I've got my final B-Schools list

After I took the GMAT and the TOEFL, it was clear that the next step was shortlist the B-Schools I will apply for. It's been more than a month since I finished the tests and now I have narrowed and arranged the schools in order to take the next step in my application process.

I decided to apply to 5 schools in the first round and 3 on the second. I won't tell the names in this post, nonetheless they're not so hard to guess since I'll talk about some criteria I used to shortlist my initial selection. I concluded that it's more a result of a subjective analysis than a quantitative comparison of ratios and figures. Of course, some objective features must be considered but without deeper thinking it's impossible to know whether a school is a good choice for you.

Among the main criteria I chose to shortlist my selection, I think these ones were capital:

• Location: Admittedly, to be in the place where top businesses run is very important to me. Top school + beautiful place to launch my career abroad, it's like a dream, isn't it?
• Students' passion for the school: All of my students-network friends have a very big enthusiasm for their school, however, there are some of them that are strongly passionate about their school, when you listen to them, all you can wish is: "I want to live that as well!"
• Strength in finance: Due to my finance background and long-term goals, I selected schools that provide strong finance-oriented courses so that I can major my MBA in finance.

One of my students-network friends suggested me to do a final research in the B-Schools' web sites so that I can refine my own vision about the facts and features that are the most important for the schools themselves. I agree with that, I'll take some time to do it.

My students network is working fine (and helping me a lot!)

When I started this process I didn't know anybody studying at my preselected B-Schools, but now I am in contact with some students and they're always willing to help me regarding my application process questions and concerns. Indeed, now I consider them my friends (and, of course, more helping hands along the way).

I must say Admissions Officers helped me contact them in most of cases though there are some schools whose policies don't let them give applicants emails and names from students or alumni. However, some of the latter have special forums so that all the people in the forum is noticed when any applicant makes questions, then many of them (even some admissions-related people) are willing to give you their advice and thoughts about your questions.

Regarding the questions, these are the main ones I ask students in order to get a better insight into the school:

• Why did you apply to X school? I mean, what attracted you the most?
• According to your experience, what are X school's pros (the main ones) and cons (if any)?
• What do you think are the qualities and/or abilities that X school values the most in applicants?
• What kind of achievements are the most appreciated by X school (individual, as a leader, as a team member, etc.)?
• What tone or elements make an essay fit more with X school?

By the way, now I'm sure I've chosen a group of winner schools because all the students are truly happy with their schools, I've learned there are several reasons to choose this or that school and I think that's why it finally goes to a "fit" question. I think the best school is the school that makes you feel as proud as my "insider friends" in their respective schools.

I am also glad that some of my students-network friends are from my same country, even one of them is from my same elementary school (it's true that we live in a small world hehe...). On the other hand, my foreign network friends are as supportive as the others, I feel we've been friends all the time. I really thank all my "insider friends", they have helped me to know better all the schools on my wish list. Now I have a clearer picture of every school from inside and I can tell one from the other.

Standing on the shoulders of more MBA-blog giants

Finally, I think I have completed my MBA-bloggers research about schools and application process. From my point of view, these are the most useful posts I found in the blogs I selected to help me during my process:

Essay Tips:

• How to answer the "Why MBA" question: http://i4iday.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-does-someone-want-to-do-mba_22.html
• Essay writing tips: http://i4iday.blogspot.com/2007/03/essay-writing.html
• "What to write about?" musings: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/08/b-school-essays-what-if-im-just-mere.html
• Stanford's "What matters most to me and why?" essay tips: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/08/what-matters-most-to-me.html
• HBS essays deconstructed: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/09/celebratory-post-hbs-essays.html
• The looooong Stanford essays deconstructed: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/09/recommendations-submitted-long-long.html
• The super shrunk Wharton essays: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/09/supershrinked-wharton-essays.html
• The "ultra cool" Chicago essays: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/09/ultra-cool-chicago-essays.html
• General tips and other subtleties regarding writing essays: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/04/essays_04.html
• Who should review your essays? http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/04/your-angel-essay-reviewers.html
• Some thoughts on essay writing process: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2006/09/some-thoughts-on-essay-writing-process.html
• Essay FAQ: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2007/05/faq-essays.html
• About essay feedback: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2006/09/on-essay-feedback_20.html

B-Schools info:

• Short-listing B-Schools tips: http://i4iday.blogspot.com/2007/02/school-selection.html
• "Which school should I apply to?" reflections: http://i4iday.blogspot.com/2007/03/school-selection.html
• Initial B-Schools research: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/03/do-not-waste-250-gmat-fee-do-some_23.html
• Various comments regarding B-Schools http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2006/08/review-of-adcom-panel.html

General Admission Tips:

• Essay writing schedule (an example): http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/09/one-more-packed-month-coming-up.html
• Concerns of early career applicants: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/01/concerns-of-early-career-applicants.html
• Building your fact sheet: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/03/your-fact-file-preparatory-ego-massage.html
• Resume tips: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/04/resume-tips.html
• Pondering schools when admitted: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2007/01/pondering.html
• Application Strategy FAQ: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2007/04/faqs-strategy.html
• The B-School mythbuster: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2007/04/b-school-mythbuster.html

Interview Tips:

• Preparing the personal interview: http://i4iday.blogspot.com/2007/04/personal-interview.html
• Insight into the Chicago interview: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/11/my-chicago-interview.html
• Comments regarding the Wharton interview: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-wharton-interview-insert-huge-grin.html
• Tips with regard to the Wharton interview: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/02/wharton-interview.html
• Insight into the HBS interview: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2006/11/three-down-two-to-go.html
• Insight into the LBS interview: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2006/12/still-rolling.html
• Wharton interview report: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2007/03/wharton-interview-report.html
• Columbia interview report: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2007/03/columbia-interview-report.html
• Interview preparation: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2007/02/interview-prep.html

