Learning from THE BTG APPLICATION! Why,What, How I did it?

[SanketMali]

Yesterday night I have submitted my application for the BTG GMAT Scholarship. It was a wonderful experience in many ways. I felt satisfied and proud for the commitment and passion I put over the last 15 days in submitting best application.

You know there is this undefined feeling when you KNOW...somehow YOU KNOW unconsciously that YOU ARE DONE WITH THIS and this is really YOUR BEST EFFORT. You cannot write better than this, Most of the times you will have tears into your eyes at that moment! I only realized the same when tears started falling on my hand and BELIEVE ME this passion and commitment counts. I believe when the other person reads such passionate words they generate the same state of mind. So over next 2-3 posts I will share my experience with BTG Scholarship application - Why, What, How I did it?

WHY BTG Scholarship Application?
The four Essay questions very much resemble to actual B-school application process hence I considered this application not less than any b-school application and I was serious about them.

The first question forces you to think why are you unique and hence why you deserve the scholarship? The second question is very similar to typical 'WHY MBA?' question asked my almost all business schools. The last question asks - 'Tell us who you are'. These entire questions made me think hard ahead of a very busy application season. The stringent word limits force to prioritize my content in each essay and balance the story among three given essays.

Lessons Learned -

1. Having a topic or broad view about the essay content is not enough to produce a brilliant essay hence work out the details immediately after broad structure.

2. Bringing the essays into the word limits without compromising on the content can be very time consuming and challenging task. Pls spare enough time for this. It took me more that 3 hours to do the same.

3. Don't be rigid in deciding the structures of the essays. Yesterday night at 2 am, I changed the structure of my Why MBA question. Although I had finalized the same months back, all of sudden I believed the new structure IS the better way presenting the things. Believe in your instincts at some times, don't think that you have followed the old structure for so long and this new structure might now work.

4. Don't be rigid in moving the contents among the essay options. Number of times I balanced/ Rebalanced/ changed my professional experience summary among first and second questions.

I will reflecting more on this BTG Application in coming posts, pls stay tuned!!

You can also read my blog for more insights in MBA Application..

https://knowingthepathandwalkingthepath.blocked/

[beatthegmat]

Thank you so much for that debrief! It is so wonderful for you to share this advice and perspective with our community.

We look forward to reviewing your application!

[Aashna K]

Sanket,

I loved reading your post and related to it in so many ways! I applied for the scholarship as well, much before they extended the deadline and pushed myself to apply since last year I regretted not applying for it.

I know a lot of people who are on the fence as far as pursuing an MBA is concerned. I urged them to read the BTG Scholarship application to get familiar with what it actually means to apply to B-School. You have to be extremely passionate and committed towards what you want to do with an MBA, to get through ANY MBA application!

Kudos to the BTG Team for encouraging us to get one step closer to achieving our dreams!

Cheers,
Aashna

[beatthegmat]

Awesome Aashna!

[Aashna K]

Thank YOU Eric!

I've been postponing my GMAT indefinitely due to lack of confidence and plain fear of the test! If it wasn't for half the inspiring stories I read on BTG, I'd still be delaying it another year!

[SanketMali]

Thanks a lot Eric and Aashna,

I will be posting more reflections in next few days.

I have been postponing my GMAT too. You know something, I have my entire Harvard Application Ready at this point of time including essays minus Recommendations. Its just the GMAT that's the bottleneck for me. Let us hope with BTG finally I will give he GMAT!!

Sanket

[beatthegmat]

Thank you guys for this discussion. I'm really pleased to hear that our community has inspired you to take the GMAT (and stop delaying!)

[DanaJ]

Wow, great thread, guys! It really makes us super happy to know that you found this whole process useful. We have that in the back of our heads every time we do something new! Good luck to you all!

[sdilmanian]

Hey Aashna and Sanket, just wanted to say how much I agree with you guys. I'm in the process of finalizing my application myself. Unfortunately I didn't have quite as much time to put into it as some of the others. I only found out about it a week ago, right after I finally uncovered my true passion and desire to pursue an MBA. Nevertheless, the process of applying was extremely helpful, undoubtedly pushing thousands of prospective MBA students to overcome the major hurdle of getting started on their program application - ahead of application season.

