Another milestone!

Booked my air tickets too!
Main aaya aaya aaya... o kaneda! (punjabi version of Canada)

Got the Student's Permit!

The major task before every student seeking admission overseas is the Student's Visa and I have been successful in getting it. Its such a great feeling now.
It was a surprise call from Blue-Dart informing a shipment from VFS. Since I submitted my passport just 1 day earlier and I have got a shipment in not even 48 hours! But the bottom line is..i got the Visa!!
...whosh...whosh...apun chala..kingston calling!

Race to fly!

Since all other issues are progressing, the air ticket issue is also to be solved...just too many options and too many fares-cheaper but require a transit visa (United Airlines)--cheap but too long a flight ~ 23 hours (Aerofloat) or just waste too much time for the flight change at a intermediate airport.

The 2nd last thing that has to be finalised after Accomodation!

Passport Re-submitted!

I re-submitted my passport after 10 days of my medical tests. Hopefully the reports have reached the embassy!
The wait starts again!

One Step Closer : by Linkin Park or BCP ?

Received my Police Clearance Certificate today! Didn't knew that police and/or government office can work on time. They asked me to collect the certificate on March 14, 2007 and they did give it to me!

One step closer to PR! thanks Bangalore City Police!

Visa Stage 1 Clear

Received my passport back with a letter requesting me to get the medical check-up. All other things are perfect.

So Visa application stage 1 is clear!!! Only medical check-up left!

Taken the appointment for the medical also!

Queen's Scholarship-naa

Received a mail from Queen's admission committee stating...

Dear ..,

......I regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you an entrance scholarship to the Queen's MBA program.

....If you do encounter difficulty with your financing, it may be possible to grant you a one-time deferral to the session beginning May, 2008..............

Regards,


I, obviously, didn't accept the deferral option.

Viza chiza! worry shary!

The lady at the VFS counter told me that my passport will be back in 3-4 working days time and according to that deadline, I should have received the passport by 23rd Feb. But neither did I receive my passport nor the status of my application in the Visa Application Tracker on VFS site changed. It still said that the application has been dispatched to the Embassy on 19th Feb. The VFS SMS tracker atleast mentioned that the Passport has reached the Embassy on 20th Feb.
Can you call this tracking? 2 different status for 1 application!!

The worry is increasing-all sorts of thoughts anticipating the reasons of such a delay are coming in my mind. A call to the counselor soothed me a bit as according to her, the delay can, in no way, be taken as a signal for rejection.

Finally I called the Embassy and they asked me to mail them. Lets see when and what the reply comes.

Assignments in progress

Assignments are an integral part of every program and they come tagged with a deadline!
I finished the first two-which were more or less like a questionnaire which wanted to just check few certain qualities and skill-set.
The accounting work book needs attention too. Will seek help from one of my Charted Accountant friend!

Good luck-you gotta complete lot many things in the days till the college starts!

Shipment or a 'payload of future'?

pay·load [pey-lohd] –noun : the part of a cargo producing revenue or income

Finally the well awaited shipment arrived. I got to know from the weight of the shipment, as mentioned in the tracking email from Fedex, that its gonna be one huge bundle and YES it was.
The packet contains the information we have been waiting for since days: you name it, its in there-accommodation, fees schedule etc. But what we had not expected was that there will be study material also in it.
Going through the study material, one can firmly say that it is something which will enable a smooth transition from an engineer to a MBA-something that will help us glide through the MBA course: a "payload" of future.

Login? Where and for what?

Batti lag gayi hai.
Received a mail which details some username and password for logging in to a site for an assignment.
Argh!! Assignments from now on!

The 'in-transit' shipment contains details related to this mail. Lets wait and watch!

With best wishes for the days to come and the year ahead and everything more!!!!!
Jai ram ji ki

Do-did-done! 2/3rd of the pie baked!

After the get-set-go-signal, I went ahead to submit the Visa Application.
The process was very smooth.
The application accepting officer asked me to get a xerox of the first page of the passport where the picture is pasted. Then she asked for all the documents one by one and then tagged them and put in one folder/bag. The total amount was INR 5741 including courier charges and service tax, which you pay after reading the terms and conditions of VFS.

Time taken to submit the application form: approx 35 minutes even though I was the only person there.

Got a receipt number which I can use to track where the passport has reached. It can be used on the VFS's website (http://www.vfs-canada.co.in/visatracking.html) to track your passport. One can also track the passport by sending the following as an SMS to 7333: "VISA CD {passport#}". Also got the attested copy of the passport back.

The lady told me that if everything goes ok, the passport should reach me back in 4-5 working days with a request letter for a medical examination. I have to re-submit my passport after 10 working days (approx 2 weeks as sat, sun is holiday) along with the attested xerox copy of passport, the letter from embassy (which comes with the passport and has medical examination instructions on it), payment receipt and INR 170.


Suggestions:

• Try to keep different types of documents separate:IT Returns separate, Statements separate. The other way of tagging by person also works. I tried both-the only thing that is required is one should know which document is where!
• Use Post-Its and binder clips to categorize documents according to person and to create an index. The CA's consolidated report comes handy. A report similar to CA's can be created by the applicant himself.
  
• Photo clicking facility is also available at VFS.
• Verify your name and Passport number on the receipt that you get after payment.
  

Keeping my fingers crossed for the passport and hoping for the best!

2nd appointment with Visa counselor

February 19, 2007 @ 1030 hrs the work started....
All the documents were thoroughly verified
SoP checked
Bank statments verified-proof attached for some unusual credit.

Counselor again in mood for some debate over-jewelery to be added to the liquid assets and immovable assets to be added to the final value of assets! But I had my say and put both thing things. No harm in putting something over and above the required amount!

