[MBA] 4 more to go

Just submitted the Tuck application. I was not 100% happy with the 'failure' essay but it was time to move on.

Next stop Haas. But in the meanwhile I really need to start giving some serious thought to the crazy Stanford essays !

[General] Careful what you wish for

For the past 2 1/2 years I have been pestering my boss to allow me to do some high level complex system design. Last week my wish was granted. Relax, I won't go into the details of the task here. Lets just say it's the direct outcome of one of the many telecom mergers that have happened of late. The 1st deliverable will be due early January. So now I have a nice overlap between the most challenging period of the MBA app process (5 schools !!) and a very complicated, time-consuming task at work. #!$%ing great.

I had posted a schedule for myself some time back. This is how I have fared on the 1st leg

By Nov 20
Tuck essays sent out for review - Done
Wharton essays sent out for review - Not really
Haas essays going through internal revisions - Sort of

I haven't flunked it as bad as I thought I would. But this was the easiest stretch. The toughest stretch starts now.

[MBA] Bay area twins

Just returned from a visit to Stanford and Haas. No surprises here. Unlike the two Boston or the two Chicago schools which have very different cultures and focuses, the two Bay Area schools have way more similarities than differences. Yes, Stanford has a stronger brand and it seemed to me that they admit a quirkier bunch of people. It is also said that Haas has a more rigorous curriculum than Stanford. I have no opinion on this one. The class that I attended at Haas was the most rigorous class I have attended at any of the schools - but then it was a 2nd year class. And Stanford has more of a standalone campus than Berkeley whose campus is quite lively.

However the similarities especially when it comes to the important things (except brand) are amazing. Small school, part of big prestigious universities, send more people (% terms) into tech industries than most other schools in the US, located in an area known for innovation and entrepreneurship, chilled out down to earth students (gross generalization alert!!), curriculum and culture with a strong focus on entrepreneurial and social ventures. The list just goes on.

Now, how does this affect me? Well, when I sit down and answer the 'Why Haas' question I don't know how I can make the reader believe that I haven't copy pasted my Stanford response. That has me a bit worried.

This trip reaffirmed a couple of decisions I had made some time back. Haas was a late addition to my app list. I think I made the right decision. I would be glad to go there. But Stanford continues to be my dream school. It pretty much comes on top wrt all the criteria I had listed in an earlier post. After the end of a very energetic class at Harvard, one of my fellow visitors turned back and told me 'What wouldn't I do to get into this place'. I felt like doing the same after the Stanford class. Except that I had a wall behind me and that would have seemed weird.

[Business] Away from the MBA madness

I spent the 1st half of this week in Dallas, attending a conference on 'IMS'. Spending 3 days in total non MBA app mode was exactly what the doctor and I_will_make_it had ordered.

In case you are wondering, 'IMS' is one of those silver bullets which the tech industry gets excited about from time to time. For geeks here is more information. For non-geeks and lazy bums, IMS is an architecture which is supposed to bring about convergence. What will get converged is an open question and there are a variety of views on this. The three most promising candidates in my opinion are :

Wireless-Wireline - you can start a call using your landline connection, continue it in your car using your cellular connection and terminate it over the wi-fi connection at your local drug dealer.

Internet-Telecom - it will become as easy (really?) to develop and deploy applications on the telecom network as it is today on the internet. So next time you hang up after telling your best friend how depressed you are feeling you'll get a SMS with a 'buy one get one free' offer from Zoloft. (think ads and gmail)

Tea-Coffee - you can make tea and coffee on the same machine. Just kidding - sort of.

My entirely ignorant, high level take on IMS is that like all new technologies it will fall well short of the hype in the short term but will change our lives for better or for worse in the long term.

On a personal note, most of the people at that conference were VP/Director/CXO types. Once when I was in class 4 (elementary school) in India, I had by mistake wandered into the high school part of the building. On the 1st day of this conference I felt as I had felt on that day long ago. But then I realized that my name-tag didn't carry my designation. So I spent the rest of the time doing my best impersonation of the quiet, deep, exceedingly brilliant yet humble genius. Was I able to pull it off? Don't know, but atleast I didn't get thrown out!! That should count for something.

