Archive for January, 2005

Tips for Waitlisted Candidates

January 24, 05 by Bharani

I was browsing through isp-pgp-04 yahoogroups and stumbled upon the following post.

Best, DAN

5 Keys to Unlock the Waitlist Lock
Being waitlisted is tough, and you need the right set of keys to open the door to your dream program. The truth is that even with these keys, it’s still not guaranteed that the lock will work. But this keychain has the critical pieces of metal you’ll need to turn that lock.

First, a word of introduction: Realize that receiving a wait-list letter means you qualify for admission. You pass. You are probably on the wait-list (and not admitted) because they have already admitted applicants with your profile and want diversity in the class. Or they find your qualifications impressive, but find someone else’s even more so.

Now let’s examine that keychain.

Key #1: Read the letter for any hints of deficiency in your profile and attempt to improve that element in your profile.

Key #2: Give them more reasons to admit you. If the school encouraged contact, inform it of new achievements, initiatives, promotions, and developments in your life. This suggestion implies developing a proactive campaign for contact roughly every 2-3 weeks. The exact particulars will vary depending on your school, specialty, and exactly when you are put on the wait list, but it can include letters, additional visit(s) to the school, an offer to interview, letters of support from others, and occasional phone calls.

Letters should be 1-2 pages. For tips on the letters’ content, please see “Wait-list Purgatory.”

Key #3: Reinforce the idea of a fit between you and the school. Demonstrate how a visit confirmed and deepened your interest in the program. Show how recent activities reveal that your values and the school’s are a match made in heaven.

Key #4: Enlist your fan club. Seek additional letters of recommendation from supervisors on and off the job and professors (if applying to an academic program). Current students and recent alumni who know you can also write letters of support and emphasize your fit with the program.

Key #5: Ask if there is anything you can do to improve your candidacy. There usually isn’t, but if there is you want to know about it and do it. If you have already demonstrated improvement in that aspect of your profile, let them know how you have improved since you applied.

It is much harder to wave the flag when the school doesn’t want contact. But even in these cases, you can be proactive, just more indirect. If feasible, visit the school and take a tour. If you know alumni or faculty members, ask them to put in a good word for you at the school. You can’t be responsible if your fan club thinks you belong at School X and wants to inform the admissions committee. You will have to be a little more indirect, but you still want someone to show fit and that “new and improved” you.

Accepted.com’s editors are available to help you evaluate your application, advise you on wait-list strategy, and edit wait-list letters. For more information, please visit our catalog .

Daniel Mitchell
MBA Candidate
ISB - The Indian School of Business
www.isb.edu

Driving Lessons

January 24, 05 by Bharani

Last year, my company sponsored me the cost for acquiring a Belgian Driving Licence and the associated training costs. To start off with, I prepared for the Theory examination in April and successfully cleared it. The Theory exam comprises of 40 multiple-choice questions. One needs to get a minimum of 32 questions right. On top of this there will be some “serious offence” questions thrown. If anyone screws up with more than one serious offence questions, he is declared fail, even if he has answered 38 out of 40 questions right! The questions were in dutch, so I took the assitance of a translator. He will translate the question in English and he will not repeat it second time. So need to be very attentive. Was an interesting experience.

Having passed the theory examination, I started my driving lessons from driving school. The total cost of driving lessons is 1000 Euros! A total of 20 hours of driving lessons will be taught. That’s 50 Euros per hour. I completed the initial phase of 8 hours driving lesson and I was instructed to acquire a temporary driving licence and to practice on my own. Since I didn’t had access to any car, I couldn’t practice. I am starting off with my remaining lessons this week. I think I have forgotten all my previous lessons :-) . Anyway, I will just take up the lessons and if I am lucky, will pass the practical examination. The Belgian licence is accepted almost in all places in the world. It’s intersting to note thatn the Indian International licence is not accepted in Belgium!

Learnings in life.

January 24, 05 by Bharani

I have wondered many a times about what life has in store for us. It’s fascinating to think about the future that lies ahead.

I love meeting up with as many people as possible and learn interesting things, hear amazing stories, grasp wonderful hobbies and so on. It’s how much you learn from others and from the world that makes you a more possessed person.

I have rejected many things in my life as “not my cup of tea”. Only when someone makes you understand the “other side” of the subject in question, you tend to develop an interest. Be it crosswords, music varieties [Italian, mexican,hindustani, carnatic, classical, western etc.,], gaming, cartoons, films, quizzes, business, stocks, real estates, technology, electronics, sports, aspirations or any personal traits..

Looking back, I have inspired many and been inspired by many. It’s the essential purpose of life “To Share”. When you give, you receive.