Recommenders Management Tips:

• Obtaining solid recommendations: http://i4iday.blogspot.com/2007/04/obtaining-solid-recommendations.html
• Recommender info packet: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2006/07/recommender-info-packet.html
• How to obtain recommendations: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2007/05/faqs-obtaining-recommendations.html
• Selecting your recommenders: http://blog.clearadmit.com/2007/05/admissions-tip-selecting-your-recommenders/

GMAT Preparation Tips:

• The three-month preparation: http://i4iday.blogspot.com/2007/03/3g-months_13.html
• A preparation strategy for the GMAT: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/02/much-dreaded-gmat_28.html
• GMAT FAQ: http://rungee582.blogspot.com/2007/03/as-promised-some-faqs-gmat.html

Financing the MBA:

• About the Wharton Scholarship essay: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/01/wharton-scholarship-essay.html
• Funding your MBA: http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/2007/04/funding-your-mba.html

I think I should arrange them on the right side of the page along with the posts I included in my previous "Standing on the shoulders of giants" post in order to improve my MBA Intelligence Center. I hope I can do it soon.

On the other hand I'll stop my blog research for a long while so that I can finish my insider-based research regarding my B-Schools wish list.

By the way, it was Newton who wrote to Robert Hooke in 1676: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants".

Is the glass half empty or half full?

I forgot to tell that I'm spending most of my "free" time (for instance, when I'm lying with my baby boy) to finish reading the blogs I'm using as a guide (they are on the right side). I'm just finishing "In between dreams", it's really a helpful blog. I think I'll need to make a second part of my "Standing on the shoulders of giants" post.

With regard to the title: my birthday is on next Saturday, so I will be 35 just for a few more days. I think I'm gaining more experience day by day. Even this endeavor to make my way to a top international MBA is a new kind of learning. It's an adventure, I will build my own path, I like that.

What about the half empty glass? A friend at college used to say every time somebody celebrated his/her birthday: it's not one more year for you; actually, it's one year less to live. Hmmm... In case of senior applicants this might be sadly true. However, I see the glass half full and expecting for more water to be poured in it ...

God bless the optimists!

Writing on weekdays

Yeah right. I know I said I wouldn't write on weekdays but I only wanted to keep the track of what I've done these last days (including the weekend).

It's kinda tiring all the research one has to do in order to get the adequate insight about the schools to apply for. And it's a harder job when you're an international applicant because it's not so easy to visit all the schools you intend to apply. Fortunately, I found very supportive students that let me ask them about their experiences with this or that school so that I have a better idea about the particularities and differences among top B-Schools.

Unfortunately for me, this is just the time most students are starting working on their summer internship so I have to wait a few days for their reply. I think it's not so bad anyway, I guess I'm not the only one trying to contact them. That's why I'm doubly grateful to those who are writing to me almost every other day.

I took the last days to build my career timeline. I would share my template if I knew how to attach an Excel file into the blog, if someone knows how to do it please let me know. By the way, I was really surprised when I realized that my "workaholic stage of life", as I call it, matches almost perfectly with the time I didn't attend any long course (I mean Diploma, Specialization, Master, etc.). I know this let me gain invaluable work experience and add some achievements to my list but the coincidence puzzled me.

Anyway, regarding my career timeline, one question popped up: ¿what's really an achievement and a failure for top B-Schools? When you have many achievements (and some setbacks), this is really a concern. I asked to the gurus and current students in order to clarify that point. I think Linda's advice (from Accepted.com) summarizes better the point: preferred achievements are: being promoted as a result of an outstanding performance, and significant contribution in a team project (no matter the role). On the other hand, a failure or setback always teaches a lesson that changes our mind someway. Of course there are some nuances but that's the main idea.

What else? Well, I asked many questions regarding the schools to my new insider friends in the schools. They let me contact them either by email or by phone. On the other hand, some schools don't give students info to contact with but they have forums where you can ask all your questions about the school, admissions, etc. The problem with the forums is that almost everyone is out of the school (I said it at the beginning of this post) :-O

Standing on the shoulders of MBA-blogs giants

Have you ever tried a search on Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com.pe/)? It's a specialized articles, papers and other scientific texts seeker, I heard first about it last year while studying in Holland. So, what's this got to do with my application process? Just a phrase in the main page of that searcher: Standing on the shoulders of giants.

I think all MBA applicants do that we stand on others' shoulders in order to do our best in our application process: successful test takers, admitted applicants, alumni and students networks, consultants, specialized forums and also MBA bloggers. I have to thank all this people for giving us all the things they learnt either along their way to MBA or while giving advice to many applicants. As far as I'm concerned, all these "giants" saved me much researching time and let me focus on researching about some specific topics regarding my own process' particularities.

So, what it all comes down to? Here's a list of posts from other bloggers that I found very helpful:

B-Schools info:

• School-specific chat transcripts (from Accepted.com and Clear Admit): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/07/accepted-admissions-consultancy.html
• Choosing the right Business School (Podcast): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/09/not-sure-which-schools-to-apply-to.html
• Best Business Schools for Getting Hired: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2007/02/50-best-business-schools-for-getting.html
• Harvard Info Session (kinda old but thoroughly detailed): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2004/09/harvard-info-session.html
• Wharton Info Session (2006 version): http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2006/11/on-wharton-info-session.html
• Wharton Info Session (kinda old but thoroughly detailed): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2004/10/wharton-info-session.html
• Columbia Info Session (kinda old but thoroughly detailed): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2004/10/columbia-info-session.html
• About INSEAD Info Session: http://rusgirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/about-insead-special-information.html
• About LBS Info Session (in Moscow): http://rusgirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/about-lbs-information-session-in.html

General Admission Tips:

• The Admit's Office Hate List (from BW article): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/08/b-week-article-admit-offices-hate-list.html
• Not sure where to start? (Dave's to-do list): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/09/applying-and-not-sure-where-to-start.html
• Tepper's MBARealityCheck website (interesting): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/09/school-highlight-tepper-announces-new.html
• Books to get for GMAT and essays preparation: http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/10/what-books-should-i-get-in-preparing.html
• About what round to apply in: http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/10/applying-in-which-round-will-improve.html
• Useful MBA Podcasts: http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/10/mba-podcaster-audo-podcasts-available.html
• Best of MBA Blogs 2006-2007: http://blog.clearadmit.com/2007/04/best-of-blogging-2006-2007-results/

Essay Tips:

• Strategic Recommendations for Writing your Admission Essay (Podcast): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/08/mba-podcaster-strategic.html

Interview Tips:

• What to expect at an interview: from the perspective of the interviewer: http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-to-expect-at-interview-from.html
• What to ask when attending the MBA tour (1st and 2nd comments): http://daveformba.blogspot.com/2006/10/gmac-trying-to-make-gmat-testing.html
• How to prepare interviews: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-i-prepared-for-my-interviews.html

Networking Tips:

• The Alumni Connection: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2006/09/alumni-connection_15.html

Recommenders Management Tips:

• "Recommenders Pack": http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2006/09/busy-busy.html
• Provide your recommenders with: http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/2006/12/provide-your-recommenders-with.html

Last month I spent some time reading Dave's blog; hey man, what a good job you did! It took me many hours to read all your posts, but I think it was worth the time. Thanks Asiangal & Rusgirl as well, your blogs are really helpful.

Asking the Admission Gurus

Some blogger friends suggested me to ask Admission Consultants for free advice. I found four of these gurus in the BusinesWeek Graduate forums (http://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools/start/). You have to create an account and register for free but I think it's a good deal.

The experts I asked about my situation are:

• Alex (from MBAApply.com: http://www.mbaapply.com/)
• Linda (from Accepted.com: http://www.accepted.com/)
• Sandy (from Cambridge Essay Service: http://world.std.com/~edit/index.htm)
• Graham (from ClearAdmit.com: http://www.clearadmit.com/)

By the way. Clearadmit home page offers a free initial assessment if you send them your CV. I think it's a great thing that those consultants offer free advice through the BW forum so that one can decide after chatting with them if hiring their services is a good idea. From my point of view, I think the price of their service is quite expensive for most people from emerging countries.

They agreed in the fact that my application's enemies are my 10+ years of experience and my previous local MBA. On the other hand, my strong points are my nationality and my low 700+ GMAT score. Besides, clear career goals are a must for my application process; although I didn't tell them about my career goals in specific terms, I do have clear professional goals and plans for my future years, that plan includes a top MBA as an important step.

Regarding BW Forums, many bloggers advice not to check the forums about failures to getting accepted because it's too depressing. They say it's full of stories of gifted and outstanding candidates who didn't make the grade. My advice regarding this is: build your own way, if you think there are some schools that fit for you, just go for them! There's no worse decision than doing nothing and giving up before the race starts. Don't compare yourself with others, just trust yourself.

By the way, we have a saying here in my country: when God closes one door in front of you he opens another one for you.

Essay Tips from Accepted.com

Last week I subscribed to Accepted.com and I got a minicourse by email called "5 Fatal Flaws Mini-Course". I'm copying here part of the introduction mail:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes in writing essays, applicants make the right noises, including "leadership" "communications skills," "teamwork," and "analytical abilities." They may even embellish their essay with a rhetorical flourish or two, but their essays are as empty and occasionally as nonsensical as my grandson's baby talk - and a lot less cute.

By signing up for this mini-course, you are ensuring that you will know what the 5 Fatal Flaws of MBA Essays are and how to avoid them. Without further a due...

5 Fatal Flaws of MBA Essays:

1. Lack of substance - nothing demonstrating the qualities claimed.
2. Failure to answer the question.
3. Clichéd.
4. Superficial.
5. Muddled thinking.

Enjoy Accepted.com's complimentary five day email mini-course that will help you write engaging, revealing personal statements and application essays.

------------------------------------------------------------------

The related pieces of advice they send in the remaining emails are:

Avoid Fatal Flaw #1: Bring your essays to life with self reflection and astute use of examples balanced by analysis.

Avoid Fatal Flaw #2: Keep the application alive. Answer the question.

Avoid Fatal Flaw #3: Write pointed and direct answers to the questions.

Avoid Fatal Flaw #4: Use specific examples to distinguish yourself.

Avoid Fatal Flaw #5: Thinking clearly and honestly before beginning to write.

Thanks Linda!

Starting to network top B-Schools alumni and students

One of the best things one can do to get valuable knowledge about a school is contacting alumni or current students. This is an advice I got from blogger friends and I totally agree. Nowadays, I have sent some mails to former or current students in order to know their insight about my main concerns about my application process age (or work experience, if you want) and previous local MBA.

By the way, I still don't have any reply from INSEAD, but I already got the one from NYU:

• NYU: Students who have earned an MBA outside the U.S. are eligible for admission. We do not have a minimum age requirement for the program. In order to be eligible to apply for the MBA program, you must hold a bachelor's degree from an accredited college (or its international equivalent). You are not eligible to apply if you already hold an MBA from a US institution. The admissions committee looks at academic potential, career history and goals and personal characteristics.

Not so bad, they talk about minimum age requirement, not maximum. Anyway, I sent them another email in order to clarify that point. I'll contact alumni or students directly to ask about my getting-a-job-after-the-MBA-and-near-the-40s concern.

