savita

Here's my perspective, you have to know clearly why you want to do MBA ? What you will do after an MBA ? Are you in just for more money, a career shift, change industries completely. I have heard from my friends who have gotten out of MBA schools like Chicago, MIT etc. Don;t go in if you are thinking of just the money part, well, because the reality is different. A friend who graduated from MBA was making less than what he was making as an engineering manager. If you are looking for career shift, again from what I hear from successful product mgrs is this - It doesn't help to have just an MBA, you have to have the right kind of skills, understand how to work with people, know how to relate, have a clear common sense about the customer and the marketing. Here in this case, no MBA can substitute for experience. Period! So its important to get that work experience as well. From what I hear, because of the number of people who are out there looking for jobs and such, MBA has become more sort of as a 'filtering factor'. - If you are looking at completely changing industries for example from eng to investment banking, the general consensus I have seen is that a 2 yr MBA makes more sense because u can use the internship period for getting the exposure/experience Meanwhile, I think every one thinking of an MBA needs to read Henry Mintzbergs book or atleast his article.

Hi , I was looking at some of the common essay questions. Just wanted to find out how one can clarify what is expected in the essay. here's one 'describe your greatest professional achievement and how you were able to add value to your organization' ? I am wondering if these are actually 2 difft questions. For a persona, your professional achievement that which you consider as the greatest need not necessarily mean the same which added value to your organization. Becuase something you did can add value but you may not necessarily consider that as your greatest professional achievement personally. You may just feel that you did your job thats all but it may have added lot of value to the organization. can some explain if I am thinking correctly here ?

While the discussion is still just on GMAT or CAT for Mgmt school admission criteria ...has anyone read Henry Mintzbergs book 'Managers No MBA's'....if you not you can also check out his interviews or papers where he discusses briefly why he 'blasts the current global passion for MBAs and business school education'.... For me his views have had an impact on how I percieve the kind of MBA I want or what I want to do after an MBA or what I would like to get out of an MBA. I would think that that the IIM sort of business school education is more suited for the consulting and/or finance sort of career only because majority of the folks have no work exp, have no management skills or may never have really worked in actual teams with diversity of opinions, cultures, perspective etc, etc.

hmm intersting information spidey. Guess globalization is causing change to happen. Well, seems like the program is only starting in Apr 2006. BTW, do you guys think 690 (91%) M/V 86%/83% is decent enough to INSEAD. I am looking at applying for the fall intake...? I heard Indian's score high in GMAT, so that makes it very competitive. The rest of my app, is pretty good including my acads and gpa.

I have to second what Spidey says. I had lived abroad here for almost 8 yrs now and I see that IIM-A had established itself in its own league. If anything the downside of the IIM I see is that they do not require or cater to a large growing number of people who are mid-career professions. But like most things India, we are slow to innovate and take advantage of our own potential, a key to that is diversification. If today the IIMs were able to offer a simpler focussed 1 yr course for Mid-career professionals as well as tie up with other asian univs and world univs more, they really have the potential to become a world class univ. By seriously taking that approach, ISB is able to differentiate itself. But it still has a long way to go in my thinking. The only thing which stops me from applying to ISB is their academic year starts in April. Come one what the heck is this weird timing when pretty much all schools across the world start in Fall. :(( including the IIMs. Unless they specifically want people to lock into their 'admissions'...I see no other reason for them to start so early.

Hi, I am an indian female engineer and just like you, I don't have any mgmt experience either. Sometimes its just a matter of luck that you are in the right dept at tthe right time when they need a new mgrs. I was in the Same company for 6 yrs but in difft depts or business units. Every time you move into a difft business unit, you have to establisht yourself atleast for 2-3 yrs before you can get any kind of promotion. Plus if the business unit just disappears yet you are not laid off...then you don't have much of a choice. I think you should not loose heart. You can always portray how you have gained mgmt experience perhaps in your non-profit and community work exp etc. You need to highlight your strengths. Also, don't wait for the most perfect opportune moment, those never comes. And there's never anything you can do about your past. So I would suggest you to push ahead and focus and get into a program where you know you will gain a lot such as a part time program or executive MBA prog etc. I think the options are many you just have to find the right one for you. Harvard, Wharton etc is not for everyone. It all depends on what you want from an MBA and how you want to use it after that. A prof I met once at a berkeley extension class advised me, MBA offerings are like cars being offered by a dealer. You have to look at an MBA as if you are buying a car, treat it with the same attitude, what works for you is what is within your budget, within your capacities and that which will provide the necessary background/career path for you. I will be highly surprised if every MBA coming out of Harvard is as successful as Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc.

David, thanks for your advice very much. I will clarify here a little bit more, yes, my undergraduate institution was very highly ranked within the state and my undergraduate as well as graduate GPA are above 3.5+. I work as software engineer in Cisco Systems, Inc which is the top networking company. However, the downturn effected the company very much and hence there were just overall delays in promotions. I am an US permanent Resident and I am planning to apply only to 1 year MBA programs - among which my target is IMD & INSEAD, though I might apply to a couple more. Can you advice more in terms of international schools which generally require more work experience ? Also, whether gender plays a role for whatever its worth. thanks savita.

