A blog to share my MBA experience from application days to graduation.
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| Harry Potter's MBA Musings A blog to share my MBA experience from application days to graduation. |
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Friday, June 27, 2003 I will be blogging less from now on for a while, as I have taken up lot of extra projects and community activities. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 3:37 PM | Thursday, June 26, 2003 Better Kerry Talk I liked this post on Ask Sandy thread at BWeek forum, which demonstrates how different schools should be approached differently for a given story. John Kerry applies to B school. "No colored, Whites only" --I had read about such signs, of course, but actually seeing one outside Red's General Store in Selma, Alabama in late 1964 [sk-actually December, visiting a Yalie for Xmas], when I was there in the wake of [brilliant locution-sk] Freedom Summer was a defining moment. I had helped organize Freedom Summer while still a student at Yale, and worked at prep school for JFK, so my liberalism was longstanding. But meeting racism head on, and confronting the built up hostilities of the many otherwise friendly and decent White Southerners, put my easy upbringing to the 'reality' test. I was forced to confront not only the plight of the Black man in 1969, but also my own upbringing as a privilged white male. [STANFORD]: The lessons I would learn that summer about race, gender, organizing, working with people, meeting hostility, and the role played by own family in forming my character--especially the key role played by my father--would help to discover what matters most to me: it has been a powerful journey, and I would like to share it with you . . . [WHARTON]: My decision, four years earlier, to attend Yale was a foregone conclusion, based on my family history and interest in history and politics. I regret not thinking more about what other schools I might have attended, many of which would have challenged me more in a social context, but I am glad that I majored in history. I was forced by such Professors as John Cash and Jim Bucks to consider the economic dimension of many key historical events, including slavery. That was a lesson that stayed with me during Freedom Summer and now accounts in part for my transition from activist to private equity investor in socially responsible start-ups. [HARVARD]: Leading a diverse group of activists, old-time liberals, and Southern volunteers was challenging for several reasons, including my own insecurity and lack of standing in this group [sk--ha, ha, becasue you just got there, and did nothing]. Over the course of several weeks [sk---hmmmmm, who is counting] I was able to develop a style of working through others that included moral persuasion [I was thankful now for all those Chapels I attended at prep school], leading from behind, and just plain old hard work. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:40 PM | - There is still some some movement in Kellogg waitlist. Last week has seen around 2 admits. - The INSEAD chat which I attended at Business Week is now up at the site. - In the meanwhile, I have started up my preparation for next year ( hate to say so though). posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:35 PM | Monday, June 23, 2003 My wharton feedback I have constantly got these two comments from schools : -Your Why MBA is done well. -We understand why NOW ? and also find why our school good The points of improvement mentioned were : - I could improve upon the structure and presentation of the essays. - Some of the essays had over shot the word limit. - My teamwork and leadership essay ( essay no 2) was not deep and needed more reflection on my thoughts , than just describing the situation. In the end they mentioned I need more seasoning for teamwork and leadership experiences. From what I understand, it means I need to articulate and write more powerful essays on leadership and teamwork The session lasted for 10 mins only. The comment on improving the presentation of the essays, was expected. Wharton was my second application, and as a result my essays had not reached a polished stage. They mentioned my GMAT was ok (I have 700+, 5 years w/e). My community experiences were average. They also told the latest numbers about admits before starting the session... ( I keep wondering what does it mean in my case. Is my w/e less or is my GMAT less ?) Well I was told : Avg GMAT this year : 715 Avg Work exp : 6 years. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:43 PM | Weekend updates This weekend was special as it was the last one before i would get full weekends to myself. I am starting to do some projects and courses, which will start in full gear next week. Since, these are non-work committments I would be spending part of my saturdays on these projects. So, we decided to visit an closeby beach city. The sea facing room was less than 20 meters from the beach. This city provided us an wonderful experience of music, nature and sprituality. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:10 PM | Friday, June 20, 2003 I have had my feedback session with Wharton. Would write about it soon.. