US Colleges Application Deadlines

Dartmouth / Tuck Deadlines 2008-2009

Early Action
Application Due: October 15, 2008
Applicant-initiated Interview Completed by: October 15, 2008
Notification: December 19, 2008
November Round
Application Due: November 12, 2008
Applicant-initiated Interview Completed by: November 12, 2008
Notification: February 6, 2009
January Round
Application Due: January 7, 2009
Applicant-initiated Interview Completed by: January 30, 2009
Notification: March 20, 2009
April Round
Application Due: April 1, 2009
Applicant-initiated Interview Completed by: April 1, 2009
Notification: May 15, 2009

Columbia Deadlines 2008-2009

January 2009 Accelerated Program
Application Review Period Began: April 30th, 2008
Decision Period: Within 8 weeks
Application Deadline: October 8th, 2008
September 2009 Early Decision
Application Review Period Begins: August 13th, 2008
Decision Period: Within 10 weeks
Application Deadline: October 8th, 2008
September 2009 International Applicants
Application Review Period Begins: January 7, 2009
Decision Period: Within 12 weeks
Application Deadline: March 4, 2009
September 2009 U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents
Application Review Period Begins: January 7, 2009
Decision Period: Within 12 weeks
Application Deadline: April 15, 2009

UVA / Darden Deadlines 2008-2009

Round 1
Application Deadline: October 28, 2008
Interviews Conducted: December 5-19, 2008 and January 5-9, 2009
Decisions Release Date: January 30, 2009
Round 2
Application Deadline: January 7, 2009
Interviews Conducted: February 16-March 2, 2009
Decisions Release Date: March 25, 2009
Round 3
Application Deadline: March 4, 2009
Interviews Conducted: April 9-17, 2009
Decision Release Date: May 8, 2009

IESE Deadlines 2008-2009
Round One
Deadline: October 27, 2008
Notification: December 5, 2008
Round Two
Deadline: December 8, 2008
Notification: February 6, 2009
Round Three
Deadline: January 19, 2009
Notification: March 20, 2009
Round Four
Deadline: March 2, 2009
Notification: April 24, 2009
Round Five
Deadline: April 20, 2009
Notification: May 22, 2009
Round Six
Deadline: June 8, 2009
Notification: July 3, 2009

UT Austin / McCombs Deadlines 2008-2009

First Deadline:
November 1, 2008
Second Deadline for Domestic Applicants/Final Deadline for International Applicants:
February 1, 2009
Final Deadline for Domestic Deadlines:
April 1, 2009

Yale Som Deadlines and Essay Topics 2008-2009

Round one:
Deadline: October 22, 2008
Notification: January 16, 2009
Round two:
Deadline: January 7, 2009
Notification: April 10, 2009
Round three:
Deadline: March 18, 2009
Notification: May 8, 2008

UCLA Anderson Deadlines and Essay Topics 2008-2009

Round 1:
Deadline: October 9, 2008
GMAT/TOEFL taken by: September 30, 2008
Decision released: January 8, 2009
Round 2:
Deadline: January 8, 2009
GMAT/TOEFL taken by: December 31, 2008
Decision released: March 26, 2009
Round 3:
Deadline: April 2, 2009
GMAT/TOEFL taken by: March 31, 2009
Decision released: June 4, 2009

Cambridge / Judge Deadlines 2008-2009

Round 1:
Deadline: October 1, 2008
Interview Notification: November 7, 2008
Interview Day: Late November/Early December (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: December 10, 2008
Round 2:
Deadline: January 7, 2009
Interview Notification: February 13, 2009
Interview Day: Late February/Early March (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: March 11, 2009
Round 3:
Deadline: March 4, 2009
Interview Notification: April 9, 2009
Interview Day: Late April (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: April 29, 2009
Round 4:
Deadline: April 15, 2009
Interview Notification: May 8, 2009
Interview Day: Mid-May/ Early June (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: June 3, 2009

Oxford / Said Deadlines 2008-2009

Stage 1:
Deadline: October 24, 2008
Interview Notification: November 14, 2008
Final Notification: January 9, 2009
Stage 2:
Deadline: January 16, 2009
Interview Notification: February 6, 2009
Final Notification: March 27, 2009
Stage 3:
Deadline: April 3, 2009
Interview Notification: May 1, 2009
Final Notification: May 29, 2009
Stage 4:
Deadline: June 5, 2009
Interview Notification: June 26, 2009
Final Notification: July 24, 2009

