journey of a jat, the warrior

Congratulations, EA admits!

2007-12-15T00:18:00.000-05:00

So class of 2010 has already started to take shape with Tuck releasing its EA decision yesterday. As I received emails from some current admits, I got reminiscent of my admit call last year. I can totally relate to how elated you guys must be right now. Please do remember to start posting at class of 2010 webboard (you must have got the link to that in your congratulatory admissions email), its an excellent forum to get to know your classmates to be.

If you have any questions about Tuck, feel free to email me. I have been very slow in replying as I am trying to cope up with a gruelling fall-term, but will do my best to respond as soon as I can. Go celebrate now!

Class of 2009 info

2007-09-19T16:43:00.000-04:00

Looks like Tuck website has not yet been updated for the class of 2009. I didn't see the stats anywhere else either. So here's some info we gathered during the orientation week:

Average GMAT: 713
Admission rate: 2-3 points lower than last year, so must be 17~18%
International students: 37% (most international class ever)
Women: 33-34% (I don't remember exactly, so guessing here)

Admission season is in full swing; we see quite a few visitors to the classes everyday. Hope applicants will find this info useful.

At Tuck!

2007-08-22T21:05:00.000-04:00

So after spending a good long vacation in India, I am back to the US. Writing this post from my dorm at Tuck. And believe me, these dorms are not for the claustrophobic.

Going back to the vacation, I had a memorable time in India. I traveled to Pune and Hyderabad, and then took a road trip from Hyderabad to New Delhi stopping at Nagpur, Bhopal, Gwalior and Agra on the way. Boy, it was awesome! And yes, now you can't ridicule me for not having seen the Taj Mahal despite me being an Indian. I also toured Jaipur and Chittorgarh later. But the best part of the vacation was the time spent with the family. I am glad I took this time off.

I am still getting used to the Tuck and my new lifestyle. Meeting new and interesting people everyday, but I am feeling kind of homesick for now. Guess this comes with every big change in life.

Student visa - checked

2007-06-06T13:42:00.000-04:00

Got my F1 visa today at the US embassy in New Delhi. It was a very smooth and pain-free process, but for the long queues - outside the embassy for 45 minutes in Delhi heat; welcomed by another queue once I got inside. I spent close to four hours in there for a two-minute interview. Interview itself was very easy and I wasn't asked for any documents. Interviewer commented that I was going to a great school, so I guess it helps going to a well-known university.

PS: I did quite a bit of India traveling during the last month. More about that in the next post.

India, BoB

2007-04-26T16:37:00.000-04:00

After quitting my job, I packed my bags and took a 14 hour direct flight to reach India last week. It's great to be with family and friends after quite a long time, and I am enjoying it. I was also down with food poisoning for some time. Per our doctor, it was due to a sudden change in food habbits. I am doing better now and my stomach has fully adjusted to great home food. I am planning some traveling in next few month and will blog as time and web access permit.

Meanwhile, Clear Admit announced the Best of Blogging 2006-2007 results this past Tuesday. I am happy to find myself in top 10. Rungee, Iday and Juggler are top three and deservingly so. Congratulations, guys! And thank you Clear Admit for maintaining such a useful site and for highlighting all these great blogs.

Tuck ASW

2007-04-18T03:15:00.000-04:00

I was over at Tuck from April 12th to 15th for the Admitted Students Weekend and had a wonderful time. The weekend was full of back to back events - students panel, alumni panel, dinner with students, wine night etc. There were parties and there were after-parties. All in all, we were kept busy. We were hit by some bad weather, but it really didn't dampen the spirit of the event.

ASW also gave me an opportunity to meet and make friends with my potential classmates. Boy, I can vouch that I am gonna be among a very impressive bunch. What amazed me was that an overwhelming number of attendees were already decided on coming to Tuck. There were a few deciding between Tuck and Harvard/Stanford/Chicago/Sloan, but most of those guys were leaning towards Tuck as well. I guess this speaks of the self-selecting applicant pool Tuck attracts.

Highlight of the event was an interesting speech by Parthenon Group's CEO, Mr. Bill Achtmeyer, who is also a Tuck alum. He made no secrets of his strong bias towards Tuck, and really entertained the crowd with some funny reasons why one should come to Tuck and not go to Harvard/Wharton.

