Turned down the admission-offer that ISB had for me. The reason I am calling this as a bold move is that I have still not figured out the finances for Emory completely. Was busy in some other important tasks and have not taken any step on working on this in last few days.

But in any case, I am in no position to deposit INR 2 Lakhs that ISB would need as a deposit in case I want that safe in my kitty too. I am sure that Emory would come up with a no-cosigner loan that it is working on actively as per the Accepted Students website. Even in the absence of it, I guess I would somehow be able to arrange for the living expenses. 

I know ISB V/s Emory (with schol) is a debatable issue. I am very clear about what I want from my B-school and hence, clearly it’s Goizueta for me. I understand that this issue deseves a detailed post.. Don’t worry, it’ll be here very soon. Keep watching this space.

Going through the life-cycle of a number of MBA applicants through their blogs, I knew that after getting the admits, the next wait is for the official confirmation in forms of admission-packets. It’s a bit strange that even in this world of web and e-mails, how good it feels to have something tangible to see and show up. 

So I too was waiting for the official admission packets. In fact, I was regularly tracing the journey of my packet from Atlanta through  Hongkong through  Mumbai to finally Noida through the UPS tracking system. I was really waiting quite eagerly for this one. And suddenly, just 2 minutes after I had checked the status to be “Arrival-scan” at New Delhi, I got a mail from the office-mailroom informing me about the arrival of a letter for me. “They can’t be that quick”, I thought, but still reached the mailroom almost jumping and running on my way.

It was not the packet from Goizueta, it was the acceptance letter from ISB. The ISB letter was quite plain. It was simply the original mail this time in hard-copy format. No additional info of any kind. But as written above, it felt good to go through the contents again and again. 

And then, in the evening, the mailroom people contacted me again. And this time, it had to be from Goizueta!! I cut short whatever conversation I was having with my colleagues and rushed to the mailroom minutes before its closure for the day. And there it was: my admissions packet from the school that I’ll hopefully belong to in near future. The packet had a black leather folder with a Goizueta notepad. In addition, there were two letters one each about my acceptance and scholarship. And the best part was: a handwritten note by Director of Admissions, Mrs Julie Barefoot complementing me on my acadmic credentials. A personal touch like this surely does make you feel good. 

I was really very happy to see this. Monday wasn’t particularly a good day for me at office: some health issues, some struggle with the new line of work and then some more things.. But a moment like this makes you forget everything else. 

BTW, as you may have realized from the new category that has come up on this blog: “Go Goizueta!!”, I have frozen my decision to attend Goizueta. Have I arranged for the living expenses and other things already? Not yet! But I am confdent that I will be able to figure that out. Meanwhile, I initiated the wire-transfer for the initial deposit, but for some reason, it failed. (I got the mail informing about the same today morning.) I perhaps would need to do it the old fashioned way.(money order/DD)  :(

It’s such a lovely feeling to be admitted to the school, keeping which in mind I had embarked on “Mission MBA” This is one school that was never off my list since Jan 2007, when I had started giving MBA  a serious thought.. 

That said, things have changed since then.. I have researched internatonal MBA in depth and now I really want to have that  experience myself. So i believe that today’s admit doesnt change much.. I still plan to fly to Atlanta coming July.  But it surely feels better to know that if it’s Goizueta that I go to,then  it’s by choice, not by default.

Will finalize this ISB V/s Emory thing in a week or so.

The interview was very generic. There were no surprises. It wasn’t a blind interview. I believe she had my full application in front of her or at least, had gone through that in full. 

