Oxford Interview experience

MBA
1

Hi All: Just done with my interview… Interviewer : Dr Steve New Experience: Pleasant and Good. Professor is cool and a pat for ur answers is good. Initially, he had made me comfortable by letting me know what we are going to …

2

Hi All:

Just done with my interview...

Interviewer : Dr Steve New

Experience: Pleasant and Good. Professor is cool and a pat for ur answers is good.

Initially, he had made me comfortable by letting me know what we are going to discuss and how much time we are gonna spend..

Quesions:
1. Current Job and Role
2. 10 Years down the line
3. Free Trade - For or Against it??
4. I told FOR and he asked why??
5. i told reasons and he asked me to talk against Free Trade
6. Finally what?? - I told FOR
7. He asked me if I am a member of Indian Govt, what exceptions will you see that you should take of AGAINST Free Trade
8. Interesting book
9. Interesting thing u read?? - Child Labour
10. How abt people talking abt regulating Child labour will be a problem - Given explaination of my view (hes satisfied with it)
11. My questions - Asked abt Social enterpreneurship @ Oxford, Placement scenario for Internationals
12. One final question from professor - what schools u applied - I told ISB and Cambridge. i told I am waiting for final call from ISB.

He told it will take 2-3 weeks, but promised me to get back as soon as possible.

Gut feel is that I have done it.

Regards, Nagendra 😃

3

Hi

Looks like u've made it? is it the SAID B-School na..?? what was your GMAT score & how many yrs. of work-ex. i have just given my GMAT. decent score of 730. i wanna ask whether the TOEFL score a part of application? i.e. do i have to have the TOEFL score for applying to schools like u've applied to or can i afford to appear for TOEFL just 1-2 months before going off for MBA to a school ?
i've 1.5 yrs. of work-ex till date.
i'm more for FALL-2007 but thinking of applying to 1-2 schools this time itself.

ALL THE BEST for your applications 😃
SHEKHAR

4

Thanks

Yes, its Said. My GMAT is 700 and 4.5 years exp...TOEFL not required..Just go ahead and apply for tOEFL waivers..u will get them....

All the Best

Regards, Nagendra

5

I like your confidence nags

Hopefully we can have a PG group at SBS this year !!

Arun

6

Well done Nags
Was this a telephonic interview?
All the best.

7

Hope so Psycho

8

Yes its a telephonic interview

9
Hi All:

Just done with my interview...

Interviewer : Dr Steve New

Experience: Pleasant and Good. Professor is cool and a pat for ur answers is good.

Initially, he had made me comfortable by letting me know what we are going to discuss and how much time we are gonna spend..

Quesions:
1. Current Job and Role
2. 10 Years down the line
3. Free Trade - For or Against it??
4. I told FOR and he asked why??
5. i told reasons and he asked me to talk against Free Trade
6. Finally what?? - I told FOR
7. He asked me if I am a member of Indian Govt, what exceptions will you see that you should take of AGAINST Free Trade
8. Interesting book
9. Interesting thing u read?? - Child Labour
10. How abt people talking abt regulating Child labour will be a problem - Given explaination of my view (hes satisfied with it)
11. My questions - Asked abt Social enterpreneurship @ Oxford, Placement scenario for Internationals
12. One final question from professor - what schools u applied - I told ISB and Cambridge. i told I am waiting for final call from ISB.

He told it will take 2-3 weeks, but promised me to get back as soon as possible.

Gut feel is that I have done it.

Regards, Nagendra :-)

Hi,
can you please tell what will be the total cost of program and what are the cahnces of getting schloarships for wrking guys?

thank in advance
Him
10

Hi Himanshu,

The years budgt amunts to 41,500 pounds i.e roughly 33 lacs.
The chances of scholarships are quite low. No one wants to give free money(schlolarships) to people who are going to mint money after the MBA. So the schols are limited to the small scholarships offered by the school.

-Amit

11

Hey Nagendra.....please do keep us posted on this one.....looking forward to great news from the senior pros arnd here.
Its early days in '06 and junta on PG has already gone ballastic esp.. with respect to GMAT takers .

Great going guys....... Best of luck for all your future endeavours !!

Better4worse

(PS : Long time...whats the news with PsychoD ?? )

12

Hi Nags,
Thanks for th info. Can you plz put some light on how to go about loan
in UK (around 20 lacs) for UK MBA . Where one should take loan in UK or India?
Is it Collateral or Non-collateral?

Thanks in advance
Him

13
Thanks

Yes, its Said. My GMAT is 700 and 4.5 years exp...TOEFL not required..Just go ahead and apply for tOEFL waivers..u will get them....

