Nominated for Clear Admit Best of Blogging Awards

Update: Thank you for your support! Feels great to be among the top five!!

I remember when I voted for this contest earlier, now to get nominated makes me feel proud.
If you enjoyed reading my blog, please consider voting here.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dGlKaHMzSTBkcmg2LTBMZEgwY3Q0a1E6MA&embedded=true&ifq

I will be wrapping up Spring semester in 2 weeks, hoping to make up for the lack of activity then!

Sneak peak into the future

When you are deep inside this bubble called  investment banking recruiting it's difficult to plan ahead for the upcoming semester. Nevertheless, we still had to bid for courses we wish to take in the 2nd semester, and more importantly decide the destination for spring break!

Bidding for courses is a new phenomenon for me and it does become difficult to come to terms with it at times (especially when you lose!) . Even though there is great diversity in backgrounds and interests among the class of 2012, there are still many courses that fall into the trap of a supply/demand equation. For instance, Professor Greenwald's course on Value Investing is legendary around here. When you stick a rumor (or fact maybe) that he is taking a sabbatical after next semester... you get the idea. Many of my friends who bid >3000 points (which is ~25% of your total available bid points) still ended up empty handed as the course cleared over 5000 points! Initially I thought about bidding for the course (and most likely not win) but then I decided against it. I wanted to focus on taking courses that might help me perform better during my summer internship in an investment bank (if I'm fortunate to get one, touch wood!).  I got lucky and got all that I bid for- Capital Markets & Investments by Professor Tetlock, Financial Statements Analysis & Valuation by Professor Katz and Consumer Technology by David Pogue (New York Times Technology columnist). There are a few more courses we had to bid for and those bidding results are due in a few days.

Moving on to more fun things, I had to decide whether to participate in the lottery for Chazen study tours. Chazen study tour is basically a week long trip to experience the business and culture of a new country. Some of the main attractions about these trips are the opportunities we get to interact with senior managements of the top/most exciting companies in that area and also meet with  the senior political leaders of that country. The main attraction is of course the cultural exposure you get to experience and share with your friends from CBS! For the spring, we were offered trips to Italy, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico. Most of them had a selection process that included a lottery or an application. (When you decide to attend an MBA program, get ready to accept  this as a fact of life- there is more demand than supply for all things worthy, except beer during happy hour!) All that said, I was in two minds about applying for the trip. On one hand, I had missed out on the awesome CBS World Tour and I was excited about traveling with friends from CBS. But then, for good or bad, Chazen didn't allow significant others to accompany us on the tour.  I was looking forward to spending time with my wife without stressing about internships and academics etc. Finally, my wife and I decided that it will be a good experience for me to take part in the Chazen trip :-) So I applied and was lucky enough to win the lottery for the Israel trip (my first choice!). Yay! The itinerary is exceptional- check it out here

So it's going to be a great start to a new year! Now before I start thinking too much about spring break, there is still final exams, cover letters, resumes, interviews and all that jazz standing between me and 2011. So for now, back to reality.

James Gorman and Chris Dixon

Yes, you read it right. Normally, there is no reason that would require them to be mentioned in the same context. But if you attend Columbia Business School, you get opportunities to interact with both. If you wish to do an MBA, you would want to be in a school that promotes diversity in all aspects. It can't get any better when there are no seats left in the room whether it is James Gorman who is the speaker or Chris Dixon.

I worry about the high interest (~10%) I'm paying for my student loan as an international student. When Mr.Gorman spoke about having a long term view about the MBA, he meant it- his interest rate was 24%!
It was insightful to understand his perspectives on leadership. He mentioned the importance of being able to reduce complexity. As a leader, you need to be able to decide on what matters and what doesn't. Once you decide that, you need to be able to communicate that well to your people. Above all, you should be equally equipped to deal with less information than ideal during decision making and also have the ability & desire to dig into the details when required.

As expected, there was a discussion on the recent financial crisis, what happened at Morgan Stanley and the ongoing financial reforms and regulations.  He expressed some reservations on the Volcker rule on principle- the ability of the government to dictate what businesses a financial services firm can participate in versus what it can't. His point was to let the government give guidelines on the capital requirements and other matters and leave it to the shareholders to decide the business focus of the firm and whether they find certain businesses attractive or not given these guidelines.