Here’re the Qs asked in the exact order that they were asked: 

• Tell me something about yourself covering your education, work-ex and your motivation for an MBA. (Answered as usual, but while covering work-ex, mentioned the switch from company X  to  company Y and underlined that company Y is very selective. (This was a lesson from Goizueta Interview ) )
• You mentioned company Y is very selective. Why do you think so? And why did they select you? (Explained the rigorous process. As expected, she was impressed.  Then, mentioned my traits like technical excellence, problem solving skills and teamwork)
• Tell us about a work-related team-story. (Told)
• What do your colleagues admire most about you? ( Quoted some qualities, with example. got appreciation)
• Motivation for an MBA now. (Told, she sounded convinced)
• Why Tuck? (Explained in detail, Clubs, courses, reputation; connected with my goals; she liked my homework) 
• How did you get to know about Tuck? (Told the whole story starting with the first time I saw the name in one of the rankings to the alum-hosted admission event. Mentioned how I loved the way their alum stood for them once they needed to postpone the visit. Told them how even I am connected strongly with my alma-mater. She liked this.) 
• Tell us tour involvement with Toastmasters. (Explained in detail how TM made me a better speaker, better leader anda a better person. Mentioned that I’d like to rejuvenate Tuckmasters, the now defunct TM club of Tuck. She complimented me on that saying that TM is really a gr8 organization to be involved with.)
• Any additional info that you’d like admissions-committee to know. ( Told about recent updates from work-front. She again sounded impressed and asked me to send a detailed note for this.) 

Next, she asked if i have any specific Qs related to the WL process or anything else. Here r the Qs i asked:

• Next step for WL candidates. (Nothing. It’s a long wait and all the waitlisted candidates would be evaluated at the end of last round. )
• What abt internationals? Don’t you encourage internationals to apply early to avoid Visa-hassles?? ( Yup, They are seeing to it that if possible, international candidates are notified a bit earlier. But that too will take at least a couple of months.)
• Any chance of schol/finaid for us. (Schol: no chances, all decissions with admit-decisions; finaid: chances are there.)
• Possibility of a no-cosigner loan? (Tuck is still looking, but the last she knew, there was no improvement in situation.)

Overall,  the interview went very well. I was very confident this time. (Goizueta effect maybe) I guess it was the kind taht would have got me a seat at Tuck, had it been a regular interview. EVen now i guess it may fetch me a seat some time in May.

But I don’t  intend to wait that long. In next two days, I’ll write to update them about my Goizueta result and request then to either release the result or release me off the waitlist. In any case, an admit w/o scholarship or possibility of a loan is as good as a ding for me. So better move out of the waitlist and make way for someone else.

The Admissions Committee has reviewed your file and we are happy to inform you that you have been accepted to the Two-Year Year MBA Program. You have also been selected to receive a 100% tuition scholarship per semester. Your academic credentials, work experience, recommendations and essays were all very impressive.  We think you will make a great addition to the MBA Program!

 

This almost finalizes that I am flying to Atlanta coming July!!
I am so excited. I have been calling family and friends to inform them and get congratulated.  

Had to check the app-status on OPUS. Don’t they call their admits??

No info on schol yet, waiting for that eagerly.. Anyways, I am very happy right now.. Trying not to think about finances and other schools right now.. Just enjoying the feeling of success!

The interview started with the interviewer explaining to me about how the interview will proceed and how the interview fits in the entire process. After that we were on to the main course. AFAIK, it was a blind interview and my resume was the only thing that she had from my application. And there were a lot of Qs directly from my resume. Some of the Qs that i remember (in the order that I recall them):

