PostGradAsia 2009 Fair - 27 & 28 June 2009

For those who are exploring postgraduate studies in the near future, there is a PostGradAsia 2009 Fair at Hall 5, KL Convention Center on 27th and 28th June 2009. The event starts at 12pm until 6pm on both days.

Register online at http://www.postgradasia.com/index.asp?p=pglive


Rgds
Jimmy Low

DU and Bangsar Chapters are still meeting

Quick post:- The DU and Bangsar chapters are still meeting. As the number of enthusiastic GMAT-ers have dwindled we are also meeting on a more ad hoc basis. Please email us if you will like to join in.

For those who are planning to take the GMAT in the next 6 months, good luck and Gambate!!

USJ Chapter Completes 2009 Session

The USJ Chapter has just completed its 2009 session last week. I wish Joyce, Kim, Julie, Chee Hoe, and others from other chapters all the best in your coming GMAT and may your MBA dream comes true.

You are free to contact anyone of us if you need clarifications on GMAT.

We hope to conduct an Open Day session this December for 2010 session.


Good luck!
Jimmy Low

Getting your application together (Part 1)

I’ve been told that I lost the edge on my latest essay. I guess it’s true, times have been hard – we’re in a horrible recession and business school applications are up…

So, let’s talk about something serious today. The MBA application and how to have an edge to getting accepted – no jokes, Serious Business™!

Now, it’s a well known fact that business schools take a holistic view of your application. Your GMAT, GPA, work experience etc are looked at in together-ness and not as individual parts. Therefore, if you’ve got a weak GMAT (say 450), but you scored a GPA of 4.0 while studying Super Advanced Material Theoretical Physics and worked for McKinsey AND Goldman Sachs (flexi-time – alternate days), you still stand a decent chance of getting in.

Now, we all know that you can lie on your work experience and GPA – and don’t feel ashamed of it, hundreds if not, the majority of applicants, do it, every year, every round – but you can’t lie on your GMAT score. So do what it takes, be a man, and ace the GMAT.

Easier said than done, the trick to the GMAT is eating properly on the day of the test. Don’t eat anything too heavy, a light breakfast of a simple tuna sandwich (hold the mayo) and coffee or half a can of coke (1 hour before the GMAT) will help kick start your brain. Don’t down the red bull because it’ll just jolt your body and wear off soon. Do eat some nuts etc, to help you stay focused. Something clean and light, not too sweet, to drink and nibble on during your break.

But most of all, stay cool, calm and relaxed. I found that the best way to do so was to go drinking the night before. Start early, somewhere about 4pm, and drink as much as you can (without getting a hangover) until 9pm, then head back, get something to eat and pass out. You’ll get a good solid 11 hours of straight sleep – no funny dreams.

When you’re doing the GMAT, just remember, real men persons can do probability and remember their idioms.

Part 2 continues next week.

4/10/09 edit: it's cool to be pc baby, P C!!

HBS Essay #1

I know it's a little easy, but this year, I'm going to start preparing for my HBS application NOW! And guess what, I've decided that I'm going to rope in all you readers to helping me write my essay.

So feedback please on how I could improve my essay, this is Essay 1: What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

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My Big Payoff

There comes a time in life when you’re challenged by seemingly insurmountable circumstances – and I faced that moment exactly 9 years, 4 days ago. Striding into the office, I walked up to my investment desk and gave my orders.

“Take no prisoners.” I said as I locked in my buy orders. That day was my personal Normandy. I had spent months, looking at the risks, weighing the ROI and planning for this day. With each passing day, I knew that I had to be patient, I had only one opportunity to make it and my time would come. And so I waited.

Truth be told, the odds were against me, stacked as high as they could go. My friends and family told me not to do it, but on that day, I knew it was time. It was time to make or break, it was time for change: my moment had come. It’s brilliant moments like that, that I know I have what it takes to succeed at Harvard – performance under pressure, tick, risk taking, tick and last but not least? I have balls.

As I waited for the results of my investment, memories came back to me. The first day I learn probability, the first time I profited from an investment and the dreams that I had. But I had to set my thoughts aside as I loaded up the results…. And there it was, my investment had paid off – I had struck the multi-million dollar jackpot on the Super Lottery Pick 6 – my life was about to change.


Pushing the Limit

I have a tradition that I keep with my boys. Once a month, we meet over drinks to catch up with the happenings, sometimes it’s a coffee, other times it’s a whiskey coke. I believe that a person’s network is the single most important factor to success and it will be that network that I will develop further when I’m at Harvard.