The focus went back to leadership again and he mentioned that one needs to care about what one is leading and be true to self. He recommended to keep our focus on the quality of the institution and the people and reminded us that we will have many careers in our lives, so we shouldn't judge by what happens in the next one year. He spoke about the importance of being able to communicate well and suggested that we get ourselves recorded in front of a camera to improve our communication skills (Every single student at Columbia Business School is recorded in front of a camera and given feedback as part of our career development program!)

The talk ended with him sharing his thoughts on the current economy and the importance of having patience in this turbulent period while things change for the better.

Clubs and leadership

CBS offers many outlets- clubs, conferences, competitions and other events one could participate and contribute to, be it professional, social or something in between. When the Association day (the day when we can officially join the clubs) arrives everyone goes crazy with all the choices available- Wine society or Microbrew? Soccer or Rugby? Banking or Consulting? Almost all of us end up spending 500$ and join a ton of clubs, this behavior may be explained by the phenomenon -Fear Of Missing Out.

Through my application process, I had networked with current students and was aware of this issue. So I decided early that I won’t spread myself thin and end up not enjoying the experience as well as I could. I promised myself  to pick not more than two-three things to focus on each semester.
 
This semester, I'll be focusing on Hermes Society (selected group of students who assist the admissions committee), and South Asian Business Association, as the AVP of Careers. I'll also be dedicating a lot of time and energy on the Investment Banking Club activities as that's my professional area of interest. Recruiting for an IB internship merits its own post and I'll cover this topic once my midterm exams are over. 

That said, I did sign up for one more activity initially only to drop out later.  I enjoy writing and I wanted to actively participate in the CBS Follies club. After participating in a few sessions pitching  skit ideas and working on a draft I could already see why everyone says Follies is one of the most fun/rewarding thing you can ever do here. Kate, Imran and rest of the leadership team go to great lengths in making this so much fun. The only reason I dropped out was because I couldn't do justice to the opportunities presented to me. Some of the workshops I attend to prepare for my future career were being scheduled at the same time Follies met...  I do hope I will get a chance to join the team again in future.

CBS MBA is all about making choices, sticking to them and not falling into the trap of FOMO. In my opinion, that’s the secret sauce to getting most out of this two years!

Yours truly, on CNN

To represent the hopes and dreams of Class of 2012 on CNN  and on top of that seeing my own quote become the title of a news story- words can't describe this feeling!

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/09/30/mba.students.innovate/index.html

Obama, Jiabao and I

Fun at CBS

It's been about three weeks since I officially became an MBA student. So much has happened over these past few weeks that it's difficult to not feel overwhelmed. Also, the amount of fun I've had is unbelievable. Orientation was a blast.  Our peer advisors (a bunch of 2nd year students who have been selected to lead the new class through the orientation and beyond) created such an energetic atmosphere that the entire Uris (the CBS building) was celebrating for the whole week. Honestly, the day after then orientation I almost felt sad and lonely entering Uris, with no one there waiting eagerly to welcome me with pom poms and high fives.

Classes took prominence in the coming week and our professors didn't waste anytime to impress upon how much work is ahead of us. Soon I found myself spending long hours at Watson (our library). That said, we still had fun! Our first official CBS happy hour was coming up and each cluster's pride was hanging on the balance.

Thursday Happy Hour is one of the school’s most cherished traditions.  Once a week students come to together for socializing and fun, nothing else – these Happy Hours allow everyone to take a break from the stress of academics and recruiting.  Happy Hour is a privilege for Columbia Business School.  No other school at Columbia University has anything like it (we’re the social envy of the other graduate schools).  And no other business school in the world has committed as much time, effort and capital to any of their social events (I heard CBS spends close to $10,000 per happy hour!)

For the first happy hour, each cluster had to come up with its own official cluster song/dance, cheer, tee shirt and beer stein. As expected, we all try to outdo each other and we all believe ours is the best. Without further adieu, let me introduce my cluster's awesome tee design.  

