But it’s not that I have abandoned blogging altogether. Now, I am a part of the Student-blog team of Goizueta and I have been involved both in the writing and redesign of the blog. Here’s a link to my profile at Voice of GBS.

So how do i plan the division of topics to write? The non-MBA stuff goes on my personal blog, Goizueta specific stuff will go on Voiceofgbs, and the rest (general MBA experience, Advice to future applicants, and some more stuff) on this blog.

Keep checking! I will be back very soon.

Many of the readers of the blog know me simply by the blog-name: missionmba. Some of them know me by the Pagalguy handle/Gtalk ID: quizophobic. (I know that sounds stupid, but quizmaniac wasn’t available on gmail). Still, to some others, I am “Shobhit Sinha”, the pseudonym that I had assumed for varous forums during the GMAT preps time, when I didn’t want my plans to be public in the office. In fact this pseudonym was a good differentiator: Everytime I used to get a call from an unknown num that asked for Shobhit, I knew it was from one of my GMAT/MBA apps buddy. And tell you what, my ears have now become accusstomed to respond to the name “Shobhit”.

But now, the things have changed: I don’t really feel the need to be anonymous anymore. (Though frankly speaking, I have started loving having a dual cyber-identity. ) But as ahembeea said about his blog, my blog too has enough clues to pin me down if you want to.  (In fact, I clearly remember at least two instances, when ppl have come to ask me whether I am the man behind the missionmba blog.) Besides, I have already pointed to this blog to a number of people (who know me in person), who had contacted me for GMAT guidance.

Finally, as mentioned here, I have developed a decent network of friends through this blog and I would like it to continue that way. It would certainly suit me better  if these guys are in network of Amit Bhatnagar (Yup, that’s my real name), rather than that of some undercover character: missionmba/quizophobic/shobhit.

So here’s the link to the real me: My personal blog.  In case you are interested in knowing what else do I do other than apping to B-schools, do visit the link. The blog is not as regularly updated as this one, but I plan to be more regular now. (Will I get the time to handle two blogs at a B-school?? Time will tell..)

In other updates, 

• Goizueta hasn’t finalized the loans yet, though they have confirmed availability. A bit worried about these, but still positive. 
• I’ll be getting my I-20 today.. Once I have that, I’ll be booking the dates for visa-interview. 
• Had a get-together with the other three Delhi-admits to Goizueta 2 weeks back.. Lively fellows! Hope life would be enjoyable with ppl like these around. 
• Puuting in my papers this Monday.. Coincidentally, I am resigning from this phase of corporate life precisely on the day that I had started it. (I started my career 4 years back on June 1, 2005.)

Now that the blog is in decent shape, I’ll get back to the promises that I had made to the readers of the blogs.. Posts on school-selection, Essay-topic analysis to all schools that I had applied to (Except Darden, where I didn’t manage to get any calls) and  some posts specific to Goizueta have been long overdue.. Stay tuned, all of these would be coming in soon..

Special congratulations to the entire team of student-bloggers led by MaybeMBA and JulyDream. You people have done  awonderful job taking time off your busy schedules and letting us know the inside-stories from your B-schools. I hope Co2011 bloggers continue the wonderful work that you have been doing. 

I have been very busy lately. Will get back to active blogging very soon.

As an admitted international MBA candidate, we know that you may need a loan to finance your MBA education.  Like other top-tier MBA Programs, Goizueta Business School is actively exploring loan programs for international students that may not require a U.S. citizen co-signer.  As soon as we have additional information about these programs, we will contact you immediately via email.  In addition, we will post any updates on our admitted student website.

The first time I saw this message on the Goizueta Accepted students website, I found it quite reassuring. But now, it has been over 2 months that I am seeing the same message. And now I am very much worried. As stated earlier too, I do not have any US-based cosigner. And I had shortlisted my schools keeping this criterion in mind. But the recession has chaged everything. 

There was a ray of hope when there was this news about GMAC coming up with a loan program  for international students at 40+ schools from US and Europe. I had even confirmed from Emory adcom that the school is on the loan program list and talks were on with the GMAC guys. But since then, there has been no updates on the issue.

In last few weeks, many schools have come up with some program for internationals. Booth, Darden, Yale and Wharton have already confirmed. Some more like Fuqua have assured that they’ll come up with something. I hope Goizueta comes up with something soon. 

I understand that in worst case, the school will be ready to give me a deferral. But am I prepared to wait for another year? Naah!! EVen the thought is scary. Now that I am already in the B-school mode (I should rather say non-techie mode), I feel like quitting my job today.  If it were not for a few extra bucks, which I desperately need anda few extra moments, which I want to spend with my friends at workplace, I would perhaps have already left. But no, I am not in a condition to go for coding and debugging for an extra year. 

So dear Goizueta, please come up with something for your international students. Joining you has been a dream, it would really pinch if it slips away after being so close.

