Harry Potter's MBA Musings

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

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Posting from Bweek thread

The India MBA network meet at Bangalore – Start networking even before you go to the school.

Calling the new admits current students and alumni of the Indian MBA Network for a meet on the June 6th 2004, in Bangalore.

Indian MBA Network is a non-profit organization comprising of Indian B-school students and alumni from select premier business schools worldwide. As of now, the community comprises of the following schools:
Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Kellogg, Chicago, MIT Sloan, Fuqua, Michigan, Stern, Columbia, TUCK, Darden, Berkley, Yale, CMU Tepper, LBS and INSEAD.

Visit http://www.indianmbanetwork.org/ for more information on Indian MBA network.

This summer, the new admits are making preparations to enter there dream schools and the current students are starting their internship. This is a good time for all of us from various schools, to meet and know each other. We eagerly look forward to meeting our alumni for mentoring students and networking with business leaders.

Please RSVP me before 31 May at ravi_trivedi@yahoo.com.

This meet is brought to you by India MBA Network – Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai chapter.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 10:09 PM |

About India MBA Network

Posting from the India MBA network's Yahoo group page :

This is the group intended for keeping in touch with the fellow Indians studying in top MBA schools.

The group homepage is at: http://www.IndianMBANetwork.org

The group message/discussion board is at: Indian MBA Network message board . The passwd for the message board is listed in our charter document that you receive upon subscription. The document also contains links to several professional, geographical and special subchapters that you may want to take advantage of.

In order to keep our group focused and managable, we have limited ourselves to Indian students from the following schools only for now

Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Kellogg, Chicago, MIT, Fuqua, Michigan, Stern, Columbia, TUCK, Darden, Berkley, Yale, CMU, LBS and Insead.

If you are an alumnus or a current student or if you have got an admission from one of the above schools , then you are most welcome to join this group.

Read more

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 7:08 PM |

Winding up

I have started winding up things in Bangalore. My boss was surprized to hear the news of an full time MBA. Well, he mentioned " Oh, so you are getting into the big league". Anyways, I expect the transition to be smooth and be relieved within next 4 weeks.

Everthing in my house is on sale now :). I have told my landlord about my shift as well. I hope to get back my deposit in time so that I can visit my parents for a while, and visit some places in India before heading to Durham.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:19 PM |

More on F1 Visa process
I read Luvshack's experience of getting a F1 visa (in India). I am glad you managed despite so many hurdles.

From my experience, it helps to
- Be thorough. Understand the process from FAQ's on Consulate page.
- Provide as much information as possible. Dont hide information.
- Be frank and honest.
- Be confident.

I did not use any visa consultant, though used some advice from f1visa2usa yahoo group. The files section of the yahoo group contains a good set of FAQ's and sample formats for affidavit. I have posted another detailed post on this earlier.

If you have any other questions, feel free to drop me a line.

ps: And yes, my passport arrived yesterday with the stamp. They gave a 5 year F1 visa... enough for a PhD I guess :)

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 3:30 PM |

Monday, May 24, 2004

Got my F1 Visa

I just returned from the American Consulate in Chennai, and the news is that I got my F1 Visa without any hassles.

The officer asked me few questions :
- Which School? Why Duke
- What do your parents do?
- Post-MBA plans.
- How many times, I have been to US

No questions on funding, or questions on show me why you will return to India after your MBA. Guess my visits to US ( on work permit and business) helped to answer that.

Now the ball starts rolling. Notices, Notices, everywhere... Time to pack up.

ps: It didnt take long for the Visa interview process. I was there for around 1.30hrs only. Now that I have around 7 hours in hand , before my train departs. Its time to see a movie, and meet some MBA friends... :)

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 2:33 PM |

Friday, May 21, 2004

Visa
Finally the D-day for Visa interview is around the corner. I will be leaving on Sunday night and my interview should be over by Monday late afternoon (24th). Everything is kinda on hold till that time. Am going with fingers crossed.

See you all on Monday then

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 6:00 PM |

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Of Visa, housing and Loans

The Visa application is getting done and I have most of the documents for my application. It is a big pile of documents, most important one's are :

a) DS-156, DS-157, DS-158 forms, Photograph, Draft.
b) I-20 from University
c) Proof of sufficient funds
{ Huge list - IT returns, CA forms, Letter of support from parents, Bank Balance from 6 months, Property documents}
d) GMAT, TOEFL scores
e) Transcripts from colleges. Degree Certificates.
f) Worked out loan repayment schedule and a summary sheet of how I will sponsor my education.

I am also looking at various housing options and would book an apartment as soon as I get my Visa through.