As you must have guessed by now, I'm lovin' it!

Global financial centres

Traveling is the first thing that comes to my mind once you receive that admission. It's an easy sell, only in rare occasions do many of us get such a break from the professional career. Being away from our families, my wife and I wanted to spend sometime back at home as well. We planned and planned and planned even further. Once you open the map it's easy to go overboard. We had to remind ourselves about the budget. MBA loans were not cheap and my wife wouldn't start her new job until winter. So we postponed some of our most exotic plans for future. I promised to her there will be more celebrations to come. Tuscany is not going anywhere!

Since I had decided to pursue Investment Banking we thought it would make sense to visit some of the leading financial centres of the world (outside of USA). We could witness how life would be in these places and decide whether to recruit for these locations or not. The main contenders were London, Zurich, Singapore and Hong Kong.

We clubbed the London trip along with our India trip. That helped us save some money and thanks to my wife's best friend (who resides in London) we got to stay for free as well. I really liked the Canary Wharf area where most of the big shots in FS are located and also the Trafalgor square. Space is a luxury you can't afford in London (just like in NYC). Thanks to living in NYC, we could easily accustom to taking the tube (subway) to visit different zones (similar to boroughs) in London. The only irritation was the unpredictable weather.
That said, I think we would enjoy living in London especially if we come here during the summer (internship).

Next week my wife and I would be flying to Singapore. I will be there for two weeks and we have squeezed in a weekend trip to Hong Kong as well. I'm super excited about this trip. So we would be done with three out of the four places we wished to visit before starting MBA.  Due to many reasons, after the London trip we were unable to schedule any traveling. Finally, everything fell into place just before the start of school! 

In search of the perfect laptop for bschool

Update: I finally purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 13" laptop for $585+tax. It's not exactly what I wanted in the first place but the cost factor kind of took precedence in the last minute. Here are the specs:
250GB HDD, 3GB RAM, AMD Athlon Neo processor. It weighs 3.8lbs.

In the past few weeks I've been spending a lot of time figuring out that perfect laptop for bschool. I should've known better- life's full of compromises.

My criteria for the perfect laptop were,

• As close to 3lbs as possible
• 13" screen size
• full size keyboard and touchpad
• Affordable

After a lot of search I assembled this list of highly recommended ultra portables

• 13" MacBook Pro
• Sony Vaio Z 
• Sony Vaio Y
• 13" Thinkpad Edge
• Thinkpad X201s
• Thinkpad X301

Out of these, I fell in love with Sony Vaio Z. It has the latest Intel processor, SSD hard drive, very high resolution screen and it looked sexy! I played with one at bhphotovideo showroom and was impressed completely. Unfortunately, it's super expensive too. It starts  around $1900K and if you add some service warranty like the ones CBS recommends, then be ready to shell out 2500$ easily. Now, that's a lot of money for someone with a negative cash flow :-(

Thinkpad X301 is almost same price as Vaio Z but it has the older processor and lacks a SD slot. Not so impressed. In the same store I saw the 13" Thinkpad Edge, it looked okay. It felt a little plastic, the keyboard was of low quality and it made noises like a typewriter while typing on it. That left me wanting to see X201s, I remember seeing a similar model with an old friend from CMU but I was not sure if the screen size is enough for me. I wanted to see one again and I haven't been able to find one in a store. Karan, a friend from CBS has bought one, now I need to wait for him to come to NY.

Saurabh, another friend from CBS managed to convince a bunch of us to go for the MacBook pro. He also offered to give some training so we can all be Mac experts. He is a good salesman, no doubt! The claims on better productivity may be true, but when I tried to use one, I just didn't find it comfortable. May be it's just a matter of time. Also, I was not able to accept the additional weight. I was looking for something close to 3lbs and the 13" Pro was over 4.5lbs.

So it finally came down to Sony Vaio Y series or Thinkpad Edge 13". Though I'm yet to see the X201s I doubt if I will be happy with a 12" screen. Weight-wise both these are almost 4lbs. Not ideal I know. The only discernible difference seems to be the Intel processor. Sony has the latest one. Also, when you work with them it's pretty easy to come to the conclusion that Sony hardware is much more robust than Edge (I know, it's a Thinkpad but there is nothing "Thinkpad" about Edge other than the logo, trust me). Well done, Lenovo! Ugh.