• Tell me about this “Art of Living” course. (Had mentioned on my resume, Told her about the course that I had completed and how I continue to draw benefits from the same for managing stress)
• Tell me about your current project. (Told her that currently I am in a transition phase as my team is getting changed. Then covered the new role shortly and the work that I have done in my current team in detail)
• About the new role: do you know any of the guys beforehand? (No, though I have now attended a few meetings with them) 
• Business School is a lot like this, you get to meet a lot of people and you need to start off as soon as you join. How do you react to such situation?  (Explained with an example of my first project in the current job. She complimented me for quoting an appropriate example to stress my point.)
• Why did you leave your job in company X? ( Told her about the learnings and some good things from my company X experience, then told her that the work had become a bit repetitive and I was looking for more challenges)
• Tell me how you went about getting a job in company Y. (Told her that company Y is one of the most selective in industry. Explained the process in detail. She sounded impressed ; told me that getting in Emory is surely not that hard. ) 
• Why MBA? Why now? (No “Why Emory” explicitly)
• What do you look in a school when you consider apping to it? (Here goes “Why Emory” indirectly)
• Leadership experience. ( Told in details about my extra-curricular pursuits)
• What would you contribute to Goizueta community? Which clubs would interest you?
• Tell me about  time when you went an extra mile. (Told a work-related story)
• What do you know about Atlanta? (Told her that I am a quiz-guy and no business Quiz is complete without a Q on COca-Cola. (She loved that!!) Told her what I know about Coca-cola, Sun-Trust Bank and Olympics. Also quoted the comment from one of the students when she was asked what she loved most about Atlanta. (Location! Location!! Location!!)
• After this, she went on to describe Atlanta’s location in detail and some advantages of being in such a location. (This sounded positive. )
• One word that your (a ) Boss (b) colleagues (c) extra-curricular group members (d) family and friends would use to describe you. (Gave some adjectives; was not asked to substantiate any of this)/* There were some more Qs, which I don’t remember now.  Will add if and when I recall)

She stopped here and ask me  if i have any Qs. I asked about GALA. She explained in detail and them mentioned that getting into GALA is not that easy, but surely that is not as hard as me getting into company Y. (WOw!! She remembered what we had discussed right at the start..  This sounded good. ) Then, I asked about the possibility of getting a no-cosigner loan. She mentioned that this option is no longer available to intebnational students, but advised me to look for innovative ways like getting multiple cosigners. ( I just hope that this Q does not make her believe that I dont have the money)

Overall, the interview was a very good experience. There were lots of “great!!”, “Your teammates must love you for that.”, “That’s no small achievement” kind of comments. I am very much hopeful on this. I do hope that I’ll make it. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

So what next?? Ihave decided that I am not going to apply anywhere else this year. I would rather concentrate on the interviews of the remaining schools. Here’s a quick wind up of the four threads that are still active:

• Tuck: They have written back after waitlisting me and an interview is coming up in first week of Feb. I am also getting an additional reco from professional front. There have been some positive updates for me professionally. (No promotion yet, but some increase in responsibilities) Hope my recommender covers these well.
  But one thing that worries me is the money-factor. Even if Tuck takes me in, I doubt the availability of fin-aid for a candidate that they had earlier decided to waitlist.
• Emory: The interview is coming up in a week from now. I do feel that I have a good chance here.
• ISB: Interview done. The results would be coming on Feb 10. The wait is already killing me. Not sure how I am going to survive waiting for three more weeks.
• Darden: This has been pretty weird. I have dug extensively on BW forums, Pagalguy and admissions411. No Indian applicant has reported an invite yet. The official interview dates were upto Jan 9 only and although Darden says that they can decide to interview a candidate any time b4the decision date, I have almost lost all my hopes. But I find it improbable that they have already sent out invites to Indians, but none of those in active on  any forums. Somehow I get a feeling that if they don’t call me for the interview b4 the decision date, another WL is coming my way on Jan30. ( Naah, I don’t believe that they’ll ding me w/o an interview.)

So as you can see, it is not all rosy. But still,as shahrukh says in OSO, “Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost.” (“The movie is not yet over, my friend”) I am hopeful that the movie will end on a happy note in next few weeks.

PS: Some of u may have guessed this already; The title of the post (“i think i’ll stop here”)  is a quote from a current favourite book: Fermat’s last theorem. It’s an amazing book, do read it.

Anyways, I reached the venue 30 minutes before time. I found that my panel was running a bit late as I met a guy, who had a 10:20 slot in the same panel, but was still waiting for his turn at 10:40 and was trying hard to concentrate at his 100-word essay. Other than that, there were three of us, all with a 11:10 slot in different panels. Very soon, the 10;20 guy was called for the interview and three of us were moved to a different room. And then, we were joined by a girl, who was just done with her interview and had to finish off her 100-word essay. As we started to converse, I was surprised to find that I was the only IIM (Indian-IT-Male, in case u don’t know ) there. Was it an omen or a good sign that I am not competing with peers at that particular point of time at least? There was a young Doc, a girl with a family business and then, another girl, who had just returned from Canada, to appear for ISB. (Wow!! That’s some dedication!!)

