B-Schooling Queries

 

Reapplication, Interviews, Waitlists...

 

Hey Simba, got onto ur blog thru clear admit.. must say that's a great job ur doing on the international mba series, i think they are pretty comprehensive and convey the point clearly.. having said that, ur blog caught my eye coz u were on the Fuqua list.. it is my top choice and i had applied to it last year. Staying true to my habit of procrastination, i managed to apply in the 3rd round. was placed on the waitlist for quite a while and then denied admission.

am re-applying this year, i thought i cud use ur help with some hands-on info about the school and what really makes it stand apart.. and also how i cud make my application more effective.. i hope to be interacting with u a little more and getting some perspectives, hope its not too much of a bother.. a starting point cud be your real name?  :)

Oh, am sorry about the denial. Maybe the 3rd round is to be blamed. You can ask them for a feedback - dunno if they give one.. but whats the harm in asking!! :-) I donot have any clue about ur app, so I cant make any comments on how effective u can make ur app!! Sure, if u have any questions, just shoot me a mail. I am around!!! My name - LOL, that is listed everywhere in my blog. Cheers.

simba, mailed you some time back ..i applied for the duke R1 deadline and got waitlisted... though i know you got an admit the first time around itself, could you give me any additional insight to duke's waitlist policy. Regards

Vineet, am sorry I really not aware of the wL policies!

Hi Sowmya, Santhosh here. How are you doing? How is your internship hunt? I applied to Duke in R1, and I am waitlisted now :( Duke is my first choice. So I am very despo to make it. Do you have any advice as to how I can improve my chances? I have a decent GMAT (730), so not much to improve there. My recos were definitely good, as I know the recommenders very well. I also have passed with distinction in my Engineering. All in all, nothing much to improve in statistics.

I have an average extra-curricular during college. I think that is my weakest point. But I have really good work ex (top company. 5+ years, lot of leadership roles). I was hoping somehow they cancel out. Looks like I was wrong. Please let me know if you have any advice to me, as the waiting time (till March 1st Week) will be nerve-wracking :). Also, do you have any idea what % of ppl on waitlist are offered admissions? Thanks a lot for your time.

Hmm.. Really not sure what worked against you. Why dont you email them about how passionate you are about getting in & blah blah.. it may help.. not sure. Go online & see what people do to improve their chances after being waitlisted. I have never faced such a scenario & hence cannot say anything about how u go about! I was WL at Wharton but they had strictly told us not to provide any extra info whatsoever. I dont think Duke is as strict as that... go on BW forums.. theres a thread on Duke, not sure where. Couple of dukies are answering all questions. see if they can help!! Simba

Thanks Sowmya. There is this guy Tim and one more 2nd year on BW forums. I will get in touch with them. Yes, Duke is the most student (applicant) friendly school I have seen. They encourage ppl to send in more information during the waitlist. Let me see if I can pull together something useful. Thanks again!

Note: Now, Snax is Duke MBA student.

I would be applying to Duke for Round 2 and just received an email from them that they would be coming to Mumbai for interviews for all prospective applicants. I would be going in that... Needed some help on that.... I need to know some unique things that Fuqua offers which other schools don't bcos that will be a pet question... Why MBA and all that I would be able to tackle. I am going for Duke as I feel that it is a very good school and highly respected in the field of finance, which is what I wanna do my MBA in. Any help from your side will be highly appreciated. Please reply back ASAP.

Hmmm.. The majority of answers they are looking for in discussed in detail in my article - Duke Adcom Interview at pagalguy.com. Go thro the article & you will be fine! :-) Good Luck!!

Soumya, Thanks for that. Yes have gone through it already about twice. How does one tackle a question like " We have a multicultural environment, a concept like Team Fuqua and stress on team building and co-existence rather than cut throat competition, but what makes you select us specifically over others like Harvard or Wharton, even they are multicultural and team building and other stuff" - They might not ask such a question but it just came to my mind.

Can they? and if yes then how does one answer it, because you can know about the generic things on any institute, one can only get the feel of finer details once he has been in that environment. Did you go through such an interview and how good a chance does one stand after the interview. Also, Fuqua accepts something like 402 students, which is on the lower side as compared to other schools, how does this bring about on the faculty/student ratio

(I think this would differentiate Duke from Wharton which has an intake of about 825 students, thus low faculty to student ratio, they might have a few more faculty but I don't think that would make a huge diff to the ratio). Your thoughts !!! Regards Sumit

Wharton is Wharton and Harvard is Harvard. Fuqua will never ask you to accept them over W & H. So, dont fret over such things. Be prepared to answer why Fuqua. Period. Wharton has enough professors to make up for the student-prof ratio. But dont know why u are worrying about these things. They wouldnt ask you such things. Good Luck!

