My Chicago GSB Experience

Chicago was very high in my list before I started my research on b-schools. The intellectual rigor and the list of nobel laureates impressed me. Today, it is no longer my top-choice.

School Visit: The Chicago GSB was the first campus I visited. I am not a connosieur of architecture but even I realized that the Hyde Park campus was special. The Winter garden and the accessibility to students, teachers, classrooms and other facilities were neat.
I attended Professor Waverely Deutsch's "Small Business Entrepreneurship" class. Students were making presentations about business plans and the professor acted as the VC giving critical feedback. One of the three business plans seemed like a viable business strategy to me. Then they did a case-study of "Cranium": a board game invented by some Microsoft developers. It was a very informative discussion but I was a little surprised by the anti-microsoft undercurrent that seemed to pervade the discussion. At the end of the class, the Microsoft employee in me, couldn't help but voice my opinion about the misplaced anti-Microsoft sentiment.
I did get a sense that students were very focussed on getting that "finance" job after school. The emphasis seemed to be less on the b-school experience and more on finding a great job.

Application: I used my Wharton essay 1 as a starting point for the GSB essay. Since the school really focuses on "Why Chicago" I decided to invest the 500 extra words that I had to make this point. The "One day in the life of someone else" was probably the essay I enjoyed writing the most.

Interview: This was a real shocker to me.
I interviewed on campus so that I could meet with some of the students working in the non-profit clubs before the interivew. Unfortunately, because of scheduling problems and horrible SPRINT reception in the campus, I couldn't do so. (I have switched to Verizon :))
The person who interviewed me seemed a little .... ummm ..... mean. I got the impression that he was not interested in my answers. He interrrupted me several times and would snub me every 2-3 minutes. It seemed like he did not believe my answers and didn't give me a chance to clarify. 20 minutes into the interview, I was like .."what the @##$ is going on". Shouldn't I be doing 80% of the talking !! Having conducted over 100 interviews myself, I thought it was insulting and disrespectful.
Anyway, I made sure I made my points about "why I liked Chicago" and "why I think my career plans make sense" before leaving the room. I was happy that I managed to make my point clearly without getting mad or becoming incoherent. Before leaving the school, I informed one of the Admissions Committe members of my "surprising" interview experience.

I am still not sure how I got into Chicago given my horrid interview. Maybe the interview was an aberration. Maybe not all students are like my interviewer. But at this point in time, I do not see myself accepting the GSB offer.

My Kellogg Experience

Being lucky enough to have been accepted at Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago and MIT-Sloan, I thought I would share some of my experiences for the benefit of future applicants. Let's start with Kellogg ...

School Atmosphere - During my 2 visits to Kellogg, the two things that really struck me about Kellogg were the extent of social mingling in the beautiful campus and the friendliness of the current students. It was clear that the students valued the social experience of b-school highly. Additionally, current students were super helpful to prospective students. One of the students actually cancelled a meeting with a professor to answer the questions the prospectives had.

Classes - I attended Professor Sawhney's Technology Marketing class and Professor Steve Rogers' Entrepreneurship class. Technology and entrepreneurship are the areas I like, but by any metric these guys were awesome. Professor Sawhney was witty, informative and extremely sharp; covering content and answering questions with amazing clarity. Professor Rogers was brutally good. He cold called a number of students and pushed the students to further their own understanding. I ended up buying "Ben and Jerry's: The Inside Scoop" on his suggestion. Awesome read, specially since I am interested in social entrpreneurship.

Application Package - My primary focus in Kellogg's application package was balance. I tried hard to make sure that the reader finishes the essays with the image of a multi-dimensional and likeable person. I sprinkled information about my varied interests throughout the essays. The "evaluate the candidate as a member of the AdCom" is the trickiest Kellogg essay. I think they have put it in there to see if candidates can talk about their achievements in an objective and more importantly humble manner.

Interview - Since the Kellogg interview is blind and not a "make-or-break" part of the application my plan was to be consistent and conservative. Consistent with my essays so that the interviewer and essay-review are not in conflict about my candidacy. Conservative in the sense that the difference between an above-average and stellar interview is not much as far as an admission decision was concerned. So, I played it safe aiming for an above-average interview. I planned on being witty and funny ONLY IF I got a very positive vibe from the interviewer.
I interviewed with an Admissions Committee member in Evanston. Mostly standard questions straight out of Essay 1 and Essay 2. The more interesting questions revolved around the distinction between leadership and management. At the end of the interview we talked about my dog towards the end, as a response to what do you do in your spare time. Overall, it was a relaxed predictable interview.

On the last day of the Kellogg results I got a call from Adcom telling me that I was in !! :)

God's Own Country

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I took some time-off from work to unwind and think about the next 2 years of my life. Destination: Kerala a.k.a "god's own country" (India)

I am not much of a nature buff (Vegas and Rome are my favorite vacation spots). However, a little sleepy town called Alleppey made me appreciate what nature has to offer in terms of beauty, tranquility and plain good ol' fashion relaxation.

One week of "ayurvedic" massage, relaxing in a houseboating and gorging on crabs/lobsters has recharged my batteries. Now onto the Wharton fellowship essay ...