The upcoming one year in ISB is going to be a professionally and personally enriching experience in that aspect. I can learn about 319 interesting personalities and their interests in life. It’s the social and networking aspect of the MBA in ISB that appeals to me more than anything else.

Speech at ISB Inauguration - Down the memory lane.

January 21, 05 by Bharani

While I was browsing the net, I stumbled upon this link..Thought It would be relevant to post it here

http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2001/rdec2001/02122001/r021220011.html

December 2001. - Inauguration speech given by Prime Minister Mr.Vajpayee

“India is becoming a ” Young Nation” in a literal sense of the word. In twenty years from now, as many as 45 per cent of Indians would be in plus twenties. Against this, a large percentage of the population in today’s advanced nations would be of senior citizens. This means that young men and women from India, well educated in diverse professions would be in great demand as knowledge workers all over the world. I would like the education system in India both in the government and private sectors to gear itself up to tap this great demographic opportunity”. Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajapyee said, while inaugurating the International School of Business at Gachibowli here today.

Referring to education as a key that would unlock the potential of all our states, he said that high literacy rate was one of the chief factor in countries like South Korea achieving rapid progress, although they had a comparable development index with India, forty years ago.

Lauding the efforts of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Chandrababu Naidu, who fought hard to locate the prestigious institute in the state, Shri Vajpayee welcomed the new spirit of competition among different states of India. “Those states that are more enterprising, hard working and persevering will naturally get ahead in this era of competition. But the beauty of this competition among states is that, who ever wins, it is India that ultimately wins”, Shri Vajpayee said. Referring to the ISB as manifestation of patriotism and gratitude that successful Indians have towards their motherland, he complimented this collective action of many Indian businessmen in India and abroad as “Rashtra Dakshina”.

Stressing the importance of management, Shri Vajpayee said, every task however small, however mundane requires proper management. In this connection he referred to Bhagwad Gita which has elevated management to the status of yoga. He felt that the difference between success and failure, or even between success and better success lies in how well we manage our work. As administration and management are largely synonymous, Shri Vajpayee felt that there is a need for continuing management training for government employees and officers to make them result oriented.

The Prime Minister further said that the basic management education should be affordable and should also be taught in non-english lanaguages.

Earlier, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh Srhi Rangarajan in his address said that the need of the hour is to improve the efficiency and productivity of our system. “It is not enough to produce more goods and services. We must do so at unit costs that are affordable by many. That is why we look to experts in management who can bring about a significant change in the productivity” Shri Rangarajan said.

In his speech, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu said that ISB is an institution that does not carry any baggage of the past. “It is a 21st century institution catering to the needs of the 21st century he said. Shri Naidu hoped that ISB would become a crucible of leadership and excellence in management education.

Shri Rajat Gupta, Chairman of the ISB Board welcomed the gathering.

The ISB set up in a sprawling 250 acres campus has affiliations with Kellogg School of Management, The Wharton School and London Business School. It offers a one year post graduate programme in management and a series of Executive programmes.

It’s been 3 years since the speech was given. ISB looks promising and is living up to it’s expectation, not an easy job. I agree it still has a long way to go in terms of increasing research capabilities, permanent faculty strength, achieving accreditions, becoming reputed world-wide etc.,. But the roadmap is pretty clear and I feel, ISB is going in the right direction..Every year, the competition to get into ISB is increasing. All this increases the quality of student body. This attracts more recruiters and lucrative jobs. This simple cycle, happening year after year, is vital in building the brand and reputation. The brand and reputation attracts more quality professors. I am glad that ISB is caught in this ‘positive’ cycle. In this 3 years ISB has grown to such an extent that even traditional giants - IIMs are looking in to the one-year market. GLIM, Great Lakes institute of management is another example. MBA market is becoming a very competitive environment. Conducive for excellency..Hope the trend continues..

Fresh start…

January 20, 05 by Bharani

After seeing ebloggy crash 3 times in less than 3 months, I decided to look for stable options. I am glad that I stumbled upon “Wordpress” and “blogsome”. Wordpress is the hot topic in blogging community. State-of-the-art. The Administration interface is one of the best and exhaustive I have ever seen..Slowly, I will port my blog entries from ebloggy [Way2Top] to this, once the site is up. Looking forward for a long-term relationship with this blog :-)

Here’s offering prayers to Lord Ganesh..May this venture bring me good luck.

Class Participation - Explained.

January 20, 05 by Bharani

I had certain questions regarding Class-Participation in “Indian School of Business”.

“I came across the concept of “Class Participation” and the marks awarded for it, in the blogs of Raja and Sujayath.

How does Class Participation work? Is it just asking some relevant questions and answering the questions of professors? or one should give presentation to the entire class? How is the marks allocated? Would somebody make a note of who asked so many questions and who didn’t open his mouth? Finally, is more marks allocated for more questions? Curious :-) ”

Replies I received:

“Class Participation (CP) is the most talked about topic at ISB. Some love it, some hate it and some fear it. Some of the weirdest comments can be heard as part of CP.