Hi Simba, I did not get an admit into to Duke. Now that I have got a reject from there, I am just trying to prepare for next year. I have a few questions and would like to get your opinion on the same.

A) IT Firm --> Consulting Firm I was wondering which of the two stories look compelling to them.... A person coming from a financial consulting background or from TCS (where I currently am) I finally wanna head towards Finance and look at investment banking. Just trying to see which path will inc my chances... Is it better to come from a (financial) consulting background like E&Y, PWC etc... and then apply to a B School or like currently I am in TCS - GE Comm Finance, Is it better to say I come from a financial domain within TCS or a financial consulting firm with some work in finance and am trying to do an MBA so that I can go for it as a career.

I believe that if I come from a financial consulting industry ( E&Y, PWC) they might say that since you come from where u wanna finally go (roughly), then MBA does not make that big sense or they could say that you are aligned with ur goals and hence MBA makes more sense. Which of the two stories would be more compelling ? I am asking this bcos then I might look at a job shift to an E&Y from TCS.

B) Within TCS (Shifting from a PL role to a Business Analyst) I have this offer to change projects and go from the Role of a Project Leader for GE Comm Fin to a Business Analyst Role in Hong Kong Stock exchange. The reason why I am fascinated about the later is because it gives me a chance to be where I wanna be finally, but the only downside is that I need to leave my leadership role for that. What do you say about this ? Again the B Skool could say Left Leadership Role - why ? or good that you joined where you wanna be finally.

C) I have a GMAT of 640. I am really finding it hard to give again, just don't have that patience. Do you suggest that with 3 yrs of exp, 640 might be less and I should give it again. Regards

Sorry for the delay. I have been extremely busy and would not be able to answer long stories :) And I am nobody to tell you what sounds better! 640 is a bad score. Competititon from desis is real hard. Aim for atleast 700 plus. Good Luck!

Simba! Hi, sorry yaar if that's not your name... I'm a R1 admit. waitlisted at Stern and LBS.. Stern to i think i'll forget about but we'll see what I do if LBS takes me in.. Boss, i want to ask you a couple of quick questions about recruitment and internships..  Your blogs have been super cool, but need thoda aur info. I'll be mindful that you'll be busy and all, so i'll be quick. I got your number ** from another fellow R1 admit. Regards.

Congrats on the admit! :) Before you call me, I want u to check out all my articles. If theres something that I havent covered, then I will be happy to answer!know!


Hi Simba (I am very sure that it's not your actual name) If you remember then we have discussed about Duke Program on pagalguy forum. I have sent 2-3 messages after that, but it seems your mailbox is full. I have scheduled my Duke interview for tomorrow and will be in campus by 09.30 AM. Is it possible for you to give some advice about do's and don'ts for Duke interview. Also, please let me know if you have some free time on Thursday. I would certainly like to meet with the people behind pagalguy/ pagalgirl forum. Thanks again for your help.

Sorry Arun, I am checking this email real late. Hope you had a good interview. Let me know.

Hi Sowmya, Though, I am back to phoenix but thanks for your reply. My interview was ok (if not good) and really looking forward. They asked me normal questions (Profile, Why MBA, Why Duke, Team Fuqua, Post MBA Goal etc). After the interview, interviewer told me that I could be an asset for Fuqua (don't know if it is a regular statement for all interviewees). I also attended a second year class (Consumer Behavior) and it was great. Didn't now that we cannot use laptop during class in Fuqua.:) I am keeping my fingers crossed, and working on essays to submit the application within 10-15 days. Thanks again for your reply and I wish we could have met.

Hello Simba, I have been following your blog for a couple of months. I am a prospective student to the Duke MBA program; I applied in R2 for the class of 2009 and have been waitlisted. I visited Duke in Febuary for my interview and talked to several students while I was there. The visit helped me better understand Duke's collaborative student culture and reaffirmed my belief that Duke will help me acheive my career goals.

Duke remains my first choice and, as I navigate through the waitlist process, I was wondering if you could provide insights into how I can successfully translate the waitlist into an admit. I am also planning on visiting the school again in April and if you have some time, I would like to meet with you. If you know of any current students who were admitted from a waiting list, could you please forward me their contact information as well. Thank you for your time.