Eric, Dana, and the rest of the BTG team: you guys really are an inspiration. I'm absolutely sincere when I say that I was instantly awed upon coming across this forum. The leaders and members surpass my expectations every time I log on to browse an issue; actively providing their expertise to other people in similar situations and responding to their questions around the clock, not to speak of all the resources that are shared free of charge to help us all achieve our GMAT goals (the flashcards are awesome!). It shows me how many people there are out there who have a genuine interest in community efforts, and especially inspires me when I think of my future MBA and career. Those who still insist that MBA students are purely money-driven should be directed to this website!

Needless to say, I am actually very excited to join everyone else in this pursuit of the highest GMAT score I can possibly achieve, and getting into the school of my dreams. Studying for the GMAT will be a lot of fun, and seeing where in the process everyone else is and what steps they are taking is a huge motivation to keep up and produce results!

Best, Simon

[DanaJ]

Thank you, Simon and everyone!

[beatthegmat]

Thank you Simon for sharing that with us! We are so happy to hear that our community has inspired you. We look forward to being there throughout your entire MBA admissions experience.

[Courtney]

I'm usually a lurker around these parts, and don't post very often in the forum, but I just want to pipe in here to say that I couldn't agree more with SanketMali, Aashna K and sdilmanian.

I've been thinking about applying to b-school for at least a year and a half now, and considered applying for the BTG scholarship last year, but I chickened out at the last minute because I wasn't ready to let the world know my plans and so I didn't want to ask anyone to be a reference. This time around, I knew I should push myself to do it, so I really appreciate that the scholarship application gave me a reason to sit down and talk to a couple of my coworkers about my goals for my future. Now I don't have to feel like it's a secret anymore, and it also gives me additional incentive to follow through because I know people are expecting me to succeed. As they say colloquially, it was a good way to light a fire under my ass!

I also found it very useful to go through the process of answering the questions. I found the questions about why b-school, and the one about special circumstances to be very easy to answer, but the questions about why I deserved the scholarship and the last one about myself were quite tricky. It definitely helps me reconsider what I need to further develop before I actually go through the schools' applications in the fall.

So, thank you Beat The GMAT for giving me a reason to go through this process, and jump-starting me into what comes next.

[SanketMali]

This is third post in the series...The second post is posted with a new thread mistakenly...So read the post there..

Reflections - How can increase my chance to get the BTG Scholarship even after submitting BTG Application?

Although I have submitted the BTG Application long time back, still I have not given up on preparing to get the scholarship....Sounds weird...then keep reading.

How can I prepare for getting the scholarship even after hitting that SUBMIT button....How can increase my chances even after submitting the chances? That is what I thought after hitting the submit button 3 days back.

I have been practicing Meditation, Yoga and other mind techniques which allowed focusing my mind with tremendous concentration. I believe on power of mind and hence decided to a design a visualization exercise for this.

In this exercise, I first calm down my mind by just making myself aware with my breathing.
Then step by step I relax each part of the body which further enhances my Awareness Level and concentration level. I
n the third step, I further increase the awareness of all 5 senses by visualizing the most memorable scenes related to each of the five senses step by step.
In the final step, where Mind and body is completely relaxed and mind is very sharp and focused, I imagine myself earning the BTG Scholarship. Knowingly or unknowingly, this exercise is increasing my confidence to a significant level.
Sometime back I have read the famous book 'THE SECREAT' and I believe this exercise will help me in achieving my objective.

It's important to direct the flow of the thoughts in the right direction. This learning of what I should do after submitting my application after which most of the things are beyond your control, is proving very helpful to me. I will be designing same exercises for my GMAT and School applications.

Incidentally I read a superb article at Stacy Black-man Blog which talks about similar concept called Anchoring. Pls read through the same. I will be giving the link.

Let me know, if you need any details about these mind training exercises. Keep reading. Ciao...

[beatthegmat]

This is great advice! I'm going to reference this discussion thread for next year's scholarship. Wonderful, wonderful advice.

[SanketMali]

Thanks a lot Eric.

Just thought of sharing whatever I am doing.