My B-School journey (Part 1 of 3)

Admissions Status: Kellogg (admitted & accepted), Michigan Ross (admitted). Duke Fuqua (admitted with scholarship), Wharton (wait-listed), Harvard (Ding), MIT (Ding), Darden (Ding)

Profile:
Location: London, UK
GMAT: 720
Work Ex: 8 years - 4 years Supply Chain, 4 years Public Sector Consulting
Education: Post Graduation in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

Introduction and structure of the Post
I have been meaning to write this post for a long time. Ever since I completed the Business School admissions process, I wanted to capture and publish my thoughts so that others could benefit from it, in the same way that i benefited from hundreds of stories and blogs I followed during admissions. At the outset, it is important to say that although I am the author of this blog, the admissions process was a joint effort with my wife and 4 year old son. Without their support, I wouldn't have made it to any School.
Readers may want to know my credentials for writing this, and why they should find my story meaningful and relevant. Well, (and now sounds the bugle!), I applied to 7 leading (read: top 12) business schools in the US. I interviewed with 4. Finally I was offered a place by 3 programs, and wait-listed by 4th. The admissions offer included my top-choice program. For one of the programs, I was offered a substantial tuition scholarship. My GMAT score was 720. (And the bugle sounds again, because the next part is even better). This has to be put into context of my background - at the time of applications, I was 31 years old at the time of applications. I already have a Post graduate in Management, from one of the leading business schools in India (more on, "so why did I do this" later in this post), and was on a fairly successful run in my job, in terms of growth and responsibility. Most of you who're knowledgeable about the Business schools admissions process would recognize that my profile put me pretty much in the "outliers" category with majority of the top schools.

This post has been structured into key elements that are involved in the admissions process. I have also time-stamped each stage to make it more relevant. Depending on where you are in the process, you may find it relevant to read specific sections or the entire post. Throughout the post, I've referenced various information sources that I found helpful. To summarize, I've structured the post as follows:
Part 1 - The decision to apply and the approach to school selection. Why MBA?
Part 1 - GMAT
Part 2 - School visits
Part 2 - Essays, including networking and reviewers
Part 2 - Recommendations
Part 2 - Application submission
Part 3 - Interviews
Part 3 - Decisions
Part 3 - Preparing for School, including networking

The decision to apply and the approach. Why MBA?
Time: Around January 2010.
Given my background, as mentioned earlier, I had to be sure where an MBA would fit in my career. My decision to pursue a full time MBA was based on the fact that after spending just over 3 years in the consulting industry, working with public sector, I had found a path in which I gained a high level of personal satisfaction. I enjoyed the job, and was making a substantial positive difference to clients' organizations. At the same time, I also realized that in order to set myself up for the future, I needed to gain a deeper insight into specific areas of consulting, strategy, and public sector. At the same time, through constant 360 feedback with peers, seniors and clients as well as through self-reflection, I identified some areas of personal growth, and felt that i needed time, and a safe environment, to develop. I also wanted the MBA to be an immersive experience, hence I ruled out part-time programs.
Once I'd decided that this was an appropriate path to pursue (subsequent to the financial calculations!), I did extensive research to create an initial shortlist of schools, as well as get a sense of typical candidate and recruitment profiles at each school. I assessed the top schools mainly on the following decision criteria:
- strength in subject areas of my interest, average age of the class and distribution, average GMAT scores and distribution, average number of years of work experience and distribution, industry and educational background of students, recruitment statistics, length and cost of the program, industry reputation, school brand and strength of the alumni network. I also assessed the admissions criteria, as some of the schools do not admit candidates with previous post-graduate level education in management. Once I'd drawn up my initial list of 8-10 schools, and I knew enough about the admissions process, I contacted an admissions consultant for a free profile evaluation. I was so far removed from the business school admissions process, and did not have access to any close friend or family from the schools I was targeting, that I needed to speak with someone, at a professional level, to discuss my profile, plan and whether or not I was mad to be considering this at all. My key take-aways from that conversation with Clear Admit were that I had a good shot at the schools, given my multi-industry and multi-country experience, my school target-list needed to be redefined, and that I had to achieve a 700+ in GMAT to give myself a fighting chance (Also, i was told that even with a GMAT of 650+, I had a decent chance, but if that were the case I would be up against it from the word go).