At this point, I've started emailing to either current or former students from my selected schools. I hope I finish my initial contacts next week. Their help will be crucial for me because I don't know any alumni from my country (except one from HBS who is a friend of a friend) and even though I can talk about my MBA intentions with some of my friends or relatives, they don't know much about these top MBAs world. Besides, only a few people in my country speak English, so I will really need the help of my starting "top MBA alumni and students network" not only to get advice and insight from inside but also to help me reading and validating my essays. I hope they're not going to feel overwhelmed doing these favors to me.

By the way, I found very supportive students at RSM Erasmus and Columbia (the schools whose students I contacted so far).

I also registered to these forums:

• Wharton student2student: http://s2s.wharton.upenn.edu/wh-wharton
• Chicago students forum: http://www.chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/forums/

Moreover, I think any top B-School should have a kind of ambassador student in any country; that would be really useful in order to talk face-to-face with someone who has lived the experience at this or that school, specially for international students like me and many other applicants.

Building my MBA Intelligence Center

I started this blog as a way to help me through my application process, so I think I should link it to the main websites I regularly visit. I even included some historical information about links that I don't click much nowadays but that were very helpful some time ago. I hope it also helps my visitors.

The tools I added include one MBA info seeker to find useful information about B-Schools, MBA blogs, GMAT stuff and other free resources on the web directly from this site. On the other way around, I wish I knew how to upload Excel files to the posts I write. It would be really helpful if I could download and check the info at any place, not only at home from my own laptop.

By the way, time management it's a real concern when you have a demanding full-time job, an ongoing personal project and a newborn baby boy while researching about B-Schools and trying your best to get accepted. Fortunately, I managed to leave the office no later than 8 pm and dedicate the nights to contact alumni and admission officers from my target B-Schools. On the other hand, I spend most of the weekends' mornings and afternoons with my baby boy while my wife tries to take some rest; thank God my baby boy is very calm and not used to crying for everything. I also take advantage of this time to read some MBA blogs that I downloaded to my Palm handheld.

About social life, I almost said goodbye to it except for a few holidays and important birthdays. I'll have more time after I complete all the requirements for the admission process. I know it's worth the sacrifice.

E-mails back and forth

Last week I started to send emails to the B-Schools in my "wish list" in order to determine if I won't be eliminate because of my age or previous MBA. Fortunately, most of them don't regard these facts as disadvantages.

The summary is this:

B-Schools that don't have any problem regarding either age of applicants or previous MBA

• Wharton: You can read directly from http://forums.prospero.com/wh-wharton/messages?msg=18556.4. Try this post as well: http://diaries.wharton.upenn.edu/PostDetails.asp?RecordID=2437
• Harvard: They don't use age as a criteria for applicants and allow applicants with previous MBA.
• Columbia: Having previously completed an MBA at another institution will not necessarily decrease your chances of acceptance. As for your age, age is not a factor in admissions decisions. Our age spread for the entering Class of 2006 was 21-43.
• Schulich (Canada): They don't have any problem with that.
• London Business School: An MBA from another school will not be a disadvantage to applying for London Business School MBA, however, you will need to explain in your application the reason why you are seeking London Business School MBA. Again, we do not have age barrier to the London Business School admissions process – admission is purely on merit of the candidate.

Replies with special comments

• RSM Erasmus: The policy at RSM is not to accept candidates who already have a MBA, but we do evaluate on a case to case basis. As long as you clearly state in your essay why you deem it necessary to undertake another MBA programme and specify why you want to obtain the degree from our school.
• Stanford: Certainly, work experience such as yours would contribute to the class. We would welcome your application. Some candidates with more experience find our Sloan Program more attractive than the 2-year MBA so you might wish to consider that as well. Information can be found at http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sloan/. (By the way, they don't eliminate applicant with previous MBA either.)
• Chicago: I would first let you know that already having an MBA is a concern. The committee may wonder what you missed from your first one. You will have to do a very convincing job explaining the need for a 2nd MBA. (About age: age range of 2006 class reaches 39 years)

Still waiting for reply

• INSEAD (France & Singapore)
• NYU (Stern)

One important thing is that I must state convincingly in my essays why I need to take another MBA, what I expect for it and how it fits in my long-term and short-term career goals. Anyway, my B-Schools list is getting in shape.

Writing to schools: Goodbye IMD's MBA

A few weeks ago I started to write some emails to the schools I selected and asked them for opinions and comments for some of my main concerns about my long-term goals after the MBA. My right-after-MBA goal is to internationalize my career and become a worldwide top executive; regarding this, my primary concerns are the following:

1. I already have a local MBA. Is it a disadvantage? I'm applying to top B-Schools because I think the best way to internationalize my career is through a top MBA. Since the MBA I got previously was mostly focused on local companies, I need the best platform to launch my career abroad.
2. I'm 35, and by the time I would start studying at IMD I'd be 37 (my birthday's in June), would this be a disadvantage? Obviously, this is a trade-off, I have many years of mid-management experience but I don't know if my age would be a problem.
3. My family is very concerned about my chances to get a job after the MBA. I mean, in case I got accepted and had a good academic performance (I know I can), would it be easy for me to get a job despite my age?

If it's up to me, I mean, my will and abilities, I know I can have a very good performance. However, it won't be worthwhile whether I have minimum or no chances to get in because of the first two reasons. In addition to that, the third point is critical, I have to be confident that I won't be excluded of any hiring process because of my age. I mean, I know this is an invalid practice in the US but I don't know whether it only applies for US citizens.

I know B-Schools and their policies are related to my first and second points, while a current or former student with similar conditions to mine would be the most suitable source in order to help me clarify my thoughts about my third concern.

The curious point here was that IMD answer discouraged me to apply for the international MBA, they suggested me to apply for the Executive MBA instead because of my experience. They told me that participants of their MBA program have t ypically an average of 7 years work experience and the class average age is 31. On the contrary, IMD's Executive MBA targets executives with at least 10 years of experience and the average age is approximately 39; besides, it is a general management, leadership, and execution-oriented program, that combines face to face modules with distance learning.