I'm yet to make the purchase, may be it's because I'm still dreaming about the Sony Vaio Z series even after pushing myself to make the sensible decision of buying the Y series. I'll post an update once I seal the deal.

A love affair

I can't remember when this love affair started. I have vivid memories of my mom bring a bunch of them to me everytime I was going to eat. What was on the plate never mattered as long as I had them next to me. It even didn't matter if my eyes and hands had gone over them many times before. I could still find the same happiness, I could still get lost just like the first time ever.

The first time I took one of my dad's I got scolded. He said it was not the right time. But then as most kids would do, I sneaked one. Soon I became well aware of what he meant. But then there was no stopping now ;)

Without adding more confusion, I'm talking about books. Books have been my constant (as in Lost). At all ages, they have been with me. I feel an immense peace of mind when I'm with a book. The number of times I find an excuse to go to the Borders at MSG or the Strand, even when I have nothing to buy...it's just something very personal. Many a time, my wife gets bored while I am in my own world. When we travel to other countries, the first thing on my list is to visit a famous bookstore. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a bookstore in Oxford and Trafalgar square in London, what a memorable experience. Especially, the one in Oxford it had an old world charm, with all its rare collections.

My MBA applications had kind of taken me away from my books. Once I got the admit, one of the first things I did was to make a list of what all books I have to catch up on. I don't know whether it's just a pursuit of knowledge, pleasure or may be both. To each his own, as they say.

In the last few months, I have read many excellent ones on finance and corporate strategy topics and I seem to naturally gravitate towards reading even more on the same. Fiction has taken a backseat. Actually, the last fiction I read was a while ago. I couldn't even finish the Lost Symbol which I was eagerly waiting for. Hmm.

I highly recommend these books if you are interested in these topics, or may be you should just pick one and read and see if you find it interesting. I believe especially in terms of non-fiction- if you can pick up a book on an industry and find yourself tempted to read a few more pages before lying down, that could be an industry
you are passionate about and could excel in. Not sure if it's the right way to judge, but I believe in this test.

Age of Turbulence- I read this one start to end in just 2 days in summer 2008. Actually I was flying from NY to see my girl friend (now my wife) in Luxembourg and I finished the book in that round trip flight. I also met someone in the flight who was reading the same and had a wonderful conversation about it. This probably was the first book I picked up on this topic. The one thing you find out after reading a lot about this industry is that there is no constant villain or hero. It's good to be humble at all times. One never knows when the tide turns and why, just look at Mr.Greenspan.

Curse of the Mogul- This was my intro book into media and strategy. I've always been interested in media and technology and had started following the trends in these industries.  I learned a lot about what could be different in this industry and enjoyed the process as well. It's a great feeling to know that I'm actually going to be taught by these authors at Columbia Business School and this is actually a textbook for a media elective, ha!.

Competition Demystified- This gave me a decent intro on strategy across industries. The various examples they talked about to illustrate the points, I'm amazed. You learn without actually going through the motions. I couldn't finish the book though, as I got pulled into some other priorities. I'm hoping to finish this before school.

Accidental Investment Banker- I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I could say this was my primer into IB along with some other popular websites on IB out there. While reading the book, I started developing a liking towards working on corp finance/M&A roles in an industry group, preferably Media/Tech/Telecom. Hmm, let's see if I can find an internship in this role. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck.

Too Big to Fail- This is a classic. After reading countless NYTimes and WSJ opinion columns and editorials, this book helped me get an overall understanding of what went on during this recent infamous crisis. To actually read a book from the vantage points of various CEOs, how they interacted, the role Fed played, the role Mr.Paulson played...highly enchanting. I just got hooked into it. I found myself constantly debating each action of these players, what would I have done in this scenario, how does ethics find a place in these high pressure situations in unchartered waters. What Mr.Dimon quoted regarding Mr.Paulson, it was poignant and apt. This was one book I found myself unable to put down even when I felt sleepy. The last time I had this much urge to read more was when I was reading the famous speech by John Galt in Atlas Shrugged (while in undergrad).