All the Best

Regards, Nagendra

Hi Nags,
What about your extra cur..is it great? I mean are you also one of the guys with loads of NGO or simlair kind or exp???

plz let me know.

Thanks
Him
14

I cant comment on whether extra curriculars are great or not..But yes I do have extra curriculars on my profile.

Regarding the loan one, i am trying back here in India. As of now there is no loan scheme for Oxford from the institute. So keep ur options in India itself for planning sake.

For me, I have taken time till March 15th and looking for options(loans basically) here so as to get in there.

All the best to others

regards
Nagendra
http://nagsblog.blogspot.com

15
I cant comment on whether extra curriculars are great or not..But yes I do have extra curriculars on my profile.

Regarding the loan one, i am trying back here in India. As of now there is no loan scheme for Oxford from the institute. So keep ur options in India itself for planning sake.

For me, I have taken time till March 15th and looking for options(loans basically) here so as to get in there.

All the best to others

regards
Nagendra
http://nagsblog.blogspot.com

hi,
Just wanted to know abt extra curr to know how much weithage does european B schools like Cambridge and Oxford gives to these extra curr? Shld it be outstanding?
And best of luck for your loan. I hope you will soon join Oxford.

Thx
Himanshu
16

H'lo all.

Something which I seek an opinion on wrt the UK MBA (esp LBS and LSE)

I have been in the Indian BPO space for the last 6+ years; and am looking at a Fall 07 app.

What would you guys say to the chances of someone who is from the Low End labour intensive BPO (read call centre / transaction processing) background transitioning to the Holy Trinity LBS or LSE

To ask specifics, in your opinion :
1) Would the interview boards consider the BPO workexperience at par with say work in s/w coding.
2) what kind of Biases play with the interview board and also the adcom; in US somehow the telecaller is the most hated profile (lawyers come close but they usualy sail through a loop hole).. how to counter that.
3) traditionaly all of us try and run some extra curricular miles in order to present a well rounded personality ... but would managing the job satisfaction span and career aspirations of extremely fidgety kids come close.
4) Being in the workforce I have had the opportunity to function in diverse areas : hiring+counselling+performance reviews+training+analytics+planning business strategy+business transition. How can I capitalise on this? Is this a differentiator?
5) How much weight does a Six Sigma Green/Black Belt Certificate carry.
6) How much weight does being a certified ISO internal auditor carry.
__________________

17

Hey Harsh,

I also have a BPO background and have not come across too many aspirants for the top MBAs on this forum and elsewhere from BPOs. The reasons could be many but one of them could be that BPO is a relatively newer phenomena as compared to IT outsourcing. Just like someone else pointed out on another thread your profile could add a lot of diversity to every B-school, however you would have to pick your stories carefully. I feel a lot of the BPO community makes the mistake of underselling itself by categorizing itself in a more commoditized fashion.

Although, I haven't heard of LSE having its own MBA I guess you should certainly aim at getting into the very best B-schools. Although you might get dissuaded by a few people I would suggest you to never aim lower than the sweet spot. Once you have your GMAT and other data points in hand, compare your profile with the class profiles of top B-schools and then start working on your application pieces like essays, recos, interview prep etc. I hope you have already started thinking of what you would like to get out of an MBA as post MBA goals play a key role in the essays. You should spend a lot of time on researching for information on different schools as very few people would be able to give you stuff you might dig( It is a very personal thing - some people are happy with the ranks, some want to know if their specific elective is going to be taught at their target school or not and what is learning/teaching style etc.)

Sometime the application process can be longer than you might plan for as in my case however you would learn a lot by actually taking calculated steps as soon as YOU feel you are ready.

All the best !

18

Hey Vipin,

Thanks for the response... I am trying to create some momentum around the BPO / Call Centre poplulation. The agenda is
1) to identify the people trying for a masters level educatuion in management who are still in the BPOs.
2) isolate their opinions regarding the MBA apping ( i am keen on the post GMAT appling)
3) consolidate the opinion on the best of breed bases
4) and hopefuly find out the best reference and contexts for the pitch to the adcom and the panel.

There is a thread dedicated to the same at http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/b-school-discussions-mba-abroad/11880-oxford-interview-experience.html#post361764.. I have quoted you there...see if you can add to the discussion.

Thanks,
Harshg.

19

hi....does anyone have their oxford interview (mba/mfe etc) on the 7th of march in delhi. or is anyone attending the open event in delhi on that day?

i am planning to have my interview for the mfe programme arranged on that day (instead of having a telephonic interview..)

20

Can you post a web link... i am sure they would have something in other venues as well..