The event confirmed that the biggest strength of Tuck is its strong alumni community. They really are CLOSE-KNIT and are always keen to help. There were quite a few of them present at the event and they shared their experiences. Tuck CDO (Career Development Office) shared the story about how difficult it was to place students in job-scarce 2001. CDO sought out help from alumni and requested them to hire at least one student. Per CDO, they were overwhelmed by the response to their appeal, and every student was taken care of even in year 2001. Really impressive! I look forward to being part of such a strong community.

I am glad I could go, and I certainly drank green kool-aid (and quite literally too). August can't come any sooner.

Prospective students may find following info useful (disclosed over ASW):
- 13% increase in applications this year; over 2600 applications.
- 165 admits have already accepted; class may be larger than usual.
- 715 average GMAT of the applicants admitted so far.

Financial aid tips

2007-04-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

For past many days, I have been doing quite a bit of research on the financial aid. Here's a snapshot:

Federal Stafford loans (subsidized):
Best option for US citizens / PR's. Government pays interest on the borrowed amount while you are still enrolled in school and during grace period (six months after graduation). Low fixed interest rate of 6.8%. Internationals don't qualify. Up to $8500/year.

Federal Perkins loans:
For US citizens / PR's with exceptional financial need. Interest does not accrue until repayment period, which begins nine months after the completion of all education. Love fixed interest rate of 5%. Up to $6000/year.

Federal Stafford loans (unsubsidized):
For US citizens / PR's. Interest accrues while you are enrolled. Low fixed interest rate of 6.8%. Up to $18,500/year minus subsidized loans.

Private loans:
This is what most of us need to look into with a magnifying glass. US Citizens/PR's will borrow from private loans what they couldn't finance through federal loans. And for internationals, this is pretty much the only option. Most of these loans require a US co-signer, increasing the difficulties of internationals. However, most of the top schools offer this kind of loans themselves without requiring a co-signer. They don't come cheap, average interest rate hovering around 9.5%. Most lenders (including schools) offer variable rates based on LIBOR (5.32% currently) or PRIME (8.25% currently). You can find the current rates at www.bankrate.com.

Apart from your school, you can also check with CitiAssist, Salliemae and your local credit union. There are some, very few in fact, non-school lenders that offer loans without a US co-signer. You still need to have a positive credit history in the US. Two of these that I have found are Access Group (requires three years of credit history) and Global SLC. Always look at loans offered by your school before checking out outside lenders. For e.g., Tuck offers a very competitive DELC loan to internationals with a positive US credit history. I couldn't find an outside lender that could beat this offer.

Imp: Many lenders try to entice students by offering various loan doscounts, for e.g. 0.25% APR reduction if you make 48 consecutive on-time payments. These discounts may look good on face, but they don't always work out as you expect them to. Finaid is an excellent source of valuable student loan information. Check out their take on loan discounts.

About to soar free

2007-04-09T17:21:00.000-04:00

I resigned from my job today and I should be free to do whatever in about two weeks time. I expected to have a difficult conversation with my current manager (I have recently changed projects and my new manager wasn't aware of my bschool plans), but it went quite easy. As it turned out, he himself is looking to do an executive-MBA at Wharton. So for the most part, we discussed about MBA and his game plan.

I have already booked my flights, and I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends after two long years. I am excited about playing with my cute little nephews and nieces. I also wanna travel a bit in the summer. Four months before the school starts, and I wanna make the most of them. What's everyone else planning to do in the coming months?

Application saga ends

2007-03-28T19:53:00.000-04:00

with a D from Chicago GSB. To be fair, I did not put in the efforts that a waitlisted candidate at GSB ought to make; admittedly, admit to Tuck had made me complacent. On the lighter side, I don't have to make any tough decisions now - its time to turn this blog green :)

Congratulations to Ganja Turtle and Forrest for successfully converting the waitlist to admits. Happy for you, guys.

Farewell at work

2007-03-15T19:21:00.000-04:00

Not technically though, since I am still employed by my employer. But Feb 28th was my last day working for my customer on site; I had been working for that customer for past two and half years. There is still uncertainty about where I am heading next. I have had some tough time dealing with my employer's resource management, who wanted me to move to another corner of the US. After great difficulties, I have managed to dodge that bullet. I need to stay at or close to my current location to take care of my court case. Moreover, since I don't plan to work much longer after Tuck's ASW in mid-April, it doesn't make sense to move. I hope they find me something short-term closer to my current location.

