Student Loans

I'm Male, Indian, Engineer and living in the US. The three options I'm looking at are

1. IEFC - needs a US citizen or permanent resident as cosigner.
2. BNP Paribas - 3% loan, attractive terms, but require a French citizen or international bank to guarantee the loan.
3. BRED - 2.35% loan, attractive terms, but have some constraints at #2.

Why would any bank in it's sane state of mind guarantee a bank loan. Why take all the risk for absolutely no gain? I guess a bank could guarantee a loan at some rate, but then the interest rates become less attractive.

I remain concerned about my ability to fund an INSEAD education. I'm praying for a scholarship :-(

Scholarship deadline

This is scholarship deadline week for quite a few folks. April 18th. The strategies should be the same - target scholarships that not too many people can qualify for. As a Male, Indian, Engineer with no major life altering tragedies, I could only apply to the common scholarships

1. Eli Lilly - Innovation - Everyone things that they've changed the world.
2. Need Based - Yep, I need it, but I'm sure there are people who need it much more than me.
3. Syngenta - I don't know squat about sustained agriculture
4. Sasakawa - I do have plans to change my home country, but so do million others
5. There was one more I applied to, but I forget..

I've never really 'won' anything major in my life. I've been on scholarships and fellowships throughout my life, but non relied on essays - It's always been quantitative. I've written compelling essays, so I'm hopeful of nailing atlteast one.

I cool thing I learnt from Zanat0S' blog is that the scholarship committee is the same for all essays so it might make sense to write something unique for each essay and not blindly cut paste stuff.

Another 2 days to go for the deadline, so I'll proof-read my essays and make sure everything's lined up correctly.

INSEAD, Fontainebleau

To do

1. Plan resignation from work - June 31st is the tentative date. I'm so going to miss the paycheck :-(
2. Figure out leasing situation for current apartment. Lease expires on May 15th... What am I going to do from May to June 31st
3. How to pay for INSEAD? Loans? Scholarships? Grrr..
4. French Visa... More paperwork...Sigh
5. Housing in Fontainbleau.. I hear its a pain in the ass..

I'm getting a mild headache :-(

INSEAD deposit

Put down the deposit for INSEAD. Thanks to a surging Euro and a plunging dollar, my deposit felt very expensive.

I'd like to recover the ISB deposit, but I don't see any good reason that I can offer the ISB AdCom. I actually feel quite lousy about doing this but if there's someone on the ISB WaitList who benefits from this, then that's great.

I think I'll gracefully withdraw from ISB and forfeit my deposit! Sucks!

Application Veil

I'm beginning to think that the entire application process comes down to the following question:

"How well can INSEAD market you to the companies that hire from them?"

The reason this question is important is that INSEAD is a business whose customers are companies (pay for research, collaborate with professors on projects, pay for recruiting) and students (pay tuitition). Now, how can you have a marketable application/profile/resume

• Big Brands on resume - Worked at IBM, Intel, Mckinsey, Microsoft, Google, Nike, Disney etc. If you've worked for them before then you've got something going on.
• Big Brands in education - Degree from Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, IIT, etc. etc.
• Big numbers - 4.0 GPA, Summa cum laude, distinctions, 760+ GMAT (I have 720 and I think that's a commodity score)
• Personality & Communication - That's what the interviews are for. Can the school put you in front of these companies and get you hired by them?

And the essay's and such are fine - you need to show them you're connected and influential. I think someone who is strong in the above criteria has to work much less harder to get an admit anywhere..

Ofcourse, I could be completely wrong since all this is pure speculation...

Extracurriculars & INSEAD

I've always felt a little intimidated by the extracurricular activities of others. How the hell do folks pack so much stuff in 25 years of their lives?

• President of fraternity
• Runs a large open source project
• Olympic athlete
• Raised $500, 000 for some charity
• etc. etc.

I don't have anything great like this going on but I still got an admit from INSEAD. The truth is that my only real passions outside of work are travelling and heading to the gym. I have only one great achievement in my activities - I lost a crap load of weight since I started taking a keen interest in working out. And that's what I wrote....

Essay Tips for INSEAD Jan 2009 intake

I just finished proof reading an essay for a friend of mine who is applying to January 2009 intake. I found his essay really good but lacked a few simple aspects that I felt helped my app get accepted

1. As the Stanford Dean says, "Doing simple things incredibly well" is what's important. You don't have to overcome abject poverty or come up with that life altering idea. If you've done something simple such as, "Organized a small function for your apartment community", "organized your brother's wedding", "tutored your cousin's on a regular basis", then these are all quotable stories. The nice thing about them is that the reader can relate to it and more importantly its believable.

2. You don't have the marketing skills (and this is for my fellow engineers), but you must make reading fun and exciting. It's like that GEICO commercial where the professional actor does the voice-over for regular folk such as us. Some tips for making your essays catchy

• Stay away from flashy/domain specific jargon.
• Show that you're a team-player/socialite/well networked person. B-schools love that kinda stuff. Ofcourse don't lie if you don't know anyone..
• Write well. This is obvious but sound professional. It might be wortwhile getting someone to review your essay if you lack the skillz.

3. Consistency. Make sure your story is consistent across Essays, Reccos & Interviews. I cannot emphasize this more. You must have a conversation with your Recommenders and tell them what characteristics you expect of a recommendation. Be explicit about it.. For realz!

And finally, If you attend a information session, try to network with the professor (if they have one doing a sample class) and ask him/her if he/she would be willing to review your essays. You'll be surprised at how cool & willing INSEAD professors are.