Concrete Goals

I read this post by ahembeea This is what i replied:

I read somewhere.... it was about either stanford or MIT-sloan. In the first class of MBA, the dean routinely asks how many people here are not sure about what they want to do post MBA.... and about 80% people raise their hands. Thats reality, remember, all these students have written outstanding essays that were convincing enough to pick them above a lot of really smart and motivated people...... thats how this game is played. You need to articulate well enough to be convincing, you need to sound serious enough to be taken seriously..... I think what they are looking for is your ability to make plans, your ability to tell a story, sell a story. It has to be plausible, but all schools know how many people end up doing what they wrote in their essays

This may turn out to b the biggest decision of our lives, and getting jitters is what we all expect. It would be abnormal if you didn't get jitters. Your list is doable, get a comfort school if you want, but you may very well be comfortable with the list you have, you have worked on it. Give the schools time to grow on you, work on generic essays in the meantime.... there's still time, there's still opportunity to explore further..... and when you get into your school, that will be the beginning of aother lifetime of exploration..... lets enjoy the process... before long we'll be nostalgic about these days.

City Lights

Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to go to a big city. I was reading this blog when I realized how much that pull still works. I have spent a few years in Mumbai, now live in Dubai, but NY still has a special place..... (Very very special, considering i have never even been that side of the Greenwich line, much less in the City itself. )

This is what happens, I suppose, when you live in small places all the time. I used to hate the much romanticized 'laid back' life. When not pushed, people tend to take things easy. You are pushed to the hilt in Mumbai. If you can't take grueling  commute, forget Mumbai. What this inevitably leads to is a population with more grit. And thats what makes Mumbai unique. When there is a terrorist attack, the people bounce back so fast that the terrorists manage only to kill, not terrorize. 

Dubai, while big, is not a city in that sense. There are no rural areas in UAE, so all people aggregate here, there is no selection. In the last few decades, the oil boom has also ensured that life is never too hard for most people. Thats why this city, though glamorous, is not vibrant.

MBA-wise, I'm working on my 'why MBA' generic essay. Being older and non-traditional means I need to be more specific than most people. Still trying to collect that specific information, and formulating it in a meaningful way.

MBA Action Plan

I don't know how many people are aware of this idea by Julien Gordon. Its a plan for MBA that lists a lot of things I didn't think of. I'm going to use it all the time, I hope. 

Of course being an International means I have to conduct the 'interviews' over email, I think I'm taking some steps in that direction.... lets see how it all pans out.

Thanks

Thanks a lot folks! Within no time of me expressing doubts about my viability for Wharton, i got encouragement from three people whose blogs i follow and respect. Nitin, Tinydancer and ahembeea all wrote to encourage me to apply to wharton, and I think I will.... That means a lot of extra work, but ateast I'll know where i stand.

BTW, this post by Tinydancer further encouraged me to give it a shot. 

Changed List of Schools

I have decided to not run after Chicago and HBS. I'll concentrate on 4 US schools (Fuqua, Tuck, Ross, Darden), 3 Indian (IIM A & L, ISB), and HKUST, a wild card. This is my final list for now.

Reasoning.

My aim is to go into healthcare management, reaching Strategic position ASAP. While wharton may be my best bet for that, i'm not too excited about my leadership record. I mean, as a doctor, there's only so much you can do. My "leadership" things only include things like talking to the CEO to make laparoscopic surgery packages more attractive for our patients, things like this. I have also worked in 5 institutes in seven years, and while i was always moving towards something, its not something you boast about. So i feel the top 5 are beyond my reach. I therefore stay within the top 20 or so, and concentrate on the schools good at general management, where very few indian doctors would be applying.

I am 34, and this may well be my last chance..... If I have a chance at all

The choice of indian schools is obvious

The HKUST is the joker in the pack. It's not all that well known in India, is a good program with good recruitment, and although its focus is finance, and the brand name in India non-existing, its very well recognized in rest of Asia. It will be a last resort, I guess, but is a good last reasort, if one is needed.

IIM-A musings

I read an old blog from an IIMA class of 2008 PGPX student/alum. The rates of selectivity for IIM A are amongst the highest in the world. While this is good for someone already in, its a scary scenario for me. Being "international" would be a great advantage here, but I'm not. In fact, i bet atleast 99% of the apps are from Indians. Other factors will be the GMAT, IIT Status, and Undergrad GPA. 

On te plus side, the number of experienced doctors will not be overwhelming, i guess. And my score is not too bad. Also, my age would not seem as big a drawback in this class as in most others. Worth a shot, i guess.

Btw, the pplication format is totally crazy. No essays, just the biodata details, and even in that, all you have to do is run through drop down menus one after the other, asking your expertise from nil to excelllent. These menus are all about things that won't be a part of a doc's work life, so i don't know how to answer them at all!!! Stalled on this for more than a month now!! 

Indians beware!!

Another bad news for us desi applicants, Neo2000 found out that average GMAT for Indians is 730. I mean seven fishing thirty! And thats the average? Well there goes my one big advantage. 

Actually you can kind of see this at Pagalguy's Forums where everyone and his neighbor's nanny posts a score well above 700. We have been raised on such competitiveness that we complete the standardised tests well.

Or, a darwinian explanation would be that Indian education system selects and rewards a more standard tester, so our institutes are full of bland personalities with brilliant testing abilities