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.