To exchange or Not to exchange

Hi
This blog's title is a shameless rip-off from Shakespeare's Hamlet (To be... Or not to be). But the trigger for this mail is original and it happened a couple of days ago. I received a mail from the MBA office stating that Micro-Economics will not be offered in the coming semester. When I joined my MBA I didn't know much about Marketing or Finance. I joined out of curiosity about Fiscal deficit, Trade Surplus, Forex reserves, etc. I wanted to know what these were and how they worked. Now, I am doomed. These terms are destined to remain 'latin' forever.

This is one of the drawbacks of the 'Exchange Program'. This blog is dedicated to those people who have/will face a similar dilemma. Deciding between the merits/demerits of the exchange program. My future blogs shall detail the merits of exchange. So, this blog is about what I lost because I went on exchange.

My biggest loss was Cerebration. This is our annual business case event which we position as the 'Biggest Business Case event' in the world. I was in Australia when Cerebration happened. It was funny seeing mails from MBA office pleading with our guys to come and attend the event. While I was desperate to attend the event but could not.

The other loss is internships/job search. Searching for an internship/job is exceedingly difficult when you are on exchange (will share my experiences in another post). There are several reasons for this - visa laws, emigration rules, culture of the place, etc.

Anyone going on exchange cannot participate in the MBA Club elections. So, anyone having these aspirations must make this trade-off. Competing for the other positions is tough as well. Because canvassing for votes is more difficult when on exchange. But we did have one exchange student winning his election.

Finally, there is a loss of friends. This is a hard one. Because for 4 months, you learn to laugh and cry with these folks. Now, you must find a new shoulder on which to vent your emotions. This is not easy in a foreign country where you meet a limited set of people, mostly in a class environment. And these folks already have their set of friends.

So, To exchange or Not to exchange. This is a choice each individual must make. For me, I was willing to accept these trade-offs. And what I got in return far exceeded what I lost.

Cheers,
Suraj

My mistakes on the road to MBS

Hi
"It is a fool who learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from others' mistakes". I read this quote years ago and it has stuck with me. Primarily because, time and again I have been foolish. When I got the admit into MBS, I thought that my job was done. Everything else was a formality. But what followed was what Shakespeare described as a 'Comedy of Errors'. I have kept this comedy of errors a closely guarded secret. I reveal it now in the hope that those reading this post will learn from my mistakes on the road to MBS.

After confirming my exchange university, I was asked to immediately start my visa process. I ignored that valuable piece of advice. I was extermely busy with other things during that time. And I thought that I knew better. How difficult can it be to get an Australian visa!

In the middle of October, I realised that I had still not started my Visa process. Others, specially those applying into the US, were already processing their application. That freaked me out. I acted fast. I called the Australian embassy and asked them what documents they require. I arranged for those documents within that week. And next Monday, I was all set to submit my application for an Australian Student Visa.

The Australian Embassy was located on Napier Road. It was heavily guarded and no electronic components were allowed inside. Upon getting through security, I awaited my turn to be interviewed. My turn came and I submitted my documents.

"Sir, where is your IELTS score?" the interviewer asked me. I explained to him that I had written the TOEFL which was the equivalent of IELTS. He wouldn't listen. He insisted on an IELTS score.

I had known that IELTS was required for an Australian university. But I had assumed that it was not needed for exchange into an Australian University. Neither NUS nor MBS had informed me about IELTS. So, I thought that my assumption was right. I never called the Australian embassy to confirm whether IELTS was required. That was a huge blunder.

The British Council stood next to the Australian Embassy. I went to ask them the next available date for IELTS. That was when the gravity of the situation hit me. No dates available till January. The Student Visa took 30-45 days to process. I would miss the Feb 4th deadlines for joining MBS. I was shocked.

I went to the NUS MBA office office for help. Zahira, was our exchange co-ordinator. Her support and encouragement during these tough times was amazing. She got in touch with MBS to see whether anything could be done through them. She got in touch with the Australian embassy to persuade them to accept my TOEFL/GMAT score.

The Australian embassy took time to reply. Once again I went to the Australian embassy to put my case across. This time I was mentally prepared with my answers. The interviewer was a lady this time. She seemed new to the job. She immediately took my documents and asked me to pay the fee. I was delighted. I didn't expect things to be so easy. But she came back in a couple of minutes with another officer. He said that the IELTS was required for processing my Student Visa. No amount of reasoning from Zahira or NUS could convince the Australian Embassy. I was back to square one.

Amongst this chaos, I got my lucky break. The Australian Tourist visa has a provision that we can Study in Australia for 3 months. My exchange program ended exactly in 3 months. I thought that I could enter on a tourist visa and then extend it during my stay there. Zahira was once again helpful in making the required docs.

