ASU visit and interview experience

I visited and interviewed with ASU this week.Reached Phoenix on super bowl day and barely caught with few minutes in last quarter. And oh boy, what a game it was. Cardinals played really well but missed out on a wonderful win through a last minute dive and touchdown by Steelers. Well, ASU provided hotel accommodation for one night, a nice room with all facilities.

I had all scheduled for next morning- a class at 10am, lunch at 12pm, tour at 1pm and interview at 2pm.

I attended Operations and Supply Chain class by professor Choi, one of the most popular classes. And it was fun. The professor was very funny and had a good nick of teaching things in humorous way. After the class, I went with a lunch (paid by ASU) with a current student along with another prospective student. We had lunch in good old MU (old memories – spent lot of time at MU during my MS days). We discussed a lot of things about culture, classes, recruiting with the second year student ambassador. After lunch I went on a tour, which we limited to the business school building because rest of the attraction of the tour such as MU, SRC etc I have already seen and visited myself. Then I took opportunity to discuss further with the student ambassador about her experiences, specializations, goals, ASU culture etc. I went in for interview at 2pm. It was conducted by two people – one admission staff and other a current student in marketing major. The interview was very probing and went into details of all the examples I gave. Here are the questions that I remember:

1. Tell me about yourself and what you do currently.

2. Significant leadership experience at work

3. When things did not go as planned – talked about my failure experience at extra curricular

4. Had difficult time working with someone, what I did. – rephrased my teamwork experience

5. Manager feedback on strength and weakness.

6. Example of when I worked hard on something but did not achieve the expected result – had to go back to my days after 12^th grade

7. Experience from my work where I had to do something I did not want to do – did not remember any work experience – so talked about my extra curricular experience. – follow up question to go more specific – I did not do well on this question

8. Choose an example of best team or worst team and why you think it was best or worst. I chose best team – one of my first company experience – I came up with story on the spot, so not sure how it went.

9. Short term, long term goals

10. Why MBA now. They did not ask why ASU and I did not get a chance to talk about why ASU, but I squeezed in few points.

11. What other schools applying and how would you choose if admitted in all

12. CASE: some TV company, going into overhead projection tv market, qa tested it well. 1. Customer demand increased 2. company could not meet demand

a- what does the company do?

b. Why did demand increase?

c. Why couldn’t the company meet the demand?

d. What can be done?

Then it was my time to ask questions and I asked lot of them. Finally we exchanged good byes and I left campus back to hotel and from their back to airport.

Overall, good experience, but mostly it is focused on Supply Chain and student did not look that bright. Moreover, most of the international students, especially Indian students, do Supply Chain Management specialization just because its ASU’s strength and they do not really know what they want to do after their MBA. But overall, ASU has good culture, small class size means personalized attention, and faculty looks promising. Moreover, they are rising in ranks and have good feedback from employers and recruiters. It will not be a bad school to go to and especially, living if you like to stay in west coast area.

Rejected by Haas

Finally, Haas did not show me any love and rejected my application. With this end my unsuccessful Round 1 applications journey. I failed miserably getting ding on all five schools. 5/5- That's a dubious record. All my first choice schools have rejected me. Oh well, that's life.

Haas app was one of my best application, but I guess I lost hope after UCLA ding me. But honestly, this was the school I loved most. The students are really amazing and very helpful. I spoke to students of so many schools, haas students are the most friendly, cooperative and approachable. I dreamed of being part of such a community. Anyways, I hope something is good for me in this.

Congrats and good luck to all those who got into Haas.

Stanford....

I am NOT IN!! As I was expecting, Stanford has sent me the ding letter. And with this my dream of going to Stanford has ended. ouuch, it hurts!
I did feel little bad as any rejection gives bad feeling. But it was expected, so no shock, as I got when I was denied by UCLA.

Things are moving slowly. I have sent my deposit to IIM Bangalore. I am trying to plan things out to make a move to India and wrap things up in 2 months. At this point it looks pretty challenging. Good thing is I do not have too many liabilities here. So just have to sell off the minimal stuff I have collected. Have to start looking for job opportunities for my wife as well.

On the other hand, I am very happy with IIM Bangalore group. Very active and making things happen. The professors are cooperative and the administrative staff is cordial and helpful. I am already getting good vibes. The challenge will be definitely that it is the first year of this program. But I hope they have learnt from other IIM's in running one year program.