Soon, we got the word for 100-word essay: regal. I wrote down some random stuff about how in past, the word used to be associated with royal families, but now it’s about the power of your dreams that makes you regal.

And then, they called me for the interview.
The panel consisted of two alums and an adcom member. One interviewer asked most of the Qs, while others scribbled quick notes as I spoke.

Interviewer 1: We are interested to know what an omnivorous reader means? ( I had described myself as one in Hobbies and interests section)
Me: Drew parallels between the food-habit based classification of animals and then told them that the way an omnivorous animal eats everything (plants and animals), an omnivorous reader devours everything from business to classics to thrillers to humour.

Interviewers [ Looked satisfied, but no further questioning about specific books, which I had expected ]
Interviewer 1: We see that you won the award for a Geeky idea, what was that?
Me:  Began by explaining that the same idea won the award for most popular idea in the same software-design contest. Explained the idea in non-techie terms.

Interviewers [ Looked impressed with the explanation of the idea, but no further cross-questioning ]

Interviewer 1: You have written taht you are a very innovative person, can you give some examples?
Me: Gave some generic gyan about how I am always looking for better ideas to complete a task speedily. Then, gave a specific example, trying to keep it as non-technical as I could.

Interviewer, not convinced with the non-techie explanation, dug in details and I had to resort to some technical blabber. Can you believe it: I had to explain “memory leaks” here ? And no, none of the interviewers had a techie-background.(as i came to know later) But now, he seemed okayishly satisfied.

Interviewer 1: You have quoted leadershipin your essays. Can you tell what was the defining moment in leadership for you?
Me: Thought for a while, then said, no specific defining moment as leadership has come gradually to me. Gave examples of how I staretd as one of few volunteers from first year in the college and then how I gradually rose to the leadership positions like coordinator of fests etc. Mentioned that I continue in similar positions.
[ Expected a follow up Q on similar positions, where I could explain my current extra-curricular leadership examples. But none came. ]

Interviewer 1: Assuming you are an advisor to Ram Mynampati, what advice would you give him?
Me: Explained that I have seen a similar situation. My previous company was involved in an accounting fraud. And then, they fought back with some rebranding. The main reason that they could fight back was that the accounting fraud didn’t change the fact that they had some great engineers workingfor them and that they really made some great software products.
Similarly, the current scenario at Satyam does not change the fact that they have a great workforce or that in past, they have provided excellent software services to their clients or that they are the official Software service providers for FIFA World Cup 2010.
So my advice would be to stay focussed and may be, try a bit of rebranding to signal the market that you have changed (My previous employer used this successfully)

[ This answer was interspersed with a some cross-questions. It was good to know that Interviewer1 knew about the accounting fraud in my previous company. Overall, the interviewers looked impressed with my homework. ]

Interviewer 1: Do you have any questions for us?
Me:  [ What!!! AFAIK, this indicates the end of the interview. And many aspects of my candidature are still untouched!! And some of these were the most significant ones.. I have not said anything about my extra-curricular activities, I have not got a chance to tell them about my in-depth research on ISB or my visit to ISB, And noone has asked me about my post-MBA goals.] Enquired about which of them were alums. And then asked about their time at ISB and how it helped them in their career?

Interviewer 2: She had planned on starting her enterpreneurial venture 5-10 years down the line. But ISB gave her the conviction to start it within a few years of her graduation.
Me: Did you take the elective of PAEV: Planning an Enterpreneurship venture? I have read a lot about it and am excited to know about it firsthand.
Interviewer 2: No, I didn’t
Interviewer 1: It actually is a very good course. [ Explained in a bit detail about it.]
Me: Followed up with my homework on the course, then interviewer 1 moved on to his experience with ISB.

