Living on the edge – INSEAD Housing..

It was a very difficult decision to go to business school with a 3 month old baby. To add to it, it was difficult to decide whether to live in Fontainebleau (nearby INSEAD) or find a house in one of the villages nearby.

Looking for the accommodation i found a reasonably cheaper big house in Arbonne La Foret (about 10 Kms from INSEAD).

Plus side: Village is quite. Beautiful scenery and fresh air

Minus side: Lack of transportation for my wife (as i have only one car). Need to go far for getting groceries. You can easily spend days without getting to see people.

Not to sound bad about living in a village around Fontainebleau, but just to caution that if you are planning to come with your family (specially with young kid), better find a place in downtown Fontainebleau.

House prices vary quite a lot depending on the size and location. It is possible to find a good house within 800 Euro (all utilities include). Invest sometime in finding a good one.

Financial Blues..

In spite of going from pillar to post and asking all banks for the loan, i couldn’t get success in arranging loan from any Indian bank.

French banks such as BNP and BRED made is clear that i couldn’t get a loan from them unless I had a French citizen (preferably blood relative), who could guarantee the loan.

Finally, I saw the ray of hope with Prodigy finance. They agreed to provide about 30K Euros at a decent rate (less than Indian bank rate).

My advice: For any INSEAD aspirant from any developing country (where there are no government loans) to get in touch with prodigy as early as possible after getting the confirmation from INSEAD.

For me, things worked out quite well at the end. I got a 10K Euro scholarship from INSEAD as well. This helped a lot in reducing the tuition burden.

INSEAD offer is out!!

Waiting through thick and thin and very difficult times, i got the much awaited confidential mail from INSEAD admission committee coordinator mentioning that i have been selected for INSEAD MBA Class of December 2009, starting in Fontainebleau on January 5th.

Though both the INSEAD interviewers told me that i have very good chances of getting in, i saw no signs of getting a call untill the due date for R2 final decisions.

Now, waiting for the NV access to have a detailed look at the fellow students profile and so many more details about housing, scholarships, schedule for the program etc.

I am going to make this my official blog site through the MBA program and beyond. It’s not gonna be easy specially when i am going to attend the program with my wife and a 3 month old baby.

Now that i have both HEC and INSEAD offers in hand, its gonna be a tough selection. HEC is great for the access to Europe business network and ideal length of the program. INSEAD on the other hand fits well in a one year course and had a great international reputation. Also, it is higher ranked of the two schools. So, i am currently considering INSEAD as a place to be during the next year..

Next i am going to concentrate on the housing and pre reading list..more about it in the next post…

Journey so far!!

Its been long since my first post. Excuse..well..yeah..i have been busy…not in filling applications, sending application material, chasing recommenders, talking to Adcom…but busy waiting..and really sick of it now…

I ended up applying for HEC and INSEAD. Let me get to the details on both as i had lots and lots of doubt before i really got into and applied for both the programs.

HEC goes first…

Applied in R2 for programme starting Jan 2009. I must say HEC is quite fast in providing results and also in letting you know what’s going on behind the scenes.

I submitted my application on 26th May, 2008. Got the response from HEC EOD the same day. Received pre selection mail and interviewers details on 3rd and 6th June respectively. I contacted the interviewers and got almost immediate responses confirming the interview dates within next 2 weeks.

Both the interviews were soft spoken and it was real pleasure talking to them. Interview format for HEC requires a presentation on your topic of choice for 10 minutes, followed by a question/asnwer session for about an hour. I got most of my questions on my career progression and current job.

i got the call from HEC on 3rd of July and a mail subsequently mentioning that i had been accepted for the programme.

INSEAD…hanging as yet..

I applied for INSEAD earlier than i did for HEC, but due to bigger size of INSEAD intake, time taken in giving final result is longer and hence the waiting…times…

Applied in R2 for Insead as well. Submitted by application on 21st May (2 hours before the deadline). Got the confirmation there on and got the preselection mail on July 4th, 2008. Incidently a day before i got the HEC final results..so obviously felt better that i had something in hand already.

Got the interviewer detail on 8th July and kept chasing the interviewers for a while. Finaly finished both the interviews by Aug 1st and now wait game..is on…

Interviewers wanted to know my experiences of working with foriegners and also checked about the language ability. One of the tricky questions i got was – how would i spend/invest a million dollar:) (i wish i had them to pay the fees:))
The interviewers were very open about the format and i got the feedback about my performance then and there. Some of the key points -
1. Three whys (Why MBA, Why now, Why our school) must be clear to you before the interview.
2. Know your resume well (if you have sumitted one for the interview. My interviewer asked for one)
3. Prepare a couple of leadership examples (preferably other than the one mentioned in the application)

Each day feels like an Era..has passed…still waiting..for the call..

European MBA Diary!!

This is the first write up as i am embarking on a journey for European MBA. MBA was not on my list until i met this situation that further growing, at least at a pace i wanted, in the company required a formal business education.

So, here i am writing the course of journey which takes me towards my dream of getting an European MBA.

Target:
There are four business schools that i am looking at (in alphabetical order)-
1. HEC
2. IE
3. INSEAD
4. IMD

Profile: 
8 Years of work exp (6 Years international)/ GMAT ( 700) / TOEFL iBT (116) / TOEIC (980) / Telecommunications / Indian (EE).
 
Current Status:
Applying to all 4 schools

Please feel free to provide tips or ask help.