Carnegie Mellon/ Tepper Deadlines 2008-2009

Round One: October 27, 2008
Round Two: January 5, 2009
Round Three: March 9, 2009
Round Four: April 27, 2009
Round Five: June 1, 2009

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Skills for GRE

Verbal Reasoning — The skills measured include the test taker's ability toanalyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it analyze relationships among component parts of sentences recognize relationships between words and concepts

Quantitative Reasoning — The skills measured include the test taker's ability tounderstand basic concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis reason quantitatively solve problems in a quantitative setting

Analytical Writing — The skills measured include the test taker's ability toarticulate complex ideas clearly and effectively examine claims and accompanying evidence support ideas with relevant reasons and examples sustain a well-focused, coherent discussion control the elements of standard written English

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GRE Test structure

The Analytical Writing section is always first. For the Issue task, two topics will be presented and you will choose one. The Argument task does not present a choice of topics; instead one topic will be presented.
The Verbal and Quantitative sections may appear in any order, including an unidentified Verbal or Quantitative unscored section. Treat each section presented during your test as if it counts.Timing and pacing is also very important.

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Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

For people wanting another option to get an MBA, can try out GRE. The GRE® General Test measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and analytical writing skills that are not related to any specific field of study.

Total testing time is up to 3 3/4 hours. The directions at the beginning of each section specify the total number of questions in the section and the time allowed for the section.

It costs $170. For more information go to GRE Official Site

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1 month to CAT, Gear up!

The most frequently asked question by students at this point of time is "What should be done in terms of preparation for the next four weeks to crack CAT?" In this article we will discuss a strategy/plan that needs to be adopted to take the preparation to the next level in the coming days across each of the three sections that one has seen in CAT over the last few years.
Read these features?

The Quantitative section is the one that most non-mathematics students fear not to mention the scores of engineers. A plan should involve the following:
Students should revise the basics across all chapters. This is recommended because CAT has over the years tested students on their ability to comprehend basics rather than the ability to tackle advanced problems.

The next two weeks should be spent on working out the advanced material from the study material given (Material given out by TIME to its full course students). The focus should not be on time taken to solve the question but rather on the understanding of the method used to solve and the principle involved.

The remaining days in the run-up to CAT should be spent working out the questions from the Mocks that one has taken over the past few months. The Mocks have a standard of questions that is very close to the actual CAT and the learning that one can derive by working them out would be immense.

The Data Interpretation section is the one that requires the least amount of concepts to be learnt and practiced. The plan for this section should be as follows:

The basic study material is to be quickly revised and elementary concepts of Speed Math to be revised (Conversion of fractions to percentages and vice versa, quick addition, percentages computation etc). This activity should be finished in about a week's time.

The next stage would be to practice the sets given in the Mock CATs, which should go on until the week of the CAT. The emphasis here is more on identifying the approach that one should take after looking at the data rather than on the actual solving of the questions.
Students should try and solve some puzzles from puzzle books which are readily available at all major book stores. This is so because CAT seems to be moving more towards the logical puzzles than anything else if the trend of the past few years is any indication.

The section that derailed the hopes of many a student in CAT 2006 was the Verbal/RC section and things might just be the same this year. A plan for this section should be:
Allot atleast 1.5 hours everyday to reading practice. This could be from the mainstream newspapers, weekly magazines or from online sources. In this case it would be a great idea to avoid tabloid newspapers ie newspapers that revel in sensationalising news and not on the good old reporting. This activity should go on till the day of the CAT.

Weeklies like the Frontline, India Today, Newsweek etc are good. Some good online websites with articles spanning the entire spectrum of topics given in CAT like www.magportal.com are excellent for this kind of preparation. The reading of articles helps one acclimatise to the different kinds of passages and thereby reduces the 'alien' factor in the exam.

The other area to focus on would be Grammar as quite a few questions come from this. The good old grammar books like 'Wren & Martin' are still the best for this area and a quick revision is the key here.

Some students are unduly perturbed by the questions on Vocabulary as they believe that preparing for it is like swimming across an ocean. At this point of time it is futile to try and improve on vocabulary. However as one reads an article on a daily basis, this activity itself could form the base for new words.

