... and the highway

This post is second in the series.

Stage 4: GMAT
I think I bought Kaplan in December 2007. Without really knowing about it, I had started off my preparation by buying the most difficult material. The "theory" and exercises in the book were alright enough, but the practice tests! - I used to go into a depression after attempting the practice tests! Only much later did I realise that I should not be taking the Kaplan scores as the Gospel truth about my preparation. My GMAT was scheduled in March, right before the Easter holidays. I scored a 660 in it (Q 48, V 33 - I think). I went to UK to visit my friends during Easter, which was a good thing. It helped me get over the disappointment of my score. My friends encouraged me to schedule the GMAT again since they were certain that I could do better than this. I came back from UK brimming with enthusiasm and determination - although I couldn't really get back to studying until much after that. Work became taxing and then, it was spring. :) I love spring. There are music festivals here and I went on so many roadtrips - it was awesome. Anyway, coming back to the serious stuff, my GMAT preparation never really took off again. I bought the OG 11, but looked through it very half-heartedly. Some time in July, I attempted GMAT again and scored slightly better at 690 (Q - 48, V - 35). Somewhere around this time, I ensured that I contacted and spoke to the people who I would approach for the recommendations. It was important that they knew about this and my ambitions in advance.

Stage 5: The IMD experience
Now that I had the requisite criteria to appear for a one-year program in India (ie I would be 27 by the time I start the program and I would have stayed abroad for 3 years), in my research for the right B-schools to apply to, IIM-A was a given. Honestly, at that time, ISB was something I was thinking of only because it was Indian and reputed. I had not really found out anything about it, the way I did for IMD, Lausanne.

Lausanne is only about 80 km away from Geneva. So, it was a matter of convenience for me to go on a campus visit to IMD in August 2008. We were about 8 visitors to the school that day. The campus is very unlike the campuses in India, in that it is smaller. The MBA program at IMD was just one of its programs - the bread and butter comes from their EMBA program and corporate programs. However, what impressed me was the synergy between the companies and the school. The infrastructure was not dazzling but it was sufficient. I liked the concept of the class size being kept constant at 90. Compared to this, INSEAD (France) seemed a little bigger - where the potential of being lost in the crowd is higher. I came back from the campus visit highly impressed. But I knew that it would be a marketing strategy ;) and so I approached a person working in my company who is an alumnus of IMD. I'll call him T.

T was very helpful. First, he tried to see if IMD and I "fit" together. He explained to me how important this "fit" is. You have to be an advantage to the school, the way the school will be an advantage to you. Don't apply to a school in desperation or just because an MBA from anywhere will do. Find out exactly what are the principles driving the school. Look at the previous performance of the school - which industry favours it, where are the alumni based, what was the placement record, was your "dream job" offered regularly in the past. When I started with the application form of IMD, I contacted him again - "Would he please read my essays and give me some feedback?". The IMD essays were traumatic. I had to write 13 essays! Of course they had character limit and of course they asked you everything about your life! When T reviewed them, he was brutal. For some of them, he laughed at me outright! (Hmph! I still can't decide whether to find him obnoxiously conceited or graciously helpful!) Apart from him, I asked a few of my friends to review the essays, too. Finally, after all the feedback, I edited my essays and managed to submit my application right before the last deadline - September 1st 2008.

Two weeks later, I was invited for the interview. Now, interview at IMD is a slightly different affair - it is a day-long affair, to be exact. I was sent a case by mail when I confirmed that I would be available for the interview. When I showed up at IMD, there were probably another 7 people there - each from different walks of life. One was a marketing manager from Russia while another was a programmer from Brazil. If I had to give marks for diversity of the candidate pool, IMD would have scored big time. Anyway, we were taken to a room. Two of us were escorted for our interviews, while the remaining were given a sheet with mini-cases. We had to choose the one we liked and make a presentation on it. We were given the markers and transperancies. They gave us half an hour to do that. After this, I had 15 minutes of break followed by the "long" interview. It was taken by one of the admission committee seniors. This interview was mainly probing. In a very subtle way, they wanted to know the usual questions - why MBA, why IMD, why now. Apart from these questions, they wanted to know my background, how did I come to be here (in Switzerland), what's my work like. Now that I think about it, I think I fumbled many times during this interview. I took it too casually.

The interview was followed by another "short" one where I remember being asked if I had enough funds to make the first payment if I was offered a seat. This interview was supposed to inform the candidate about the living costs here, etc. Since, I already had an idea about that, the session didn't take too long for me. After this, we all had a lunch break, where each of us was "hosted" by a current student. We could ask them a lot of questions about the curriculum, the placements, the Discovery expeditions, etc. My host and I got talking and we forgot about the time - I had to gulp my dessert down and run for the next session of the interview day - which was the case study part.

First, each of us got the chance to present our mini-case. We had discussions after each presentation. Then we were told to agree on one mini-case and present it as a group. Having done that, after the usual round of questions, we took a break. This was finally followed by the main case study. We had a faculty member presiding over the discussion - a very humble and humourous man, but very very good at what he does. His task was to get all of us on one page about the case. Then, we were divided into two groups, told to bundle off and discuss our "solution" and then come back and present it. Finally, it was over. The director of the program came by to have a few words with us. IMD had just been ranked #1 by the Economist and they were justly proud.

When I finally left IMD, it was 5 pm. The day had begun at 8 am and there wasn't an instant where we were allowed to relax. As I drove back to my friend's place for the weekend, I thought that given the kind of experience and backgrounds of the other candidates and current students, IMD was probably not the right "fit" for me.