Harry Potter's MBA Musings
A blog to share my MBA experience from application days to graduation.


Wednesday, April 28, 2004  

Feedback interviews

I do plan to take feedback from all schools, where I can manage to get feedback. If not anything, it will act as a feedback on my interviewing and presentation skills. This year only Kellogg is offering feedback. I am trying at Sloan and Michigan if they will give me feedback.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:41 PM |
 

Part-time MBA Vs Full time

I got pulled by a Marketing Research group who was working on Part-time MBA VS Full time MBA research. Quiet and interesting discussion :).

Even though I expected that I will be a little free after my admission decisions, I realize I am swamped... Too many things. I guess I am learning about how things would be a little later this fall.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:38 PM |


Monday, April 26, 2004  

Gmail

is offering free beta service to all bloggers. Cool , I have a 1GB mail box :)

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:11 PM |
 

Scholarship updates

After doing a search on scholarships and running a mini-mailer campaign I realized that the time and energy simply isnt worth it. Except for 1-2 scholarships rest all trusts are interest free loans of order of 2000-5000$ ...

In the past, I have been a regular writer of technical articles/book. With MBA application, I had put my hobby to sleep. Now is the time to start again. Though, I never made too much money and have written for free for a long time, I believe this is the right time to start again. I think it will be worth it, if I spend some time on writing (for $$'s) till my classes begin in Mid-Aug. I have been thinking of writing business-cum-technical articles.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:10 PM |


Wednesday, April 21, 2004  

Scholarship Hunt

Though I realize I have been late, I am trying to get in touch with Trusts and Foundations, that may offer scholarships/zero interest loans. This has been one area, where I wish, I had focussed a little earlier. I missed lot of deadlines around Jan end, mid-Feb.

The basis of my search is the excellent Wharton's compilation of WW Scholarships... and this wonderful document prepared by a Doctrate student for Indian scholarships.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:40 PM |
 

Blue Devils gettogether

We had a great evening last saturday with couple of admits and their families. The event was graced by the presence of an alumni ( interviewer too). The alum shared lot of interesting stories and tips, shared his year book and other documents he cherished from his Duke days. This alum has been my favourite alum among all the alums of the schools I have met .

I also had opportunity to meet interesting people joining my class. Though being in Bangalore, most of the crowd consisted of IT folks, but I saw a lot of varied activities/paths.

ps: After I gave my introduction, my future class mates guessed that I was Harry Potter :). Well, I am not planning to keep it a closely gaurded secret anylonger

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:30 PM |


Saturday, April 17, 2004  

Notebook recommendations

I have been looking at various options to buy a Notebook.

a) Couple of us going to Duke, are trying to negotiate a group purchase agreement with retailers at low rates.

b) The Duke Store offers very good discounts.

c) One can buy through a friend at HP, Dell or IBM using the Employee Purchase plan.

One of my classmates has summarized his research on laptop here... Very useful link for all

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 12:18 AM |


Thursday, April 15, 2004  

Smart Manager

This magazine started by Gita Piramal ( worked with Sumantra of LBS fame), provides a good read into India's Businesses.

Read this weeks online edition here

---------
From their website

The Smart Manager is India's first world class management magazine. In the second anniversary special issue (Jan-Mar 2004), out now, The Smart Manager discovers India's truly world class managers. In-depth profiles look at their strategies and leadership styles to understand the secrets of their success.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 5:22 PM |
 

Blue Devils get together in Bangalore

A couple of us are planning to do a small get together for people heading to Durham, from Southern India. I am sure it will be exciting to know couple of my class mates before hand. We are also planning to invite couple of alumnus, who can offer some advice for coming days.


Plans ahead
I sent in the documents needed to request for my I-20 yesterday. Hopefully I should have the I-20 in next 3 weeks. Since I had to apply to the Chennai consulate, where the average wait for Visa appointment is 5 weeks, I decided to book a slot now. I have got an date for the last week of May.

If things go as per plan, I should be able to leave by Job by mid/end-June and take a break of a month before heading to Durham in July end/Aug 1st week.

It is going to be pretty hectic to wind up and sell off household items before I leave Bangalore.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 2:28 PM |


Monday, April 12, 2004  

International Students and MBA

I read the interview of Margaret Andrews, Executive Director of MBA Program at MIT Sloan, in today's Economic times. Interesting read for an prospective international applicant... For more.....

