Thursday, June 14, 2012

Working on those essays

So I started working on my first essay for Stanford (what do you REALLY want to do). Am toying between 2 approaches and wrote about 100 odd words before getting distracted by the Portugal Denmark match in the ongoing Euro 2012 competition. I guess building momentum is key for writing essays, and I'm starting with Stanford as I feel it's a very introspective and connected app. Will lead to clarity of thought and faster progress on other apps.

I also registered for the Stanfrd GSB event in Delhi n 13th August. Pls go to their admissions events page to check their Tavel schedule and if they are accepting registrations. Cheers!

Monday, June 4, 2012

And we're off!

Seems adcoms are up early this year from hibernation. Harvard has already released its essays along with a post explaining changes about a week ago. Tuck announced application deadlines while Columbia announced both essays and deadlines. And now, Stanford has joined in and declared the essays for the upcoming app season, although not the deadlines.

HBS and Stanford are schools I am definitely applying to and hence to have an early start on essays for these schools is very welcome. Tuck is another school I love and will probably apply to as a reapplicant.

Stanford's essays are unchanged from last year, while HBS has thrown a big surprise by revamping essays completely. I can bet my bottom dollar that the school will definitely see more people 'trying' to get in - basically HBS will end up attracting a lot of aspirers than it otherwise would, due to 'simplification' of the essays. This doesn't necessarily translate into an increase in overall applications, and hence HBS might see applicant pool quality actually go down.

I have a very interesting thought on Stanford's what matters most to you and why, and hence for the next 2 weeks or so I'm gonna write a huge essay, without caring for word limits, and see how it turns out. The topic I intend to write about is very very close to me as an individual and one I strongly believe in, plus I have umpteen examples/impacts to accompany the story. Hopefully my review team (which is composed of my friends at Yale and Wharton Business Schools, and maybe a couple of cousins) will find the first draft worthy enough to consider.

Is it too early to start? I dont think there's a definitive answer to that - to each his own. Let the proverbial juices flow!