Friday, February 27, 2009

Fingers Crossed

I am sorry about the sporadic posts, but this was one time of my life when I started hating the activity of writing.
I was applying to a very reputed, very prestigious MBA College in Belgium and as a part of my application had to write '12 essays' to let the admissions committee know more about me. It took me a week to write those essays and to finally hit the submit button on my application and I think that there's nothing left about my life that the adcom won't know now (except my love life). I wrote and re-wrote those essays because I am dying to go to that school, and totally exhausted myself in the process. After doing the final add-a-comma, delete-a-word thing on my essays, I reviewed my application again and to my horror discovered that if I want to apply for a scholarship I have to write another essay building my case. This was new for me; I have applied to 2 colleges so far and at both places all applicants are automatically considered for scholarship. I was not prepared for it and by now harbored a severe contempt for writing essays. I opted, and I still can't believe it, to not apply for the scholarship. I don't know of anyone who does not apply for a scholarship and I think the adcom would think of me as being the richest young female in India, which I am not :-(

Anyway, that was the reason I was not posting on my blog. I wanted a break from writing but it's nowhere to be seen in near future. I have decided to apply to another college, which is in Spain. Although they ask for only 2 essays, but I have to write nonetheless. Therefore, I gave up trying to avoid writing, and returned to my blog. By the way, I also want to ask all my blogdosts, whoever would read this post, to pray for me to get an offer from the B-School in Belgium. I am already so much in love with the school, despite its weird name, Vlerick Leuven Gent School of Management. I told you it's a weird name. However, it is the IIM-A of Belgium, being among the top 100 MBA colleges in the world, with a 1-year MBA that includes a residential program of some weeks at another reputed school in China :-). The only problem is that the average student at Vlerick is almost 30 years old and has 5 years of work-experience. I am counting only on my GMAT score, my diverse profile and my gender to make it to the school, yeah; they try to maintain a female strength of 40% in their very small class of 65 students from around 30 countries. I could go on and on about the positives and I have not even started talking about how good a place Belgium is, with the world's biggest brewery (InBev) having it's headquarters there :-)
Please Please Please pray for me to make it. I am applying to other European colleges too but Vlerick is the place where I really want to go. After writing those 12 essays and taking 8 days to submit my application, I am obsessed with Vlerick. My family silently bears with me while I blabber non-stop about what a certain Indian alumni had to say about Vlerick, what the Director of the Vlerick MBA said to me when I met him while he was in Delhi, what I wrote in my essays and blah blah blah. I would be heartbroken if I don't make it, even though I am very late in applying and I am stretching my chances too far at such a reputed college. But I don't care how far I am stretching my chances, I just want to go there.
Keep watching this space for updates on whether I made it or not :-)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here are a few givens...

1. You will NOT get a scholarship at Vlerick.(for every Indian that is desperate to study anywhere outside India - there is a college that licks its lips in anticipation of a fee paying student).
2. You will find the Vlerick MBA is worthless anywhere outside Belgium.
3. It is highly likely that you will not find employment in Belgium after your MBA as protectionism for locals has been in effect a long long time (unless you're in the banking sector) but that too is not employing anyone anymore.
4. You WILL get admission into Vlerick - they have not been able to fill in their minimum seats for a few years now and so will take ANYBODY.
5. I do believe there are hundreds of other B-schools where one can learn a lot more if that is what you want to do. If all you want is a fancy sounding MBA from a funny sounding school after your name then by all means go ahead with Vlerick.
6. Remember Vlerick is run like a business (with partners!) - they're as concerned as any other business is by meeting sales targets, reputation, credibility and such to really care about what the students learn. Quite a few professors - current and otherwise are a bunch of jokers.

I'm sorry I have not been of much cheer to you. I'm a very disgruntled former student of Vlerick.

Anonymous said...

Nicky,fingers crossed you will sail through :)

@disgruntled former student of Vlerick, Why Anonymous ?

Nikita said...

@Anonymous:
1) I am glad then that I didn't waste my time writing the scholarship essay
2) I have been talking to quite a few alums of Vlerick, and all of them are well placed even outside Belgium
3) No B-School anywhere in the world can guarantee anybody a job. It depends on how well you can sell yourself.
4) If Vlerick had not been able to fill in their miminum seats, they would not have increased their batch size from 45 to 65.
5) I have only one answer to this and that is, Vlerick ranks among the top 10 business schools of Europe, and Europe is where I want to study. Its not just a funny name, its also a big one.
6) I am glad Vlerick is run like a Business. Any self respecting business tries to satisfy its customers (students in this case). Vlerick ranks number 1 in Europe for its placement record of last 5 years according to FT, which means they mean business and get their students placed. Reputation and credibility of a school are built only when its students get placed.

I don't believe that you are an alum of Vlerick, disgruntled though you seem. In case you do happen to be a Vlerick student, then their adcom definitely made a mistake in selecting you.

Nikita said...

@Karan:
Thanks :-)

Unknown said...

me just finishing up my app. let me know how urs goes and i'll do ta same. all the best.

Mister Avant Garde said...

@ nikita:
sure u'll make it in da ... u're smart, u write swell, n u seem real passionate bout this col too :) ... so see, everything's tilted in ur favour girl ...

@ mister killjoy/anonymous:
get a life dude ...

Nikita said...

@Jay:
I sure will post on my blog as soon as I hear anything from them. You can shoot a mail or post a comment on my blog if you do. All the best :-)

@mister avant garde:
Thanks Vinay! That was so encouraging :-)

Spica said...

All the best! :-) You'll do great! just wait and watch.. And if your blog is anything to go by, you must've rocked those essays!

Anonymous said...

We'll pray for you, no doubt, but why in the world didn't you apply for scholarship?!!? Over one essay? I mean, OMG!

Anonymous said...

I pray for you and you pray for my acceptance at VLG :-)

Nikita said...

@Spica:
Thanks ya :)

@unsungpsalm:
Yeah, I do such things on impulse. Should have applied :(

@Anonymous:
Aha, someone who is applying too :D
Will pray for u. BTW I have an offer from Vlerick now :)

Anonymous said...

People,You may all now wish the lady :)

Nicky, I thought it would come out on the blog with a post,the best post of the blog!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Wow.. Congrats!! I read in your earlier blog that you made in. I am still in phase of preparing apps :-(

Hope my prayers would have a tiny share in that :)

If you could please drop me a test mail at gmater08 at the rate of gmail.com

Thanks