BTW, Margaret was my interviewer :)

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 6:45 PM |
 

I am back

I finally recovered over the Good Friday weekend and am back in action. Things are progressing on sending in the Temporary Visa request form to the Duke International office. Within next few days, I should have all the financial documents and paperwork done and sent to Duke. I will piggy back my $ 1000 check in the package as well.

Laptops
A group of few students at Fuqua have been trying to negotiate low prices for laptop with Retailers like Best Buy, etc. I hope we have a good deal done. I am thinking in favour of IBM T40 series of a lightweight Fujitsu/Toshiba. We also discussed the option of having Desktop, and I was infact surprised to learn that quiet a few folks, prefer a faster desktops at home. Well, I guess I am used using computers, so would just love a Wi-Fi and a Laptop... My office in Bangalore , is still not Wi-Fi :(.

I miss my days in Bay area... A cup of coffee, a Wi-Fi connection, fast internet ... what more one want's in life :).. Ok, that was the computer geek in me :)

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 5:03 PM |


Thursday, April 08, 2004  

Harry is sick and will be away from blog for a while.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:03 PM |


Tuesday, April 06, 2004  

MBA Advice blog

has been gaining reputation. Clear admit mentioned about our MBA Advice blog on his site. Thanks Mark for noticing that.

Well, I do plan to write on this blog. Have a lot to share on -- waitlist, re-application, Indian Applicants, IT Applicants .

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 6:09 PM |
 

Hits from MIT.edu, Northwestern.edu, Umich.edu

I have been tracking visitors to this side, and I must say that ad coms do moniter the BWeek forums and also the blogs. I have seen a lot of hits from Northwestern.edu , MIT.edu ... ( including yesterday). I am sure they would have figured out who I was, given that I have shared a lot of information about me.

ps: No I am not complaining, but I do know that the ad com use this information. For me, I dont suspect that it was used against me. :)

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 6:06 PM |
 

Home work for Duke

I will intensify my research to know more information about Duke namely :

a) Hiring scene for internationals. Especially for Tech Marketing/ Tech Consulting Careers.

b) Any other available scholarships and where I can apply.


Please share your thoughts on these two aspects...

The usual Visa procedures etc are pretty much clear for me. BTW I had posted a great post from hitamba, who also happens to be at Fuqua :).

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 5:45 PM |
 

Life goes on......

Though I had put in a lot of effort for Sloan, last few days, I was getting indications, that all may not be well. My last two year's experiences has taught me a lot about how to deal with failures. May be I was lucky to see a lot of success in my life so far.

The key to dealing with failures is quick recovery and learning from the failure. The personal up's and downs taught me Quick recovery. Now, I am picking up on how to learn from failures and not make the same mistake. Also, it teaches me to make alternate plans so that even if my Plan A fails, I am well covered.

Any ways, as I said life goes on... I am back in full gear mapping people at Durham.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 5:40 PM |


Monday, April 05, 2004  

Sloan Result

Dear Mr Potter :

The Admissions Committee of the MIT Sloan MBA Program has considered your application and has regretfully concluded that we cannot offer you a place in the incoming class.

As you no doubt realize, the MIT Sloan School is comparatively small, with approximately 325 MBA students entering each year. While our size offers advantages to both our students and faculty, it also creates an extremely difficult selection process––this year, well over 3,000 candidates will compete for the 325 places in the class. I think it is no exaggeration to say that the majority of our applicants would be good students for our program. Since we have so few spaces to offer, the problem is not only choosing academically and professionally qualified applicants, but also choosing the very strongest candidates from a field of extraordinarily talented individuals.

We realize this news comes as a disappointment. I do hope, however, that you will accept our best wishes for your success.

Sincerely,

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 10:38 PM |


Sunday, April 04, 2004  

A long weekend, I must say... So I decided to take some time off and head out for some outing.

Some of the fellow bloggers have been busy making decisions about schools. FMG decided to go to Wharton, Mark and Jie to HBS, Joey to HBS. Good luck with your decisions folks. HBS/Wharton are great schools. Congratulations to Power yogi for his R3 Wharton interview invite.

Good Luck to you 3app, for your Plan B.


Lets see what's in store for me tomorrow ... It will be a long Monday.. :).

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:29 PM |
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