Days leading to Feb 28th were busy and fun. I had not kept my MBA plans secret at work, but I had not told everybody either. So there were many new conversations about my plans as I said farewell to my co-workers. It was refreshing to see how everyone admired my career move. Of course there were a few jealous jerks, but aren't they everywhere. One such irritant was solely focused on how much I would make upon graduating. No questions on why I am going for MBA, or what do I want to do after MBA - just repeated questions about money. Such short-sighted schmucks get on my nerves sometimes.

Coming back to more pleasant things, days leading to Feb 28th were also filled with farewell luncheons. I also caught up with one of my old co-workers, who had moved to another company a year back, at our favorite Mexican restaurant. My volunteer group that I led at work also took me out to a new Indian restaurant (or new to me, may I say). On top of it, the non-profit we worked for sent me a huge basket of flowers. I was balled over - much much appreciated! My last day was in NYC, where most of my team is located. We had an eventful team lunch (it would take another post to describe some of the drama we had at that lunch) and an happy hour to end the day.

While I wait for my next assignment, I am eagerly waiting for Tuck's ASW that's coming up on April 12th. Well, there's also another farewell happy hour next week, from my tax volunteer group. Life is good :)

Financial aid and taxes

2007-03-03T18:37:00.001-05:00

Wow! Its been a really long time since I posted. Not that my life has come to a standstill and there's nothing to post, its just that I have been taking it slow and easy. Guess after months of gruelling application labor, I can afford to do so :)

There have been some developments. I filed my taxes for 2006 and sent the form 1040 to Tuck to complete my application for financial aid. Now they have everything from me to process my application and I hope to hear from them by March 15th. Once I get the package from them, I would need to shop around to see if I get another lender to beat Tuck's offer.

Coming back to taxes, I am volunteering with a non-profit org in my state to prepare free tax returns for low-income households. I had done that last year as well and I enjoy it. I get to help people save some precious money and also learn about tax and personal finance. We were really busy from January-end, when most people get their W2's, till last weekend or so. Now we have hit the "spring thaw" and it will get busy again when we approach April 15, the filing deadline. As regards to my own taxes, I owed substantial money to IRS, thanks to some capital gains I had had during 2006. Its funny that almost all the people I prepare taxes for get refund checks, whereas I, the tax preparer myself, owed to IRS.

Windy city, GSB and lawyer liar

2007-01-17T17:20:00.000-05:00

I had a good and relaxing long weekend after a long long time. Went to Chicago to see a couple of friends and it was a lot of fun. Since I had been to Chicago twice in the past and seen all the attractions, this trip was all about lazing, relaxing and catching up with my buddies. One memorable part of the trip was the awesome view of the city from my friend's office; he works in the 12th tallest building of the world.

The friend I stayed with lives very close to GSB, so we went to the school on Friday and walked around the campus. They had the "GSB live" event going on that day (by the time I had finalized my Chicago plans, registration to this event was closed) and thus everyone was busy and running around. One of the adcom members was nice enough to spare me a few minutes to talk about my waitlist. Apparently, there is nothing much I can do at this point of time, but wait.

An ongoing annoyance in my recent life is my court battle with management of my old apartment. I had posted about my trial win (JatWarrior Vs Apartment Management) way back in August. Guess what? Those defendants appealed against the decision in the upper court, and things have been moving painfully slow ever since. My trial date has been set in April (I had started this whole litigation process way back in May or June '06)... and you think courts in so called third-world are slow??? Last week, I met with the defendants for a pre-trial conference at the court. First of all, main attorney of the defendants was missing. There was someone else from his office representing him, and that guy was not in a position to agree on the mediation or the dates of the trial w/o talking to his boss or client. WTF? What did you bring your sorry ass here for? Anyway, I stated that I am ready for an out-of-court settlement so as to wrap this case ASAP. Since I would start my MBA in August and would quit my job much before that, I am not sure how long I can stay available for the trial. The lawyer called a few days later that his client was ready for the settlement and asked how much did I expect. Lower court had ruled a payment in my favor for double the security deposit ($540*2) plus an interest @11.5% since the date of judgment, but in order to expedite the process, I offered to settle for $650 (original security deposit + court fee etc). He noted my figure, talked to apartment management and called me again that all they wanted to pay was my original security deposit ($540). I was irritated, but decided to bite the bullet and agree to it. We agreed to send a letter to the court stating that we have reached the settlement outside the court and there was no need for the trial. Ten minutes later, I received another call that defendants have retracted the offer (I had only agreed to what they had proposed) and they would now pay only $350. Furious, fuming and enraged, all Jatwarrior could mutter was - "let's go to the trial".

