Great Lakes Admission Queries

[mkinra]

Hi Kapil

Now that you have made please let us know your profile!

Also join the undermentioned yahoo group where all the candidates who have got admit are present

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greatlakesbatch2007/

Thanks and Regards
Manik Kinra

[keanu]

how does it feels when u wait for the whole day for the results to be announced and when u come to know abt some one else results that he is selected (i am talking about kapil) and then u call up the admission office just to find it closed. i suppose every one will be tense as u have to wait for the next morning for the results .

so i went through all these emotions since yesterday, thankfully an office meeting came to my rescue as it started at 6.00 in evening and ended up at 11.00 in night ........

after going through all these emotions for full one day and one night, i got the news i wanted

I AM SELECTED IN GREAT LAKES .........
..... I agree with kapil, her voice was so sweet when she confirmed my admission ..... .

I am working with Larsen & Toubro LTd. for past 3 years after completing my M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur.
just waiting for the offer letter now as i am waiting to put my papers....

seniors please give some inputs about the admission process, more specifically i want to know about the fees part as i am going for Bank loan for the fees. please suggest which bank to approach and else ?? .......

by the way, do we have to give the money for Laptop also with the admission fees or we can purchase our own laptop .......

[fast-n-steady]

Originally Posted by pradeep sonthalia

hi prerit/ tamoghna and all those who have ben selected from calcutta.

lets meet up some day and party .

it would be gr88 fun.

Yes i agree... Shud have a party...
where do u ppl stay... me in ballygunge.... say a convenient time & place... we can definitely meet

[fast-n-steady]

How many ppl from Cognizant till now in the 07 batch????????????

ME + .....

[pradeep sonthalia]

congratulations!!! Keanu

We are privelleged to have an IIT ian on board with us.

about the fees.

dude great lakes has a tie up with indian bank for educational loan. u can get ur loan @ 9% inerest from here. i have myself applied for the loan @ indian bank.

laptop.
seniors can pour in more information abt this. i am myself thinking of purchasing it from outside.

Any seniors willing to sell of their laptop's.... please PM me.

Originally Posted by keanu

how does it feels when u wait for the whole day for the results to be announced and when u come to know abt some one else results that he is selected (i am talking about kapil) and then u call up the admission office just to find it closed. i suppose every one will be tense as u have to wait for the next morning for the results .

so i went through all these emotions since yesterday, thankfully an office meeting came to my rescue as it started at 6.00 in evening and ended up at 11.00 in night ........

after going through all these emotions for full one day and one night, i got the news i wanted

I AM SELECTED IN GREAT LAKES .........
..... I agree with kapil, her voice was so sweet when she confirmed my admission ..... .

I am working with Larsen & Toubro LTd. for past 3 years after completing my M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur.
just waiting for the offer letter now as i am waiting to put my papers....

seniors please give some inputs about the admission process, more specifically i want to know about the fees part as i am going for Bank loan for the fees. please suggest which bank to approach and else ?? .......

by the way, do we have to give the money for Laptop also with the admission fees or we can purchase our own laptop .......

[pradeep sonthalia]

Originally Posted by fast-n-steady

Yes i agree... Shud have a party...
where do u ppl stay... me in ballygunge.... say a convenient time & place... we can definitely meet

hi fast - n-steady.

call me up and we can fix up the time and venue.i will PM u my tele no and email adress.
have already had a talk to prerit abt this. will have to pull in tamogna too. do u kow anyone else from cal??

[keanu]

Originally Posted by pradeep sonthalia

congratulations!!! Keanu

thanks buddy,
looking forward to meet u in GLIM

[Mohini Sethu Madhavan]

hi
can u tell where exactly the GLAKES located podicherry or chennai
since i didnt get its proper address only admin office of chennai

regards
mohini

[mkinra]

Hi Mohini

Great Lakes is Located in Chennai. The address for the same is mentioned below :

Great Lakes Institute of Management
Srinagar Colony, Off Raj Bhavan Road,
24, South Mada Street,
Chennai - 600015,
India.