And the most important is the search for a loan. With out a co-signer the interest rates are pretty high for Duke Opportunity Loan ( Prime + 2%). The other loans I am evaluating are the Paras Foundation and Access Group. Most of these again require a US co-signer.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 4:36 PM |

Friday, May 14, 2004

I-20

Finally I could sort out the delays in my I-20. It has been dispatached from Durham. I am glad that I can have my visa interview on May 24th.

Update: Tracked my documents, and they have reached home today afternoon. Now back to getting other documents in place

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 9:03 AM |

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Scholarship update

Most of the scholarships in India are 0% loans for a small amount (upto $5000). However, there are few "gift scholarships" available. I was terribly late for JN Tata Endowement, did not apply to the Paul Foundation due to a long list of documents, and few more since they were loans.

However, I believe my application is active at INLAKS scholarship and with some luck I may be able to apply at Godrej foundation. Apart from this I am thinking of trying for the Travel Assistance from American Alumni association.

Later this summer, I plan to share my spreadsheet where I tracked couple of scholarships. I had run a small postal mailer campaign and learnt that a lot of addresses were wrong.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 12:53 AM |

Waiting for my I-20

I am anxiously waiting for my I-20 to arrive. My Visa interview is on the 24th May, and I hope atleast by next week I get my I-20. Though, I had kept a 2 week cushion, still we might cut too close. I would hate, if I had to reschedule my Visa interview at Chennai... The current delay in scheduling interviews is 5 weeks !!

Any such delay at this stage would upset my personal plans to a great extent. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 12:50 AM |

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Kellogg Feedback

I just finished my Kellogg feedback session. I am glad, that I could get a feedback on an application where I spent a lot of time and energy. This gives me an idea of where to focus on while interviewing this fall for internship.

As expected , I was told it was a tough year, and I come from a very competitive pool. The decision was tough for them, and they hoped that I didnt feel I had got nothing out of the feedback session.

The key points that came out in the feedback were:

a) A Lot of progress/improvement since re-application. Good contribution to my company. [above par]
b) Very clear Why MBA, Why Kellogg. [ above par]
c) The academics and GMAT were [on par, but not stellar)
d) There were good extra curicullar activities, several of them , but the depth of involvement not clear. [par to little below par]
e)There are lot of success points mentioned , but the leadership experiences needs more explaining. Same for Team work [ at par to little below par]

That was it... . Well, the feedback was in informal tone like last year and the ad com was frank and friendly. However, as expected, I couldn't get more information on the Interview feedback this year as compared to last years. ( May be I will write to the kellogg interviewer for his feedback)

I guess, there was still room for improvement in my essays. So folks out there applying to Class of 2007, focus on your essays, this has been my learning since last 2 years.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 8:25 PM |

Monday, May 10, 2004

Visa updates
On the Visa front, I am making slow and steady progress. Couple of you have asked for my experience/insight on F-1 visa. Here are few of them :

a) Read the information about Non-immigrant visas on the US consulate website carefully. Understand what is the primary purpose of the interview etc.

b) I also posted a good detailed post by Hitesh about Visas on this blog. Be confident and prepared with how you plan to fund, and REPAY your loans. [Minimize "US loans" as much as possible.]

c)I prefer preparing my documents myself. This helps me being thorough with all the nuances.
Only in exceptional cases, where I need advice, I would speak to a Visa consultant. There are couple of yahoo groups on F1 visa for example f1visa2usa.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 3:05 PM |

Second Blue Devil Meeting in Bangalore
We, the Blue Devils had a good meeting on the weekend with a current student, who had come down to Bangalore. Learnt a couple of do's and don'ts. Well, I plan to make arrangements for housing, furniture etc. before I land up in Durham.

On the job scene at Fuqua, I believe things are better. But as an international one needs to be perseverant. So, here I am eagerly awaiting my detailed admit package, with id to Fuqua World. This will give me access to several databases and student boards ( useful for networking).

ps: On May 8th, this blog became a year old :). Looking back, it has been a long journey from Kellogg waitlist.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 2:47 PM |

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Have Been away from my blog since a long while. I am waiting for my I-20 to arrive and then the visa interview this month. Visa is a gating factor for me. Just after that i need to give notice to several places. I can not tell my manager of my plans now, due to the flux in our organization currently. Last year, it was very different, my manager was with me all the while we waited for results.

Also, I have been taking some time off to relax on weekends. This weekend we the Blue Devils from Bangalore region will meet a current Duke student who is coming to the city.

I also need to start working on my BWeek application for journal writers.

posted by Ravi Trivedi | 2:58 PM |

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