Application tips

I have been receiving a lot of queries lately regarding the application process. I will be associated with the admission task force at ISB this year as well. In this post I'd like to give some general pointers regarding the entire process which may be applicable to any MBA app not necessarily ISB. Disclaimer: The following comments are my own and not ISB's.
1. Research: Please go through the school website. Almost all info about a school from application perspective would be present there. And please do your homework before calling someone at the school about stuff that is easily available at the site. This goes for interview advice as well as many people ask interviewers very obvious questions on placement stats curriculum etc -this has a negative impact on perception.
2. Recommendations: Ideally the immediate supervisor would be the best possible person. For second recommender, a client or a team senior both work equally well, in my opinion. Use the recommenders to tell stories or bring out aspects that hasn't been addressed by the essays 9due to space constraint or some other reasons). Recommendations can also be used to reinforce tall claims by providing validity.
3. Read up on blogs by current students or talk to them about unique aspects of the school. Mentioning one or two unique incidents or insights can be a differentiating factor in the application.
4. One of the most frequent questions I have come across is that "I am from IT. I have had experiences that would be similar to most applicants so how do I differentiate myself?". The differentiating factor to my mind is actually not in the experience but the learning. Just as in a class of 60 people, each person is taught the same thing but in an exam the marks scored vary widely...because of the difference in learning, so even with the same expereince, different people would learn different things. Thus communicate clearly what you learnt and how that will help the student body at your school.
5. Don't overemphasize your extracurrics: In a bid to differentiate themselves, many people fall into the trap of underplaying their work exp and overemphasizing their extracurricular experiences. Please DON'T do so as you will be admitted based on your work ex and not on your social or xc involvement.
6. Admission consultants: This is a tricky area. If you have some money to spare, you may go ahead and take professional help. I didn't and I doubt too many people in India would. However, I would highly recommend availing the free consultation offers that many renowned admission consultants offer. You have absolutely nothing to lose and would gain a valuable 3rd person perspective on where you stand at least on paper. I did take such free advice which did boost my confidence.

If you take care of the aqbove ground rules, you should be good...
I have missed out on the biggest factor that may make the difference between an admit and a ding which is luck. Off course you can't do anything about that. But in my experience I have found that the harder I work, the luckier I get. So I would suggest just work hard and leave the rest to the person above.

Life in Term 3

Life, if you can call it that, is damn hectic in term 3. But as I have always maintained, the hectic schedule makes things so interesting. Every second you have to decide which assignment to do, which speaker session to attend, which game to play, etc, etc.

We had our mid term yesterday; just one paper Corporate Finance.
The papers in this term are:
1. Corporate Finance
2. Entrepreneurship
3. Managerial Accounting and Decision Making
4. Operations Management

We don't even have any exam for Entrepreneurship: just online surveys, Class participation and a final paper on a real entrepreuner for 50% marks. Most other subjects have a heady mix of simulation games, quizzes, assignments and very little exam marks. Again, i am struggling with Operations but then again one can't have it all.

Corporate Finance is probably the most stimulating course this term and I now understand why IBankers are in such a great demand. It's as much art as it is science. The prof Bhagwan Chowdhry also made it deliciously interesting, regaling us with personal stories and anecdotes.

Anyway, I have 4 assignments due on Monday, so over and out for now.

P.S. Saw Love Ajkal yesterday...pretty watchable! Loved the part about Kolkata...rest ...well...