as
they say, all good ideas come with a glass of beer, so
did the thought of such a group for
BITSians. I'd like to
thank
Krishna
(Tuck '06), Shobhit (
Michigan
'06) and Manish (
Michigan
'06) for this initiative.
The greatest benefit of this group is to leverage
the BITS connection for maximum benefit during the
application process to business schools around the
world.
It starts with the
bits2bschool yahoogroup. The aim of this online
community is to keep an excellent roster of advice for
BITSians applying to top schools.
Succeed in
the academic, professional and social sectors by
working with mentors and peers who help and guide you.
Excellent Advice Online
Here are excerpts from
advice for BITSians applying to top US schools
“As
long as you have the requisite breadth of leadership
experiences, you will get in. Focus on developing
yourself through leadership experiences.”
“Too
many BITSians self-select themselves out of running at
top schools which makes no sense. Have the courage and
self-confidence to aim high.”
“It
is always best to get recommendations from your current
supervisor. Some schools require you to write a note or
explain in the optional essay as to why you did not get
a recommendation from your current supervisor. Almost
everyone applying to business school has this problem.
However, it is a hurdle you have to cross.”
“In my case, I asked
my manager for his recommendation. I told him that I was
telling him one year in advance about my plans. If I
were admitted, I would let him know 6 months before I
left giving him time to find a replacement. This worked
well. He appreciated the advance notice and everything
worked well.”
“The choice of
country (for doing an MBA) is very subjective. Here are
a few factors you might want to consider.
“In terms of quality of education, there are
several good schools in all parts of the world, so where
u want to work is one factor which determines which
region you want to choose. Because local schools have an
advantage over foreign schools for a variety of reasons.
To simplify things, doing an MBA from US or any
foreign country would not give you an edge over IIM
grads if you are looking for a job in
India
. So if you want to stay and work in
India
, IIM would be the best bet because of fees and other
things. Likewise,
if you want to work abroad, try to do MBA from the best
school in that country.
I think Harvard, Wharton, Stanford are probably
exceptions. They have exceptional brand recognition
globally.”
DON'T
MAKE OUR MISTAKES - LOOK IN THE FILES SECTION OF
THE YAHOOGROUP
You will find many gems in
the databases, advice from BITSians who went to top
schools. Here are a small cross-section of many that you
will find online. Some excerpts follow:
- “Terrible essays - Essays
did not connect my past to my future.”
- “Did not visit schools’
- “Poor preparation for
interview”
connect
to b-school champions
We are canvassing
the entire BITS community to volunteer as business
school champions for their MBA programs, both full-time
and executive programs. To date, we have signed up the
following full-time MBA champions. If you would like to
be the champion for your program, please sign-up on the
bits2bschool@yahoogroups.com website. Alternatively,
email
abhinav_fall2005@yahoo.com.
· GSB-
Chicago: Venkatesh Rangarajan
· Johnson-Cornell: Anupendra
Sharma
· Kellogg-Northwestern: Ishmeet
Singh
· Ross-Michigan: Shobhit Rana
· Simon-Rochester: Rajat Padhi
· Tepper-Carnegie Mellon:
Nikhil Kolar
· Tuck-Dartmouth: Krishna Hegde
· Wharton- UPenn: Mukul Chawla
JOIN
US
To be a part of this
initiative, email
abhinav_fall2005@yahoo.com, or better, sign up by
searching for bits2bschool on
www.yahoogroups.com.
■