D from Yale

2007-01-08T14:03:00.000-05:00

Not that it matters a big deal to me now, but I really fancied my chances after being invited to interview in the very first lot. Since Yale does not interview as many as other schools do, interviewed candidates have about 50% shot of getting admitted (looking at last year stats). Interview itself went quite well, if my instincts are to be believed. I hope they do not check the blogs and forums to see if their applicants are admitted elsewhere :)

Yale is unusually competitive this year because a large number of deferrals from last year has reduced the number they would accept this year. Well, atleast my interview call gave me an opportunity to experience Yale; I did enjoy my visit (minus the parking ticket).

Withdrew from Darden

2007-01-03T19:53:00.000-05:00

I removed myself from the Darden waitlist today. Wrote thank you emails to my contacts in the admissions committee, letting them know that I was going somewhere else. One of them immediately replied expressing his disappointment that I would not join them, but wished my luck. Darden admissions has been super nice and supportive through out the process.

I hope everyone had a blast welcoming the new year. I spent my new year eve at a lounge/club in NYC with my gf and a bunch of her friends. We hung out there till 3 AM; it was awesome. Open bar, guys! :) I wanted to try out a drink called zombie, but they didn't make it. Maybe because it takes a lot of ingredients to make - light rum, 151-proof rum, dark rum, apricot brandy and many juices, and they did not wanna entertain that in an open bar.

Check out the club at http://pressurenyc.com

Here's wishing all of us a great 2007.

Enrolled!

2006-12-21T23:54:00.000-05:00

TUCK CLASS OF 2009, Entering August 2007

Thank you for your response. Your decision has been processed and sent to Tuck Admissions—you have now secured a place in the Tuck Class of 2009. Congratulations!

Since I was admitted in EA, I had to pay the deposit by Jan 5th, 2007. Feels nice to have secured a place.

Another waitlist - Chicago

2006-12-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

Frankly, I am a bit surprised. I was pretty sure of getting the call, but as we know this process can be very random. Things that add to the surprise are:

1) During my feedback last year, I was told that my application was above average. They pointed out only two minor areas, and I improved upon them greatly during the last year.
2) My interviewer had asked me not to be disappointed if I get waitlisted, since GSB waitlists quite a few candidates, many of whom they would admit later, during round 1. While what he said was correct, I wonder if interviewer reommends the type of decision to the adcom i.e. Admit, Waitlist, Deny.
3) I have quite a bit of alumni support as well, and they have all written to adcom to support my candidature.

Maybe since I am in the US, they expect me to visit them this application season also. Anyway, I was leaning towards Tuck even before this decision. I will opt out of Darden's waitlist and maybe MAYBE Chicago's as well. What do you guys think?

Finally! The coveted admit - Tuck Tuck Tuck

2006-12-13T18:49:00.000-05:00

Can't describe the emotions that ran through my head when Tuck called me an hour back. I had been waiting for that moment for such a long time!!!

Jatwarrior, the Tuckie!

Waitlisted at Darden

2006-12-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

Someone on the businessweek forums had mentioned that decisions would be released at the midnight, and sure enough my decision was online when I logged in at 12:01 AM - Waitlist. I am shocked, confused and mighty disappointed all at the same time because I was pretty sure of my chances at Darden. I visited the school, had a good interview, visited their alumni reception after submitting the application, even got a now-rare TOEFL waiver, and have good relationships with two of their admissions officers. Hell, even one of the applicants had recommended me to the adcom since she was impressed with the tips I gave her about the school and the interview. How often does that happen? What worries me most? That if Darden waitlists me, what are my chances at Tuck and Chicago GSB (my top choices), which are more selective than Darden?

Update 12/12/2006: I talked to those officers, and they have assured me that they would do everything they can to get me in. Apparently, there is no particular reason that I was waitlisted. But, their applications are sure way up from last year. I have sent in a letter reiterating my interest in the school.