All the best to people who got into Harvard and Stanford.

Hurray!! Accepted at IIMB

As the title says, I am accepted to IIMB - EPGP. I am very very happy. Although this is the first year of IIMB's one year program, I am very positive it is going to be great.

I was not sure about how it happened. I applied to IIMB by writing a sop in 3 hours. They invited almost everyone to interview. Interview happened at 1am PST and went on for only 10 min with questions on my job, my SOP, my short term and long term goal and why not 2 yrs MBA from US school or 2 yr MBA from IIM through CAT.

This is the quickest turn around I have seen. I am very happy.
After UCLA ding, I almost lost hope. And completely surrendered my desires.

Well, now it is clear, I will be out of my job for sure and would be doing an MBA. Time will tell where.

Thanks to all those who encouraged me in this journey.

Stunned!!! Yet another Ding

My bad phase continues! I got dinged from UCLA.
I was very very hopeful of Anderson. I loved that school, made multiple visits, both current students and alumni loved my essays, had a pretty strong application. One of the best essays I could do.

I do not know what else I need to do. I think I do not deserve to go to Business School.

I am extremely depressed with this rough ride.

Excitement all around

This was pretty exciting week in the blogosphere. So many people got admit notice from their choice schools. Many Duke, Tuck, Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago admit floating around. Congratulations to all of them. And I really feel for sufferers of Kellogg mishap. It was really unfortunate. I keep checking Clear Admit blog and so often get to read about exciting news from someone.

I wish I could be part of this excitement. But my first choice schools are not going to come up with their result until January. So wait continues for me. On the hindsight, I should have applied to some of these schools which declare results earlier and faster. Much of the burden is taken off your shoulder. Anyways, I hope my app journey finishes soon and I do not have to go through this again. I really do not have any stamina to redo this next year. In fact, I am having hard time even starting my R2 apps. Wharton is not far away and I have not even started. McCombs is also going slow, but at least I have started.


Anyways, congrats again to all who got-in and good luck for future.

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Anderson Visit and Interview Experience

I visited campus on 11/24. Drove from bay area on 11/23.
I met with few current students at 11, met with Price Center staff. This was amazing. She gave me a great insights on entrepreneurship at Anderson, what they do, how to go about doing things.
Then at 1pm I did my class visit. It was not very interesting class, but professor was good. I do not mind getting taught by him. The class got over at 2:30pm and again I met with another student. Learned few more things. By this time my nerves were settled and I had a feeling that I belong there.
Interview started at 3:30pm and it was with Second year student. She was really friendly and we spoke for a while before we entered the interview room. The interview went really well. No tough question, no curve balls. Few questions:
1. Walk me through your resume
2. What were the challenges in Company X
3. Challenges in company Y.
4. How were the responsibilities in X and Y different
5. Why MBA, short term, long term goals
6. Why Anderson
7. What company after Graduation
8. Tell me about leadership role
9. Tell me how you work as team
10. Your strengths and weakness
11. Any question for me - asked couple of questions

Sorry, running out of time, so will have to stop here. It was nice talking to you. Then walked out of the room with her. And thats it!

Texas MBA

I have been doing lot of research on Texas MBA, spoke to quite a few current students, met few alumni and attended one information session and I am really impressed with the program. Lot of great opportunities and the associate dean is pretty cool and seems like a great leader. He is pretty innovative and has introduced a new curriculum. I quite liked his ideas and he was very articulate in presenting his ideas.

So, while I wait for other calls, I am definitely applying to UT-Austin, McCombs School. I have been to Austin before and I loved that place. And all the alums, students rave about it as well. Moreover it's one of the few growing cities and one of the top entrepreneurial hub.
The faculty though did not get a good rating in Business Week, looks awesome. Lot of activities, extra-curricular and development opportunities. Students are very friendly and helpful.
Looks like my why McCombs essay is ready :)

Meanwhile, Haas and Stanford have not reciprocated my love yet. C'mon now, its high time. Show me you care! Let me change the world. I promise, I will not let you down and will definitely enrich the community.

Haas

Haas is going to send interview invites starting today!
Finger crossed!!! Now the real wait begin.

Still no invite from Stanford.. huuh!!

All the best to fellow applicants