This blog series is going to be long! I'm going to put down my whole journey, covering everything from thinking about my MBA to essays, finances, and everything else. Initially, I thought this whole process would be easy. How hard can it be to write a couple of essays and then get an admit to go for an MBA? But it's a much longer and twisted road to getting there. I hope that any MBA aspirant who reads this finds it useful. Also, I am in no way the most ideal MBA candidate; in fact, there are things I could have done much better. For that, I will include tips at the end of every segment.

In this part, we will cover thinking about an MBA to finding the right consultants for you and shortlisting schools.

Why US MBA? 🇺🇸

June 2023

I had some idea about business schools because I wanted to do an MBA in my final year of college. I thought an MBA would be the best way to find my co-founders and start something. Well, that didn't work out, but I still had that bug in me that I wanted to start something of my own and go to a business school to actually meet people with similar ambitions.

This time, I decided to apply to business school because I wanted a break in my career and needed time to decide what to do next. I also felt I was being underpaid for the amount of work I was doing in India. Having visited the US twice, I was captivated by the people I met there. It's a biased opinion, but the idea of spending two years meeting new people and figuring out my path seemed like an opportunity I wanted to take.

For the past two years, working in a startup, waking up every day to client requests, and working late nights to fix things had taken a toll on me. On top of that, my mom had just been through a cancer scare, which really put things into perspective. I realized I should do what I want and not play it safe. Sigh, if only I had known at that moment that applying for an MBA wouldn't be as easy as it seemed. But here we go. Here's how I went about my applications and shortlisting schools (which is in no way the ideal way to go about it, but if you want to take some learnings from it, go ahead!).

🔑 Tips:

• Try to talk to people in MBA programs before deciding to apply. Find people who are doing what you want to do or who have a similar background. Send them a message while connecting on LinkedIn and make sure that an MBA is the best way to go.

💼 Okay, Now How Did You Find an Admissions Consultant?

June-July 2023

Do you need a consultant? Honestly, if you are very clear about your story and why you want to do an MBA and are very disciplined that you can write essays and do your job simultaneously, you won't need a consultant. I decided to take one because I was not very confident about my own story and wanted some guidance. Also, honestly, I didn't think I was capable enough to get into a good school and I wanted some help to set my expectations right. In hindsight, I do not regret the decision but felt that consultants are seriously overpaid. If you need any review on any essay you are writing, feel free to send it to me. I'll attach my essay in the next part as well.

I began by looking at consultant reviews on Reddit because I felt there I would get honest reviews. Then I either sent inquiries on their website or sent this template mail with my basic information.

Here are the people I reached out to:

• Dream School MBA (Arvind) First guy I talked to. He was very nice and expressed interest in my profile. His pricing was unique: if I applied to more than five schools, he would charge half the price upfront and the other half if I got any interview call.

  • 3 Schools: INR 2L
  • 5 Schools: INR 3.2L (50% upfront, 50% if interview call)

• MBA Crystal Ball I had read "Beyond the MBA" by Sameer and a lot of their blogs. I was a big fan of their stories, which was maybe a subconscious factor in why I wanted to do an MBA. But they were very costly for me at the moment.

  • 3 Schools: INR 2.97L
  • 5 Schools: INR 4.35L (Interview prep extra)

• Jatin Bhandari I had heard about him, sent my profile online. Got sent a link to join a webinar. Didn't get time to follow up due to work and also didn't get a positive review from a senior, so I left it there.

  • Didn't pursue

• Applicant-X Got very good reviews on Quora and Reddit about their essay editing. I felt they gave very practical responses. Not all the responses were encouraging, but I think that's what I needed to get grounded. Also, cost was important to me, so I went with them.

  • 3 Schools: INR 1.6L
  • 5 Schools: INR 2.5L

I am a very cost-sensitive person. I wanted help in deciding my story and shaping it nicely and read very good reviews about Nirvan from Applicant-X on Reddit and MBA forums. So taking these factors into consideration (being the broke person I am), I decided to go with Applicant-X for three schools, which cost me 1.6 Lacs. For the other schools, I decided to apply myself.

🔑 Tips:

• It's a good idea not to take a consultant for every school you want to apply to. It's unfortunate that these admissions consultants charge so much, but it is what it is. Try to talk to the consultants and get to know how many students they take. You should feel extremely comfortable with the person, and they should understand you well. They should be able to elevate you and extract your story better, so try to think from that perspective.

🏫 Which Schools?

July 2023

I decided to apply to schools based on where I wanted to be and the schools I felt good about.

• My dream school was UCLA because I loved the LA vibes, and because I had worked with pharma companies around LA, it felt like a safe space to me. Also, USC was another good LA school.
• Cornell was on my list because my brother and sister-in-law went there and I had done an internship there, so maybe it was a good shot?
• I had heard a lot about Austin from my friend who went there and I wanted to explore tech and entrepreneurship during my MBA. Their building looked awesome, and it just felt right, although it felt very ambitious at the time.
• Other schools were all based on T20 ranking, and I was told my profile was not going to be very competitive for T7, which I also agreed with (in hindsight, maybe I should have still given it a shot).

Here is the Google sheet I made with all the information that was given to me. I decided to apply to four schools: three with Nirvan and one on my own because I wanted to apply to Georgia Tech.

🔑 Tips:

• Again, talk to a few people at the school and find what is important to you in a school.

In the next part, I will discuss how I worked on applications and essays.