Monday, August 18, 2008

OMG an mba post

One of my undergrad juniors got into HBS, class of '10. Weeeeeeeeee !! Very nice. I havent sopken with him in length, but am planning to do so soon. He was a really really bright chap, was the topper (in the top 3 atleast) in perhaps the toughest discipline at my undergrad alma mater (Mech Engg.), an accomplished tabla player and drummer, and a very very good quizzer (though my undergrad quiz team did dish out some serious hidings to them in various inter-college competitions... ok brag time, I was a univ blue in dramatics having won the quizzing event in the 2002 edition of All India University nationals, end of brag), went onto HLL (Unilever of India) as a management trainee I beleive (the toughest job to crack in campus placements at that time), and is now all set to come into HBS. Way to go !!

I also recently discovered that another of my UG junior is in Darden right now, set to graduate next year !!!

Anyhoo as per my MBA goes, I have taken the first baby steps towards the GMAT, meaning ordered the books (whole of manhattan, OG, and ahem ahem cough cough Richard Montauk's book!!)

Now I dont have anything personal against Montauk, but these self help, self development, chicken soup for the soul/mba/life kind of books really get under my skin. Dont get me wrong, I read a lot, but I once tried to read "The world is flat" and then "The monk who sold his ferrarri" (both came highly recommended), and I was cursing in utter frustration within the first 50 pages, the plethora of cliches in those books are mind-numblingly astronomical. Hopefully Montauk lets me get past 50 pages.

But the signs are ominous, another of my friends apping for Fall 09 was all ga-ga over some Morpheus-que matrix that the book supposedly has that can allegedly lay bare your life as soon as you fill it up. Dont know about him, but I would like to believe that my life cannot be strait jacketed and matrixifed as easily as that. But it is supposed to have some adcom winning essays, so it shouldnt be all bad, though my Bullshit-quotient detector will be on high alert. Maybe I'll post a detailed review once the book comes in.

What else, o yea, a shoutout to Forrest Gump for his replies to my email queries. One of the main points of which were, whether an interest in finance (which is probably the reason for my mba quest) should be mentioned in my apps, given that there is NO supporting evidence to back that up. His line was that one can potray oneself as a career changer and thus weave stuff around it, but I am still ultra-skeptical about that. I have a strong case for SC for the energy and commodity space, and as someone pointed out (Soni??), that you should stick with things that you can tie up (Background--->Past exp--->Future goal) into one cognitive entity for the adcom. (This is beginning to sound like a cliche now, belaboring the same point over and over... GAAAHHH)

And to finish this piece off, an OMG sized howler to the Clearadmit folks, somehow my blog never features in their Friday-Frontline reporting !!! Sacrilege !! Clearadmit folks you need some Paris Hilton spice to keep your piece interesting, yea yea I know you have volumes of pages covering essays of all and any school on the planet earth and all that blaah. BUT that gets a bit boring after some-time, what with the often used phrase accompanying any and every essay analysis "Now remember to tie up your experience no.X to your School no.Y fit", "This is a modified version of the career gols essay, but with a few caveats". Guys guys, c'mon, get Paris on board and see your eyeballs double (well maybe not double but you are guaranteed one extra narcisstic eyeball from houston,texas).

Till next time, happy essaying applicants....

11 comments:

matt said...

don't worry, they clearadmit folks will catch on if you write darn good. :)

OMGparishilton said...

@m: WTF, paris hilton writes damn good baby, I am the greatest

TienyChesney said...

haha OMG,
i am surprised that you haven't been on ClearAdmit's blog of blogs... glad that you're setting them straight! also, you must read Montauk's tome. it is seriously the authority. some admissions consultants even recommend you to read the book if you are poor and can't afford their services... that's how good it is.

Anonymous said...

Clearadmit - you know whose turn its going to be this Friday!
I completely agree with you on 'the monk who sold his ferrari', so will trust your judgement on Montauk. Would you recommend it?

OMGparishilton said...

@tieny: I am rich, but cheap, so i ordered the used version for 5 bucks, hopefully the previous user (currently at HBS) has the matrix all filled up

@tryst: I wouldnt touch the "monk" with a fish pole, qpuld let u know what i think of montauk once i get the damn thing baby.

Anonymous said...

Dude, "The world is flat" is a great book ! It gets more interesting in subsequent chapters man... I recommend you give it anutha shot !

Cheers !

Anonymous said...

We’re sorry if you feel your blog has gone unnoticed by us; we at Clear Admit think your blog is great!

We are currently working on a project that we would love to have your help with. If you are interested, please e-mail us at info@clearadmit.com, and we will give you the details.

We wish you the best of luck with the rest of your applications. Keep up the good work with your blog!

PRao said...

awekassam (for the ignorant - hybrid of awe-some and ma-kassam) post... too hilarious... Im pretty sure u will be up in the front of this week's friday frontline!!

Anonymous said...

I like the sound of the "weeeeeeee", very nice blog.

OMGparishilton said...

@anon: no it isnt

@clearadmit: have emailed u folks

@ prao: thanks baby

tinydancer said...

Don't take me as an expert (which too many people do for some reason), but I feel like adcoms have a pretty good bullshit meter themselves and can tell if you are just "weaving a good story" but its not really what your goals are. In the end it doesn't really matter what you say you're gonna do, b/c no one will hold you to it. But you sound a lot more authentic if you tell the truth. Adcoms like that. Just my 2cents.