Hey guys,

I am at Hyd with loads of CAT material.

PM me ...

-Zilch

1).If I get an admit in anyone in 2007: I'll go ahead and join. Not to mention that some of them are higher on my priority list while others come down the line.

Then you havent even taken a shot at the best right?? Taken your chances and seen what becomes of your application at the very best there is ....

2).If I dont get an admit in 2008: Well first I am keeping my fingers crossed that it should not happen and second I'll definitely go with some safety schools to save my self from catastrophe .

Thats understandable .... but in this case, why take the pain of applying to safety schools in 07 and again in 08 ... why not go with the whole lot in 08 and get it over with !!!

I am not going to wait for one more year as already my hair have started falling...

This is something that has come to my notice also ... my darned barber has to bring it up every time I pay him a visit ... I might sue him for emotional trauma someday !!!

Infact I am hopeful to finish it off in FALL 2007 only...Keep going...

I would love to do that too ... but I guess there are pros and cons of the whole thing. And I have realised that I am now in no hurry to go anywhere. I am going to do things at a pace and at a time that suits me. I dont care if I waste an year or two in the process (I'll see to it that I party enough so that its not a total waste though). I just feel ... all the stress is not worth it. Bottomline: When I know I have what it takes to get in ... I will. Tell me more about your exact reasons for "finishing 'it' off."

PS: Kindly share your schools list as it may be helpful for me and others.

School list ... well ... no researsh done yet ... just "Phoren MBA dreamz" !!! But I will choose 4 schools ... 2 from the top 10 and 2 from the next 10. If it doesnt work out at any of them ... its adios to them from me!


Zilch

:robot: ... Me finds a cool one too

yes even i feel that I need a great reason to justify my back-to-back mba's... i wanted to do that because i wanted to specialize in Financial Engineering from CMU.... which is extremely tough to get in... and since I am from a non-finance background i really wanted to get my fundamentals right before competing against the best in CMU as it is teh most reputed institue for finance......

I have decent amount of social service as well behind me to make my profile a bit more well-rounded.... but do u guys think that I am at severe disadvantage as I am doing a back-to-back MBA..... i wanna immediately do it as I cant afford to waste 1 more year working and then applying due to some family constraints........

Some good points there .... Here are some more ...

The Hard Facts:
1. You MUST realise that from the Ad Com perspective you are what we call in India a "fresher." Your exp. after engg will not hold any value for them.
2. You cant got to them saying that you wanted to get the fundas right and thats why you took an MBA as a primer.
3. Social service will just round-off your profile and will come into picture if you are matched against someone else for 1 seat, it will not influence the decision of whether you should be considered for a seat ... I hope you see my point.
4. GMAT though GREAT will act only as a hygeine factor.

Options IMHO:
1. As I said earlier, it might be the biggest disadvantage or the biggest boon. Too much weighs on the presentation and the perception of your story. So if you want it badly and want it RIGHT NOW ... give it a shot with a low aspiration level.

2. I have seen 40 yr olds from Ukrain and all go for US MBAs on the forums. So if you can manage your family constraints ... get at least 3 yrs of work exp at a good Fin consulting firm in India. Mumbai is a great place for such work and Delloitte seems to be recruiting every which way. That will give you a sure shot way to your dream of FE at CMU. And your GMAT will be valid till then. See to it that you are on a fast track in your time at the firm .. plus .. get a life ... go on a great holiday maybe ... have some fab. stories to tell for your 3 yrs.

3. Look at other options ... maybe you can find a MSc prog. at some Euro Univs that are equally good in FE .. or who knows ... a fast track PhD prog. That way your story goes like .... I did MBA .. and went like "woah!!! FE is da thing" and so I am here to get an advanced degree. And MSc.s and PhD.s from nice univs have more value than we tend to associate with them. MBA takes all the glamour.

The Philosophy:
1. Every thing works out fine in the end ... and its only at the end that you will be able to join all the dots and say ... ok ... thats what happened in MBA #1 and thats what I did after that and here I am rt now. So just chillax ... you'll make it just fine.

Zilch

I agree with you that 3 years work exp would be little less (especially an Indian/IT/Male) until we have exceptional achievements to display. But I may give it a go this time (not full fledged though).

The schools I am targetting this year are:
ISB,
Yale,
Emory,
Notre Dame,
Michigan
No biggies you see..

Planned for fall 2008:
Stanford
Wharton
Kellog
n few other tech focused schools

I would really like to know what you would do in the following two scenarios:

1) You get an admit at one of the schools in 07.

2) You leave the 07 results alone and then you dont get any admits in 08.(Assuming that you didnt get defers for the 07 admits and there are no other "non-biggies" in your 08 list)

I ask cause this was a probable plan in my mind too ... school list was a bit diff though.

Zilch

Hey guys
When does the fall intake start?and when does the college actually start?
reg

Hey juztanotherguy

I guess the query has been answered, just a bit of additional info:

Spring, Summer and Fall are the three semesters that most US schools have. Each of these terms lasts four months. The schools vary in the actual dates for classes etc depending on the breaks that they give.

Spring term is from Jan to Apr, Summer term from May to Aug and Fall term from Sept to Dec.

So if you are talking Fall ... classes might begin Late Aug or Early Sept.