So here’s the news: Within last 2 weeks I got two distinct recognitions for my blogging efforts:

• Beautiful B-school Contest: This is an annual contest organized by accepted.com. I would have loved to participate, but the only B-school that I had visited in apping process (ISB,Hyderabad) was not on the list of schools for the contest. When I got a comment on my blog regarding the contest , I thought it to be an invitation to participate. But it wasn’t an invite to participate in the contest, it was an invite to be judge in the contest!!! Yes, I am a judge for the contest!! I was really thrilled at this and almost immediately sent my confirmation.
  BTW, if you are reading this and do have some B-school snaps in ur kitty, rush!!! The contest is still on, but the last date is just around the corner. Details can be found here. 
• Best of Blogging Contest: Another annual feature: this one’s by clearadmit. I must appreciate them for  encouraging the blogging habit amongs applicants and students alike through this annual feature and their weekly feature: “Fridays from the frontline” We all love our names to be in print or on-screen  (Not a very apt web-equivalent of in-print, but i guess u got the sense) and I must admit that a number of times, I found time out of a busy week to write something down, just because I never want to be missed out from FFF. And most of the times, I have successfully managed to stay on the list. (For some reason, I do not figure that regularly in stacyblackman equivalent of FFF: “Stacy Blackman’s B-School Buzz” )
  Thanks clearadmit for initiating the BoBs and FFF and for nominating me to this year’s list. Congratulations to the fellow-nominees!! ( As expected, I can see so many familiar names there!!) May the best blogger win!!

Some confusion was there about the submission deadlne time. Had got a mail from the adcom stating that The deadline for submitting your online application is 11:59:59 of Dec 1, 2008 (IST)

AFAIK, if you do not state AM/PM, the time should be taken to be in 24 hours format, which would make the submission deadline as 11:59 AM. Now, instead of confirming from the adcom, I decided to slog it out and meet the noon-deadline. So finally, I submitted my application at about 11:15 in the morning today. Called my recommender for the 5th/6th time since Saturday to remind him about it. And he submitted his recommendation in time too. After that the first thing I did was to check Pagalguy and there some R1 admit had confirmed that it’s actually 11:59 PM.

In any case, I am happy that I did it well in time. The essays have come out very well finally: surely my best set of essays so far. Though I am not sure whether they gave me chance to present my complete picture, but I am sure I did a very good job. If nothing goes wrong terribly, I am confident of getting an interview call.

In other updates, Emory interviews have been suspended in wake of Mumbai events. And I am having my first B-school interview tomorrow. Fuqua had offered me a telephonic interview with an alum, but fortunately, the alum expressed interest in meeting me personally! The interview is scheduled at 6 in the evening tomorrow. I am nervous and excited, confident and scared all at the same time.

“Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has gifted $50 million to Cornell University , his alma mater here, an endowment considered one of the most generous ever received from an international benefactor by an American university..

The gift announced by Cornell president David Skorton during his State of the University address on Friday will help recruit top Indian students to the campus…..

Now, don’t start jumping with excitement.. Things may take some time to materialise and doesn’t look that any os us (applicants for class of 2011) can be benefactors of this.. And then too, it’s for Cornell University, not only for Johnson School of Management.. (In fact, it’s especially focussed on fields like agriculture  and nutriton.) But surely good to see Indian corporate houses doing this.. This is a great way to serve your country and your alma-mater at the same time..

See more here…
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct08/tataGift.html
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/Ratan_Tata_gifts_50m_to_Cornell_varsity/articleshow/3622427.cms

Now, the interesting part… IS this not what ahembeea had predicted 3 months back!!
Did you manage to send a link to your post to them, Ahembeea? 

So what next: ADA scholarships at Wharton or Birla Scholarship @LBS..

An update
The schol us only for undergrad studies:
http://mbalmighty.blogspot.com/2008/11/ratan-tata-scholarship-is.html

Gurus say that life becomes easy once you’re done with first two-three sets of essays. Partly because you get in flow of expressing your ideas cogently in prose and partly because you may be in a position of recycling your essays written so far for subsequent schools. (of course, with some tweaking and editting). Let’s see if that holds for me.

For now,it’s over to Ross.. Yes, for some silly reason, I’ve chosen to write Tuck essays first, though the deadline for Ross is full five days earlier than that for Tuck!!
And yes, got this wonderful video on Tuck courtsey Yepsee. Hope you’ll like it too..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQtLsz5za5E&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

On personal front, I’ve given myself a deadline to shortlist about 7-10 schools that I plan to apply by the end of May.. Will take some more time (may be 2 weeks) to trim down the list to 4 to which I’ll be applying in R1 and another 3-4 (if need be) in R2.. So far the list is:

IIM-A (PGPX):: It’s not even my Dream-school.. (I define dream-school as the one that you’ d love to attend, but you don’t have a strong chance at getting in. ) With its avg experience of 10+ years, it’s totally unrealistic for me.. But still I’m gonna app for this.. No app fee and app deadline is 15th Aug well before the deadlines for other schools.. So apping to this will provide a dry-run for other  schools..

BTW, just got the news that a friend got into Wharton two days back. The guy already had offers from Duke, Tepper and IIM-C.. But W is big!!! Biggest of them all!! I guess I’d need to catch this guy and get some serious tips about apping..  

Meanwhile, fellow-bloggers for fall 2009, keep visiting and leaving comments here..  Anyone belonging to this tribe (Apping for 2009 and already blogging about it ) surely deserves a pat on the back for starting early. Let us start interacting on blogosphere and help each other out in whatever way we can. I’m reachable at my gmail ID: quizophobic