There is no glory in sitting on the sidelines. One has to act at the best of his capabilities with the best interests of everyone in his heart. How it plays out is not in our control. Reminded me of Bhagvad Gita.

When Genius Failed- When I was reading Too Big To Fail there were references to hedge fund crisis in the 90's, especially Long Term Capital Management and the role Goldman Sachs played (fact or fiction) and it piqued my interest to read about the financial crises in the past. I'm glad I read this book. While it gave me a sense of history and how this was the first time major wall street players got together (may be they had no choice) to solve a crisis/rescue themselves and the system I also learned a decent bit about hedge funds and their strategies etc. It took me a while to finish this as I went on vacations and sometimes I also had to read other online material to understand better what was being discussed. Very interesting to note how quickly one could make money and how quickly one could lose it. That says something about the industry I guess.

Liar's Poker- Now I am further back in times, in the 1980s. I'm enjoying this one a lot and it is giving me some good insight on the sales & trading aspect of IB. I'm already done with the first half since I started reading this couple of days ago. Looking forward to the rest. I also read that thesis a Harvard undergrad wrote on how the whole mess with CDS happened, it was recommended by the author in his latest book. I learned a lot from that thesis, but some of it I couldn't understand. May be after I wrap up the first semester at CBS, I'd go back and read the thesis again and it would all make sense then. Hope so!

More books are being queued up in my mind like The End of Wall Street (already bought this one using my IPad, my first ebook!) and I want to finish as much as possible before school starts. I will have to plan for this reading habit while in school, I might just end up overwhelmed with the class reading materials. I don't want that to happen.

My love affair continues to blossom and my wife ain't jealous about it, ha!

Loan update

This one is going to be short-

The loan has finally been approved, though the rates are ridiculous. I will most likely accept it in the next few days.

Credit Decision:
Approved
Amount:
$95000.00
Interest Rate:
9.125%
Loan Fee:
3%
Offer :
Expires JULY 19, 2010

You win some, you lose some

When I applied for some need based funding, I didn't have much hope but went ahead as I had nothing to lose either. So it was a pleasant surprise when I got an email from CBS saying I got 10K$ off the tuition fee. It's not much but it's still money :)

The joy didn't stay for long though. Just a few days later, I got an email from CBS saying that most likely I won't get the university housing. What a bummer. Now this means an additional 10K expenses per year at least!

I have registered my disappointment regarding this decision via an email to CBS, I don't have much hope but I don't have anything to lose either.

Columbia Admit Event - Act II

For a change, my wife and I made it to the event on time. The deli was overflowing with people and to me it occurred that more people had showed up this time. Well, not being in the middle of winter must have helped. Within a few minutes we were ushered into the hall to welcome our keynote speaker. Dean Hubbard gave a short speech on why we should all come to Columbia. Diana Taylor spoke at length about her career(she never did anything for more than 4 years). It was particularly interesting to hear about her comments on being a board member of Citigroup (the only one with regulatory experience). The most remarkable moment was when she asked the audience - how many of us wanted to go to Investment Banking? A mere four people raised their hands, it was pretty surreal.

From there, we moved to the Cluster welcome. I was part of Cluster 3 and our peer advisors made sure we had a great time. We played the quiz again and our team (Party of Five- yeah we couldn't come up with anything nicer heh) came close to winning it. If only we remembered CBS was founded in 1916, oh well!

Next up was the lunch reception. Unlike last time when we all went to different
restaurants nearby, this time around we all assembled at the magnificent Low library. The tables were divided based on different clubs, so we could decide where to sit based on our interests. I chose to sit with the people who do god's work ;) and had a great time listening to Ryuji (current student, IBC co-president) about recruiting for banking. According to Ryuji, IB recruiting is better now, and should be even better for us. He impressed upon us how quickly the banking recruiting starts, the events begin around
late September. He recommended buying a few good suits, there were times in the first semester when he wore a suit everyday. One thing I figured is the fact that being in NYC is a double-edged sword. One thing it gives access to recruiters like nowhere else but it also means we spend more time on networking than others. Another takeaway from him was- try not to get Low Pass in any subject (Honors, High Pass, Low Pass...) as banking recruiters ask about our grades. We also had a representative from Deutsche bank (Sean Gupta)
who remarked on how perfectly all of us timed our admits, he was very optimistic about the markets and was pretty confident about great recruiting seasons in the future (yay!). All in all, a good lunch and a great conversation with Ryuji. I left for the first class visit session in an upbeat mood.