But routine gets boring, and to keep things fresh, we’re always willing to try new things. Sometimes we bring in some new faces to our network, at other times we develop a greater network, it usually encourages us when the new member is 5’6, petite, cute with dimples and 34-26-34.

However, once in a while, we decide to push the limits. Whiskey cokes are out. Bottles are in. And that's 1 bottle per person, 75cl minimum baby. Extra points for anybody who can finish the leftovers. That’s called pushing the limit, and that culture is what I will bring to Harvard. Not only will I push myself harder, but I’ll push her hard too, real hard. As for the men, I’ll let them push themselves.

In today’s world, we all need to push ourselves a little harder, to get that new Ferrari, or maybe to hook up with that chick. After a century of excellence, I fear that Harvard has lost its edge, but, with me, I’ll bring it back and kick it up a notch.


Baller

2 girls, 10 grams of coke, some e and a bottle of vodka. Edison Chen has nothing on me.

Good reasons to do an MBA

1. Because you're a career changer.

You're an aspiring IT engineer who wants to make a billion of two by starting your private equity fund that specializes in investing in companies dealing with used rubber tires. Possible? Hell yeah baby! An MBA turns you from a hero to zero - bonus points if it's in the top ten and people look at you in envy when you say "Haaaarhh - vaaard Ehm Bee Aye baby". Or maybe you'll sell your soul, I don't know, but do an MBA, it adds inches.

Alternatively, you're just another loser commercial banker reckons investment banks would make the exception and hire strong - just for you. With an MBA you're nothing less than Bruce Wayne of finance, the gritty corporate life by day and bottles and models at night... ok, maybe not exactly Batman, but hey, if Wayne wanted bottles and models every night, he would be getting them. Just don't be Bateman...

We all wanna run our own gig, and nothing makes and entrepreneur like an MBA. It doesn't matter whether you're an analyst or you think of new ways to sell placements, empowered with an MBA, you'll be able to soar to new heights when you launch your company. After all, you'll know all about finance, marketing AND strategy and now, you just need a good product - one which you can rip off from your smarter peers at school.

Lastly, for some strange strange reason, you reckon that saving the world is worth while. Let's go do microfinancing and charge low interest rates. Do you need an MBA? Actually you don't, and you'll probably have a greater impact if you went straight into non-profit, but I don't really care, you'll still be sexier with an MBA. Of course, once you graduate from Yale SOM, you be able to hit on girls while sipping your beer of the day (because you're non profit, you can't afford the good stuff).

2. Because you're looking for a partner.

Business schools are the best place to hook-up with somebody who's just as smart as you, or maybe she lied on her application and used an admissions consultant. But that's ok, at least she's got the money to blow.. maybe that's not all though. But... anyway, I heard that the better the school, the better the scene - of course, you've got to make exceptions for MIT (nerds), Chicago (nerds), Harvard (assholes), Stanford (saving the world), Kellogg (drunk sex isn't cool), Wharton (finance assholes), Tuck (all married), uhm... did I miss anybody out? Well, Columbia is pretty cool, of course, I'm not sure whether you would prefer to hook up with somebody at Columbia or actually impress the girls of NYC with the fact that you're at Columbia.

Another way to build your resume is to join the swinging scene. It's well known that if you're swinging in business school, you're swinging with the best and you'll be able to swing with the rest. So draw your lots and swap seats. Who knows, your off-resume skills might just be able to get your that job with Goldman Sachs or a promotion one day... off course, you might have problems looking at yourself in the mirror, but that's ok.

Ever wonder why you've never seen a video titled, Girls of B-school?

3. Because you want a well deserved 2 year holiday.

Go partying with daddy's money if you're rich, or at least do it on somebody elses expense when you take that loan. 2 years of hardcore partying AND you might actually get a good job too! Have you seen the summer break itineraries of some students? Travel to some exotic location for "bonding". School trips too... just don't forget to double bag.

4. Because you want to make money... more of it... a lot more..

Then you're in the right place. Please leave your morals at the door and join me at school.

Meet my girlfriend, the MBA application.

1. Choosing

You choose a school based on first looks and fit. You scope out who recruits from there and what the school's specialization is, and of course, rankings are always always sexy! You fell in love when you found out McKinsey hires a gazillion people from HBS. Heads up to the HBS crowd, you make me hot for you.

You choose a girl on how hot she looks in those tight short shorts, and how good you would fit inbetween her and those jeans. Competition is always valued, so the higher the demand for her, the higher her ranking - 10 guys after her? She's got to be hot stuff.. and it's not just looks, chances are that she's got pretty good specializations too... You knew it was true love from day 1 when you saw her bend over to pick up her pen that she dropped....

