Today the MBA entrance season conculded for me. I am now committed to a B-school and a decent one at that. I look back at the journey and it’s been interesting to say the least. It all started in 2010, when I went to the IMS at Sohrab Hall, Pune and took a counseling session. I paid that female at the desk to enroll me into a 2-year MBA prep course which should lead me to the hallowed portals of a top 10 B-school. My study partner was my girlfriend, so it didn’t work out so well. We sometimes went there, had a vada pav and came back without stepping into class. Those days were different; careers were the last thing on our minds. I later made up my mind to enroll into a Masters course in the UK, so CAT 2010 was attempted out of compulsion and boredom. Randomly marked the options and finished the exam in 3 minutes. Ended up with 15 Percentile. Giggled when I saw the score.
Season 2011
Came back to Delhi after graduating in April ‘11. Briefly flirted with GMAT. Joined IMS South Campus (Delhi) again, but hardly went for three classes. The girlfriend followed me to Delhi, and studying was still not on the top of our things to do. We talked a lot about our respective careers, but that didn’t translate into any studying whatsoever. Went unprepared for the CAT, used my brain, ended up with 85 percentile. Came excruciatingly close to TISS, but missed out. Promised myself I’ll be back to TISS soon. Hardly any calls, the season ended with disappointment and frustration. I went with what my heart said and started studying for CFA-Level 1. Cleared it soon.
Season 2012
This time, the girlfriend shifted base to Mumbai, so I thought I’d be less distracted and will write a kickass CAT. That assumption fell on its face soon enough. Teamed up with a close friend and started going to TIME at Connaught Place regularly. That time had a different feel to it, studying at libraries for hours at a stretch, then spending time at Khan Chacha discussing B-schools, the occasional beer at My Bar in Paharganj. First came the NMAT, three attempts, reached upto 207, narrowly missing the 209 cut-off. But NM being NM, glad I didn’t make it there. Then the CAT, got too nervous in the days leading up to the CAT, had a very very bad quant section. Ended up with a very bad score (let’s not get into it). IIFT was great, missed out by a mark or two again, heartbroken. SNAP was another disappointment. XAT was decent, felt I had done enough to clear the VA, DM and overall cut-offs for XLRI, but quant was going to be a close shave. Results came in, touched the 96th percentile, with 99+ scores in both Verbal and Decision Making, but a miserable 32 percentile in quant meant that XLRI was to remain a distant dream. I looked at my quant score and despite studying purely quant for 5 months, I ended up with that. I laughed repeating Ramadhir Singh’s “Beta, tumse naa ho payega” in my head.
The Calls
January started and the last days of Delhi winter brought with them some good news. First call was from SPJIMR, the girlfriend jumped when she saw. Then SIMS, then TAPMI, then SP Jain-MGB, then TISS, then MICA. The season held promise now. Travelled a lot during Feb and March, and loved every bit of it. Same suit, same shirt, same tie, everywhere. GDs and PIs were supposedly my strength, so I wasn’t too tensed. Just touched down at Mumbai airport on the 14th of Feb when a friend told me that SIMS was in the bag. I wasn’t happy, but it felt good to have a strange sense of relief. Coming back from a holiday to Goa, I found the IMT Ghaziabad interview on Feb 19 interesting and a lot of fun. (Read the experience here: JokaShoka s post in IMT Ghaziabad 2013-2015 GD-PI Experiences : PaGaLGuY Forums ). Then came TISS, the school with a difference. I spent days reading the planning commission’s Yojana Magazine and articles on India’s social problems.Must have read more than 200 essays in the days leading up to the process at the TISS campus. It was probably the most productive reading I was doing in months. 14th March came, I feel in love with the TISS campus, but my interview got over in a snap. No problems, but they just didn’t give me any time to explain myself. Maybe they had already made up their mind.
Results
On 21st of March, a friend got an email from IMT-G getting him PGDM-IB. From that moment onwards, frantic refreshing of my Gmail page started. Around the afternoon, I got an email from IMT-G saying I had been selected for the PGDM-FT 2013-15 Batch. I was overjoyed, ran downstairs to tell my parents, spent an evening with my girlfriend on Skype eating a congratulatory chocolate. The uncertainty, frustration and wait had ended, I had a top20 B-school convert in the bag. Researched a lot, spoke to so many people, and finally decided against MICA. TISS made me wait a lot, only to give me a bad kick in the “bread-basket”.
Final Verdict
Calls: SPJIMR, TISS, IMT-G, MICA, TAPMI, SIMS, SP Jain-MGB
Rejects: SPJIMR, TISS
Joining: IMT-Ghaziabad Batch of 2013-15
My Two cents: Don’t make these exams an obsession. Don’t make it a purely capitalistic decision. Learn to laugh at your failures. What you end up with, might not have been your first choice, but once you make it to a B-school, make sure you take it by storm and use these 2 years to be who you want to be.