Although I look up to IMD as a top European B-School, I'm not sure whether its EMBA is suitable for me, because it demands students to stay working in the same company while studying. If I followed this rule, I would conflict with my goal about internationalizing my career. Maybe later, not now. So, I think I must drop IMD from my list. Thanks anyway. We'll keep in touch.

Got TOEFL results

Last Friday my TOEFL results were published on the ETS web site, I got 107 (iBT).

I have mixed emotions about this. On one hand, according to ETS comparison table this score is equivalent to 263 CBT points, so I outperformed the 240 points I got last year before I went to Holland. On the other hand, I found this on the Harvard Business School web site:

"The MBA Admissions Board discourages any candidate with a TOEFL score lower than 267 from applying."

So, what does that mean to me? Should I stop applying to HBS?

I don't think so, I won't give up until HBS itself asks me to do it. I'll still be on my way. I think my low 700+ GMAT score and my 107 TOEFL iBT score show I have the ability to the well studying the most demandings MBAs.

Anyway, another good thing about TOEFL iBT is that ETS gives you detailed information about your strengths and weaknesses about English. The web page is https://toefl-registration.ets.org/TOEFLWeb/extISERLogonPrompt.do

My TOEFL detailed score is attached. It's clear that speaking is my weakest point. So I have to prepare myself very well for the interviews I expect to have with schools representatives. Overall, it's not so bad, my reading, listening and writing abilities are on the top TOEFL level, and my speaking abilities are on the fair/good level, where good is the top.

So far so good. Next step: Confirm or change some of the 8 schools I'll apply to.

Helping hands along the way

By the time I was attending the TOEFL course, I started to search application tips on the Internet and I also asked some friends for advice.

That's the way I discovered the MBA blogs. Some of them are more focused than others but you can always learn from others' experience. These are my favorite MBA Blogs:

• Asiangal : http://asiangalmba.blogspot.com/
• Rungee Goes to School : http://rungee582.blogspot.com/
• Run Forrest, Run : http://run-forrest.blogspot.com/
• In between dreams : http://thembasaga.blogspot.com/
• etc and etc... : http://i4iday.blogspot.com/
• A young girl's MBA journey at UCLA Anderson : http://youngmbagal.blogspot.com/

I even emailed some of them asking for advice and found they're very helpful people. Thank guys!

Regarding blogs, I found one interesting but looooooooooooong one, called "Journey to my MBA" (http://daveformba.blogspot.com/index.html). I have read almost the middle of this blog and it seems endlessly long. However, I recommend to you read some interesting sections of it like the visits to Harvard and Wharton that Dave did at the beginning of his journey. He also recommends everyone ask some general questions to Graham at http://www.clearadmit.com/. Well, most of the blog so far is about Dave's concerns in regard to GMAT. I hope he finally has got accepted to the school he chose.

By the way, Blogger guys haven't think about the problems one has to face when trying to read old blogs from the beginning. There should be a way to read blogs easily from the first post to the last one. Since I didn't have enough time to stay connected I built an Excel worksheet in order to turn out my favorites blogs into Word-friendly versions and, this is the best, re-arrange the oldest post at the beginning and the newest at the end. I'm attaching a picture of my spreadsheet. I might share it with everybody if I knew how to upload Excel files to this blog.

Anyway, besides reading these blogs I started chatting with my friend Georgi (from Georgia, former USSR republic), I met him at Maastricht (Holland) and I knew he was applying to Cambridge (UK). I'm very happy he finally did it. Now, he's also giving me some advice about application process issues. I also must thank my friend Pomme for giving me so many tips and pieces of advice about how to improve my English, I would never be on this way without your help.

Last but not least, I thank my wife and new-born baby boy for being supportive to me and let me dedicate some time to prepare my way to an international career.

My GMAT and TOEFL scores on their way to B-Schools

Finally, this is the list to B-Schools where my results are addressed to:

1. Harvard University - Harvard Business School - MBA, Full Time (Both Tests)
2. University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School - MBA (Both Tests)
3. London Business School - London Business School - MBA, Full Time (Both Tests)
4. INSEAD - France & Singapore - Business Programs - MBA, Full Time (Both Tests)
5. Erasmus University - RSM Erasmus University - MBA, International, Full Time
6. IMD - International Institute for Management Development - Business Programs - MBA, Full Time
7. York University - Schulich School of Business - MBA, International (Both Tests)

(Erasmus & IMD don't require TOEFL results)

By the way, I was surprised how the GMAC thing works. Just after I received my GMAT score, some B-schools I hadn't selected started sending me emails encouraging me to apply for their own MBA programs. I can remember the following: University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Purdue University (Germany), University of California, Berkeley (not MBA, just Master in Financial Engineering), University of San Diego, Melbourne Business School (Australia). University of Rochester (Simon GSB) and some more. Some of them even send me their information by normal mail. It's kind of distracting. Sorry fellas, I know you belong to well-renowned schools and you're doing your job pretty good but my goal is clear and I know the path goes through a top-ranked B-School. Maybe next time, when I look for a specialized course.

I'm planning to apply for 8 top MBAs so that I would have more chances to get accepted, at least in one of them. I'm sure about almost all the list above but York University. I like Canada, I've been to Montreal two or three years ago, and it was a pretty nice city. Also, I like the cool weather, I think that lets you think better. However, I'm not sure if Schulich (ranked 49 at FT ranking) is one choice I keep. So, I might have room for one or two more schools to apply for.

Ready to beat the TOEFL

I had already took the TOEFL last year, but it was the CBT TOEFL. I scored 240 and it was enough to apply for my Financial Management studies at Holland. I thought it was a pretty good score and I didn't feel disappointed at all. Actually, I was so confident by that time that I scheduled the CBT without any preparation time. In my defense I can say that I didn't have enough time to prepare all the paperwork required for the Finance course and I had to shorten times as much as I could.