Prof. Usher spent an hour discussing a very interesting case on Finance and Sustainability. As a stark reminder that we were signing up for further studies, a week ago Prof. Usher had sent everyone a 20 page case to read for this class. The topic and the case were interesting enough, so I didn't mind :-). But to be frank, with all that food in the stomach, I badly needed a coffee...After the coffee break, we got started with the E-cademy awards. Prof. Cliff Schorer did an outstanding job presenting the different ventures,
I think everyone was sold on how great CBS's Entrepreneurship program was. Here are a few interesting ones- 1) PayPerks,  a debit card which is preloaded with the paycheck amount so an employee (without a bank account) needn't spend money on cashing the check. 2) PilotVault- a website for showcasing unaired pilot shows and audience testing 3) 99- a comic book based on virtues mentioned in Holy Quran, this one is already a big hit in middle-east and one interesting fact was that the entrepreneur's
class themselves invested a million $ or something in the venture! (my favorite) 4) Recyclebank- this one is making big bucks as well, it's like a rewards program for recycling and many others which were equally interesting and with great potential. All the presentations were great and I felt immensely proud about the network I'm going to join :-)

Prof. Bruce Greenwald didn't waste anytime getting into the core of the financial crisis. He said it was not a case of any single bad actor but an inevitable conclusion to the way international finance players carried out its business. With couple of interesting statistics backing him up, he also showed how Alan Greenspan's office was irrelevant in context of how Fed could/couldn't improve the economy. It was a very
informative lecture and I for one absolutely loved his wisecracks and many things he mentioned made more sense as I recently read a great book on the crisis- Too big to fail. In his view, the economy was going to be like this with less or no growth for many years with unemployment around 8-10% as it is now. He mentioned there will be enough jobs for MBA graduates but many others won't be so lucky :( He got a lot of cheers
when he mentioned USA needn't worry about China- as per him China is stuck with US$ and unless they move a large segment of their people out of manufacturing, they had no other way but to keep increasing the $ reserves. Many valuable insights, hope I would be able to sign up for his class(es)!

As an indication of how CBS and NY went hand in hand, the evening ended with a reception at Bloomingdale's with a brilliant speech by Michael Gould (CEO). Mr Gould, frankly mentioned how we were all destined to be successful no matter whether we went to Wharton or Chicago or Columbia.
He encouraged everyone to follow our passion and mentioned how NYC is the best place to be! His passion for NYC was amazing but then he supported Red Sox! Everyone had a good time munching on hors d'oeuvres, drinking some great wine and interacting with other admits at the end of
a very long day. When Mr.Gould asked how many of us had decided on joining CBS, I noticed a huge majority raised their hands.

CBS had done a good job with the event, showcasing some of its best professors, best students/alumni entrepreneurs and the best of what NYC offered. I left with my wife and a couple of others to a nearby restaurant- Serendipity where an outrageously yummy 'forbidden broadway sundae'
was waiting for us.

Challenges after MBA admit- visa woes

4/23/2012 Update (copied verbatim from my GMATClub post dated 5/23/2011)

I initially decided to take the H4 route and not bother with applying for F1 etc as my I-140 was approved and I didn't want to risk not getting F1. I finally took an unpaid sabbatical from my company and started my MBA (on H1B). Around November, I figured that finding an internship outside of USA and on top of that returning to USA from the internship on an H1 (but on sabbatical and studying full time) might be even more complicated. So I mustered courage, prayed a lot and took the leap of faith. Yes, in other words I applied for an F1 CoS in Nov/Dec.