Chicago interview report

2006-11-24T23:32:00.000-05:00

Completed my Chicago interview today with an alum. The interview was at his office, which is an hour drive from my place. I had been awake since 4:30 AM, so I was a little tired. How could I leave the awesome Black Friday deal ($550 off) on a movie projector at Circuit City :)

Interview took about an hour and was very conversational and unstructured. We talked about GSB, its professors and also my other school choices. He even asked my GMAT score. There were no difficult questions or surprises. I was able to stress on my extracurriculars as the improvement from last year. He was quick enough to submit my interview report today itself. Now the anxious wait till December 20th begins.

D from Columbia

2006-11-15T10:15:00.000-05:00

After six weeks of submitting and without an interview invite. I had spent maximum time on the CBS application and I am sure it was a strong one, so DWI is very preplexing to me. It does not make sense. Surprisingly, I am not very disappointed. Maybe I wasn't a good fit with the school. Moreover, Chicago invite (GSB is one of my top choices) had already put me in a good mood by the time CBS update came in :)

Hobbes also received the same unfortunate news from CBS today. I know its harder for you buddy since with an interview, you were much closer to getting in. As we already know, these things do happen in this process. Don't despair and hang in there.

Phew! Chicago interview invite

2006-11-14T23:59:00.000-05:00

I was getting really worried about it. Tomorrow is the last day of invites as well as the day of denial notifications and I got the invite only today. Maybe its not a good idea to submit applications few minutes to the deadline :)

Now the first thing is to decide on-campus vs alum.

Yale interview completed

2006-11-06T23:33:00.000-05:00

Completed my on-campus Yale interview today. It was a blind interview with an assistant director of admissions. A second-year student was also present during the interview, observing the interview. This was kind of a training for these students, who will conduct interviews as Yale sends more invitations. There were no surprise questions - usual why MBA, why Yale, Education and Work-experience. Interviewer seemed to be trying to get to know me and my fit with the school better. Overall, I think it went well, but we will know only when they release the decisions :)

Special thanks to brownoski for giving me some specific pointers on the new curriculum as well as for sneaking me in Prof Oster's Competitor class. You are awesome, man. There was a lot of class participation by students, and I enjoyed this class more than the other class I had attended earlier in the day.

Darden's Philadelphia Reception

2006-11-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

Had a wonderful time at Darden's alumni reception in Philadelphia today. I met quite a few alumni including Steven Silbiger, the author of popular The 10-day MBA. I even shared my darden visit experience with other prospective students. Also connected well with the admissions committe rep, who also gave me a high-five at one point of time. I will take it as a good sign :)

I liked the fact that it was more informal than other schools' recpetions. And yes, free wine and hors d'oeuvres never hurt:)

Yale interview invite

2006-10-30T21:11:00.000-05:00

Got the Yale invite today. Was pleasantly surprised as I wasn't expecting it so quick (apparently it was the first day they sent invites). On the other hand, I haven't heard anything from Columbia yet. Its been more than three weeks since I submitted Columbia. Many applicants who submitted after I did have gotten their invites, so not sure how good my chances are now.

I am excited about the Yale interview and planning to have it on-campus at New Haven.

Phew! Darden - "Application complete"

2006-10-27T21:35:00.000-04:00

yay!!! I got the TOEFL waiver from Darden. I talked to my super-nice account manager this morning, and she asked me to contact International Student Officer of the UVa and explain my situation. I shot an email to him and he was quick to waive the TOEFL requirement for me. I learned that they are very restrictive about the TOEFL waiver this year, but my Canadian degree bailed me out. I was getting really worried about it, but much relieved now :)

Darden - "Incomplete"

2006-10-26T21:31:00.000-04:00

As expected, Darden has marked my application "Incomplete" because I did not submit my TOEFL score. Will talk to my account manager tomorrow to find out my options.

Even an MBA can do it

2006-10-26T12:52:00.000-04:00

haha... I wonder which bschool does Fedex recruit from :)

Yale submitted

2006-10-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

Again close to the deadline :) Anyways, this was my 5th school, and I am sooo application-fatigued now.

