Oh my freakin' God! This is the most exciting news I have heard lately. This is so freakin' awesome, Pushkal. Your story is truly that of an underdog , one who started with a lot of apprehensions, failed time and again and then got the best that one could ask for. I guess now people would find your story as motivating as the story of eternal_optimist! Congratulations once again. Hurrray!!!!!!

rishi raj wrote:Oh my freakin' God! This is the most exciting news I have heard lately. This is so freakin' awesome, Pushkal. Your story is truly that of an underdog , one who started with a lot of apprehensions, failed time and again and then got the best that one could ask for. I guess now people would find your story as motivating as the story of eternal_optimist! Congratulations once again. Hurrray!!!!!!

Thank you Rishi, what would be better than getting the first congrats from you !!
Hurray !!!!

Learning to play the Guitar and playing Counter Strike online nowadays in evenings :mrgreen: -> For a change nothing to do in the evenings after office(Had been on the GMAT and MBA apps from 7pm to 2am for over 1 and a half years )

bblast wrote:
Thank you Rishi, what would be better than getting the first congrats from you !!
Hurray !!!!

Learning to play the Guitar and playing Counter Strike online nowadays in evenings :mrgreen: -> For a change nothing to do in the evenings after office(Had been on the GMAT and MBA apps from 7pm to 2am for over 1 and a half years )

Hehe. Now you can spoil yourself ,after all you have earned it! The best thing about the full tuition waiver is that you wouldn't have any headache of loan after graduating given that you want to join your business. Fits perfectly!

rishi raj wrote:

bblast wrote:
Thank you Rishi, what would be better than getting the first congrats from you !!
Hurray !!!!

Learning to play the Guitar and playing Counter Strike online nowadays in evenings :mrgreen: -> For a change nothing to do in the evenings after office(Had been on the GMAT and MBA apps from 7pm to 2am for over 1 and a half years )

Hehe. Now you can spoil yourself ,after all you have earned it! The best thing about the full tuition waiver is that you wouldn't have any headache of loan after graduating given that you want to join your business. Fits perfectly!

Yup that more than makes up for the fact that I am in a top 50 global school with full $$ over a top 20 school with loans of 50-100k$, in terms of FT rankings. If you actually see only SCM schools Smeal is right up there with the giants:
https://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... s-rankings
I am a firm believer that while school selection people should consider their prior work experiences and their future aspirations/passion & most importantly try to map their interests with the strong concentrations at the school. I mean Finance at wharton, marketing at kelley, SCM at Broad Etc. That even helps the school select them cleanly. Most people usully when start the app phase just select schools based on FT rankings and not their own background/interests.

I thank my decision making at the start of the season and some people from Penn state who helped me take the decision to choose the right school for myself.

And thanks for comparing me to eternal optimist, that's another achievement in itself !!!!

I personally think FT rankings are not on par and ideal to judge your direction. Frankly speaking your MBA classmates(so called cohort) quality also matters wrt ROI calculation. You can not put monetary value to it but I would take 50-100k loan from Wharton as against Penn State full ride any day, even if I am returning back to my own business after the education..my personal point of view.

thunderdan wrote:I personally think FT rankings are not on par and ideal to judge your direction. Frankly speaking your MBA classmates(so called cohort) quality also matters wrt ROI calculation. You can not put monetary value to it but I would take 50-100k loan from Wharton as against Penn State full ride any day, even if I am returning back to my own business after the education..my personal point of view.

Respect you point of you Sir, even I would do the same if in ur place perhaps. . But at the end of the day it depends how you plan out things and more importantly how things turn out to be !!!! Hope you do get in your desired position.

thunderdan wrote:I personally think FT rankings are not on par and ideal to judge your direction. Frankly speaking your MBA classmates(so called cohort) quality also matters wrt ROI calculation. You can not put monetary value to it but I would take 50-100k loan from Wharton as against Penn State full ride any day, even if I am returning back to my own business after the education..my personal point of view.

@thunder, you have just contradicted to yourself. At one instance you abjure FT rankings as not being on par for the wise judge making. At the other end, you express aspiration for getting loan-financed with the highly ranked institution?