Coming to the intake part of your query:

Most schools, US and European, have a round based system for admissions i.e. R1, R2 and R3 are the various rounds in which you can apply. R1 intake begins almost an year before the actual classes commence. So, for fall 07, R1 begins around July 06 and ends around Oct 06 i.e applications become available in July and you have to send them in before Oct.

What happens then? ... then the school goes through the entire pool of R1 applications and offers admits. After this process completes, R2 starts followed by more admits ... and then R3 happens in the end.

Things to know about the rounds system of application:
1) Ad Coms say that there isnt any diff between any of the 3 rounds but the general consensus is that the sooner you apply the better your chances.
2) Euro schools have a slighly diff term and round system.
3) There are also concepts like "Early decision" and "Rolling admissions" that you can probably look up if you are interested in schools like Columbia. These dont follow the timeline mentioned for the round system.

Do tell us what your profile is ... plans for GMAT and the target schools.

Zilch

Btw, my profile is almost similar to you (Indian/IT/Male/2.5+ years)and infact I was in a dilemma whether to apply for Fall 2007 year or next year.

Hi TimeWellWasted

What can I say ... another great ID. I feel like I really need to get myself an id that reflects me so well ... "Zilch" does that but you guys have some awesome IDs.

My profile is the same as yourz ... just make that 2 yrs in IT ... two things:

1) I am in the same dilemma too .... I was hell bent upon Fall 07 and thats when I started this thread. But the more I read and rethink my options I wonder if 08 is a more safer bet. And that again makes me think "Time Well Wasted". I am sure you know what I am saying. Untill I get something really meaningful to do at work I guess I will not be satisfied at all. And that doesnt seem to be happening anytime soon. I really hope, at the end of all my time in this employment, I have some descent learning to show.??:

2) What have you more inclined towards? 07 or 08? Whats your target school? When is GMAT on the timeline?

@Others (Sikki and all):
Share those profiles ppl ... whats the background like? What are the target schools ... whens GMAT planned??

Zilch

I just want to know a few things:
1. what are my chances based upon my profile?
2. Is my work-ex of 2 years less for top-10 b-school?
3. Since I plan to do my second mba... will it harm or help my chances of an admit? (This is the most important point that I need clarification about)

Hi CATastrophy

First thing: Great ID !!! The more I scour GMAT related forums, the more number of CAT frustrated junta I come across. I wonder whether its just a matter of adaptability or there is more to the Cant-do-CAT-so-its-GMAT syndrome ... btw ... I am suffering with it too.??:

Second thing: Great GMAT !!! Not descent ... GREAT !!!

Coming to the queries that you have put here: I completely agree with sksksk2006 and TimeWellWasted in what they have said. Just wanted to add two things.

1) We are in the same boat as you ... so get inputs from people on the BWO forum also, who have been thru the apping process and are in the top B-schools.

2) I have never come across any post on any forum from a person looking for a second MBA back-to-back. Which means ... that you have a fabulously unique profile. But then again ... what good is a unique profile if you cant justify it ... so get some out-of-the-world reasons for why 2nd MBA ... Let it be bizzare if you will ... and then post your profile to some Ad Com ppl ... that will tell you your chances. Off the top of my head ... say that the first one was a horrible exp .... use the "victim" angle

HTH,
Zilch

Hi raayan04

Again ... moi no Edu Consult. but here is what I gather from my research about US univs. They look for examples of leadership in and outside of work and if you can demonstrate that ... no. of yrs ... brand name ... kind of work ... doesnt matter. You might be doing the most non-mission-critical job and you might not have saved multi million dollars for you firm but they see whether you take your work seriously ... whether you take pride in it and whether you were a shining leaders for others.

Fundae apart ... anything like 3+ yrs and a nice growth path with a reasonably good firm will do. Dont let ppl talk you into believing that 5 yrs at a BlueChip firm is a must. Though it will not do you harm ;)

Also, there will always be profiles that will be better than yours and trust me ... there isnt anything you can do to change your profile at this stage. But what you can do is to present it well in your essays. So focus on that aspect. And I am sure that we can help each other out in figuring out the right way to present our profiles. There are like a million dark zones in mine.

HTH,
Zilch

Hi rock&roll;

Ok ... moi no Edu. Consult. but I know 2 people who have an Australian MBA and both of them are pretty happy with it. They were able to find the job that they wanted after the degree but I am not sure of how much value it carries back home. But I guess it would be as good as any other phoren degree from a school of similar ranking/repute. And Melbourne Univ. is a really reputed one.

HTH,
Zilch

I think Princeton Review, IMS and TIME are some of the best institute in Hyd city. Though i dont know which is the best to join until now.

Hi guys

Just a tiny little piece of "Humble Opinion" from me. I have seen queries regarding coaching institutes for GMAT on this thread and I have seem names like IMS and TIME mentioned in that context. And here is what I think:

I have taken a GRE coaching and a CAT coaching and now I feel that my performance at both these tests had little to gain from what I learned at the Inst. So I have decided to take on GMAT all by myself.

But if someone does feel the need for an inst. (for any reason) they should keep in mind that inst.s like IMS and TIME specialise in CAT and no doubt they have their act together in that area but GMAT is a totally diff story. It will take a totally diff kind of faculty-material mix to get you prepped for GMAT. So, it would be a good idea to talk to ex-GMAT students from these insts before taking the plunge. Probably someone can post experiences and opinions of these ppl on the thread. Coaching+Books+GMAT Fee is a costly proposition ... no one would like a Take-2 here.

Zilch