Pragmatism, School Research and My choices

The topic is 'pragmatism when applying to schools' or my take on 'should I apply to school X?'

This post is a result of my many responses on the web, questions sent by applicants to me by e-mail, questions I've answered on phone and my own journey from preparation to my admit to INSEAD. The usual disclaimers apply.

Applying to business schools is an expensive process. You want to spend that money and time meaningfully so that it yields a satisfactory result. The approach to applications must be pragmatic - not oblivious to reality.

One of my pet peeves is 'false encouragement' without giving a reality check. This is a business school application process where your destiny is mostly out of your control (except GMAT score) because it depends on what you did in the past and how you fare against thousands of other applicants. When you are ready to apply, or are planning to apply, see if you have asked yourselves the right questions.




When you tabulate your answers, a picture emerges if it makes sense to apply or not. In some cases, the school might not be the right fit for you, and in some cases, it will be extremely unlikely you will make the cut. A focused, realistic approach to applications will be both more productive and also reduce your misery. In evaluating chances, I have three lines

1. Competitive - You actually stand a good chance of getting in
2. Ambitious - Give it a shot, there might be a chance, 'reach' schools
3. Stupid - Waste of time, waste of money. Wasting time here might affect the effort you can put into better quality applications for a school you actually stand a chance.

When I say 'stupid' I don't mean you are stupid - I mean it's stupid to apply.

Unfortunately, many people fall into the stupid category for certain schools and few tell them that. Those who say it like it is get flamed by others for being rude and obnoxious - but like Jim Cramer says "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to make you money!" or rather "I'm not your mother, I'm here to tell you what I really think!"

I fell below the 'stupid line' for Stanford. Why? my composite when compared to what the school looks for, has such a large gap that it's nothing but a waste of their and my time to apply. Same would apply to Harvard. I thought I had a chance in Wharton ('ambitious') but Wharton failed the test of my 'is the school right for me'? It wasn't - because of cost and my family conditions.

Ultimately, INSEAD was the perfect fit for my experience, cost needs and I put a lot of effort into creating the right application instead of worrying about filling 15 random applications and spending thousands of dollars.

How do you know if you fall beyond the stupid line? Evaluate the school 'admission chances' questions and how you fare against the general trend. If the school GMAT average is 710, has stellar applicants and high rejection rate, small class and values diversity - and if you have a GMAT of 640, nothing distinguishable in your application (e.g. I wrote code for 6 years and I have no hobbies), you are a Chinese or Indian IT from a no-name school and you have a bad GPA - you really fall below the stupid line. Really. No number of cheerleaders or 'Paula school of feedback' (see American idol?) is going to get you in. Might as well spend that time and money where you can make it through.

If one aspect of your candidature is weak compared to the school composite, you are doing OK - but if you're below in almost all, better look elsewhere.

I know I'm going to draw flak for this about this post. That's Ok, all of us have opinions. When it comes to identifying schools for applications - do due diligence, be ambitious but don't waste time and money.

For those curious on how I evaluated my chances -

a) Stanford and Harvard - stupid to apply. No chance.
b) Wharton, Columbia and Chicago GSB - fancied my chances, ambitious, but financial and personal situation (family, 2 years, and not US resident, visa hassles..) kept me out from applying to US 2 year programs.
c) INSEAD and IMD - great fit, in my mind Columbia, Chicago, INSEAD were roughly similar so that left me with INSEAD. I preferred INSEAD over IMD and I got into INSEAD earlier so I never applied to IMD.
d) Oxford - next. Thought I had a good chance but dropped it for later after INSEAD results
e) ISB - initially in the race. I dropped it after evaluating if the school was a good fit for me.

I'm no rankings hater. I pay attention to rankings and that did influence my application decisions.

Good luck - prepare well, prepare with focus, create high quality applications instead of 15 boiler plate bore-them-to-death submissions.

Admitted to Stanford! Woohooo!

Some surprises are best kept secret. After a long and arduous journey, I finally received my letter from Stanford GSB.