Some relevant resources:
www.clearadmit.com
https://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/
https://www.economist.com/whichmba
https://www.beatthegmat.com/research-mba ... s-f43.html
www.mba.com
School websites

GMAT
Time: From February 2010 to June 2010
By February 2010, I had decided to jump into the admissions process. After my conversation with Clear Admit, i had also decided to focus 100% on the GMAT component of the process. I had two reasons for doing so: one, I wanted to use the GMAT as a test of my ability to get back into some form of education 8 years after completing my post-graduation, and secondly, to use the GMAT score I achieve as a "go no-go" decision for the rest of the admissions process. For some strange reason, and maybe incorrectly, I had convinced myself that if I did not get a 700+ score, I would end up pursuing the process unsuccessfully, and the opportunity cost of doing so would be substantial - in terms of time and money. All this while, I had a full-time consulting job. I'd started working (and leading) a new client account and was going through a phase of work that required 70+ hours of work every week. I knew that the entire admissions process would place a huge demand on my time from February 2010 through to the end of the year (if I was lucky to make it in Round 1) or through to March 2011 (if I went through to Round 2).
So, I started preparing for GMAT through self-study. In my case, that was a decision that cost me 4 weeks in the process, which I had to make up later during the essays stage. I used the standard material: Official OG guides, Quant and Verbal OG guides, Kaplan foundation guides. When I started my preparation, I scored 580 in my benchmark test (one of the two official mock-tests). I knew that i had a long way to go and that it was going to be a rough ride! After spending 4-5 weeks on brushing up my basics, and attempting most of the OG guide, I took some mock tests. My score had now inched up to 620. I researched blogs to understand how I could improve my score and the study-approach I should adopt. I spent another 2 weeks focussing on specific topics that I perceived as my weakness. I took the mock-tests again and scored 640-650. At that time I realized that this was going nowhere and that I needed to reflect and decide the best approach to adopt. When I started out my prep, I had April as the month targeted to take the actual test. I was now in a situation where I had to reevaluate and move that to May-June. My aim was that I'll attempt the GMAT once and try to get the target score so that I could focus on the next stage of the process. Hence, I was willing to push out the date of the test, and focus on preparing well for the first attempt.
During early March, I attended a free GMAT Quant workshop in London hosted by Manhattan GMAT. I found it very useful. Mainly because it put me in contact with scores of other working men and women looking to do the same thing that I was (prepare for GMAT). The teaching methods were focussed on tried and tested techniques to prepare for GMAT. I made a decision to enroll for their 8 week course - this included a 3-hour class-based session once a week (after work) and a well structured program to cover off all topics included in GMAT. Most importantly, the enrollment came with access to online MGMAT tests and MGMAT guides - certainly the most helpful GMAT material I had access to.
So, during March, April and 2-weeks in May, I was working full-steam on my GMAT prep. I was really focussed. I completed all my homework on time, spent the weekends and any spare time to review the OG guides and MGMAT materials, and prepared for the classes. I knew that within 4-weeks of completing the class-based course, I needed to give the test in order to stick to my plan - and therefore, I had no time to slack. By the time I finished the MGMAT sessions, I felt really comfortable with the fundamental concepts. I must have taken around 5-6 mock tests in the 4 weeks following the last class, leading up to the tests - both the MGMAT and GMAC tests. I always scored in the range of 650-660 during the first few tests (within 1 week of the last class) and then in the range of 680-740 during the last 2 weeks...
And 4-weeks after the course finished, in June, I appeared for the test and scored a 710 (92nd percentile) and the break-up was Q-48 (83 percentile), V-39 (87 percentile).

As an aside, I took the test for the second time in September, when I felt that I was making progress on my essays well ahead of the schedule. I always felt that I could do much better, especially in the Verbal section. In my second attempt, I scored a 720 (my Verbal score was 45, and Quant score was 44). With this attempt, I felt that I had achieved my potential in the Verbal section but unfortunately, I was unable to maintain my Quant performance, hence the marginal improvement in overall score. I decided to give the test the second time because I wanted to be sure that I had another shot at increasing my score. Just before my second attempt, I was consistently scoring in the 740-770 range in the mock-tests. In hindsight, I think it was a relatively poor use of my time. On the flip side, it reassured me that 710 was not a fluke. I prepared for 2-3 weeks before the second attempt, concentrating mainly on the Verbal section, and did well on the test.

In terms of my take on the preparation for GMAT, I have summarized it below:
- set yourself a final target score, so that you keep your eye on the goal and so that it motivates you
- take the diagnostic test at the start so that you know the size of the mountain you have to climb
- there is no substitute for the hours and effort you need to put in. Do not underestimate that
- the test itself relies on candidates to be switched-on all the time. In the main, the test is not about difficult and complex problems, but about tricky problems. Once you get familiar with the tricks, there is a repeating pattern to it. Attending the MGMAT classes helped me figure out that pattern (which I could not do on my own through self-study).
- In my view (and based on my research) schools do not frown upon multiple attempts (3 or under). So don't be under too much pressure during the first or second attempt so much so that it negatively affects your performance
- read blogs and stories of other candidates who've done well on the tests, and those who have improved their scores dramatically. These stories provide clues to areas that you can focus on, as well as serve as motivation

Some relevant resources:
www.manhattangmat.com
www.beatthegmat.com
www.gmatclub.com
www.mba.com

PART 2 (covering school visits, essays, recommendations and application submissions) to be published soon...

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