2. Application

You fill up the 10 pages of background information, write 5 essays on why you're so sexy and how much you love them and you pay the application fee upfront. Especially big on what you bring to the class. You don't hear anything from the school until they feel like telling it to you. Calls don't get any love.

It's good if you're a blue blood, HYP grad, investment grade BSD or swinging with M/B/B. Alternatively you might be the unique minority applicant who built wells in Africa, restored Renaissance art and has a penchant for clearing the minefields in Vietnam... or was that Cambodia?

You take her out for lunch, tea, dinner and drinks. You spend your time telling her (indirectly) what a baller you are, how you think she'll look good next to you and how you're going to rock her world. You pay for lunch, tea, dinner and drinks. She'll call you when she's bored or when she feels like going out, try not to call her too often lest you bore her - or become a stalker.

She'll like you more if you work for a Fortune 100 company, drive a BMW and get bottle service everytime you're thirsty. Some girls like the -i'm-so-in-touch-with-society-do-gooder-save-the-freaking-whales- kind of guy, so if that gets her hot, I guess the WWF had better be on your speed dial.

3. Admitted! Oh wait, just waitlisted.

They keep in suspense for months and when they decide to release their decisions, lucky you gets to wait it out for the big D-day when they tell you whether you're accepted/rejected/waitlisted. Intermittent communications are just meant to tease you. Appeals not entertained.

She'll keep you in suspense as you chase after her... when she decides to accept you, you're still being tested and might be rejected. If you're waitlisted by her, you might get some sexy loving, but hitting a home run is .. unlikely. She'll tease you over and over again until you're on your knees panting like Pavlov's dog. If you're rejected, say good bye, cry your heart out and pay off that credit card bill that you racked up spending on her.

4. Costs

Averaging USD200 a pop + USD250 for the GMAT. Factor in your time spent, misc. such as sending in transcripts, additional information. Do you wanna fly over for a visit? There goes a couple of grand down the drain. Will they accept you? Nope, not guaranteed.

Lunch $80, Tea $40, Dinner $150, Drinks $300! Bring out the dollars and let them fly baby, fly like an eagle. It's her birthday, wanna get that LV bag for her? Valentines is around the corner, get some flowers, flavored prophylactics and a hotel room if you're more than just casual friends.... Don't forget the dinner and gift too... and if you're generous, spring for the cab fare back home. Is her love guaranteed? Nope. ;)

Funding your MBA

One of the biggest headache most prospective students will need to go through is to come up with a financial plan that will put you through school.

Before I dive into how one can secure funding to pursue one of the most expensive post graduate qualification, I'd like to highlight that one must try not to bring funding into the mix when selecting and applying for schools. It's tough enough working on the GMAT, essays and investigating schools, so get in first, worry about the money later. If not, all you'll see is a mountain of obstacle and you'll never get off your arse to write those essays :)

Scholarships

Everybody loves free money! And all schools offer free money! The problem is... you'll need to standout from everyone else. Unfortunately (shouldn't it be fortunately?) while Malaysia is a developing nation, we are far less deserving than the girl from Chad that dreams of heading World Aid.

External scholarships? I only know of one Malaysia based organization that offers financial scholarships to deserving Malaysians and that's Maxis. If you hold a H/S/W offer. You should stand a good chance.

Otherwise, read the school's financial assistance material word for word, cover to cover. Have a knack for innovatively persuading people to pursue material opulence? LVMH sponsors many students in leading schools. Want to end up in McKinsey? Try the bursaries set up by consulting firms. There is always funding somewhere that fits your career goals or your unique profile and schools are more than willing to match you up with potential donors.

Be realistic though. Most will not obtain a 50% scholarship let alone a full scholarship. Most likely, you'll be going to school with a combination of scholarship, loans and savings. So be sure to have plan B, C, D and E.

Savings

Like it or not, you'll need to smash that piggy bank and scrape every dime you've saved since your first paycheck. Those who are toying with the idea of obtaining an MBA in the distant future, start saving now. Even if you don't end up in a business school a few years from now, the money saved is still yours to fling on that RX-8...

However, unless you are working in private equity now or if you've been converting every ringgit you've earned into gold since 5 years back, you'll need help to raise the US$80,000 you need.

Loans and borrowings

Got a rich dad? Easy then, just tell him you've grown up, realised the folly of your bi-weekly club crawl along Heritage Row and you now want a Wharton MBA so you can take over his automobile empire. You may stop reading now.