I consulted many lawyers and eventually used a lawyer in NYC who was referred by a friend. (If you need details email me, my email is listed in the comments). The lawyer helped me out and we successfully got a F1 approval CoS around Feb, 2011. I resigned from the employer once the CoS got approved. I went to India during spring break and got my F1 stamped without any trouble.

Now, as per my lawyer if the next employer of mine post MBA applies for GC, they should be able to use my approved I-140 and request USCIS to use same priority date. But then again, no guarantee if they will use it or not. I'll find out that when the time comes. For now, I'm happily interning in the fields of my choice in NYC. 

For most of us, getting the admit is the last step in this tough journey. They have access to funding, no immigration issues and can start planning for vacations, pre-MBA internships and what not.

For the unfortunate few, the misery continues. Having first applied in 2008 unsuccessfully (2 waitlists), I was eager to get an admit ASAP in 2009 as a reapplicant. CBS ED worked out in my favor and I was looking forward to packing my bags as soon as I got my admit in November. New Year brought with it new challenges-  no-cosigner loan was becoming a major issue unexpectedly, and my visa became even bigger concern- a green card application in process (I-140 approved stage) meant transfer to F1 visa is not straightforward. I spent the months of Jan and Feb frantically searching through all forums to find an answer. Different people said different things, tough luck.

I then approached a lawyer who recommended pursuing part time MBA instead. I was devastated. First ray of hope came through a current student at Wharton. I found him in one forum, he had left his email ID in a message posted in 2008, thank god for that. He was very kind and gave me good advice. I then found another lawyer who suggested me options I could pursue, things were looking better. There was still no certainty but at least all hope was not lost. Meanwhile, I decided to hedge my risk by trying to secure an admit from schools in EU. I did it, I submitted my application a week ago on time for R3 @ LBS. I'm hopeful something will work out in my favor, but these past few months have been very tough on me and my family. I'm lucky to have a supporting wife and parents. Without them, I'd have given up long ago.

Right now, I've secured my I-20 and I'm going to tell my employer about my MBA admit and request to withdraw my greencard application. Hope it doesn't create any problem for my current job. I need my job till I get my F1 visa approved through change of status. Wish me luck!

For the sake of people having similar issues out there, here is a comprehensive plan of action.

1. Secure I-20 from business school by arranging for funding
2. Withdraw I-140 by requesting the employer. They should send a letter to immigrations.
3. Take a copy of this letter, and create documents that support your intent to go back to your country after MBA...real estate in your name, family ties, a job offer from your country etc and apply for Change of Status from H1b to F1 while being in USA.
4. Change of status takes 2.5 months on average
5. You need not go to your country to stamp, instead you could just change to F1 status while being in USA and start MBA. You need to stamp F1 only when you leave USA (in order to return). So you can go while in school and get it stamped in order to have ability to freely travel in and out of USA during your F1.
6. You needn't apply for change of status while being in USA instead once you withdraw I-140 you can just resign and go to your country and apply for F1 from there. From what I have heard, change of status seems to be less risky than applying through consulate.

Columbia MBA Admit Event 1

Feb 27 was a very un-New York day. Those who flew in had a terrible time with flight delays and those who took the subway waited for eternity to board one. The campus was closed down for the most part but the event was unaffected. Around 200 admitted candidates turned up- some confused it to be another interview and wore suits, while others couldn't care less and wore jeans. Gods were cruel to those who wore high heels.

I arrived fashionably late with my better half (as per CBS), the keynote speaker (Shelly Lazarus) was in full swing giving vivid anecdotes on how to manage work/life balance. She said it was super easy, just walk the talk. Figure out you priority every day and have the courage to act on it, she said. She made a good impression, sharing funny one liners like- working mothers are comfortable with failures, they fail someone (family, boss...) everyday.

Someone in the audience wanted more reassurance, asking her to compare CBS MBA students with others. Shelly grabbed the opportunity with both hands, comparing CBS with HBS and Stanford. HBS students wanted to solve only big/important problems, she said. CBS MBA students had humility and practical knowledge, she said. I noticed relief/happiness in many faces, having heard exactly what they wished to hear. Of course, I was feeling pretty good too who doesn't like to be told they are the best!

