All posts filed under: B-School Selection

My 2 cents from a lifetime experience called MBA

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Over the past few years of mentoring there are always students who keep in touch even after they graduate from b-school. Some to express gratitude once they get their final placement, some to sort out their post MBA dilemmas and others just to have a nice chat about everything under the sun :-). Likewise this year a student of mine who graduated this March, wrote to me saying that he felt investing in an MBA was the best thing he did and over the course of a few mails I asked him to do a guest post about his MBA experience. Given that a lot of aspirants who made it to b-schools will be debating the pros and cons, thinking about the cost involved whether it is worth it, the better schools you missed out on and stuff, this post is timely. Two years back I remember this student also being in the same dilemma. He was wondering whether it was really worth leaving his job at Ford to do an MBA. I felt he should …

How to fill the S.P.Jain profile-based form

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S.P Jain (SPJIMR in full or SP as it is usually referred to) is one of the most underrated business schools in the country. One of the highlights of the S.P.Jain admissions process is that applicants have to choose their specialization at the time of application. While this might be tough for freshers who do not have enough information and self-awareness to choose a specialization, it is a boon for applicants with work experience.

Preparing for an MBA and not just the CAT

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The results of quite a few top b-schools are out and even now I get a lot of queries about that revolve around specializations — which specializations should I choose, I do not have any idea what my area of interest and so and so forth. This is not surprising since in India our strategy is simple — first crack the test, then see what is the best college your percentiles can get you and then finally start thinking about specializations! The funny part is that we do not seem to learn from our mistakes since this is the same policy we followed for our graduation as well and now want to do an MBA so that we can undo the mistakes of our graduation but without having changed our standard operating procedure!

The IIM Selection Criteria: Will I get a call from the IIMs?

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Apart from the — how many questions should I answer to score a 99 percentile on the CAT — question, one of the questions that I get asked to answer most frequently both from my students as well as people on Quora is the one that is more or less framed as follows: I have X% in X , Y% in XII and Z% in GRAD, will I get a call from the IIMs? Given that this is such a popular question, I think it is time to dedicate a post to the same.

IIMs versus FMS, XL, MDI and other top schools

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Now that the first round results of almost all the b-schools are out, we get regular queries about which b-schools to join. There is rarely any confusion about A, B and C but after that it seems as if aspirants are having a lot of trouble choosing between the IIMs L, I and K and other top b-schools such as FMS, XLRI, MDI and others. How does one go about making the right choice between the IIMs and other top schools? One of the terms thrown around a lot these days is ROI.

ISB — Now accepting GRE for YLP!

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  As most of you would know, over the past few years, the GRE has begun gaining acceptance as a test that can be used by business schools to evaluate potential applicants, with quite a few international b-schools now accepting the GRE along with the GMAT. Reflecting this trend, one of India’s premier business schools, Indian School of Business (ISB) has announced that it is going to accept the GRE as well for its Young Leaders Program.

Should you take the GRE?

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It might seem like an unlikely choice to consider in the aftermath of an unsatisfactory CAT but the GRE and the MS is possibly the one of the most under-rated career choices. One of the reasons for this is the false dichotomy that we buy into — MS or MBA, Techie or Manager. Let delve a bit more into the GRE and MS as a career option and what it means after your Plan A — an MBA.

Should I take the GMAT?

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In the previous post we discussed the rationale you should apply to decide whether you should retake the CAT and also look at options. So if you arrived at the decision that you should retake the CAT and explore other options such as GMAT or even the GRE, read on. As I had written in an earlier post, after the announcement of CAT  results many aspirants go into a shell. I some cases test-takers have prepared so well that it is impossible for them to come terms with a particular sectional percentiles. It is almost impossible to believe that one could have scored that percentile. I think it is fully justified to feel so since the test itself is not something that is foolproof.