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 7:59 PM | Businessweek articles Two interesting articles at Business Week. 1) The Newest MBAs Are Still Gung Ho I am glad to hear that news that the new MBA's are still happy for having made the choice ( ...reminds me of Matrix reloaded...) to do an MBA. I also believe it is easy to make decisions when the gold rush is on, but those are short term decisions. The one's who can face the current in opposite direction can only reach there destiny of choice... 2) Landing Jobs for Kellogg MBAs Roxanne Hori, assistant dean and director of the Career Management Center at Kellogg mentions : - From September to May 2003, we're up about 5% year-to-date on our full-time job postings. - Summer internship postings are up 33%, compared to the same time last year. - My hope is that we'll be where we were in 2002 -- with 83% of the class with a job offer by graduation -- but we're still several weeks away from graduation. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 6:53 PM | Wednesday, June 18, 2003 BusinessWeek Journal BusinessWeek has extended the deadline to submit your nominations for MBA journal writing to July 2nd, 2003. I hope I get selected soon, so that I can give the BWeek Journal a shot. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 3:25 PM | Monday, June 16, 2003 For people taking Wharton feedback Alex Brown mentions about what can create a bad impression while you are asking questions in feedback. nerves etc. can sometimes compromize the dialog etc. While the conversation is written up, I think the important issues are: a. you now understand what the issues that may need addressing b. you were not "aggressive" etc. in the conversation. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 7:03 PM | The weekend was spent with the guests, who left on Saturday evening. I had an hectic short travel to a small town. We ended up being in train for 21 hours and in that place for just 10 hours. The Kellogg waitlist is moving this time. On 13th June 2 of international applicants were accepted off the waitlist.. This might be the last largest wave. I am just waiting for the decision to get over soon. Worst case, I should know the status first week of July. I had a chance on weekend to meet an friend of mine, who works in brand management and advertising. We talked at length about how a brand is created etc and how brand consulting is done. Such discussions always stimulate me. It was some of such discussions and an discussion with close friends, that led me to gradually realize that I am looking for an MBA. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 6:34 PM | Friday, June 13, 2003 Some analysis Last year around 7 applicants ( 4 R2 6Q, 1 R3 6Q , 1 MMM, 1 JD/MBA) were selected off the waitlist after 12th June. Assuming around 50% people come to BWeek it would be 14 people who got off waitlist. Each year is different and many things have changed like K being #1 in BWeek, % of students getting job offers ... Iraq war, SARS .. But, this is a good ballpark figure. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:53 PM | 2002 Kellogg waitlist movement. Tad had published a nice summary of how the waitlist movement was last year . Here is the excrept of what is relevent of it now. Late May - July - From late May onward, there were just a scattering of random admits (see 502, 536, 572, and 591). Come July, the "end of the line" emails started going out (see 640 for the text). Last year, an interesting phenomenon was that the students who got confirmed got their names listed in Northwestern directory, even before they got the call or email. Unfortunately no such thing exists this year. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:11 PM | Thursday, June 12, 2003 Recently, I submitted my new updates to Kellogg. It has been over 5 months now since I submitted my application on Jan 10th... Gosh, this has been a long long wait :| posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:21 PM | Wednesday, June 11, 2003 Have been keeping busy with guests at home. I need to catch up with lot of reading which has taken a back seat. I am planning to make this blog more focussed and one that adds more value. Featuring three professors from Harvard,on CNBC, their is a nice series called "The Appointment". So far the discussions has been around Indian Managers and Indian MNC's. Well, I do not like this series as much as "Lessons in Excellence" by Sumantra Ghoshal and Gita Parimal. Sumantra is a great Strategy professor. This summer, I am also planning to enroll in few business courses. Yeppy, soon I may have a chance to learn strategy.. But, something in me says, I will make it to K this year.. I wish that happens and then my decisions at cross roads will be a lot more easier. In fact a lot of cross-roads may not be present at all. Well, the questions I have in front of me are the obvious one's 1) What more should I do at work to improve my experiences ( and become a likeble MBA candidate) 2) What else should I do to increase my leadership and community experiences ? .... .... and so on Decisions, Decisions, everywhere.... That too fast and quick.. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 1:56 PM | This post from Kellogg adcom raises the hopes for international students. " We're holding onto a few more international waitlisters in hopes that spaces may free up soon; " posted by Ravi Trivedi | 1:44 PM | Tuesday, June 10, 2003 Kellogg updates. A mail from K adcom indicates that the final decision may be made by early July. A scan of last year's BWeek thread on waitlist indicates there were admissions made in July and August. Similary, would be the case this year. Looks like a long wait then . posted by Ravi Trivedi | 1:08 PM | Monday, June 09, 2003 The weekend was hectic as I was preparing for arrival of couple of guests this week. Besides, some of our friends decided to party out , so... I am still feeling the hangover of weekend. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:13 PM | Friday, June 06, 2003 There was a INSEAD admission director's chat at Business Week. I wish there were no copyright issues and I could share the unedited chat. Well , the edited and refined version would be up soon at Business Week. BTW, there is another INSEAD chat on 12th June at www.accepted.com. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 9:17 PM | System Design and Management(SDM) program at MIT MIT has a bunch of customized management programs like SM, MOT, MLOG etc. I found the SDM an interesting program .. From the website SDM is a 24-month distance learning or 13-month on-campus degree program for experienced engineers, in which students earn a Master of Science degree in Engineering and Management. Its goal is to educate future leaders in architecting, engineering, and designing complex products and systems, preparing them for careers as the technically-grounded senior managers of their enterprises. I believe lot of software/IT folks who wanted an MBA, need to revisit which program they actually want. Only if they are looking for a career change, an full MBA is needed. My $0.02 :) posted by Ravi Trivedi | 9:06 PM | Marketing guru, Seth Godin I have been reading a little about Seth Godin, who is a renowned marketing guru, the author of "Purple Cow" , "Permission Marketing","Unleashing the ideavirus" etc. His readings are thought provoking. I liked his statement idea that marketing should be built right into the product. The people who really make the product successful are the people who invent it and not those who market it. For example : Starbucks. They dont spend a lot of time on direct marketing . But they spend a lot on quality of coffee beans and the lighting in stores. And , then the creative idea of putting Wi-Fi in coffee stores. Then he goes on to say, how marketers need to thing different, not the conventional way to achieve product growth (especially for an already saturated market). More importantly, marketers should stop lying and cheating the customers. Don't steal their permission's ( example spam mail). This causes less access to the consumers and makes the customer ignore or hate sales pitches. BTW, it was interesting to note that in UK an complete ad channel was launched, which shows only commercials. (Just found out Seth Godin himself blogs ... thats cool . here is a link to his site). posted by Ravi Trivedi | 1:02 AM | Bill Bratton's success stories I also read an interesting article on Tipping point leadership style of Bill Bratton in Harvard Business Review. Interesting read about what has been a repeat success story of a cop. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 1:02 AM | Thursday, June 05, 2003 I am planning to send another update to Kellogg. So far I have been sending regular updates every 4 weeks since my waitlist. This time I will consider addressing some of the weekness mentioned in Michigan feedback. Though, these two applications were different, but some of the advice is still relevent. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:02 PM | Wednesday, June 04, 2003 Current status of waitlist. This BWeek post mentions that around 2 weeks back there were still 100 unconfirmed offers. ( May be those were from R3 + waitlist applicants. ) posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:09 PM | Kellogg Waitlist Strategy I have gathered some advice on waitlist strategy from BWeek forums consisting of Kellogg adcom's Q&A and past successful students' experience etc. Here is the document which has my collection of comments and advice. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 2:15 PM | Monday, June 02, 2003 Added Comment system by Halo Scan and a search engine. Tried Google for site search but it didnt give me desired results, so switching to FreeFind. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 1:46 PM | Sunday, June 01, 2003 An article titled Serve Big Macs, With Nirulas' Price... partly summarizes the Indian Business Club hosted seminar , held last week at Kellogg. Here is another article that summarizes the seminar. Also, there is a news in newspapers of Prof Dipak Jain, Dean of Kellogg, joining the United Airlines board. Mr Tilton, the United Airlines CEO is going to deliver the commencement speach for the graduating students of 2003. posted by Ravi Trivedi | 12:58 AM | |
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