Darden submitted

2006-10-19T23:56:00.000-04:00

Six minutes to the deadline :)

Chicago GSB submitted

2006-10-18T18:15:00.000-04:00

Three minutes to the deadline! Has anyone else been closer? :)
Tuck and Chicago applications have been such an adventure for me. I did spend a lot of time on the essays, but still had to scramble to meet the deadlines. Must do better on Darden.

Tuck submitted

2006-10-12T19:08:00.000-04:00

After a sleepless night of slogging, I managed to get the application in half hour to the deadline. Six essays for a reapp! Can you believe it?

Columbia submitted

2006-10-05T22:00:00.000-04:00

Finally!!! This application never seemed to end.

Agony of a perfectionist and Columbia essays

2006-09-03T12:35:00.000-04:00

I believe I am a perfectionist and this is hurting my essays writing process. When I sit down to write, I want every word, every sentence to come out perfect, perfect enough to submit. And as a result, I sometimes end up spending hours with only a few paragraphs of output. I read posts of people writing two-three essays in a day! People spend more time revising than writing the original draft. I seem to do the other way round. Am I weird, or there are others like me?

Because of the reasons described above, I have been making a slow progress on Columbia essays. When I say slow, I mean SLOW. Anyways, now I have drafts of four out of five essays ready and they are not looking bad. Essay I am still stumped on is:

Q: Leading in the global economy requires enabling high performance from a diverse set of employees, colleagues and partners. Tell us about a manager you’ve observed who enabled or inspired others to do their best work and analyze how this manager did it.

When they say 'diverse', what do they mean? Diverse cultures? Diverse roles? Diverse attitudes? What's your take and how are you approaching this essay?

JatWarrior Vs Apartment Management

2006-08-16T23:14:00.000-04:00

Background: I moved out of my old apartment in September last year. Apartment was clean and in good condition when I left, and I was expecting to get my full security deposit back. What happened instead is a story of frustration. A month after I had vacated the apartment and a month of no communication, I started making attempts to get an answer from them. And boy, was it tough? I called them numerous times, visited their office atleast 4 times - their property manager was always out and never responded to my notes and voicemails. After another two months, I finally get hold of her and what answer do I get??? "You ruined the carpet, so we will send you $40 back." {in a very rude tone} wtf! Carpet was in very good condition when I left and you take three months to tell me this crap? Needless to say, I never got even those 40 bucks.

I considered my money lost and tried not to think about it, until a few months later when I stumbled upon an apartment review website. There were posts from other people who had had similar experiences with them and someone had suggested to call the state Attorney General. I called the Attorney General and she explained me the Delaware Rental Act. Apartment management, by law, must send an itemized bill of damages and settle the security deposit within 20 days of tenant vacating the apartment. And if management does not do that, tenant is entitled to get double the security deposit. 20 days!! Forget 20 days, I got no s*** from them at any point of time.

Current situation: I sued the apartment management last month and yesterday was my first hearing (my first experience with any court in the world). I reached the court yesterday morning only to find that defendants were missing. Although their lawyers had requested a continuance of trial citing some schedule conflict, judge did not grant it. Well, they had no case anyway, so probably they let it pass. So I presented my case to the judge and he issued a default judgment in my favor. Unless defendants enter a motion against the judgment, I am getting double the security deposit back :) FINALLY!

Moral of the story: Be aware and know your rights. Don't be ignorant and let vampires out there suck your blood.

Bschool Research

2006-08-02T23:59:00.000-04:00

July came and went and JatWarrior's ass is still parked in the garage. He needs to gather some steam NOW.

I am still researching some schools, meanwhile trying to refine my post-MBA goals further.

My list as of now (schools strong in strategy consulting and entrepreneurship):
Tuck - Reapplicant
Chicago - Reapplicant
Wharton - Reapplicant
Columbia
Michigan/Darden
Yale
Haas/Kellogg

Any suggestions? Ideas?

Freakonomics

2006-07-04T22:27:00.000-04:00

This was one book I had been wanting to read for a while. My gf happened to notice the book on the walk-in shelf of the local library. Walk-in stuff is only issued for 7 days and can not be renewed. Also, late fee is hefty $1 a day. To my surprise, book turned out to be only 206 pages and I ended up finishing it in next 28 hours :)

Book has no theme and stresses on looking at things in a different way. Conventional wisdom is not always right. Levitt has drawn on some interesting examples and studies to make his unconventional explanations and points. My favorite was his crime-drop explanation. But, I would say that after reading all those fantastic reviews, I had come to expect more out of it. May be because I was an unconventional thinker already :) Moreover, the book seem to be more US focused than international. It has one too many examples based on Blacks' social position/history in US. International readers not very familiar with Blacks' American history may find it difficult to understand author's points. Overall, book makes an interesting read, and I would recommend you to check it out if you have not already done so.