Interviewer 1: Had been working with ISB for about 5 years after his graduation. Worked towards building Exchange Programs with leading B-schools of the world
Me: Complemented him on this as today, you name a top B-school and it’s on ISB Exchange program list. Told him that on this front, ISB is the best in the region.
Interviewer 1: It’s in fact best in the world!!

Interviewer 3:BTW, what do you want to do after your MBA?
Me:  Would return to technology. In short term, tech-consulting. Told them that consulting is not a goal that I am looking at, I see it as a finishing school for my long term goals.
In long term, leadership position in technlogy: may be with some software-product company or maybe starting my own venture.

Interviewer 1: Do you think that in current situation, tech-consulting jobs would be easy to come by?
Me: Told them that even if they are difficult to come by, the cobination of grroming at ISB and my strong tech-background makes me a very strong candidate for such jobs. Explained how I have an edge over typical IT guy due to my unique background.
[ Expected some follow-up Qs, none came.]

Interviewer 2: You have mentioned leadership at so many places in your application. What qualities do you feel constitute leadership?
Me: Blabbered about team-work, vision, desire for excellence, alluding to the fact that at different points in time I have displayed them all.
[ Expected a follow-up Q on what I had alluded to, none came ]
Interviewer 1:It was nice meeting you. All the best!!
Me: Shook hands with all three and left.
Overall, I am not too satisfied with the interview. I know that I had handled most Qs well. But I really didn’t get a chance to showcase some of the best things in my profile. (Though I have highlighted most of these in my application) If i get an admit, I would forget this all. But in case they decide to ding me, I would be very disappointed on being dinged without showing them my full candidature. I know that I have a decent chance, but after the Duke Debacle, I would not like to keep my hopes too high for anything.

Quick tip for others:
Don’t rely too much on follow up Qs. If you have a point to make, speak it out whenever you have a chance for the same.
Quick Tip2: Don’t mention Satyam, if you can avoid it. I met a girl, who was stopped midway in her answer, when she mentioned Satyam: “Let us not talk about Satyam!!”. It seems that the media has been a bit too harsh about ths ISB-Satyam connection and they have already discussed it too much.

After the Duke debacle and Tuck waitlist, it was time for Plan B for me. This time, I was looking for more realistic schools: schools where the chances of admission are a bit higher and which give schols a bit generously. (Market conditions and USD-to-INR conversion rate is making the already grim scenario all the more scary!!)

I shortlisted Kenan Flagler (UNC) and Kelley (Indiana) as my immediate next targets. On digging further, I also started considering Marshall(USC) and Krannert(Purdue). (though not entirely convinced about either) For Marshall, the LA factor attracted me, while Krannert’s low costs (and good chances of scholarships) promise that I’d be able to afford it if offered an admit.

Now, all these have something in common: TOEFL requirement from Indians, irrespective of medium of instruction in undergrad. From whatever I had heard, I knew that TOEFL is a breeze for anybody, who’s comfortable with English.(and I think I am!!) But the problem was that there were no dates available anywhere in India before Jan 10. (I guess they too have Christmas holidays and pretty long ones!) So I decided to try requesting waivers from the prospective schools.

Since Krannert normally does not interview candidates b4 offering admissions, I was sure that they would be rigid about TOEFL.But I expected the rest to budge a bit. For Kelley and UNC at least, I had heard some precedents too. (unconfirmed) And I did believe that my high GMAT verbal score (97 percentile) may swing chances in my favour. Besides, my tasks at workplace and my extracurricular activities require me to comunicate a lot internationally and nationally, of course in English.

But one by one, I have got replies from all three and all were on similar lines:

Candidates who have earned an undergraduate or graduate degree from a US college or university or whose total education was conducted in English in a native English-speaking country do not need to submit a TOEFL or IELTS score. India is not considered a native English-speaking country for purposes of this requirement.

So what next?? UNC is already gone(deadline is tomorrow). I am considering writing TOEFL some time around Jan12 exepecting that Kelley considers my application complete by the deadline (Jan15), though the score will reach them a bit late. I’ll take the final decision on whether to write TOEFL and app to Kelley depending on how I fare in ISB interview.