[MBA] The blues

I am finding it difficult to motivate myself to tackle the remaining essays. Since I was writing all the Kellogg essays from scratch, they had a fresh feel about them. Now all my essays sound jaded. I don't know whether it's because I have read them a zillion times or if they are really stale. I know the eventual reader will be reading them for the 1st time. But I just can't shake off that uneasy feeling.

Gosh! I am looking forward to January already.

[Business, India] The house of Tatas

Here is a link to an article in Newsweek about the Tatas - one of the biggest business houses in India. Though the unabashed adulatory tone of the article made me squirm a bit, it is a good read nevertheless - especially for people interested in corporate social responsibility.

Here are some interesting excerpts.

"Western bankers and consultants - "little 25-year-old kids" - —told him to get out of the dying steel business."

I wonder where these kids came from :)

"... Tata plans a second act: a $2,000 car. Its market is "the family of four sitting on a two-wheeler, driving on slippery roads in the rain," says Ratan, who figures to sell up to 1 million a year in India. The plan is to distribute the car in kit form to small, low-tech assembly plants in the countryside. Ironically, this echoes a hoary socialist scheme that once forced Tata to hire cottage industries to hammer bodies of wood and sheet metal onto unfinished chassis. The aim this time, however, is less to develop the "small sector" than to replace expensive automation with cheap labor. "We will do something which everyone thought was not possible, just like the Indica," says Ratan. "History will show whether we've been foolish or courageous.""

I have been following this story with great interest for a while now. If they can pull this off without watering it down too much, it could have far reaching impacts not only on the rural market in India but also in other parts of the developing world.

[MBA] Ah the joy of scheduling

I don't feel like writing essays today. So I thought it might be fun to publish a schedule and see if atleast the fear of public failure will drive me to keep up with it. So here goes.

By Nov 20
Tuck essays sent out for review
Wharton essays sent out for review
Haas essays going through internal revisions

By Dec 20
Tuck submitted
Haas submitted
Stanford essays out for review
Sloan essays going through internal revisions

By Jan 20
Stanford submitted
Wharton submitted
Sloan submitted
Kellogg ding/accept collected

[MBA] 1 down 5 to go

I submitted the Kellogg application today. Boy, was that exhausting. Now on to Tuck.

[MBA] The Tuck tour

I had been told by my Boston host that Tuck was just 11/2 hours from his place. Since my class was at 10:15, I was looking forward to my first decent night's sleep in 3 days. But I should have known better - it was just too good to be true. As it turned out my friend had looked up directions to Hanover, MA instead of Hanover, NH and the real drive time was 3 hours. So there I was, once again getting woken up at an unearthly hour and wondering why the !@@# I was doing all this.

The drive however made it all worth it. The dense foliage, early morning mist and the fall colors near Hanover were simply amazing. I entered Dartmouth well in time but then got lost while trying to find a parking lot and ended up at the Tuck admissions office late and out of breath. I just hope that what people say about 1st impressions is a bunch load of crap. Fortunately for me, a student guide was also running late and I was able to tag along with him.

We visitors were asked to give introductions - without any warning this time. But after having gone through this drill once already at Sloan I had my 2 line introduction ready at hand. Infact I might even have made my job sound more important than what it really is. It was interesting that a couple of guys gave me a shout out after my introduction and the Professor immediately explained that it was because they were from Colorado as well. I wonder whether she guessed or really knew where they were from. It was after all not a small class (~60).

The subject matter for the day was pretty exciting - FIFO and LIFO methods in accounting :) The professor however was making an attempt to keep the class engaged and the student questions were more impressive than the day before. Or maybe that's how it seemed to me because I am less ignorant about bonds than I am about accounting.

After that we had the tour which was more of a building tour than a campus tour as all Tuck buildings are connected together. Most of the students live in dorms which are right next to the school. 'Cozy' pretty much sums up the decor of all the rooms - both old and new. Infact during my last minute dash to the admissions office I for a moment thought that I had gotten lost again and entered a gigantic log cabin. The facilities are not huge but since they have a small class I guess it should work out.

