Applying to b-schools in USA is a lengthy and a brutal process. What they need is your GMAT, TOEFL test scores, a couple of recommendation letters, Academic Transcripts and Essays. All others manageable, you are bound to struggle with the essays the most.

For fun, try answering these sample questions:

Describe an ethical issue you have faced in your professional life and how you dealt with it. What was the outcome?
Describe a time when you felt a strong sense of purpose in your life.
To be successful in life, you must be able to distinguish between a fleeting trend and a permanent development. Tell us of a time when you had to make such a distinction.
If you are allowed to change one of your personal or professional characteristics, what would you change, and why?
What would you consider the biggest failure or disappointment in your life?
Please tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular. How did others react? Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did.
Describe how your personal qualities, skills or characteristics made an impact on a person, group, or organization. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did

I was clean bowled when I first read them. The big universities have a stringent screening process (that’s obvious), while other schools will just ask you to write a statement of purpose and a couple of topics. Currently, my target university list goes like this: Chicago GSB, MIT (Sloan), New York (Stern), Cornell (Johnson), Purdue (Krannert) and Pittsburg (Katz). I’m most likely to add Harvard too.

I turned to my friends for every bit of information they knew about me – my failures, success, positives, negatives, stories and incidents. Sheetal (aka sheeba, aka guni baal) helped me analyze the questions and got my brain working. I also nagged my current boss Amit, who gave candid suggestions. Now I shall run to the other genius friends who will proofread and tear my essays apart.

phew!

¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte | Tags: MBA