I am sure bblast is very talented man, who can deposit much more into the capitalist world than his peers graduating from the top 20 business schools. Without any effort to aggrandize bblast's abilities, I encourage him to accept Smeal MBA program's offer. I also see no big difference between the two-year academic apprenticeship with the faculty of Smeal MBA or say Wharton MBA, unless bblast directs himself toward post-MBA career in academia and/or pursuing PhD study in the field(s) *monopolized* by the top 20 university professors/researchers. Even the European recognition of accounting designation studies, ACCA, or its american counterpart, CPA, not mentioning CFA program can teach the one most of now-day's MBA curricula.

@bblast, no worries - get the offer and think ahead as you have done so far.

@pemdas, my reference to FT is that Smeal's ranking as decent should be considered with a grain of salt. BTW it is not just academic to go to a school, it is to set up relationships with your cohort as well...i.e it is better to go to a school with a smarter bunch than of lesser stature that is directly proportional to a school.

BTW it is very rare to go to a less preveliged school compared to Wharton and try to justify it.

Thanks for the kind words PEMDAS. Smeal fits my SCM aspirations perfectly. I am waiting for a few more results but its gonna be Smeal as of now.

hahahaha, sorry, but really can't help doing so ...

terribly sorry

man, all world knows that an MBA is not a destination - neither an MBA can be final objective; it's a means of structuring business thinking, thus is very *academic* and very *formulaic*. You could bridge relations with each and every business school cohort rep. much outside of the business school(s), say at some business forum(s) or important event(s), than to try sharing some privileged business ideas during your winter or spring semester class sessions. Besides, majority of your classmates will look at you with an eye of competitor and you should not anticipate these people to express amicable attitude(s). Let me cut here, as the main focus of this thread should be on how *to Beat the GMAT*. Yet, your two posts sound to me like an *awe* of the person aiming for an executive type of MBA(s) breeding up graduates with quite different life prognoses and career plans from those attending full time MBA program(s). Do you really look into an executive MBA, or it's just my imagination bantering my mind?

thunderdan wrote:@pemdas, my reference to FT is that Smeal's ranking as decent should be considered with a grain of salt. BTW it is not just academic to go to a school, it is to set up relationships with your cohort as well...i.e it is better to go to a school with a smarter bunch than of lesser stature that is directly proportional to a school.

BTW it is very rare to go to a less preveliged school compared to Wharton and try to justify it.

dude are there any rules that some one applying to EMBA can not give suggestions and wisdom to folks applying to full-time programs. Ridiculous.

thunderdan wrote:dude are there any rules that some one applying to EMBA can not give suggestions and wisdom to folks applying to full-time programs. Ridiculous.

If you are alluding to applying for EMBA, no need to express acerbity with one-word sentence such as 'Ridiculous'. I was going to explain that your emphasizing the so called cohort and ranking should not be prioritized for decision making about which full time MBA program to attend. The full-time MBA is aimed at people who want to hone their management skills. As such, the full-time MBA is strong on content in respect of the core disciplines of management, whereas the Executive MBA assumes a basic competence in the fundamentals of business and emphasizes process, insight and the application of new learning. Almost all top tier business schools - those ranked among the top 50 schools by a ranking organization - are enabled to enhance their students' proficiency in functional management. However, not all top tier business schools can enhance their students' ability to conceptualize. The conceptualization is needed for EMBA. HBS does not have EMBA program; it has executive non-degree business education programs directed at working professionals. Again, if you are alluding to EMBA, your best bet would be Wharton, and not Penn State along with any other institution hardly offering the true executive business education leading to MBA degree. In this sense, yes, you should not share your wisdom with bblast who aims at attending a full-time MBA program. You are not viewing everything in the perspective of a full-time MBA program.

Thanks for your wisdom and confidence on being able to define the rules of a meaningful conversation. At that I am actually signing off from this topic.

(I guess some people are very self centered and look only from their own prizm)

thunderdan wrote:Thanks for your wisdom and confidence on being able to define the rules of a meaningful conversation. At that I am actually signing off from this topic.

(I guess some people are very self centered and look only from their own prizm)

it's your right to sign on/off from any topic in this forum.
no need to be upset - I care about not you and not about myself indeed. I wish you did not discourage an originator of this thread from accepting a seemingly good offer. Now, who is the self-centered here?

I wish i had a full ride schol . Anyone having a full ride schol and not needing it can recommend me for this.
Wheres the love on the forum ?