My best experience of the visit came right at the end. The director of admissions gave a short presentation to us visitors where she emphasized on what they look for in applicants. It was a elaboration on what they have on their website. After the presentation she asked people to come talk to her personally if they had any further questions. I decided to take her up on the offer, as much to see if she really meant it as to clarify a few questions I had about Tuck. I was pleasantly surprised. She really sat down with me and answered all my questions in a detailed, thoughtful fashion. I ofcourse made an ass of myself and now hope that she doesn't remember me when my application comes up. But that's beside the point. During my interactions with Tuck students, I had heard that because of the small size of the school, students were able to get personalized attention - from career services, from professors. I actually saw this in action during my discussion with the director. I was sitting on the fence wrt my Tuck application. The content and nature of this discussion tipped me over (to the applicant side).

2 interesting points she made during the discussion
1. During the weak job market they could request their alumni to take 1-2 people each at their firms - which was doable even in that market. Because of their small class size this approach ultimately resulted in good recruitment stats for the graduating class.
2. They are trying to brand Tuck as being part of Dartmouth (Ivy league). This is part of their efforts to increase the brand recognition of Tuck in the international arena.
My note : Rankings matter a lot internationally, especially in Asia. Tuck's good showing in many rankings of late must also be helping with this agenda.

Next: Harvard

[MBA] The school across the river - Sloan

I had signed up for the afternoon session at Sloan keeping in mind my aversion to waking up early. But I hadn't taken into account the realities of public transportation in the suburban sprawl. So there I was, being woken up at the unearthly hour of 5 something to make the trip to Cambridge, MA.

I and the other visitors were greeted by a couple of 1st year students who handed us our nifty Sloan folders. We chatted with them for a while mostly about how tough the 1st month had been on them. We were then whisked away to a conference room for a Q&A session with an adcom member. She stressed on the interdisciplinary opportunities available at Sloan thanks to it being part of MIT. This is something which is highlighted in most Sloan publicity literature as well - especially when talking about alumni. I have seen and heard how close knit Sloan alumni are. But I wonder how the MIT alumni thing plays out.

I could have asked this question at the lunch session that followed, if only I had the chance. These being the last few weeks before the R1 deadline, Sloan was swamped with visitors. So each Sloan student was asigned 5-6 people at lunch. Add to that the overcrowding in the small cafetaria and you had an environment not really conducive for discussion. From what little I could hear above the din, our guide seemed to be an impressive chap. To be frank apart from a free sandwich I didn't get anything much out of this lunch.

Then we were off to our class. In the 1st semester all courses are mandatory except an elective where you can choose either Marketing or Finance. My group went to the Finance class. We were asked to introduce ourselves to the class and after a round of applause the professor took over. It was a lecture based class and the topic for the day was duration and effective duration of bonds and how these concepts were tied to interest rate risk. Not the most exciting of topics and the professor didn't make too much of an attempt to liven it up either. I was initially disappointed with the level (quality not quantity) of class participation. But then I realized that people with finance backgrounds must have self-selected themselves out of this course. So no wonder the comments were not too insightful even to a finance novice like me.

The class was the end of the official Sloan visit program. I spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around the MIT campus - which incidentally I liked a lot. All in all the visit was a bit of a let down as I couldn't really get a feel of Sloan, primarily because I couldn't talk to any students properly. I learned what I already knew. That Sloan was a small school with a great finance program and an absolutely fabulous entrepreneurship program. But I knew that even before I got there. Unless you have the ability to strike up unsolicited conversations with strangers, I would suggest you visit during off peak times - maybe the weeks immediately following the R1 deadline. I would also recommend dropping by the admissions office and picking up the Roadmap brochures. They provide a high level view about how to pursue different careers through the MBA program. And yeah, if you have the time go visit the Entrepreunership Center.

As I walked back to Kendal Square to catch my train, I realized that I was feeling quite relieved. In the morning while walking towards Sloan I had felt a bit nervous. I have never worked around MBAs and this being my 1st school visit I guess I was afraid that everyone I would encounter would be way more smarter than me. It was reassuring to see that most of the students and applicants were just like me (in a good way). Even in the communication skills department I felt that though I wouldn't win any prizes, I sure could hold my own. I might or might not make it into any of the schools I am applying to but atleast now I know that I am not on a fool's errand either. That was probably my biggest takeaway from this visit.

Next : Tuck