Thanks
Manik

[kapil]

Hi friends,

My profile is as below

10th : 87%
12th : 89%
UG(BE, CSE) : 8.26%
CAT : 95.74% ( VA- 90, DI- 91, QA-94 )
I graduated from PSG TECH, coimbatore. I joined Cognizant on June 2004 and I am working there till date.

Admission Procedure :

Great Lakes is not a institute which gives importance to CAT alone. They also consider CAT score as one of the parameters for admission. And of course a good CAT score will add credits to your overall profile.

Your overall profile which includes your
1. Work ex
2. Consistency in academics
3. Essays
4. Reco Letters
5. CAT/GMAT/GET score
is taken in to consideration for an admit

Candidates with work ex are preferred and they also take in freshers with proven academic record.

The institute has different dates for gd/pi( refer website ).

I had my GD/PI on feb 11 and got my results on feb 16. Though they scheduled to announce the 2nd phase results only on march 31, a lot of suggestions from work ex people have persuaded them to announce the results of prospective students as and when they finish their gd/pi. This strategy will give ample time for them to put in their papers and quit their current jobs without any difficulty.

Those who are on waiting lists and on hold will have to wait for some more time to get to know their results. I am not sure about the dates as it all depends on how good you are compared to other students who are yet to have their interviews.


GD Experience :

I had my GD/PI on feb 11. Reached the institute exactly at 8.55 am in the morning and was called for GD at 9.00am.

The GD topic was “ An ethical entrepreneur is a mythical one “. The batch consisted of some 10+ people and most of them had prior work ex. I also remember that there was one guy from my company with 95+ CAT score who graduated from ANNA UNIVERSITY and a fresher(Mcom) from Stella Maris with 97.5 in CAT, There was also a guy who was working in merchant navy and another one who was an assistant manager of a company. One from GENPACT with 5 years of experience, one from TCS with 2.5 years of experience, one from L&T with 3 years of experience and I don’t remember the rest.

I have never participated in a GD ever before in my whole lifetime and did not know what it would be like. I was late by 10 minutes( should be there by 8.45am) in reaching the college and hence did not get to see the pamphlet which they had given to others about the GD process at Great Lakes.

There was one observer for the GD, who was the HOD of humanities department from one of the reputed engineering colleges.

The batch was given 2 minutes to think about the topic.
As every one had prior work ex the GD went very smoothly and it was well coordinated. I was the last to start the GD( I decided to start last as I did not get too many points to speak and I did not have a pen to jot down the points that I had in mind ). I spoke against the topic stressing that “No business can be done by adhering to ethics and stuck to my point till the end”.
After 15 minutes the observer asked everyone to conclude their points and we did the same for the next 5 minutes. To sum up, it was a peaceful GD with everyone coming up with their points.


Interview :

I had my interview half an hour after the GD. The panel had 3 ( average age 50+ ) people
and one current student of Great Lakes.
One panel member was a IIM Calcutta pass out working for advertising sector (he told me some dozen sectors which he had worked for but I remember only advertising )
Other was a consultant to Siemens , Deloitte and one more company which I don’t remember. He looked like a CEO.
The third one was a lady who is currently working for Insurance sector.

More questions were asked by Mr. IIMC( lets refer to him as P1). He sounded brilliant and his questions were also so. Also lets consider
Consultant – P3
Insurance – P2.
Myself – I
Great Lakes Student - S

Expressions & comments are put in brackets…..they are just thoughts of mine added to make the narration sound funny……

