB. Sigh!! That indeed is a relief. Today I was in mood of writing a draft but am feeling very sleepy now. Read a nice article on Kellogg website about the induction of fresher batch.
Meanwhile I also have to write TOEFL. Any pointers on TOEFL preparation? I bought a book which has 6 practice sets and I guess it should be sufficient.After TOEFL I plan to take up the prized MIT essays.
A lot of action is in pipeline and slowly slowly surfacing. An introduction in form of ISB was a good warm up (well actually more than just warm up).
As I step into the US b-school process, I hope to gain more seriousness. Thankfull workload is super mild.
Need to scan a couple of douments and get one photo done and ISB application would be complete :)
Kellogg essays are much better in terms of word limit. Writing an influential Prizes would have been much easier for Eric Segal than an influential Love Story. The more we get to talk of, the better we paint ourselves. And Kellogg essays give doubly spaced 2 pages. Almost double of ISB. Sigh!! That indeed is a relief. Today I was in mood of writing a draft but am feeling very sleepy now. Read a nice article on Kellogg website about the induction of fresher batch.
Meanwhile I also have to write TOEFL. Any pointers on TOEFL preparation? I bought a book which has 6 practice sets and I guess it should be sufficient.After TOEFL I plan to take up the prized MIT essays.
A lot of action is in pipeline and slowly slowly surfacing. An introduction in form of ISB was a good warm up (well actually more than just warm up).
As I step into the US b-school process, I hope to gain more seriousness. Thankfull workload is super mild.
Need to scan a couple of douments and get one photo done and ISB application would be complete :)
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Essays started
Bad that I was out of blogging for so long but it was for a cause. I was drowned into first set of my essays. Did first, second and third drafts and got them reviewed iteratively by some friends. A mix of closest friends to aquiantance one of whom had converted ISB call last year.
And you know what... its important to understand the suggestions but impossible to implement them all... cause they can be poles apart.
Anyways I read somewhere that the essays for first school take the longest and by the time we are into third school, it becomes a lot easier to do the essays. But the first essays take real long time. At times when I got frustrated, I just stepped outside and thought why didn't I join IIM Indore, only to regain the confidence back and get back to applications.
Few days back a friend asked me that in my school selection criteria, I have not selected Kellogg but in my page my R1 schools have Kellogg too. Actually a month back when I talked to my recommender, he asked me why am I not applying to top five. He told me that I must try atleast one or two of them. Well given a choice between HBS/Stanford GSB/ Wharton/ Kellogg/ Chicago, I chose Kellogg as Wharton/Stanford ask for exceptional acads, HBS kinda looks out of reach for a general profile like mine, Kellogg's emphasis on teamwork attracted me. A bit of more research, a glance at essays and I knew that I like Kelloggs. Not so huge class size, emphasis on teamwork, good placement percentage for consulting etc attracted me. Though Kellogg is more known for Marketing, I loved the number of electives they have to offer. I can customize the course in whatever way I want. So I knew that Kellogg was going to be the addition.
Few days back I got an anonymous comment by Holden on one of my previous posts. The reply in itself would be a post. Will write on it when I get to it. As of now I have Kellogg lined up. Will officially start on Kellogg essays tomorrow.
Will be a lot more frequent in next one to two weeks as I have a lot to discuss.
And you know what... its important to understand the suggestions but impossible to implement them all... cause they can be poles apart.
Anyways I read somewhere that the essays for first school take the longest and by the time we are into third school, it becomes a lot easier to do the essays. But the first essays take real long time. At times when I got frustrated, I just stepped outside and thought why didn't I join IIM Indore, only to regain the confidence back and get back to applications.
Few days back a friend asked me that in my school selection criteria, I have not selected Kellogg but in my page my R1 schools have Kellogg too. Actually a month back when I talked to my recommender, he asked me why am I not applying to top five. He told me that I must try atleast one or two of them. Well given a choice between HBS/Stanford GSB/ Wharton/ Kellogg/ Chicago, I chose Kellogg as Wharton/Stanford ask for exceptional acads, HBS kinda looks out of reach for a general profile like mine, Kellogg's emphasis on teamwork attracted me. A bit of more research, a glance at essays and I knew that I like Kelloggs. Not so huge class size, emphasis on teamwork, good placement percentage for consulting etc attracted me. Though Kellogg is more known for Marketing, I loved the number of electives they have to offer. I can customize the course in whatever way I want. So I knew that Kellogg was going to be the addition.
