MBA Girl
Written on 4:07 PM by TSO
So I'm joining the ranks of the many who do the Engineering and MBA thing. Deciding that CAT (the entrance exam for Indian Institutes of Technology) is not in my destiny, seeing as I either misjudge my result (by almost 20 percentile) or the CAT misjudges me (by about 8%ile), its moving on time.
Why I'm blogging about this
I am a procrastrinator by nature. I hate keeping schedules because I don't stick to them. There are 2 reasons to get out of this habit - (A) I'm not going to get into a good business school with this attitude and (B) Personal improvement and all that 7 secrets of highly successful people blahahaha. This blog documents my promises to myself. Hence this blog is a journal about all the stuff I find out on my way to a B-School.
Plan of Action
Here's what you need to get into a top 100 business school (I'm aiming for top 30 in Fall 2011):
1. GMAT score (valid for 5 years)
2. Solidly good work ex, preferably with a bit of volunteer/out of office work thrown in - its quality, not quantity
3. Fairly good acads (weightage depends on quality of work ex)
4. Recommendation letters from people who have worked with you closely - these can be professors or
5. Statement of Purpose - a 1000 word essay on why you should be let into THAT particular school
6. Some schools have additional requirements - for instance, Columbia School of Business needs you to develop a 10 slide presentation. They expect it to tell them something about you that is not covered in the application. Power Point being one of my fav softwares, I'm definitely applying to Columbia!
7. Financial Budgeting (more on this later) - depending on the school, you have to shell out around $50,000 purely for tuition fees. Add to that living expenses and the odd $10,000 you need to jet set and be part of exchange programs and network - all integral to the great B-School experience. Let the scrounging begin.
8. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, esp if you apply for scholarships (which I will)
Hopefully this list will convert itself to links to other posts by - ok, here starts the deadline setting - end of July.
My background
Born and brought up in India.
Good scores from a fairly good engineering college in India in July 2007. Currently working in Shell Scripting and J2EE in an Indian IT service company in Australia. Having Australian Permanent Residency, I am definitely looking at getting an admit from AGSM and MBS, the only 2 Australian B-Schools in the top 100 world ranking.
As of now, my schedule is packed with working from 9 to 5 (sometimes 9 to 7), household chores and my kid sister who lives with me (and is a full time student). Of course add in a generous dose of time spent watching DVDs and reading books and you have my life about covered. Thankfully, not too committed in terms of a social life, although I spend about 30 minutes a day in personal correspondence to friends back home.
STEP 1 - GMAT
Planned GMAT date - mid 2009.
Planned GMAT score - 720 +
Reason - Valid for 5 years, lets get it out of the way while my studying habits are still fresh
Which means I have almost a year to perfect my prep.
Right, late for work. More on GMAT prep plan later.