Now it was different because I had a more ambitious objective: reaching a score that would give me the chance to get accepted by a top-tier B-School. Now I knew 240 was a poor score for that goal. Because of the good results I got from a GMAT course I decided to take a TOEFL course; but there were a few problems to overcome:

• After I took the GMAT I was so confident about my ability to beat the TOEFL that I scheduled it to take place almost a month after I took the GMAT, in April 28th.
• Every TOEFL preparation course in my country lasted three months at least.

Regarding this, I realized self-study would play a part on my TOEFL results. Luckily, I found another English institute called FLC (Fast Language Center) which provided the course in three months and let me pay only the months I was able to attend. So, I enrolled the course for one month; I was really happy because I would have the opportunity to take trial tests and make up my mind for the D-day; admittedly, simulated tests helped me a lot when preparing for the GMAT. Besides, some friends from the GMAT course brought me very useful material: Josianne provided me the latest OG and Alvaro gave me 10 audio CDs with all the material for an iBT preparation course (I don't know which one because I only asked for the CDs). With all these ammunition in my bagpack I was ready to face the test, a few weeks later.

On the good side, I felt confident because of my GMAT results, so I thought the Reading part wouldn't be a problem, and that I also would do my best in the Writing section. I was really concerned about the Listening and the Speaking part. That's why I wanted to take the trial test as soon as I could, so that I would know what weaknesses I should work on. After I took the first trial, I was pleasantly surprised how good my Listening was; I still remembered that Listening was the hardest part for me in the CBT TOEFL I took last year. Thanks to MSM and my team-mates in Holland (Pomme, Marika, Josie and Madoda) now I was able to do it well in that section. However, Speaking was my weakest ability.

Fortunately, the institute had only two students in my class so I could convince the teacher to reinforce our speaking abilities and she did more practice on that. Besides, I found some Speaking TOEFL-like questions in the CDs I got, so I started listening to them in my car every time I was driving; so I listened to the questions and tried to answer them (I must have been looked like a crazy man talking to himself to the other drivers). In addition to that, I found some online American talk radio stations in my Palm's playlist so I started listening to them every night because I didn't want to lose the listening ability I had improved when studying in the Netherlands.

By the way, the radio stations I listened by that time were:

• KUOW (NPR, BBC and local news and talk. University of Washington): http://www.kuow.org/listen/listen_live.asp
• WBUR (Boston's news station): http://www.wbur.org/listen/
• WNYC (New York Public Radio): http://www.wnyc.org/

One problem international students face is that it's not easy to find someone to talk to in English. And when you find someone you always ask yourself whether you're talking the right English or a sort of "local English". I started reading some blogs where former TOEFL takers said they started speaking only in English at their homes the entire month just before taking the test; I thought "I wish I could but in my country that's not possible".

Anyway, I tried my best in order to practice speaking as much as I could.

Finally, the D-day came. I know I did a good job, but I didn't know if it was enough.

A few GMAT tips

I am not a GMAT expert or anything but I think I can share some insights that helped me through the process. Although I don't know how many people is reading this blog, I think it might be useful, if not for current readers, at least for some of my friends (specially for non-English native speakers), so I'll try to summary some clues I learnt from my GMAT experience. Don't laugh at me if you think these things are really basic, I must confess I didn't know anything about the GMAT before I took the course.

I started reading in English many years ago, when I was a teenager; actually I like reading a lot (in any language). It's kind of relaxing to me, I think that helped me a little, because you get used to reading some grammatical structures and later on it's easier for you to identify whether a structure is right or wrong in a test. However, I think I can still improve my English a lot.

In addition to that, I've always been good at math. And math is like a special language, it doesn't matter if you speak English or not. Many times, when I looked at some GMAT questions I could see that math is a type of universal language. I mean, if you have a figure with the two legs of a right triangle and you need to find its hypotenuse, do you need to speak any particular language? So, I think the quant part is not that hard to beat because of English, but because of math itself. Besides, I agree with people who say that languages are a kind of math thing because they have rules and structures. In my case, reading habits and some ability with numbers helped me a lot in order to take the most of the GMAT course. My humble opinion: start with math and reading.

Regarding useful pieces of advice, don't forget the following:

Quant part

• Be careful with the easy-looking questions, read carefully and don't miss easy points. In every simulation, I failed in this type of questions.
• Don't take it personal if a question looks so hard for you, just guess and skip to the next. One question is not worth so much time.
• Use the AD / BCE strategy in data sufficiency, if it helps. In my case, it did help.
• Read the text carefully, you might find some clues like: "If x and y are positive numbers then ..."
• When facing inequalities: don't forget negative numbers can also be right answers (specially for DS part), unless the text goes on the contrary.
• Use diagrams and figures every time it's possible, it's more helpful than writing data.
• When you come up with a quick answer, check again. You might have missed some important data.
• Don't memorize formulas, it's better to understand the rationale underlying each solution.

Sentence correction

• When you see an answer using the word "being", most of the times it's not the right answer.
• "Not only" always come with "but also"
• Look carefully the subject-verb agreement thing
• When finding a modifier between commas, read and determine if it makes sense. Usually, It has to modify the noun right before the first comma.
• Don't get lost in long sentences, just identify the subject, verb and modifiers as fast as you can and solve the question.