Students should understand that the time on hand is more than sufficient to crack CAT provided one follows the above guidelines

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GMAT® Registration

You can register in four ways -

(i) Online Registration

(ii) Registering by Phone

(iii) Registering by Fax

(iv) Registering by Mail/Courier.

You can take GMAT any day, throughout the year, (except on holidays and weekends - Saturdays and Sundays). if you want to give second time you have to wait for 31 days.I have observed in bangalore, hyderabad we don't get dates and we have to book 2 months in advance. But in places like cochin you get dates even 2 weeks before.If you want to book date 2 months beforem, and 7 days before the exam date you feel you need more preparation, you can postpond to another date by paying $50 and if you donot cancel at that time all money goes. If its urgent to give GMAT then you can always try 7 days before the day you want to give GMAT you can easily find a slot. Its a best practice to get around 700 in pratcice test and when feel confident then book a day 7 days ahead and revise in that time. There are 9:00 am slot , 9:15 , 12:30,1:00 , 2:30 , 5:30 and 7:00, the slots keep changing and differs from location too.

In India, you can register by telephone or fax or mail at Prometric Testing (P) Ltd., Senior Plaza 160-A, Gautam Nagar, Yusuf Sarai, Behind Indian Oil Building, New Delhi 110 049, TEL : 011- 26512114/26531442, Fax: 265229741, Or online on http://www.mba.com/

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Indian B-school students can beat MIT-ians

