University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign - Life, Queries & More

MBA
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Hi all !!! It has been a while since I have posted something on the pagalguy forums, but have been following it regularly, esp PG’s Wharton experience :: . I am a first year MBA student at the College of Business -University of Illino…

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Hi all !!!!

It has been a while since I have posted something on the pagalguy forums, but have been following it regularly, esp PG's Wharton experience .

I am a first year MBA student at the College of Business -University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am yet another Computer Engineer from Mumbai with 2+ years of Financial Services experience (a bit different in my application) and am specializing in Finance and Operations here.

I am working closely with the admissions committee for selecting prospective students for 2007 and this year the school has seen a huge number of applications from India. I must have read atleast 15 Indian applications among others in the last 2-3 weeks or so.

Given the reach of pagalguy, I thought this would be a good platform to reach out to all prospective students.
I have started this thread to answer all queries anyone might be having about the school, the program, the city or general admission related queries. Also, to give a sneak-peek at Life @ U of I. I had the opportunity to meet a few candidates from Mumbai when I was there for the winter break.
I know its a little too late to start a thread for admissions considering most of you'll must have already applied, but for those who are still applying, the last deadline is March 15th.

I will write a little about the school in my next post.

Regards
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To begin with Univ of Illinois has consistently ranked among the top 30-35 MBA programs in U.S.News and some other publications. The school boasts of excellent faculty spearheaded by the Dean Avijit Ghosh. The Finance, Operations and IT professors are experts in their fields. The program is very intense and can be compared to any top MBA program. The first semester was divided into two quarters with 5 courses in each quarter and it was as if we were drinking from the fire hose. http://www.mba.uiuc.edu/m

The unique advantage that UIUC offers is 'Illinois Business Consulting'(IBC). It gives students an opportunity to work while studying and gain practical experience. IBC is a professional organization of the University of Illinois headed by its Director and managed by students of College of Business. To learn more about IBC, visit http://www.ibc.uiuc.edu/.
Students start working here as Consultants and can get vaious levels of promotion in subsequent semesters. Each semester 70-80 students work in teams to provide business solutions to its clients which range from Airlne companies to U of I offices.

The class size is optimal and is very diverse with people from Military to nursing....Business majors to Engineering... ages 42 to 22.

UIUC is one of the top ranking public Universiies and is very renowned for its Engineering programs. It also gives you the opportunity to take courses in different engineering departments(maybe non-credit).

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dude do i know u?? he he. btw nice post and quite informative :neutral:
just tell me the fees man. will u finance it. i will join this college for sure.. :satisfie:

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thanx eternal_insane for the useful info. I applied in R2 and have received an interview invitation.But the adcom have asked me to appear for oncampus int..they say they r nt conducting offcampus/telephonic int this time..when i spoke to the adcom and requested for telephonic int..they replied that as of now they are nt conducting tel interviews but in future is something changes they will let me know..does this means that i m out of the race?:( what to do now????

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hi this side amit ....cse 2007....got job in wipro tech....
hi buddy...thnkd for th kinda info.......
could u pls sort out my queries>>
1)fee structure.including th waiver one can prevail!!!
2)min work ex required
3)placement scenario.....like averrage salary
4)domain of mba ..specialisation
thanks

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Hi,
Its ok if you cannot come for an interview. It does not mean that you are out of the race. Your application will be reviewed for a 2nd-3rd time by different adcom members...
A decision might be made based on this or they might schedule a phone interview with you. You can email them your latest developments at work, some achievement etc in order to strengthen your application.


luthrarajan Says
thanx eternal_insane for the useful info. I applied in R2 and have received an interview invitation.But the adcom have asked me to appear for oncampus int..they say they r nt conducting offcampus/telephonic int this time..when i spoke to the adcom and requested for telephonic int..they replied that as of now they are nt conducting tel interviews but in future is something changes they will let me know..does this means that i m out of the race?:( what to do now????
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Hi amit

The tution for 1 year is around 26-27k USD, with living expenses, supplies etc..it would be around 40k a year. You can get a scholarship for the first year from anywhere between 5k and 20k.
There is no min or max work ex required, some students here have less than a year also and some more than 12-13 years. Average is around 4-5 years though.
The final placements are good, last year 95% batch got placed on graduation, i dont have exact figures for avg salary though.
Specializations include Finance, General Management, Marketing, Operations, Information Technology.