I got third time lucky. On my third visit to the Australian Embassy, I got my visa. But it came with a catch. I had to sign a clause that I would not extend my visa during my stay in Australia. My visit was curtailed to a maximum of 3 months. Me getting the visa was only half the story.

I was not completely confident that I would get the Tourist Visa. So, I had made a plan B. Since all IELTS dates were booked in Singapore during December, I searched for places in Malaysia where dates were available. I came across a place called Kuching. I had never heard of this place before. I remember trying to verify on the net whether such a place really existed. I searched for Kuching on google maps. It was in the island of Sarawak in East Malaysia. Without any other option, I booked for the IELTS exam in Kuching. This was the start of my troubles.

I scoured for flights from Singapore to Kuching. Unforunately, I couldn't find any within my price range. I had to book an Air Asia flight from Johor Bahru (a Malaysian city adjoining Singapore) to Kuching. My next problem was finding an hotel to stay in. All hotels were booked for that weekend. I made a flurry of calls before I found a hotel called Singasanna Lodge to stay in. It sounded like a shady place but I didn't have an option.

I was scheduled to travel the day after my Tourist visa interview. Once I got the visa this exam became redundant. But I had made all the arrangements and none of the money was refundable. So, I decided to go. It was an hour's travel from Singapore to Johor Bahru. Johor Bahru could not be a greater contrast to Singapore. Struggling with poverty and under-development it was a shadow of Singapore. Kuching turned out to be a much more developed and vibrant place than I had expected. Singassana Lodge was a quality budget hotel. And the IELTS exam went smoothly. The hard part was getting to the exam; the exam was easy enough. The results arrived a month later. I had more than exceeded the qualification criteria. But it was all pointless. Talk about rubbing salt into your wounds!

Cheers,
Suraj

Applying for the exchange program

Hi,
As a little kid I had a dream. That little kid within me continues to have that dream. I wanted to and still want to see the world. There are a list of cities in my head which I want to see before the curtain closes. I believe that the exchange program within NUS offers the perfect oppurtunity to do so. I remember that on a December day in 2006 I had to decide which college to apply: NUS or NTU. I had time only to apply to one of them. I decided NUS because of the strength of its exchange program.

We had our initial exchange briefing a few weeks into the MBA program. The news was disappointing. The names "Columbia and Cornell" had attracted me to NUS. But these colleges were not on the list of colleges that I could apply to for next term. The exchange program works on a mutual understanding between the two colleges. If 2 students from Cornell are interested in coming to NUS, then Cornell reserves 2 seats for NUS students. Roughly it works like that. The bottomline is that there is a limit in the intake of exchange students at any exchange university. And this year our limit with Cornell had been reached. There had already been one student from the senior batch during the previous term. As for Columbia, our existing contract with them had ended. So, no more exchange students going to Columbia.

This was the pattern across European Universities as well. HEC, Paris was not on the list. ESADE, Spain was not on the list. These universities would be available only during the third term. This was the first time NUS was offering exchange during the second term. And the signs were not very good. I was disappointed at the stripped down list of universities. I was hurt that our web-site was not updated with this fact (Amazingly, it is still not updated. Click http://www.bschool.nus.edu/Programs/MBA/xchange.htm for details on our exchange program).

Despite these setbacks, I was determined on going on exchange. I was interested in only three colleges - Duke (Fuqua school of business), Melbourne Biz School, IE in Spain. This was my order of preference. I filled in the exchange form and wrote an essay on why I wanted to go for the exchange program. The selection criteria was based primarily on the GMAT with the essay playing a minor role. I had a GMAT of 750. So, I knew I had a shot.

I was selected to interview for Duke. The interview process was only for Duke. For the other universities, it was a straight-forward selection process.

The interview was on expected lines.

Why exchange?
How does exchange benefit you?
Why should we send you on exchange?
What will you do for NUS when on exchange?
Previous work experience?

In all, 5 of us interviewed for Duke. To my disappointment, I did not make it. I think my lack of work experience (2 years) hurt me. In hind-sight, this failure was the best thing to happen to me. I saved a ton of money by not going to the US. And I was later presented with the oppurtunity to go to the US (my second study trip). So, not being selected gave me the oppurtunity to see two countries.

Instead of Duke, I got selected for MBS. This was no easy task because I heard that the competition for MBS was also strong. After all we faced a short supply of good colleges. I was in a dilemma between MBS and IE, Spain. IE had excellent FT rankings but very little Brand recall (atleast in India). I had not heard of its name before coming to NUS. The deciding factor was language. I had struggled with Hindi during my time at NUS. And this was in a batch which spoke and understood English. I was scared by the thought of struggling with Spanish. So, I chose MBS.

And I was fortunate to have made the right choice. Because, as I shall explain in a later post, Melbourne became my favourite city.

Cheers,
Suraj