My favorite quote from the book: If morality is how the world should work, economics is how the world actually works.

Museums and Superman

2006-07-03T22:28:00.000-04:00

Yes, that has been my long weekend till now.

Saturday, it was Franklin Institute in Philly. I rode the sky-bike, where you ride a weight-balanced bike on a rope. At the end of 2-minute ride, I had a smiling face having kept my body upright on the rope (thought I was good at it)... that expression soon changed when I learnt (courtesy my gf) that real fun was tilting your body side-ways and it wasnt me, but the counterweight below the bike that kept my body balanced. oops.

The Giant Heart was another attraction. Its of the size of the heart of a 220-foot tall man. You can walk through the heart and see different chambers inside. Sports section was fun as well, I played the soccer goalkeeper for a bit. Best part of the visit - I learnt how to send Morse code. :) SOS in morse is ... --- ...

Day ended with 'Superman Returns' on the huge IMAX in the museum. My neck got tired trying to capture all the screen. It was fun and flying scenes looked coool. What I did not like was Superman wasting his time saving petty robberies. If he has the kind of power they showed he has (he lifted a continent-size rock in the movie), shouldn't he go to Sudan and Somalia and stop genocides and other big-scale serious crimes elsewhere.

Sunday, it was Museum of Natural History in NYC. Overall, I was not much impressed by the museum. Big bang show was a dud. Some sections were worth looking - Rocks, Dinosaurs, African and Asian mammals and also Indian culture. I most liked learning about Plates' movements beneath the ground. Its interesting that in the beginning, earth was one huge land mass, named Pangea, before it broke apart to form continents. It explains how some species are common across the continents.

720 and asked to retake!!!

2006-06-29T00:17:00.000-04:00

I am still in shock after this feedback session.

No, my quant and verbal are not unbalanced either; they are both well above 80 percentile.

Was my application even given a diligent review? Is it all about making money off applicants???

Consultants or not?

2006-06-26T23:53:00.000-04:00

I am having a hard time deciding on this. On one hand, I have had my feedback session (last one is tomorrow) and I know what to work on. During the feedback, I was hailed for my essays by more than one school. They said my goals were clear and I had given convincing arguments. So, clearly I don't need consultants to help on my essays, which are the single-most reason applicants go to consultants for. Isn't it?

On the other hand, I am afraid of getting dinged again. I worked very hard on my applcations last season and it was very very painful to get one ding after another and see all my hard work waste away. I certainly don't want to leave anything to chance this time. I have talked to a few consultants, and one of the reputed consultants sympathised with me after seeing my application. He said he was stumped and couldnt find any weakness in my application and that I was just unlucky. That scared me even more. Unlucky one time could very well be unlucky again.

What do you guys think?

I face pressure. You face pressure. Why did you provoke me?

2006-06-17T17:16:00.000-04:00

This is the most popular phrase in Hong Kong currently, coined from this video. It was apparently shot by an onlooker on his mobile phone. The clip starts out when the protagonist, a middle-aged man, reacts strongly when a young man sitting behind him taps his shoulder to ask him to keep his voice down while talking on the phone. Guys, you have to watch this. Its so absurd its hilarious.

Golf day :)

2006-06-11T12:43:00.000-04:00

Went to Delcastle golf course late afternoon yesterday. If you go after 3 PM on weekends, you pay the twilight rate, which is cheaper than the day price. Its a beautiful 18 hole (par 72) course. Picked up a little argument with the caretaker there. Old guy saw my Alaska cap and said that the govt should drill more in Alaska. I think Alaska should be left alone. There are not many places left in the world where we humans have not disturbed nature.