For the rest of us, raising money from family is a popular option. Unlike the West, it's acceptable to ask relatives to help out a daughter, nephew, grandson, godson or whatever. Just remember to not only pay back but also perform your filial duties.

If you've exhausted the options above, it's time to look at paying for credit. Make no mistake about it, immediate credit is just pain imported from the future. Loans are almost always a necessity. Unfortunately for us Malaysians, credit facilities for matriculating overseas isn't normally offerred. Start by contacting the school. They may be able to help source loans that are suitable for international students. Expect to be asked for a resident co-signer in the loan originating country though.

Malaysian banking institutions continue to exhibit its ignorance to international programs. However, two local banks do offer loans tailored for overseas education. Both CIMB and RHB offers loans on pretty reasonable terms (BLR + x, long repayments and 40-50% collateral). At the time of writting, you can borrow up to RM100,000. I've also heard that Citibank offers education loans but I think they need more assistance than us now... *snigger*

Less appealing options include personal loans from banks. These loans are way more expensive and will usually require you to start repayment upon loan disbursement. There's also no way to stagger the disbursements so you don't end up servicing the interest of the unutilised portion of the loan. You'll also need to secure this loan before you quit your job. While this is a valid option especially when you take into account of your anticipated higher income post MBA, becareful and always read the T&Cs. Depending on your current income, expect the credit line to be extended to a maximum of RM100,000.

Getting your boss to pay

Do you belong to this category? It all depends on your career goals. Career switchers can throw this idea out of the window immediately as no employer will invest in an employee that's leaving. However, if you are currently a loyal mid level manager and you've done enough to prove your leadership potential and is willing to return to the company, this is a valid and almost painless option. Admittedly it's a tough time now to secure corporate funding but business is all about making deals. Good luck to the lucky few!

For the desperados

What if you've tried all the options above and you still come up short? You could try any one of these methods...

Ask for more free money from the school. Once an offer is made, schools try to maximize acceptance rate. Most of the time, if you are sincere and you really need just that little bit more, financial aid officers can work out something for you.

Show them your other offer. Got free money from another school? You can potentially ask nicely and leverage your other offer. This may be frowned on by some schools but as long as you are honest, and you are not breaking non disclosure terms, you can still use this tactic.

Renegotiate your mortgage. If you are currently servicing a mortgage, why not contact your bank and see if you are able to extend the mortgage line?

Burn up your retirement fund. EPF withdrawals from account II (30% of total EPF funds) is possible on the pretext of reducing home loans. I will not comment more.

Apply for credit cards before quitting. Some desperados have been known to use credit cards to fund living expenses while servicing only minimum payments. Only for the very brave.

Well, I hope this post illustrates the various options one can exercise to fulfill that MBA dream. While it is highly likely that you will be racking up a whole lot of debt, MBA graduates are able to demand the highest salaries of any post graduate qualification.

Just make damn well sure you really do want to be a banker/consultant/PE. You can buy an MBA but you can't buy happiness.

It's The Approach That Counts

I like watching Nat Geo and Discovery channels on Astro. On one of the series about the US aircraft carrier, one of the fighter pilots talked about how he and his fellow pilots are trained to focus on the guide on the cockpit when they land on the carrier. They only have a small "window" of opportunity to land and if they missed that, they had to throttle to the max to fly away. They are not even supposed to worry about the guide cable which will hook at back of the plane and halt the plane when it lands correctly.

My study group members asked me how should they tackle GMAT questions. Well, the answer is and as I always reminded them (again and again) - it's the approach that counts.

Very often, the moment we see a question, we like to jump straight into working and only to find out that it took us more than 2 minutes and yet not getting the answer. When I practised, I took the above approach as show in the diagram.

Spend first 30 or so seconds to read, understand, rephrase the question, if necessary and formulate the approach. Remember, you only have this 30 seconds to think through and determine your best approach to solve in 4 or 6 steps.

The next 60 seconds is used for working. Start by eliminate not-possible answers. This improves your chances of striking the right one. By eliminating 2 not possible answers, you improve your odds from 1/5th to 1/3rd. If you can eliminate 3, then you increase it to 1/2th.

Don't forget that you need to click the answer in the computer. It takes time to move the mouse and click Next and Confirmed.

All this is done within 2 minutes window.

So, GMAT "pilots", start practising your approach.

Jimmy Low

MBA Admissions, Scholarships & Careers - Facebook

QS Network, the organizer of QS World MBA Tours, now has a Facebook group called "MBA Admissions, Scholarships and Careers".

Jimmy Low