Step 4: The application...

This step is really the lynch pin... as if i had to state that... i common guesstimate is that about 20% of the applications are called for interview of which 80% are selected of which about 90% convert...

so the main chaffing happens at the first stage... here you gotta ensure that you have got the credentials that the school is looking for... Hence the research on if the school is a fit for you... you gotta ensure that the experience and GMAT levels you got are good enough to get in the school... these are elementary, but defining criterion...

But most importantly you have to answer the numerous questions the ad comm is asking you in those questions... the most gruelling part for me throughout this process was the constant barrage of same questions in different formats... once asked in passive voice, then active... then change of tense and every time i had the same answer in my mind... i felt like marking like a typical mechanical engineer i am... refer essay number 3 para 2... trust me applying to 5 schools will make your patience go thru the roof and in the end all i wanted to do was copy and paste answers... but patience is all that is tested from the time you gave your GMAT sitting for 5 hours solving elementary questions to writing elementary essays about your own personal experience... and believe me you answering stuff about oneself will never seem this tough to you... at least i am a super-self-critic and hence to write anything good about me or for that matter bad was getting more and more difficult...

Slowly but steadily you will appreciate the slight nuances in the questions asked by each school, as each essay will look seemingly similar but will have extremely different answers... the faster you appreciate this the better for you...

Now the main thing... when i said you have to be sure of why you want to do an MBA, Why now and why from the particular school... cos these will be the main questions asked throughout the essays... and don't try to give standard off the shelf answers... the ad comm have vast experience and they can sense a fake in one look.... so get this answer first...

anyways I personally started with INSEAD, the essays for which i must say i started over 2 years ago and i evolved the essays slowly and steadily. I was confident of the 7 different essays but alas the people who mattered didn't think so. Something similar was the case with HEC, when i wrote 5 different essays and one was a great topic given that if i were to live a life entirely different than my present what would it be... i thot i nailed these essays also... but then they had opposing views... 2 Royal French Rejects...

In between INSEAD and HEC.... i applied to JBS and that was the longest essay set i saw... 13 in all... well the most tricky part of JBS was that just 2 weeks before the deadline, they got a new application form and they changed it completely from the last years form... BIG SURPRISE... but i tell you this form was a test of patience and according to Garima, my best set of essays... worked our ass off working daily till 2 in the nite... well the result... i was waitlisted... WAITLISTED FOR AN INTERVIEW.... who does that man... why ???!!! why??? !!! the agony... and this comes in mid-november... the results were to come out... only in MID FEBRUARY... so the wait began.... then was the last application before my wedding... and that was another slogger with Cranfield... the questions were again all introspection types... no abstracts... got the good news of the interview call for Cranfield couple of days before my wedding... great that it was after our honeymoon....