Few days back I got an anonymous comment by Holden on one of my previous posts. The reply in itself would be a post. Will write on it when I get to it. As of now I have Kellogg lined up. Will officially start on Kellogg essays tomorrow.
Will be a lot more frequent in next one to two weeks as I have a lot to discuss.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Million dollars or Knighthood
Lemme tell you one thing, no matter how early you start, you'll always face a time crunch for essays and applications. I have been writing essays for ISB these days and boy, its one hell of a task. For the first essay about diverse ISB culture, I wrote some 4-5 drafts before arriving at first rough draft. The word limit of 300 words is too crippling. Anyways I found the third essay about manager's feedback easy. The second essay is still my concern. I wrote one draft for it which was rejected by my friends (I am sending essays to friends for review). I sat yesterday to write it again and wrote a modified draft. I don't think I myself am convinced by it. So let me put my thoughts in here.
A million dollars mean independence from constraints. Its about freeing myself from the biggest need of life. So what would I do if I have million dollars. Now ISB won't have any interest in my dream about spending my life on hawaii beaches. The decision should be reflective of my character. Well, the character which I have shown in my other essays. It can be related to a passion of life. For example, I am from Bihar, a state in India. Whenever I go outside for lunch or dinner, I see restaurants on rajasthani theme, punjabi theme, bengali theme, gujrati theme etc. I have never ever seen any restaurant on bihari theme. There are lots of food preparations specific to Bihar which are very tasty but unknown to people outside. Maybe I would like to open a chain of restaurants which showcase the food of Bihar, the festivals we celebrate and the food specific to those festivals. It would also show the positive side of the state which is already infamous for a lot other wrong things.
Knighthood. Knighthood is also about a passion. But this passion is about a much larger impact. Its about impact on society. Maybe its about setting an example for the world. All of us dream of some ways we can improve the world. Recieving a national honor for the same would mean setting a path for the next generations. Its about bringing that passion out and showing it to the world.
I am not sure if I am right about the interpretations. Please comment if you think it should be something else. Now when it comes to writing about this, it is difficult to take things out of heart into the mind, translate in english and write. I felt the need for a structural approach for the same. To avoid bias, I am not posting any sample structure.
Now the way I look at it is, its about discovering ourselves. Lets do it.
Updated on 18th August 2007
Thanks a lot guys for your inputs. finally i could successfully write the first draft for the essay. Bihar restaurant was just a time pass example I had taken to understand things, perhaps anon2 took it by words. But in the course I have learnt that the essay demands for things about me and my character. The million dollar approach or Knighthood approach what would I prefer to take in a situation. Any example in this essay dilutes the context and limits it to the example which is highly undesirable.
A million dollars mean independence from constraints. Its about freeing myself from the biggest need of life. So what would I do if I have million dollars. Now ISB won't have any interest in my dream about spending my life on hawaii beaches. The decision should be reflective of my character. Well, the character which I have shown in my other essays. It can be related to a passion of life. For example, I am from Bihar, a state in India. Whenever I go outside for lunch or dinner, I see restaurants on rajasthani theme, punjabi theme, bengali theme, gujrati theme etc. I have never ever seen any restaurant on bihari theme. There are lots of food preparations specific to Bihar which are very tasty but unknown to people outside. Maybe I would like to open a chain of restaurants which showcase the food of Bihar, the festivals we celebrate and the food specific to those festivals. It would also show the positive side of the state which is already infamous for a lot other wrong things.
Knighthood. Knighthood is also about a passion. But this passion is about a much larger impact. Its about impact on society. Maybe its about setting an example for the world. All of us dream of some ways we can improve the world. Recieving a national honor for the same would mean setting a path for the next generations. Its about bringing that passion out and showing it to the world.
I am not sure if I am right about the interpretations. Please comment if you think it should be something else. Now when it comes to writing about this, it is difficult to take things out of heart into the mind, translate in english and write. I felt the need for a structural approach for the same. To avoid bias, I am not posting any sample structure.
Now the way I look at it is, its about discovering ourselves. Lets do it.
Updated on 18th August 2007
Thanks a lot guys for your inputs. finally i could successfully write the first draft for the essay. Bihar restaurant was just a time pass example I had taken to understand things, perhaps anon2 took it by words. But in the course I have learnt that the essay demands for things about me and my character. The million dollar approach or Knighthood approach what would I prefer to take in a situation. Any example in this essay dilutes the context and limits it to the example which is highly undesirable.
I got my first draft reviewed by few friends who gave some valuable inputs. Things look better now as far as this essay is concerned.
Thanks to all for their inputs. If someone still has some inputs please comment. It might just be useful for those hitting this page.
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