| Materials used in my preparation | |
| The official GMAT | Bible for preparation - this is an absolute must |
| MGMAT series (recommended) | The best overall preparatory series |
| Terrific SC Preparation Guide | Mandatory for SC preparation - especially non-native speakers |
| Kaplan 800 | This one actually has some solid CR and DS strategies |
| Princeton Review | Useless DVD but SC and the quant practice is good, the online tests are good |
| Official Quant Companion | Extra practice - 300 official questions |
So, Wharton, Chicago GSB and many other schools (LBS too) have started sending out their admits. All I'm sayin' is - alright there! curb your enthusiasm! Chill!!
(click image for full size)
Oh, BTW, I still haven't written about my second interview. Maybe tomorrow. I'm also half-way through a post called "GMAT trade-offs" which may be useful for many test takers. Should be done in a couple of days.
Congrats to all those who have been admitted!
It's interesting - I'm seeing a continuous increase in hits to my blog. I have Google analytics linked to it, and it's interesting to see the trends. Look at the screenshot below,
You can see that US obviously has the greatest hits, but India follows next when you take a single country concentration (yes, Europe isn't a country, sorry ;) ). This explains the misery of being an Indian ..heheh. Not many from China - which could explain that a lot of Chinese applicants possibly look into their own web sites. Not much from South America either. Nothing from Africa. And it greatly upset me to see no hits from Antarctica - the penguins clearly don't like my blog.
One could argue validity, but this is a growing trend on my analytics chart because I'm seeing more than one place referring to the site. Interestingly, I found a couple of incoming hits from http://adcomblog.wharton.upenn.edu - not sure how - has to be some indirect referral.
Anyway, just thought I'll put this up. I'm hungry. I need to eat. Or I'll die. I saw all these Wharton admits come out today, makes me wonder if I should have applied to Wharton - you know, just for kicks? My personal situation does not permit me to take a 2 year MBA course..but still. Anyway, too late.
So, there's this enthusiastic guy who never gave up, sweated while waiting for results, and then finally made it to the prestigious Chicago GSB. Be inspired.
That did not stop me from taking a potshot at him ;) but we're all in this ...waiting.
So -- my next interview is a lunch interview. Can't say I'm too happy about that. I'm usually quiet while eating, and I'm not exactly an etiquette expert. So here's a discussion going on at the GMAT club. If you had an experience like this - how did it go?
(if you must ask - yes, I did draw the cartoon myself, and used Adobe photoshop to color it up. Click on image to see a bigger size.)
So,
I just finished my first interview with an alumni. I'll put a write up soon :) The next one is next week.
Anyone else finished theirs?
Both my INSEAD interviewers confirmed their date and time today. Very prompt and courteous, and by the end of next week the interviews will be over and the wait for the final decision begins!
Wish me luck! I really don't have the appetite to apply to another school :)
I received a mail from INSEAD stating that I would need to schedule 2 interviews. Names and contact information of both the interviewers were forwarded to me. One of them stays about 45 minutes drive, and the other is about 15-20 minutes (nice of the ADCOM to find someone closer home instead of far away, and the opportunity was available when you consider New York and Boston are both the nearest big cities)
I proceeded to mail them asking for their time to interview me. I was pleasantly surprised when both of them responded within a day, and both were accommodating enough to ask me to suggest a convenient time and place for me! Of course - I responded saying I would be happy to accommodate their schedule and be where they wanted me to be.
This is my first brush with admissions etiquette, and I can tell you I was glad to see both the timeliness and the friendliness of the response of both the interviewers. I'm hoping to have a good interview session with both of them and hopefully convince them to put in good words for me!
Interesting, INSEAD's online status still shows that my application is "under evaluation", it does appear that there is almost a days delay between the e-mailed status (that I've been called for Interview) and status change online.
For those who have not received calls yet, don't lose hope - there is one more day.
As a good start to a holiday, I received a mail this morning from INSEAD saying I was "pre-selected" for interview. This is great because getting the interview itself is a hurdle, and now my chances are better. Unlike many other schools, at INSEAD and IMD, an interview is mandatory gate before offer. If no interview is offered, that means you got dinged.
Now I need to wait while they find the right alumni in the US (preferable east coast) for me to interview with.
Relief. One more step to go.
Deadline's on 24th Nov. Just few more days, and then it's time to know if I got dinged or not.
Depending on how it goes, I might start preparing myself for applying to IMD. The reason I waited for IMD is that while I think it's a top class school and I'd love to be in it - the problem is the time, it's 2008 Jan. Sort of late. Oh well, like I have very many choices.