Critical Reasoning:

• Read the question first, then carry on with the statement. This will let you focus on the answer while reading the statement.
• Read the questions carefully, don't miss the underlined words: EXCEPT, NOT, etc.
• Cause-effect-type questions can be solved easily if you identify first the cause and the effect. Most of them ask you to weaken the argument: "Which of the following... would undermine the most ... the conclusion?" The easiest way to solve this is to find an answer that states there's another cause to produce the same effect.
• Hardest questions (at least for me): logical comparison and strengthen the argument

Preparation

• Practice a lot
• Get used to reading in English, you can find tons of articles about almost everything on the Internet.
• Print your trial tests and do them over again. Share your wrong answers with friends or people online to get help from them. I still have all my failed questions printed.
• When you practice with a software-based test, only take timed tests, otherwise it won't help you a bit.
• If you want inspiring stories about how to outperform the test, go to Testmagic forums. I strongly recommend Clintonn's story: http://www.urch.com/forums/just-finished-my-gmat/57777-760-q50-v-44-a.html
• Some of my Testmagic questions posted:
• http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-data-sufficiency/66213-hard-question-about-remainders-2-m-p-m-not-factor-p.html?highlight=dahz
• http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-data-sufficiency/66264-help-x-y-positive.html
• http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-data-sufficiency/66265-data-sufficiency-about-interest-rate.html

Finally, remember that GMAT is a world itself. That's why so many people talks about "The GMAT world". In your test, you might find some answers that make sense and are commonly used by people but remember that GMAT gives points to the best GMAT-like answer, not necessarily the best natural answer. You can find lots of these discussions in the Testmagic forum.

PS: I don't know if my teacher would like to receive some comments from anyone who reads this blog. He used to say he was constantly in touch with GMAT experts online and helping people as a way to improve his GMAT teaching methods. I'm going to ask him if he lets me put his email address here.

About the GMAT

From the beginning I knew GMAT would be one of the hardest steps in my way to a top-MBA, specially if Harvard and Wharton are in my list. So I decided to take a preparation course here in my city.

Finding an institute was not difficult, the problem was how to select the best one. I had heard that many colleagues took their preparation course at CIUP (http://idiomas.up.edu.pe/idiomas/hojas.php?sc=03) so I went to the informational session to get more highlights about the course. Surprisingly, I saw lots of 40+ year-old ladies and children; at first, I thought I had missed the right classroom, but later on I noticed that CIUP used to give information about all their courses (not only GMAT) in only one session. No wonder. Anyway, I realized the course was theory/practice and verbal/quantitative well-balanced, so I decided to get in.

The course was really good. I've read some applicants think GMAT courses are not necessary. In my opinion, it depends on your kind of learning method; in my case I learn better when there's other people to whom I can ask and discuss about the topics I don't get easily; besides, in this type of race against time I need a structured program. I think I have some ability to learn languages but that's not enough for me. By the way, I scored 240 last year in TOEFL (CBT), I needed to take it before going to Holland, so I was a little bit confident about my English ability. However, that's quite far from top-tier B-Schools minimums.

The course structure was pretty good. It was something like this: we had 2-hour classes from Monday to Friday, from 7.30 to 9.30 pm, perfect for people like me who are currently working at a company with no end-of-the-day hour. The quant days were Tuesday and Thursday while the verbal days were the remaining. In every class we had a section called "the mini-class" in which our teacher taught us some important tips and tricks about the test in addition to some review of grammar and math topics. Besides, in the even weeks we had a trial GMAT test (on Wednesdays) - no AWA part - and, in the odd weeks we had an AWA trial (on Fridays). I think the program was really focused on get the most of the students, I think that's why some people left the course before finishing it, almost 50%.

Before I stop talking about the course I must say that we had in-class exercises and homework every day, so we were forced to think GMAT almost every day during those three months (from January to March). We did lots of exercises from Kaplan, OG11, OG10, Manhattan, etc. I knew it was a lot of time investment but I think it was undoubtedly worthwhile. On the top of that, I made some friends at the course.

From the beginning, our teacher, Pedro, encouraged us to exploit some free web resources specially Testmagic (http://www.testmagic.com/gmat/). Regarding this, I think the best thing in Testmagic are its forums (http://www.urch.com/forums/). I highly recommend that forum for all prospective GMAT takers, it helped me a lot when I was close to my test date; I asked many questions to the forum and there was a lot of helping and supportive people. There were also some inspiring stories about 700+ scored test takers in which they explain thoroughly how they did to outperform the 700.

Anyway, I always knew I had to take advantage of this demanding course to do my best in the GMAT. So I scheduled my test the Monday right after the last class (the course ended on a Friday). In retrospective, I cansee it was really a good decision, because I didn't have time to make my mind think anything else than GMAT.

Finally I scored low 700+. Not bad. Anyway, although my GMAT score wasn't very high (I almost reached high 700+ at trials), I was not that disappointed. I hope it's good for my purposes anyway.

Selecting a B-School

First of all, I have to say I'm not just starting the process, I started in late December right after I came back from Holland. Now I'm about to start task 5, according to my top-MBA plan. Anyway, I think it's important to record all the things done until this point.

About my initial B-School selection, I considered first my long-term goal: internationalizing my career, so I had to choose B-Schools that might maximize my chances to accomplish this objective. Also, I had to consider my age, 35, and experience, 13 years (since I was a rookie), as critical factors because I need to be completely sure that the B-Schools I will apply for would give me the maximum chance to get a good job after I graduate from the MBA course. As a result, I had to consider only top MBAs, so I started searching some rankings specially Financial Times. One cool ranking I found was one that summarized many rankings all over the world (Financial Times, Business Week, Forbes, etc.). I'm attaching this ranking here, it's called Ranking of Rankings.

Besides, I wanted to make a mix between American and European Schools because I think I might take that leap to an international career not only in the USA but also in Europe or Canada. Moreover, I studied a Diploma in Holland and I know quality is not exclusive from American schools.


I read and compared many rankings and selected these 11 schools (order is not relevant):

• London Business School (UK)
• INSEAD (France)
• IMD (Switzerland)
• RSM Erasmus (Netherlands)
• York University - Schulich (Canada)
• Wharton
• Harvard
• Stanford GSB
• Columbia
• Chicago GSB
• New York University - Stern

I discarded Spanish B-Schools, even though I know IE (Instituto de Empresa) and IESE are top tier B-Schools, because I want to improve my English and learn, if possible, a third language. Due to the fact that Spanish is my native language, I think if I studied at a Spanish B-School I might practice English only while studying but not when shopping or watching TV, etc. That was my point.