Question answered: Issue of a study permit of a lesser duration?
Unsatisfactory-answer received: Happens sometimes! Get it renewed.

Everything is set now...to roar!!!!

The night was indeed long...

The pending activity of sorting the Visa documents was started on Saturday night @ 01.30 AM.
Too many documents to be arranged
Too many binder clips
Too many 'Post-its'

But thanks to the CA's extensive report that the documents could be well arranged and prepared for the Visa application.
The first draft of SoP (Statement of Purpose) written and visa-questionnaire answers prepared.

But..here comes the axe: @5.00 am on a Sunday morning!
Never had imagined such a bad impact of missing a decimal ".".
Never had imagined how one extra digit as a result of missing decimal will mess up things!
INR 40k became INR 4,00k, thanks to the missing of decimal point in one of the liquid assets value.
Also, the letter of support from parents had some numerical error.
Now point is: Sunday-everything closed-Target of application submission on Monday very close.
Somehow got the report again prepared-thanks to mom and the CA! Got the scanned copies of the documents-thanks to dad! Got a colour print of all the document-no thanks-did it myself!

And again the papers are all ready-after all xerox and final re-check!

An enlightening chat session

Had a chat session with one of the immediate seniors-of the Class of 2007!

• Exchanged information on the current hot topic-Queen's ranking in FT2007 and +/- of Queen's
• Placements as of now
• Issue of class diversity (lot many Indians admitted!)
• Personal tête-à-tête!
• Pre-MBA prep info!

Final packet of document received-verified contents!

Received the final packet of documents containing the complete set of documents required for visa application! A big packet indeed!
Everything is in 2 copies-original and xerox and that too categorically tagged!
Hats off to my people who have collected all these documents and then arranged and sent to me.

Contents verified!
Everything is in order!
All set to submit Visa application!!

What I wish I’d known then - Looking back at the MBA experience

The MBA or Masters in Business Administration degree is now probably the world’s most popular and widely recognised post-graduate qualification. Every year, more than 100,000 students will invest large amounts of time, effort and money to gain one. But, with the benefit of hindsight, do graduates really believe that it’s been worth all the effort involved?
According to a recent poll by the careers and education group, QS, the company behind the World MBA Tour, there are almost no MBAs who regret having taken the qualification, but a significant proportion do wish that they had approached their studies in a different way. One of the most common regrets centres on a lack of planning for the programme and for the wider business school experience.

Complete article at link
Courtesy: PagalGuy

Surviving an International MBA – 2

Welcome to Term 2 and you are back to losing sleep in the night and catching a few winks during the class. By now, you know who the class stars are and pretty much who are the people who just talk in class for air-time. You try to do everything around you, assignments and quizzes and club activities. But you will be warmed up enough and resigned to the fact that you might after all say adieu to your sleep and social life! But I feel that many of us get too carried away at this point.

Complete article at link
Courtesy: PagalGuy

Surviving an International MBA - 1

It’s been a long time since I put up an article and thought it was about time I told you all, how it has been at a US business school and what the experience amounts to, at the end of the day. I am sure that my blog has been doing a decent job about updating on the fortnightly or so activities, so here’s my attempt to run you all through the “Surviving an International MBA”. My take is that from the Fuqua stand-point. I am sure the experience will be similar elsewhere if not the same.
all started when I got accepted at a ‘good’ business school in India. The thought of actually stepping out of the shores for my MBA crept into my mind and after a year of failing to fund my International MBA, I came back with much vigor and applied to some pretty well known schools abroad.....

Complete article at link
Courtesy: PagalGuy

Financing your international MBA

Resigning from a secure job, moving country, even leaving family and friends behind - potential MBAs seem to take such obstacles in their stride. But with programmes at top-flight schools now costing as much as US $75,000, one question seems to occupy business school applicants more than any other – just how can I find the money to pay for my education?

Every year, as part of its ongoing research project, TopMBA surveys nearly 4,000 aspiring MBAs to establish whether the issue of finance was likely to prove a barrier to study. The latest poll found that practically all had already looked seriously into how they would fund their time at business school and a wide variety of methods were cited from scholarships to personal loans. Scholarships, perhaps not surprisingly, were the most popular option around the world, favoured by 74 pc of respondents. Next came the student’s own savings at 68 pc and then some form of external loan at 61 pc. Only 28 pc realistically expected to get financial help from their employer.

The emphasis that students place on funding methods seems to vary considerably from area to area. Help from family and friends appears to be most common in the Asia-Pacific region where it was cited by 48 pc of those questioned, in contrast to only 43 pc in the USA and Western Europe. Personal loans were the preferred source for over 81 pc of US students, but less than 57 pc of those from Latin America. Company sponsorship was expected from 36 pc of respondents in the Middle East and Africa, but only 21 pc of those in Latin America and a student’s own savings were the favoured method of 80 pc of Western European candidates, but only 62 pc of those from the Middle East and Africa.

Whatever a student’s initial preference, the most common source of finance in practice is now the education or career loan. We look at some of the sources of such loans across the globe:

Finance sources around the world
India
Indian nationals have access to a wide range of education loans geared to fund MBA study. Key suppliers include State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, State Bank of Mysore, Bank of Baroda and the Industrial Development Bank of India. Loans can be used to cover the cost of fees, travel to an overseas school, the cost of books, computers, etc and living expenses. In most cases candidates will already need to have secured a place at a recognised institution and may need to supply a guarantor, such as a parent or close relative, with sufficient funds to cover the loan. Repayment periods range up to four years after graduation and interest rates are currently around 8.5 to 8.75 pc.

Complete Article at link
Courtesy: PagalGuy/TopMBA.com