P1 : make urself comfortable and don’t be nervous.
I : yes sir.
P1 : now kapil tell me what was your routine day like at PSG TECH
I : I get up at 8:05am- 8:10am and my classes start at 8.30am. I don’t have bath in the mornings and no breakfast. I have tech bath ( which is brushing your teeth and washing your face alone ). Get ready by 8.25 and reach class by 8:30am. As usual listen to lectures.
P1 : do you have classes through out the day.
I : sometimes we do have free hours in between the classes
P1 : what do you do during free hours
I : if its just a single free hour we stay outside class and chat. If its more than that we come to the hostel and chat( he was expecting something creative ).
P1 : ok continue
I : the college gets over by 4.20pm and we come to hostel by 4.30.
P1 : you said that u skip breakfast do u skip lunch too…...please don’t miss any thing in ur routine
I : (ooops I missed the lunch part and had to smile in a idiotic way to control the damage. I found it very difficult to recollect about happenings in college as its been a good 2 years since I went to college.) Then I continued---- I either play basketball or go to gym in the evenings ( one thing which I did without fail everyday ). I come back to my room around 7.30…have bath….have dinner…its 9.00pm now.
P1 : so when do you sleep.
I : not before 1.00am .
P1 : ohh…..so what do you till 1.00am…
I: (ahhhhhhhhh…..what did I do…???????) nothing sir….( in retrospection I did nothing from 9.00pm to 1.00am )
P1 : how can you kill 4 hours without doing anything
I : (my god….why cant he ask something about my project or about our economy )…after deep thinking I came up with……sir we actually do nothing in the sense we just sit, talk, chat, read newspapers, play computer games ( we had 8 systems connected in our floor with a HUB to play computer games )…..quake and red alert was the main entertainment for our whole class…. And I also did mention that nobody studies on a normal day….
P1 : when do you study then?
I : if the semester exams are to start in another 10 days then we start collecting materials according to the syllabus and all the missing notes.
P1: missing notes !!!!!!!!!.... so wont you have your own notes.
I : (caught unawares )….. I may not have some notes sir ( I never had any )….meaning I would not have attended certain classes….
P1: what was ur attendance percentage ?
I : ( I cant lie in these things ) I always maintain it around 75% sir.
P1 : what is minimum required attendance
I : 75% sir ( most of the times I end up less than that…. I somehow manage to get exemptions and ODs to bring it to 75% )
P1 : (oh my god…..what is he thinking about himself….hari Chandra…..he expected something good from me…..neverthless…… I wont give up ) you don’t seem to have done anything useful at college….what is the evidence that you will perform well at Great Lakes…..?....there seems to be no evidence that you will perform well….give me some evidence…..
I : (evidencaaaaaaaaaaa )…. Sir though i didn’t study well at college I studied hard after joining cognizant for CAT…..my CAT score is decent enough to prove that…..
P1: don’t speak about CAT to me…. Its all fluke…… I got in to IIMC out of fluke….exams are not indicative of your performance as they are only for 2 hours…. Tell me something else….
I : ( the only useful thing I did in life is out of choice now )…was thinking about another answer….. and then said …. Yes sir I agree with you….its just 2 hours and anything can happen on a given day…infact I deserved more than what I got in CAT….
P1: Ok now tell me what is your salary approximately at cognizant…..
I : 2.4 lakhs per annum to be precise
P1 : is that good enough for you ?
I : not good …bur reasonable sir (my god its way too low…but why complain to him )
considering that it comes to around 20 k per month and my take home is 17k per month.
P1 : Take home ?????....what is ‘take home’ ?….. do u take the salary to the address ( he read out my home town’s address ) 1A/4,……..
I : no sir. I manage my own money and I don’t give it to home.
P1 : then why do you call it take home?
I : sir that is a phrase used for the actual money you get in hand.
P1 : so you don’t give any money to your parents who made u an engineer and helped you all the way ?
I : I do buy them stuff sir but I don’t give them all the money I earn.
P1 : ok…now tell me what is your routine day at Cognizant.
I : get up at 8.30…have bath( I mentioned this categorically here )….no breakfast as usual….and reach office by 9.00am-9.15am.
P1 : when do u leave office ?
I : that varies sir I may leave at 6, 7, 10 or even at 1.00am depending upon the work load.
P1 : what do u do in your leisure time now?
I : I read newspapers.
P1: what newspapers ?
I : Hindu and ET.
P1: you read ET because you were preparing for CAT?
I : no. I am interested in equities and market trends. I read ET to keep myself updated about the happenings in various sectors. ( I have mentioned equities as one of my strong interests in the application form )