Prof Bala V Balachandran, former chairman of Kellogg School of Business Management, is currently spending bulk time in Chennai as the founder and honorary dean of the Great Lakes Institute of Management.
In 1967, Balachandran went to the US and was with the University of Dayton. In 1971, he moved to the Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, where he taught management courses and also worked on his doctorate. In 1973, he joined the Kellogg School of Management and was with the institute for 34 years before retiring recently.
In an exclusive interview to Shobha Warrier, Prof. Balachandran spoke about his association with MDI, Gurgaon, Indian School of Business and his plans as the dean of the Great Lakes Institute of Management. Read on. . .
How did you get involved with the inception of ISB in Hyderabad and then Great Lakes in Chennai?
My association with Indian management schools goes back to the 60s and 70s. I was a visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, when it was taking shape under the leadership of Ravi Mathai.
In 1991, I was the chairman to the Strategy Planning Committee of Kellogg.
Its rank then hovered between 9 and 11. Our goal was to attain the top position. As I planned to find out what it takes to reach the summit, I gained tremendous experience. And soon we became number one.
I started serving as a consultant to Dr Manmohan Singh when he was the finance minister.
In October 1991, we were ready to train 25 faculty members of MDI, Gurgaon, on how to teach experienced hands at PSUs. Between 1991 and 1996, I brought the entire faculty of MDI in batches for three months to Kellogg.
That was when my involvement with India reached the highest level.
Rajat Gupta of McKinsey and I shared close ties. He came with the idea of setting up a business school in India. We created a committee comprising Indian industrialists like Anil Ambani, Jamshed Godrej [Get Quote], etcetera.
I was in charge of recruiting the dean and the faculty (in fact the first eight faculty members were recruited by me at Kellogg) and I also designed a curriculum for ISB. Then, I inducted a friend of mine named Jitendra Singh from Wharton. Later, London School of Business also became a partner of ISB.
I became the chairman of the dean search committee and faculty recruiting committee. I also taught at ISB from 2001 to 2004. Pramath Sinha became the institute's first full-time dean.
Why did you choose Hyderabad for ISB?
Mumbai was our first choice, followed by Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. But then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu took so much interest in the project that he came to the airport to welcome us (Rajat Gupta, Anil Ambani, Jamshed Godrej and me)! He gave us a 200-acre plot and a single-window access for all clearances. That was how Hyderabad became the seat of ISB.
What motivated you to start your own business school, Great Lakes, in Chennai?
After we set up ISB, J Jayalalitha, then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and industrialists N Shankar, Lakshmanan (Rane group) and Srinivasan (India Cements [Get Quote]) wanted me to start a business school in Chennai as I hailed from that place.
That is how Great Lakes came into being. I thereafter cut myself off from the ISB and started working on my new project. Rajat was not happy with my decision. I told him my first child is MDI, Gurgaon, ISB my second and Great Lakes, the third. C K Prahlad, Raghuram Rajan, myself and some faculty from Toronto, Cleveland, etc, are on the shores of Great Lakes. We decided to start the school in a rented building before constructing our own.
Has it not taken you long to have your own building?
Not at all. This is only the fourth year of Great Lakes. It took ISB 7 years to have its own building. Even IIM Ahmedabad didn't have a campus for 10 years. At Great Lakes, in the first year itself, we had 100 per cent placement -- a unique achievement so far. It is often said that ISB has stolen a march over Great Lakes.
That is not true. The first batch of ISB came out in 2001. The plan started in 1997. Great Lakes started in 2004 and in 2009 January, our campus will be ready on the ECR in Chennai.
How can anybody compare ISB with Great Lakes? How can you compare a 14-year-old kid with a 4-year-old baby?
As for me, I don't like any comparison. For, both are my children. How can I say one child is better than the other?
What are your plans for Great Lakes?
The building is getting ready.
The campus is one of its kind in the world. It got platinum rating for its energy-efficient and eco- friendly design. Even though we oveshot the budget by Rs 4-5 crore (Rs 40-50 million) while building, we decided to go for an eco-friendly campus at any cost. Right now, we have a PGPM course and a two-year executive MBA programmes at the institute. We have customised executive education for the Murugappa group, India Cements etc. We have generic executive programme as welll for marketing and sales, mergers and acquisition, financial delivery, etc.
We have 164 full time students and 35-40 students for executive MBA programmes at the moment. Other executive programmes have 25-40 students.
When we shift to the new campus, we will have four sections of 65 students. We will have 260 full-time students.
How different is Great Lakes campus going to be other than being energy-efficient?
My style is Gurukulam where the faculty and the students live together. The two should get a chance to mingle outside the classroom as well. At Great Lakes, not only faculty but guest faculty and visitors are to have quarters too. Even alumni will be allowed to stay and take classes. It will be like one big family. That is why there I am called uncle Bala and not dean Bala or Prof. Bala!
Do you feel there is a disconnect between industry and academia in India?
Yes, in general, there is a disconnect. But now, IIMs and IITs are in for change. In 5 to 10 years, the change will be all- pervading.
In what way are you ushering in change at Great Lakes?
We are for business-relevant academics at Great Lakes. Right from the beginning, our core competence will be the merging of the two.
I will use the words academic elegance and business relevance in this respect. That is why Ratan Tata is our chairman; he is our role model. He comes and interacts with the students. Other corporate giants too are in constant touch with the students.
For example, Venu Srinivasan gives a lecture here on total quality management. At least six professionals, who are business leaders, teach at Great Lakes. Then we have former bureaucrats taking time out to teach. T N Seshan (former chief election commissioner) is a full time faculty here teaching business, society and government along with N Vittal (former central vigilance commissioner) and Dr V S Arunachalam.
At our institute, HR groups of various industry houses comprise a part of the admission process. Where do Indian management institutes stand in the global scene?
We have a long way to go.
Management schools in India get the best students. They are good enough to get admission in the best business schools in the world. Students of IIM Ahmedabad can go to MIT, Harvard, Kellogg and Stanford and can beat any student there. That brilliant they are.
But is the faculty in the schools good enough? I don't think so. The faculty is paid less. And if you pay peanuts, you will only get monkeys. One cannot blame the faculty. Their salaries are poor and there is no incentive to do research. Quality research and publishing papers are extremely important to develop a good faculty.
What factors can make a management institute in India at par with the best in the world?
Three factors can make it the best: best students, best faculty and a quality curriculum. In my opinion, all the IIMs, XLRIs, SP Jain institutes etc have the potential to be the best institutes. However, except for ISB and Great Lakes, no other institute is of the global standard.
What makes a good manager?
A good manager has to understand that change is inevitable. You have to keep a constant vigil on how the world is changing and be prepared to reinvent yourself consistently.It is generally said that the money offered to fresh management graduate is obscene. Do you feel so?
Nothing is obscene. If you don't pay them, somebody else will from some other country. Why do you want to lose them when they are trained here with Indian money by an Indian professor on Indian soil?
Where do you see Great Lakes in five years?
I will spend more time here as the honorary dean -- at least five months a year -- and the rest of the time in the US.
I want to initiate an MBA programme here exclusively on energy management along with the University of Houston because they have the best business school for energy management.
I also want to introduce an MBA course in agriculture management with, say, the University of Illinois.
I want to see Great Lakes among top five business institutes in India in the next three years. In the next seven years, it should be among the top 20 in the world.
Source: rediff

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