Hi David, Just want to get your feedback about my background Asian Indian Female (29 yrs), Married GMAT - 690 (91%), M - 86%, V 83% Bachelors (Electrical Eng) - India (top 3% of class) Masters (COmp Eng) - US 6+ years of work experience as Software engineer in Top networking company in US 1 promotion so far. But very good project mgmt experience etc. Looking at transitioning into Prod Mgmt as well. Very good internations exposure - traveled extensively in the past 6 yrs - Community & Volunteer experience - with one India focussed non-profit, as well as currently within my company for women in engineering. part of local toastmasters club as well. What is your general feedback for the demographic profile that I come from. Appreciate any advice,

Hi Folks, Prev attempt - 680 (90%), M 49 (90%), V - 34 (72%) (aug, 27, 2004) Today - 690 (91%), M 48(86%), V - 37 (83%) Background Previously had done OGs, was very good on math, did KAPLAN & solved CDs from PR, Barons etc. But hadn't done as many practice test as well as didn;t realise the correct prep for verbal. My parents were visiting me immediately after my exam so Sept went like a breeze, Just tried to collect material for verbal prep. I had just come across TM in early august so in sept I joined TM and tried to get familiar with the POSTs. The first time I gave the GMAT, prometric folks gave me ear plugs. I started prep again in OCt after my parents trip had winded down. I started with the practise tests towards Oct end. I was working fulltime and in the last 1 week before GMAt, the workload suddenly became very high. But squeeze atleast 1-2 hrs every day and used the weekends to do the CATs. I redid KAPLAN, and couple of Princeton reviews as well as the PPs. Exam day. I took even test slot thinking I don't have to wake up early. But unfortunately, because of the tension, I got better sleep then my first time but it still wasn;t enough. Because of my first experience, I was more cool today compared to my first attempt. But PRometric said they don't give out ear plugs. I said how come, you just gave me 3 months back. But they said they haven't been giving at all. I wasn't happy with this at all but hoped the headset they gave wud keep things quiet. AWA was ok, I have never really been too stumped by AWAs. Then came Math, I felt confident and quite reassured about cracking it. Then came the third problem, something about slope of the line. It took me sometime to figure it out but it threw me off balance right at the begining, then came couple of problems on range and std deviation. I just felt that the problems were much tougher this time around. The first 12 questions I managed to get through but compared to my usual 50 mins I was left with only 45 -43 mins. I managed to finish through fast. By the time I got to the last one...I felt completely overwhelmed about my performance. Felt little hopeless as well. Esp since std deviation wasn';t my cup of tea and I hadn't really paid that much attention to it this time compared to last time. There was just 1 probability question which was a DS. I figure from my score, that I did goof up on one of the early problems. Anyways, I went to the restroom, had half a banana, water and sat down for verbal, thinking that I will make it up in verbal. Little did I know that throughout my verbal, there were 1-2 others in my neighboring cubicles who just loved to bang at their keyboards. It was just hard to focus on the screen esp because I was getting tired, and I just cannot stand the noise of people banging keyboards. I looked back once and noticed a girl working on her AWAs. I just wished I had been wise enough this time and brought my own ear plugs. Like ursula said earlier in her POST. Its just perfect. I had to hold my headset with my hands everytime I was reading a RC or CR ...The first RC was the most terrible reading I did...I think I did loose a point or 2 there..Rest of the Verbal went through fine. With verbal also at the end of first 14 questions, I was 7 mins behind on my target...but I worked through steadily and managed to reach the end with 1 min still left. Overall exp. I still felt I could reach my goal of 750+ but at this time..I think I will just focus on the apping process. With Bachelors & MS in Comp Eng, good work exp, community and volunteer exp as well as international exposure, I feel I can put together a decent app. So will start writing those essays. At the end I feel that doing in MBA & Starting my own business is my goal and not getting through GMAT, though it wud have been wonderful to be able to reach my potential if I could just get complete uninterrupted fous during the last week. 2 days before the GMAT, we had a minor family emergency as well, my mom had high BP and anxiety attack. I managed to get through this far when I was thinking of just cancelling the exam because I still didn't feel like I given my best shot at the prep.

for sake fo easy calculation, I am taking y & w to be 2, and z = 3, x = 5 w/x x/w > 1 y/z z/y > 1 w/x x/w > z/y first three terms 1, z/y, x/w ( most likely ) ie. 1, 3/2 , 5/2 = 1,1.5, 2.5 x+z/w+y = 5+3/4 = 2 xz/yw = 15/4 = 3.75 x^2/w^2 = 25/9 = 2.77 hence, I think the answer is A. however, its quite possible to come up with numbers where y & w are not same...perhaps have to try with more numbers.. But this is tedious.

w, x, y, and z are positive integers. If http://www.manhattangmat.com/images/Challenge/November152004/ee1.gif, what is the proper order of magnitude, increasing from left to right, of the following quantities: http://www.manhattangmat.com/images/Challenge/November152004/ee2.gif? (A) http://www.manhattangmat.com/images/Challenge/November152004/ee3.gif (B) http://www.manhattangmat.com/images/Challenge/November152004/ee4.gif © http://www.manhattangmat.com/images/Challenge/November152004/ee5.gif (D) http://www.manhattangmat.com/images/Challenge/November152004/ee6.gif (E) Cannot be determined

this was in one of the kaplan questions ...I they seemed to have picked dilapidated with. Their explanation however was not that good. They just says 'due to' and on account of is all awkward, without spelling out if 'dilapidated with' is the correct idiom

why not E ?

something is dilapidated with age and neglect or something is dilapidated due to age and neglect

yes I also was thinking about E. Something must be done to stop spam - That seems to be the conclusion. IT is not necessary that conclusion has to be at the end. It can be anywhere in the argument. The last bold face sentence is supporting the conclusion or providing a method to address the 'problem' raised by the conclusion. First bold face is pre-evidence as everyone else has mentioned.