I was reading HBS blog on admissions. The committee says they are looking for 3 core qualities:
- evidence of leadership
- evidence you actually love intellectual and hard work
- evidence you can have a great impact on my peers
Great. You convey it through different accomplishments, essays and recommendations that are based on what you actually did/do, what people thought of it, and more importantly who you are about.
I know what I am about, and I am love doing my best at work and in the activities I am involved in just because that’s what I do, regardless of applying for top MBA programs.
So this being said, I keep doing what I do, at work, at my different clubs, and still trying to get a fun business going. This will not change much, though I must admit I feel a bit self-conscious about it now.
One thing I believe I have to get out of the way is the GMAT. I did not quite have a 4.0 in college though my GPA was strong, so I feel I have to patch that up a bit. I was looking around and I stumbled upon the Beat the GMAT blog which sounds interesting. If you know of any great resource please let me know.
I have a few books in my Amazon cart, and I will buy them this week:
- Kaplan GMAT 800, 2008-2009 Edition (Kaplan Gmat 800)
- Kaplan GMAT 2008 Premier Program (w/ CD-ROM) (Kaplan Gmat (Book & CD-Rom))
- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
I am thinking about dropping maybe the first Kaplan book. For general MBA preparation I have these:
- How To Get Into the Top MBA Programs, 4th Edition (How to Get Into the Top Mba Programs)
- MBA Admissions Strategy
Reviews look great, so I may as well go with it just to get started. I believe in the next 3-4 months I will (almost) solely focus on the GMAT. If I can’t nail a 720-750+ score great if not I may revise my strategy and go at it again.
That’s all Folks.
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Hey Caeser,
Looks like you are already on the right path. I guess the material for GMAT that you have mentioned would be more than sufficient. For questions’ explanations, OG is the best. There is a reason it is called the bible. I didn’t do that very judiciously. But I see people who follow it meticulously, made it good.
By the way, for sentence correction, the Manhattan SC guide is very good.
All the best.
Are you applying in the 09-10 cycle (class of 2012?) ? If so then hi, me too !!
Hey:
@The Teacher
Thanks for the comment. I’ll check the Manhattan SC guide then, thanks. I’ll update my progress working on with those books.
@ss
Yes! I’m applying for 2012, I figured I’ll get an early start. Great to hear you are too, I’d be glad to know what your strategy is for the whole process.
Yeap, I just recently started attending admission presentations and plan on applying in 2010 for the 2012 class. All the best, look forward to sharing thoughts/strategies.
- Raj (from Canada)
Hey Raj:
Thanks, if you have a blog please let me know, I’ll put it in my blog roll.
Looking forward to knowing what you are up to.
[...] that comes with it. I have now refocused my energy on my MBA dreams. As I have mentioned in another post, I have been reading Richard Montauk’s Howto Get Into the Top MBA Programs (recommended by a [...]