(P3 asks his first question and tat was his last question too )

P3 : you said you read news papers. Can you tell me what exactly is TATA Motors’ latest issue in Korea.
I : (clean bowled ) I haven’t read that news sir.
P1 : that shows that you read ET only for stock prices and not for actual news ( me smiling ).

(P2(lady) comes in to the scene)
Why is that all engineers from good colleges including the IITS don’t do anything at college. Do you think that the syllabus needs a revamp? ( she had the answer in her question.. thank god )

I : yes maam. I strongly feel the syllabus is outdated. And we engineers don’t study engineering at college . We get to live life to the fullest in college ( would have been a good dialogue in ‘Rang de Basanti’ )
P3 : are you still the same person now ?
I : I justified that I am not the same person anymore and I have matured a lot.

P2 : why did you choose IT ? is it for money ? ( I loved all her questions….it all had a answer in it )
I : Yes maam. I choose IT for money and nothing else.( please don’t say this unless you are sure that you want a career switch. I justified this by saying that I am more interested in equity research oriented career after MBA ) Moreover I dint have any other option in my college as all recruiters were software companies. I choose computer science at college after 12th simply because everyone chose that. Later I justified that by saying that it was due to lack of exposure in my 12th std.

P2 : so you guys join the rat race…join some s/w company on the Old Mahabalipuram Road ( for other state guys : this is where most of the s/w companies are located in Chennai ) and then realize your actual interest….and then come for an MBA….am i right….. ( woooow her questions are so simple )

I : yesssssss maaaaaaaaam.

Then she asked few simple questions about my essays.

Now the Great Laker comes in to picture

S : so are you a active trader in markets ?
I : no. I was and I am not one anymore. I only invest.

S : Did you get a chance to read an article about sensex going up just because of 4 companies in ET?
I : yes I read it.

S : can you name the 4 companies
I : I remember only L&T being in it and I don’t remember the rest of the 3 companies.

P1: you should have know that well. It came only in yesterday’s newspaper .
I : yesterday I was busy preparing for today’s interview sir.

P1: why should you prepare for being urself ?
I : I prepared because you cant talk about yourself all of a sudden as we don’t do that very often.

S : I have 50k with me. Where should I invest it ?
I : considering sensex’s 10000 levels one should not enter now. I would better wait for a correction and then invest at 8500 levels. ( I was enthused by these questions coz I am very comfortable with equity markets )

S : but it keeps rising every day
I : there will surely be a correction as its over valued.

S: how do you say that it is over valued ?
I : it is trading at P/E multiple of 18-19 which is expensive in terms of valuations considering the fact that GDP growth of 8% and corporate earnings growth of 15-20% which is not sustainable in the long run.

S: u said IT companies pay more money….why do they pay more ?
I : its because the business model is so. They earn revenues in dollars and profit margins are in the range of 30%+ whereas for a FMCG and manufacturing company its around 10-12%

S: but sensex did not go up because of IT companies. The 4 companies that we talked about are not IT companies ?
I : the 4 companies lifted sensex up because they have a huge market capitalization( he looked satisfied with the answer…guess he was looking for that particular term )..

S : ok if market corrects now and if I want to invest where should I invest ?
I : do u want to play it safe or you want to take risk ( by this time I became more confident and was answering well....)

S: I want to play it safe ?
I : If you want to play it safe then I would suggest Infosys and Bharati Tele in Large caps.
Essel Propack in Midcap and Ind Swift Ltd in small cap. I feel infosys is a good bet as its revenues are expected to grow 30% CAGR up to 2010 as the IT sector looks good up to 2010.


continued in next post......