You don’t have to make a presentation, but just utter something relevant to further the class discussion. The more insightful it is (creates an Aha moment), the more marks you get. Quality, not quantity matters.

Teaching Assistants will keep tab of who is speaking what.

You would discover the many charms of CP when you land up here. ”

-Raja

“I have taken couple of courses at sloan school of mgmt, and each couse had certain percentage of the marks are class participation.

Class participation would be more predominent in classes containing case studies, cases for the following classes would be given and you need to analyze the case before going to the class, in the class there would be discussion about the case, here comes the picture of class participation, the more you add to the discussion the more class participation marks you get. To this aking inquisitive question will add to class participation. (The procedure for tracking class participation was the TA had an excel sheet, with coulums like number of points added to case discussion and so on…)”

- Kranthi Kiran

That’s interesting…Will be fun!

I am in!

January 14, 05 by Bharani

Dear Mr Viswanathan,

Congratulations! You have been selected to the ISB’s one year Post Graduate Programme in Management beginning on April 15, 2005.

We are excited about the diversity of backgrounds, outstanding talent and significant achievements that will be represented by the students in our entering class. With the large number of applicants for every place at the Indian School of Business, you should be proud of your own personal qualities, academic record and individual accomplishments. You will add a valuable perspective to our classroom discussions and international community.

Please confirm your intention to enroll by mailing your acceptance letter, along with a non-refundable bank draft for INR One lakh (or equivalent amount in USD) payable to the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad to the address given below. This deposit will be applied to your tuition and must be received by January 31, 2005, to retain your place in the class.

If we can help in any way before you enroll, please do let us know. We look forward to welcoming you into the Class of 2006.

Sincerely,

V K Menon
Director – Admissions & Financial Aid
|| Indian School of Business || Hyderabadd - 500 019 || India
||Ph: +91 40 23187474 |||| Fax: +91 40 23007099
www.isb.edu

ORIGINAL OFFER LETTER WILL FOLLOW

Huh! What a relief..Man I am floating in cloud nine now..Time to relax for sometime.

Improvement

January 13, 05 by Bharani

I have been going to bed at 12:30 a.m and getting up at 7:00 a.m for the past 4 days. That’s 6-and-half hours of sleep. I am in office at 8:30-9:00. Slowly but steadily I am working towards “6 hours sleep”.

On the lighter note, 8 hours of sleep is 33% of our life. 6 hours of sleep is 25% of our life. A gain of 8% of our “life”time ;-)

Good time.

January 10, 05 by Bharani

Tom & Jerry
I had a very great weekend. Completely relaxed. Didn’t do anything apart from cooking, eating, sleeping, fitness and watching movies.

I initiated the download of “Tom and Jerry - Complete Collection (William Hanna and Joseph Barbera)”, some days ago. The download completed on Friday night. Total of 7 GB!! 10 Cd’s. I am very very big fan of Tom and Jerry, especially to the Hanna and Barbera saga (1940-1958). If there is one cartoon which people world over like, of all ages, it’s the “TOM & JERRY”. (Well, Flintstones is another i believe).

The collection comprises of 115 episodes, including the 7 academy award winning episodes and 6/7 academy nominated episodes. I had watched only 50-60 episodes till now. It was thrilling to watch the remaining episodes.

Time to have fun for sometime :-)

Anxiety put to rest..

January 09, 05 by Bharani

I went through my whole application package yesterday. I have good academic credentials (on par with ISB standards). Good GMAT score(710). Strong essays. I spent nearly 20-25 days in essays (includes first-drafting, reviewing, polishing etc.,). I feel my essays have come out really well and conveys my candidacy strongly. Also, going by the rapport and respect I command with my bosses, I feel they would have given strong recommendation letters. Now this leaves me with Interview. Even though I was skeptical about the interview after completion, in retrospect I feel that I have done OK. Some of their questions were mainly aimed to test how marketable I am? How focussed I am? What plans I have for achieving the goals? What compensation I am aiming at? etc., (questions related to POST-ISB). All these makes me feel that they have made up their mind about me (in a positive way ofcourse!)..

Currently there is a battle,going on within me, between my confidence in my ability/application and my sense of humility. A battle between being confident about admit and being anxious about the outcome..Though I would say ‘anxiety’ has a slightly upper hand now..

So, I have to come to a conclusion. If I get admit, it’s a win-win situation for ISB and myself. If I get rejected, well it’s the loss for ISB. That’s the attitude I have stuck to. No more posts related to my anxiety will be published..Just the final outcome :-) ..

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