After this first selection I prepared a worksheet with some basic information of these schools. According to my long-term goal, I defined two types of criteria: Profitability (including pay-back related aspects and foreseen average salaries) and Acceptability or "Chances to get accepted" (including % of South-American students, age, years of experience and others). According to those kinds of criteria I made the spreadsheet attached.


As a result, I could clearly see that Wharton, Harvard and INSEAD should be on my list anyway. I also selected IMD due to its low pay-back. Finally, I also included LBS and Erasmus because of the chance to take a less-than-2-year MBA.

Those were my five first choices. However, I decided to apply to a number of schools between six and eight.


Once I finished this, I was ready to take the GMAT.

The plan

When I came back home from Holland, by the end of 2006, I was ready to start applying an international MBA. That's the last step in my way to become an international top executive.

However, applying to an international MBA doesn't guarantee by itself the fact that I will get a good job in order to relaunch my career abroad. So my primary concerns are about selecting the appropriate schools. This was the first step on my plan to apply for a top MBA.

The complete list of tasks in my top-MBA plan is this:

1. Select B-schools
2. Take the GMAT
3. Take the TOEFL
4. Last validation of B-Schools to apply for
5. Draft an outline my career and academic achievements
6. Look for essay-like questions of selected B-Schools
7. Prepare main trial essays and let them be checked by others
8. Select referees
9. Prepare final essays and check them
10. Ask referees for recommendation letters
11. Get the official transcripts of my academic achievements
12. Last validation of the round I should apply
13. Submit my information
14. Get accepted!!!

I always believed writing your plans and objectives always helps you reaching them. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy, you can start tasting the flavor of the moment when you achieved your goal. That raises your moral and gives you stamina when you start getting weak facing some problems.

At first, I would like to apply in the first round so that I don't have much time to waste. As I said before I'm currently working and I also dedicate some time to one personal project: launching my own business. According to my experience at the telecom company, my job will demand much of my time from Monday to Friday until 8 pm more or less; besides, I have to dedicate at least one or two nights a week to my own-business project; on the top of that, my family (wife and baby boy) also needs my attention and help.

In conclusion, I would only have two nights a week to dedicate to my top-MBA plan. However, I'll try to get the most of the weekend to that as well. Blogging is a weekend thing, blogging on weekends will be enough to keep my head aligned with the short-term tasks and goals. It's a deal (with myself).

The trigger

For me, the most difficult part of my plan to become an international top executive was undoubtedly to attend a short course abroad.

Actually, I had attended a 10-day seminar at Harvard Extension School in June 2004, as an optional extra of the local MBA I was attending at that time. The problem was that all the people who went to that seminar were from the same country, so it's easy to conclude that it was not a multicultural experience. However I had the opportunity to visit Boston and Harvard University itself though we didn't have many opportunities to find out about applying to Harvard because of our schedule (we were in class from 9 to 6).

So I realized I had to get another short course. So I started to look for that type of courses in 2005, mainly at Fundacion Carolina. This is a Spanish institution which provides courses (most of them with almost-full scholarships) for Latin American people. If you want to know more about this the website is http://www.fundacioncarolina.es/. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of the courses at that time. In 2006 I tried again and I also tried to apply for a short course at Maastricht School of Management (MSM), in the Netherlands, a well-renowned school for giving students from developing countries the opportunity to update their knowledge in a multicultural academic environment.

I applied to MSM and I get accepted, so I took the 12-week Diploma in Financial Management. As I told Mr. Dorus Evekink, Director of the program, all we students received three benefits from that invaluable experience:

1. The opportunity to improve our academic skills,
2. The opportunity to know people (now friends) and cultures from all over the world, and
3. The chance to visit beautiful places in not only Holland but also other European countries.

I really got the most of that experience, I would strongly recommend you MSM as a Business School where you can learn from those three aspects while studying a short course. Besides, Holland is a beautiful country. By the way, if you're interested their web page is http://www.msm.nl/. Well, I should stop this now because I could write an entire blog only about the MSM experience. Anyway, I learnt that I also could be a strong student attending classed, making presentations, discussing cases and leading some tasks all in English.

In summary, the MSM experience made more confident in my ability to study and work in a multicultural environment and this also made me think: the time has come, now I have to start applying for a top international MBA.

The pursuit of a dream

Well, I think a blog is a good help in order to organize all the tasks and paperwork related to applying for a top B-School MBA. I hope it can also help me improve my writing, that would be ok to me.

I'm 35 and working at a Telecom company in my country. I also have a local MBA. So the question is: why another MBA now? The answer is very simple: I graduated from university in 1995 (Industrial Engineering) and my goal was always to build a strong career in my country and then jump to a foreign job, I mean my goal was to become an international top-executive. Previous steps in this way were:

* get a job in a multinational company,
* develop a strong career within that company,
* build some strong relations with important executives (bosses)
* strengthen my strengths and overcome my weaknesses,
* keep studying in order to be updated with state-of-the-art knowledge,
* take a short international course as a way to prove my abilities in a multicultural context
* improve my fluency in English
* develop some personal hobbies and projects to pour some fun into my life.

Finally I'm here, all these steps done and one additional benefit that came along: many years of experience. I think now I'm eager to become an international executive. Maybe I took so long, according to the age of most MBA bloggers. However, I think applying for a MBA it's not a matter of age or even experience, it's a matter of readiness. And this is my time, that's why I started the process just a few months ago.

As a matter of fact, I'm not just starting right now. However, I will write some others posts describing my way to this point from the time I knew it was time to start applying.