It was not something I wanted to talk about before, simply because a lot of them would consider me "out of place" at GSB - what with me being over the hill (30+), Indian, IT (cursed). But this is an example that if you keep your eye on the ball, and focus on what you want (assuming a realistic chance of course), you might get what you seek. Don't get me wrong, INSEAD is amazing, but Stanford...well, it's in the heart of Tech industry, has an amazing world wide reputation, and is an exclusive program.

After 2 interviews, hours on essays, a unique presentation I made to adcom, I finally received a call (which I could not take as I was in a meeting) and a mail. Here is the text, It is an incredible feeling.

"Dear [xxxx],

I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to the prestigious Stanford Graduate School of Business Class of 2009. You are among the few who make it every year. The competition is intense and we pride in getting the best of the best.

You may be an old coot, a relic of the distant past. Never mind you are one more of the gazillion Indians running amok with a 700+ GMAT and asking everyone if '740 will get you into Harvard'. Never mind all the other traits we really need. Even your essays made no sense with all that technical mumbo-jumbo (take it to Sergey Brin). But we figured, "hey, if we let one of this type into GSB, we will have 100,000 new applications next year. We can build a new campus with the money" and therefore, we took this intelligent decision of letting you in. You, Crackhead Bob and Negative Nancy are three entrants to enhance our diversity this year.

Welcome to Stanford GSB.
Sincerely Yours,
[xxxxx]

Calling all INSEAD class of 2008 bloggers

Ok folks, looks like R1 and R2 results are out and some of you have probably have interesting blogs. I'd like to create a little ecosystem of new admit blogs.

So if you have a blog - send the link to me, and I will link it from my page. And once you do that, don't be lazy and keep your blog updated. Finally, at the end of the term, if you have 5 job offers and I have none, give me one. I already know Caspian and Post submission bliss have their blogs, and I'd like to get some more. What say?

The feel of real paper/deposit/pre-readings!

I finally received my packet from INSEAD, with a signed "congratulations" on the page. There's something more personal about paper when compared to getting an e-mail. It just feels better.

Anyway, I now need to figure out how to wire Euros from the US. Does anyone know? for e.g. can I go to my local Bank Of America and can they give me a check made out to INSEAD in euros? Or am I asking a very stupid question..? I need to send the cash by Feb 16th.

I need to buy the study pre-requisites to brush up accounting and finance and what not. Once I get the finance books and read them, I hope I don't feel like a "monkey in a maths Olympiad"

And why would I want to do this?

Sometimes, it is easy to look at the "present" and be content with it, and therefore ignore what the future might be. My own situation can be summed in a few sentences.

1. I am a couple of years over 30, and therefore not young when it comes to the average MBA crowd.
2. I've done well in my current organization and just recently got promoted to a good position within my company. My pay may not be gazillions but it isn't bad, and I work with great people. I do have a track record of being pretty good at what I do, both on the managerial and technical fronts.
3. The fees + living expenses (I have a family) + opportunity costs are substantial for me.

With these in mind, one would wonder "is it worth it?" And my own answer - yes, and for a reason that might not even be directly attributed to what direct material gains I might have by doing an MBA.

To me, it is a matter of mental peace. I have always wanted to do this but could not due to various reasons. I am in a position now where I can manage. I do not want to spend my life wondering "what if". I hate "what if" conditions. If we want something, we must be willing to fight for it and sacrifice for it.

There are no guarantees in life - I could get no job after graduation, or the job I get might suck - if we have to look into the darkness of life, a lot of horrible things can happen. But we do things because we hedge our bets against something good happening, and the probability of something good happening is greater than not. And for that, I am willing to do what it takes, because I will be far happier a little poorer than if I were richer but regretting that this was a path I did not take.

Do I sound philosophical (quite unlike me), but looking at my bank balance now is making me very philosophical indeed. I might even soon grow a beard.

Finally. Done. I'm in! Starting INSEAD 2007 Sep.

My long journey, since June 2006, has finally ended. Starting in Singapore. More coming soon. It's been a pretty much single minded mission - you can read my blog to see that it's all about trying for INSEAD - and that was the only school I applied to. It's a great relief.

Chill, all you new admits!!

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!

First INSEAD interview over

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?

The first signs of a good alumni? (INSEAD)

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!