hi this side amit ....cse 2007....got job in wipro tech....
hi buddy...thnkd for th kinda info.......
could u pls sort out my queries>>
1)fee structure.including th waiver one can prevail!!!
2)min work ex required
3)placement scenario.....like averrage salary
4)domain of mba ..specialisation
thanks
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The fees are around 40k for a year.... u can get different ways of financing, and yea... if financing you would benefit me.. i wud definitely do that... Fund yourself for your education dude..:satisfie:


dude do i know u?? he he. btw nice post and quite informative :neutral:
just tell me the fees man. will u finance it. i will join this college for sure.. :satisfie:
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thanks eternal_insane.for a kinda info......
like as u said that expenses u go par above 40k .....so hw one can gets its education funded.......like the basis on which u wil get th....
1)waiver 2) loans...and upto wat one can get such hefty help!!!
thanks

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Waiver depends on your application..how strong it is etc... I got a some scholarship in 1st year. There are a lot of banks in India and U.S who can give you loans. I took a loan through a bank in U.S. but they require a u.s. cosignor. Indian banks generally ask for some collateral. Check out teri.org for loans in U.S.
There is one institute in mumbai that co-ordinates in granting loans thru U.S. Paras Education/Foundation....

thanks eternal_insane.for a kinda info......
like as u said that expenses u go par above 40k .....so hw one can gets its education funded.......like the basis on which u wil get th....
1)waiver 2) loans...and upto wat one can get such hefty help!!!
thanks
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Hi dewdrop

The MSF program is also a part of the College of Business. We have classes in the same building sometimes.
The Illinois MSF program is a 1 year intense program, it is highly reputed for its curriculum and the faculty. The fees are high though, I dont know the exact amount but I am guessing its close to USD 40k.

The batch size is around 100-120 students with a good proportion of international students. There are quite a few Indians in this program. From the current batch, I think already 30 international students have been placed. Some in companies like KPMG, CapGemini, ML etc.
I dont have the figures for the average salary. The time to repay the loans depends on how much loan you take and your starting salary.
The program starts in June and is completed by April-May. But overall its a good program.
The last deadline to apply for this year is 1st March, but please confirm it on the website.

Hope this helps

Hi eternal_insane,

Glad to find somebody from the UIUC MBA class. I was wondering if you provide me more information on the MSF course at the university. I understand that you are not from this department... but I am in real need of some important stats about the MSF program.

So I thought I should check out with you. It will also be great if you could direct me to somebody from MSF. (preferably indian)

The basic information I am looking for is:

1. Reputation of the MSF program.
2. Placement details. (% placed and avg sal)
3. Avg time to repay the loans.

These are not available on the website.

Thanks in advance ,
dewdrop.
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Hi external_insane,
Thnx a lot for ur info on MSF.. actually i too have a MSF admit and i have to pay $750 by mar 1.. still very confused abt it.. ur words were very encouraging... but prob is, frm wat i have heard, the plcmnts this yr for international students haven't been so gr8.. also do MSF have a value in the corporate world for long term compared to mba finance.. also the class size is so big and this yr i myself know arnd 20 indians havin a admit, infact i donno any one who applied who has got a reject...
i am very happy with course structure as such, i know thts wat i want to do.. but wats bothering me is the plcmnt scenario and quality of students in my batch..
plz gimme a reply soon as the expenses for this course gets arnd 50k includin everyhting and i have to pay $750 by tomm.. thnx a lot in advance..

Regards,
Vishal

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hi,
i have received a admit from uiuc... the email says that the official docs hav been posted to ur address n i will receive them in two weeks.

but the email has no mention about any sort of fianancial aid/sholarship etc.:nervous:

what do i do? do i wait for the docs to arrive? or do i mail the admissions office n inquire about the scholarship thing? also, is there any separate procedure for applyin 4 scholarship consideration? or is it taken into consideration automatically on submission of the appln?

so guys, sugest wat do i do?:confused:

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Hi
Yeah, the course is expensive, but I do not know how much other Finance programs cost. Did you compare this program with similar programs from other universities? Did you speak to anyone from other places as well. The course is good from what I have heard, but a columbia or cornell would definitely be better for job prospects. One thing I can assure you is that the Professors are very experienced and the courses are really good.
You will get your money's worth from the academic point of view.
It is difficult for international students to get jobs, you have to do a lot of networking yourself and a lot will depend upon your abilities.
I suggest that you get in touch with someone from the MSF program itself. The admissions comm should be able to provide you with some contact, ask for indian contact, from the current batch. they will be able to give you more details about the program and placements scenario :)

Hi external_insane,
Thnx a lot for ur info on MSF.. actually i too have a MSF admit and i have to pay $750 by mar 1.. still very confused abt it.. ur words were very encouraging... but prob is, frm wat i have heard, the plcmnts this yr for international students haven't been so gr8.. also do MSF have a value in the corporate world for long term compared to mba finance.. also the class size is so big and this yr i myself know arnd 20 indians havin a admit, infact i donno any one who applied who has got a reject...
i am very happy with course structure as such, i know thts wat i want to do.. but wats bothering me is the plcmnt scenario and quality of students in my batch..
plz gimme a reply soon as the expenses for this course gets arnd 50k includin everyhting and i have to pay $750 by tomm.. thnx a lot in advance..

Regards,
Vishal
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Hi nishant

Congrats on your admit. You can email them and ask about scholarships. I do not think there is any separate procedure to apply for scholarships but you might still want to confirm this with the AdComm.
if you want any other information about the program, lemme know.

cheers

hi,
i have received a admit from uiuc... the email says that the official docs hav been posted to ur address n i will receive them in two weeks.

but the email has no mention about any sort of fianancial aid/sholarship etc.:nervous:

what do i do? do i wait for the docs to arrive? or do i mail the admissions office n inquire about the scholarship thing? also, is there any separate procedure for applyin 4 scholarship consideration? or is it taken into consideration automatically on submission of the appln?

so guys, sugest wat do i do?:confused:
17

Congrats nishant on ur admit!!
dude can u tell us ur particulars gmat score , no. of years of exp and background?Also, when did u apply to uiuc.. in 1st or 2nd deadline?were u interviewed by them on telephone or u received ur decision w/out any interview?
thanks in advance..

hi,
i have received a admit from uiuc... the email says that the official docs hav been posted to ur address n i will receive them in two weeks.

but the email has no mention about any sort of fianancial aid/sholarship etc.:nervous:

what do i do? do i wait for the docs to arrive? or do i mail the admissions office n inquire about the scholarship thing? also, is there any separate procedure for applyin 4 scholarship consideration? or is it taken into consideration automatically on submission of the appln?

so guys, sugest wat do i do?:confused:
18

Hi eternal_insane,

First of all thanks for all the information...I too have just received and admit from UIUC..but to be frank am very confused...

as for my stats..3yrs work exp in peoplesoft payroll consultancy (so eventually cld be deemed into the so called IT category)..690 gmat.

Now i am aware that UIUC has a very strong program in terms of MS but when it comes to a B-school it really does not have much to offer apart from IBC and also its MBA program is not that well recognized and is considered second tier...am i true in stating this.
The main thing what abt placements?? and especially for international students like us..i know finding a job post MBA is tough...but how difficult is it post UIUC MBA.
Also what abt internship could you shed some light on that?

Regards
Chris.

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Hi luthrarajan,

well.. my profile is as follows:

2.5 yrs of IT work ex
gud academic records
decent extra curricular activities in school/engg/office
engineering backgrnd-chemical engineering
exp of leading a team
interest and participations in literary events
gmat score of 690

i had applied for the December 15th deadline.. was asked for an on campus interview. but when i informed them that i was an international student and that i will prefer arranging a telephonic interview, the admission committee ignored the interview part and proceded with my application without any interview..

was placed initially in waitlist.. later was given admission in feb end..

nishant

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Hi junta..

received my admit documents yesterday thru ups couriers.. but no information on the financial aid front:(

i am worried and feel that i have not been offered any scholarship/aid... have mailed the university people and am anxiously waiting for the reply..

can nyone else who has received admission from uiuc plz share whether they hav received ny aid/scholarship in the admission pkg sent at home?

the total fees is 51kUSD.. this is the amount of fees i hav to show in financial proof.. without aid, i dun know how i'l manage...:nervous: 😞