We moved to the Cluster welcome event from there. I was part of the Cluster 3 along with another 40 odd. The cluster reps part of Hermes Society welcomed us with Follies videos (Regulate, is a must watch) and a frank discussion about life at CBS. Deli sucked they said, and facilities could be better. But they were mostly happy, CBS listens to the students they said. They also spoke highly about CBS World tour but many candidates had no idea what it was (very surprising, I feel). We played a quiz that included questions like what does the symbol of CBS represents (greek sign/god of commerce ?!) and how many were admitted in the last fall term class (554).

Some career related questions were asked and the current students
suggested that it's best to be flexible (not so good news). We could pursue unpaid internships during school terms, an opportunity available thanks to being in the heart of the business world (good news). Banks have started hiring again (good news).

Next up was lunch, I had a sumptuous three course lunch at Le Monde with eight others including an admissions official. I poured my heart out to the official, talking about the improvements that could be made to the application process. I was not all alone, everyone at the table seemed to share similar feelings and we all bonded over the misery that was now behind us.

Interestingly, most at the table had similar aspirations. They all wanted to be in Media in some capacity, but acknowledged the fact that some will end up following the herd to wall street or consulting for that sign on bonus. The admissions official was pretty candid and receptive to our suggestions, who knew this day would
come ;) But of course even after asking the same question in five different ways, he didn't tell us how many seats were left, oh well.

Upon returning to the campus, we were welcomed by the many club representatives. I was a little bit drowsy (chocolate eclair did the trick) but
still managed to do some "networking". Next we had a half hour session with Fin Aid Director. I had zero interest, as the one item which concerned me- the private loan for internationals- CBS had given up long ago. She spent 29 minutes without any questions on this topic but some brave soul brought it up and another candidate replied- no cosigner implies you are screwed. For that, she said -not really and after some 2 minutes of diplomatic talk- pretty much said the same thing- you're screwed if you have no US cosigner. Oh well, I didn't expect anything more at this point.

I was looking forward to learning more about the Entrepreneurship center
and they didn't disappoint. The panel included a recent alum and
second year students who were pursuing a business opportunity through Greenhouse program. Heard many stories on how the CBS brand opens doors and
how Lang center goes all the way to help us succeed in our ventures. Fantastic stuff, if you can manage your loans.

Mary Miller, director of admissions, talked about pre-MBA program next. Some online tutorials and exams that we should pass in order to matriculate. We will get access in May. It's going to take about 40 hours of work for the average student. We also heard from the current student body president, a cool and confident fellow who talked about the CBS community. He shared a few stories, the most remarkable one- a student from his class had an accident in his 1st yr and had to miss the entire semester. He still managed to pass his exams and graduate on time, thanks to the
friends in his cluster. Amazing story, everyone was sold that your cluster is your family.

Everyone (or at least me) was waiting for Prof. Greenwald but we learned that the he slipped and injured his ankle during the snowstorm, so he was not coming. I guess I do have to spend 5000 points to get into his class, after all. Prof.Robert Bontempo, instead took the stage. Frankly, I didn't know who he was and I'm thinking many were in the same boat. What an amazing guy, the next 1 hour was the best
part of the entire day. He taught leadership, negotiations and spent the hour discussing the art of persuasion using theory and demonstration.

People were either Ask assertive or Tell assertive. Another classification - they were also either Analytical, Driving, Expressive or Amiable. With some explanations on what these means, he asked us to identify ourselves and brought 4 from the audience and did a role play. He asked two people to sell him a car, each person did it in a different manner showing how all this classification makes sense and how we should do our
pitches based on what kind of person our audience is and not what kind of person we are. Well, I am not doing any justice I know, just wait for his class in the fall :-) Take a bow, Prof. Bontempo!

Next up was the happy hour, Dean Hubbard addressed the audience and so did a couple of alumni. Everyone was eager to meet the dean and he was
gracious to spend time with many. My wife and I got a chance to speak to him as well. We all had a good time, a nice ending to the day that gave
everyone a peak into what lies ahead. Six letters will connect us in future- CBS MBA.