Well, I decided to walk instead of riding the golf car. Four and half hours later, my back was in pieces and I was dead beat. Guys, dont be stingy on the Golf car if you are playing 18 holes, it will save you a lot of energy for the game. As far as my game is concerned, I did not do well and I am not improving. For this par 72 course, I took more than 100 strokes (I am ashamed to quote the real figure ;) I was hitting fairway only about 50% of times... my ironwork is unspeakable (sometimes I completely miss the ball)... I had to putt 52 times. Only consolation was my drive. When I get it right, I drive really well. I am poor in judging the distance, but I think I go past 300 yards on a good hit. But I need major improvements in everything else. Maybe its time I get some lessons from a pro.

Question for Golf players out there - What happens when you swing the iron and completely miss the ball? Does the stroke still count (stupid question, huh)?

W and C feedback

2006-06-10T00:55:00.000-04:00

Had my Wharton and Chicago feedback sessions. Chicago loved my essays, Wharton found them average. One thing both pointed out was my extra-curriculars. Need to make more efforts to come out as a well-rounded person in the application. I have been working on this front since the beginning of this year, so I will have improvements to show coming fall. Chicago also pointed out that I had listed too many interests and activities (so what? I am a man of many interests :) in my resume. Better to have a few that are also tied to your MBA goals. Geez, how deep these adcoms dig into the applications! Looks like I did well on major frontiers (GMAT, academics, work-ex, essays, recos), but lost out in other parts of the applications. I will work on these parts and try to better my application. No more ding ordeal please!

BSchool Application Feedback

2006-06-06T21:05:00.000-04:00

I have my Wharton and Chicago feedback sessions scheduled on Thursday and Friday respectively. I have already had the Tuck feedback and it went well. I was praised for my essays, which made me wonder what the heck went wrong then. Well, there are certain things in my application that I did not explain and I should have explained. Also, my extracurriculars were a bit on the weaker side. I hope Wharton and Chicago say similar things so that I have a common theme to work on. I have been recording sessions on my ipod so that I can go over them again so as not to miss anything.

Apart from that, there is not much progress on reapplication process. There is so much to do - research more schools, make a plan, re-establish contacts in the schools... God, pls give me strength and keep me motivated.

PMP

2006-06-03T14:40:00.001-04:00

Official PMP training kicked-off yesterday after a series of postponements. It was very chaotic as the trainer chose to use the telephone instead of VoIP as was earlier planned. It was annoying to see a new trainee dialing in every 5 minutes and asking the same question - "Why can't I hear anything on VoIP?". Guys, pls dial in on time, and if you dont, atleast start by listening instead of cutting others off to ask same oft-repeated questions. One guy had not gotten the email notification of the new training link and was complaining in a near-rude tone. I was afraid he was gonnna make the trainer run away shrieking. Glad it didn't happen.

Coming back to PMP, I think it will be a good certification to have. It can help me in career growth and also add some uniqueness to my MBA reapps. I got even more interested when the trainer mentioned that PMP is useful in all practical aspects of life. It makes you approach issues/problems/projects more structurally and logically. You learn to evaluate different aspects in your decision making. Gotta begin my taking a membership at PMI.

Project Management Institute

Alchemist!

2006-05-31T22:24:00.000-04:00

Finished reading Alchemist yesterday. Paulo Coelho has really woven a masterpiece, a story which makes you think. Its about a boy who goes about realizing his dream, his personal legend. And when someone goes after his personal legend, the whole world conspires to help him succeed.

What's my personal legend? Perhaps I should look for omens. Maktub!

Cape May, NJ

2006-05-30T23:57:00.000-04:00

Had fun on the Memorial Day weekend making an unplanned trip. My gf and I were driving to Rehobooth hoping to get some sun on the beach. On the way, we saw signboards for Lewes and my gf remembered that there was a good ferry ride from there to Cape May. Well, we ended up taking the 80 minute ferry ride to Cape May and spending the night there. It was awesome! Cape May is a nice and small beach vacation spot known for its Victorian houses. It gained renown as a summer retreat for the US presidents in early years of 20th century. Town was brimming with life and we had a good time. Dined at a classy restaurant with a pianist performing. I looked kinda foolish not knowing much about wines and had to tap waitress's brains (need to know more about wines). She suggested a good white wine, and we even brought half-unconsumed bottle home. Next morning was beach, mini-golf, walking and quadricycle ride. All in all fun.

http://www.capemaylewesferry.com
http://www.thejerseycape.net

Hello World!

2006-05-26T21:59:00.000-04:00

My first post on my first blog. I will try to be a regular blogger, but no promises. Afterall, I am a procrastinator.