Hi Srihari, Nice to see your email. I am not sure how you can convert a waitlist to an admit. I would suggest you to critically look at your profile and see what might have resulted in a waitlist rather than an admit. If it something you can take care soon, like probably GMAT or a promotion or something that can substantially address some weakness, then it would be good. I dont your profile to comment upon! Oh sure, if you drop my to school sometime, let me know... I will be happy to meet you. I dont think I know anyone specific who converted a waitlist to admit. I have a friend called Uday who was waitlisted but he applied next year & got an admit. (He too will be Class of 2009) I will be happy to forward his email id if you want! Let me know if this helps...

Hi Simba... I've been following your blog and all the info on pagalguy for a couple of years now - they're all amazing resources. I've always got a lot of info from them. Would like to say thanks and Congratulations for having done such an amazing job.

There's a quick question I have. I was waitlisted and then rejected at Fuqua when I apped for Fall 2007. Took a feedback and they told me that primarily my essays should have had more clarity. I agree to it. I'd applied in the 2nd round and in a hurry - not even clear on my goals. There's more clarity this year but that means my MBA goals and reasons for my MBA have changed this year. In that case do you think re-apping at Duke makes sense... do they go through the previous years essays too? Would greatly appreciate if you could guide a bit.

Hey Neha, Sorry for the delay. On the personal front, things have been rough for me. Anyways, thanks for your kind words. Sorry about your Fuqua rejection. As I have learnt, things happen for a reason :) Yours is an interesting question. I would normally suggest you to stick to your guts while you write but in this as a reapp, you might want to play it safe.

I mean, your goals might have changed significantly and I don't think anyone has the time to see your old applications, but you never know! I would suggest that you stay close to your old goals & do a lil polishing in terms of clarity. Lets say you are an engineer and you said, you would like to become an investment banker in your this year. So, dont go right ahead & say, you want to work in non profit now (even if it is the case!) ... say. something like you want to work as a consultant in IT/ Telecom or some engineering domain...

It's all spinning stories close to reality! All admission officers are humane and they all need some nice strong stories :) But you might want to stick to your gut stories for other school applications. However, stay very close to reality or probability.. if you want to work in non profit.. you should have volunteered extensively in this sector and talk how much it has influenced your thinking etc... Good luck with everything! :)

Hi Sowmya, Thanks a lot for finding time to write. I understand what you're saying. Those were valuable inputs. Thanks again.

Well, first of all thanks much for maintaining a site for us MBA hopefuls. I decided to spread the gyaan regarding getting an MS a long time back but never got down to it and thus I appreciate even more that you did get down to it and take the pains.

Anyways, you may have this in the queries section but I was not able to find the answer hat would make my day and thus the liberty to shoot you this note. My base profile is 750 GMAT, MSEE from top 20 school with 3.9 GPA, BE with distinction etc etc, research publications in non major field, 4 years of FT work experience in the US tech industry plus 3+ years of non profit work including managerial lead for multiple events (the biggest is a 20 city tour organization with revenues over 200K$), activism campaigns, NGO project mentoring, conducted recruitment trainings, chapter president, articles in some newspapers on corruption and governance, etc etc. Want to focus on non profits for my MBA and am shooting for top schools like HBS who have a good NP curriculum etc. Basically question is that I am a little late for R-1, have just about 3 weeks to get the essays and resume in order and the recos too. Thus would be a rush job, any ideas on how much of a difference a R-2 will make as opposed toa  R-1 application especially since I have a non standard profile and interest. Will appreciate your thoughts, in case you do reply and put this up on your queries section, will appreciate anonymity. Thanks again, reply or not, your site is quite appreciated.

Hi there, Nice to hear from you. You are right but I have answered this but even I can't find it :) so, I will go ahead & answer it for you. You have an eye for the details and I admire it - I will publish this as Anonymous.

I think you have an excellent profile and you should make sure you put strong essays essays. You will be surprised (rather I was) how many successful top notch candidates want to work in non-profits after MBA, many end up doing that & some others compromise. I wouldn't consider anything as a non-standard profile. I am sure you have relatively lower chances in R2 but it is just a number, go ahead & put a fantastic application in R2.. I would say, R3 & R4 would be late. In fact, all my applications were sent in R2 with a good hit rate, don't think they would have had better chances in R1. Good Luck!

 

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