Reminder: TokBox Invitation from Ash

Hello!

I have been using TokBox for live video chat, and I would still like to talk with you. I noticed you haven't signed up for TokBox yet -- maybe you missed my invitation.

I won't send you any more reminders after this, but please join me on TokBox! It's free and no downloads are required -- and you can see me even if you do not have a webcam.

To sign up, go to:
http://www.TokBox.com/view/register.php

When I am online, you can video chat with me by visiting my TokBox:
http://www.TokBox.com/ashwini

See you soon,
Ash Upadhyaya


http://www.tokbox.com
Free video chat with no downloads on any website.

And we are back

Ok folks, so from now on, I am going to blog atleast once a week about my Stanford GSB experiences. The last few months have been crazy, totally nuts. I was on four continents, 7 countries, and then moved over to the bay area, found a house, got used to sitting in class again…too many emotions…and hence an equal number of blog entries to come…

So over the next few days, please expect the following blog entires

 

1)       Preparation before going to stanford GSB

2)        Pre-term (1^st week) at stanford GSB

3)        Start of classes and how it is to be back at school after 5 years

4)        What makes Stanford the most AWESOME B SCHOOL EVER !!! and the interesting people I have met so far

 

Cheers

Ash

 

 

 

This is the end

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
-Mr Mojo !

The last few months have been amazingly hectic. Between finishing things at work, studying for Bschool (did not happen), getting personal stuff sorted out (move, visa, etc), I have not had enough time to blog about anything useful. There is alot to say about
1) stuff to do before going to school
2) logistical stuff to be sorted out
3) initial interactions with folks there...

however, this blog is now officially closed! All new posts on the above topics and my b school experience will be on my new blog (http://gsb2008.blogspot.com)

best of luck with your admissions....I can always be reached at ashblog()gmail(). It has been great blogging with fellow applicants like MBAJackASS, FG, Marina, IWillMakeIt, SoreBrek and others. Time to move on to the new chapter, and hopefully still be connected with the others.

Blog ON!
ash

chat with me?

oi

so there is this new widget called meebo me....meebo..a company founded by a Stanford GSB student (dropped out to make this company) is cool...nehow...if you see me online (look at the chat box on the right)...meebo me!

ciao ciao
ash

what's ur footprint on the earth?

So I did this interesting quiz today, to understand the impact of my footprint on this planet.
and I was shocked (also that my lifestyle is much worse than the average lifestyle of someone in NL)
how bad are you?
:)
-aSh

We're Germans: Football play we better than you

this cracked me up BIG TIME! its better than ask Dr.Z! (http://www.askdrz.com)
gosh..i will miss Europe big time..
ash
****************************************************************
http://www.mundstuhl.de/filme/germans.html

Ref.
We're Germans
Football play we better than you
We're Germans
Hope you like Germans too

1.
Welcome here in Germany
From the Alpen to the sea
In unsern Kneipen you can smoke (in our pubs...)
Lederhos, Oktoberfest (Leather trousers,...)
Unsre Biere are the best (our beers...)
Gebraut nach German Reinheitsgebot (brewed after German purity-ordered)
2.
And we build the better cars
German Wertarbeit nach Maß (value work after measure)
For Example BMV (off : das heißt double U !) (...that means...)
Have the Autobahn gebaut (have built the highways)
And we love the Sauerkraut
Made in West Germany
Bridge
Wir haben die Zugspitze (we have the Zugspitze (highest mountain in germany))
Do you know the Loreley?
Fahr mal auf dem schönen Rhein (have a trip on the beautiful river rhine)
Have a look to Norderney

3.
Germany is total cool
In Köln every boy is schwul (in cologne every boy is gay)
Every German has a Bauch (...belly)
My Oma is German too (...grandma...)
Our cows make also muh
Hämorriden haben wir auch (we also have hemorrhoids)

Zeidan (try this)

Use the mouse and the left hand side button
<http://widelec.org/zidane.html>

Design your own music station

I found this awesome site while going through Marina's blog. PANDORA.com (http://www.pandora.com). Simple to use website, just go there, enter the names of artists that you like, and viola it customises a "radio station" for you and plays songs of the group you selected or from groups similar to the one that you selected. And while listening to songs, if you dont like something, just click on the guide button and delte the song....easy...

-Ash

look right (under google ads)

syndicated feeds of blogs of folks that i read...with their blog entries displayed (sort of stuff you see on admit websites and other pages!)

-Ash
PS: this blog is gonna die pretty soon...September 17th to be axact
from that date on ill be posting my mba experiences on a new site....http://gsb2008.blogspot.com

how to use google reader !

Screencast on how to use google reader
http://www.sfu.ca/%7Ejtoal/presentations/g_reader/googlereader.html

Hup holland HUP!

okies..so this is getting intense....last game of round 1....vs. argentina...we gotta make it...just to get some serious confidence going!

came across these cool ESPN ads from a friend's blog site...MUST SEE !

Anthem

Ivory Coast

Sick Days

the human spirit kicks ass !

hup holland hup!

-A
PS: this blog will soon be terminated....new blog for b school being worked on...

Mudwalking in Holland - a must do activity when you visit this country!

for those who visit holland. Here is the encounter of our experience, mud walking as the north sea receded.

so whats hot on campus?

According to this article that I read on CNN, undergrads rate apple products (ipod etc) as more "in" compared to beer.
Now when your choices on campus are bud or even better "bud light", honestly, does this come as a surprise? (yes, you guessed it, Im not a bud fan!) Im petrified of going back to college and having to pay huge amounts to drink decent beer (the good news is that carona is cheaper than the netherlands)

among other things, Im beta testing the next Microsoft OS (vista) to be realeased early next year and also have access to outlook2007 and msoffice 2007. A lot of improvements I might add.

But the point which I note is that the company has forgotten everything about innovation. Its all about adaptation now. It has a lot of neat features in it, but none of them are revolutionary or new. they are just amalgamations of great products already out there, cast into the windows OS. Personally, Im glad I sold my MSFT shares earlier last year. Im still a die hard X-box fan though :)

-Ash

how good are the vault guides?

one thing that i have heard from almost everyone who goes into business school is that one should have enough focus on what they want to do there. You should go in with an open mind, but with some choices in focus, as opposed to hmm..lemme try real estate, naah perhaps FMCG!

to understand more about the choices which intrigue me, namely: Biotech, I-banking, Consulting and venture capital, besides the energy industry (which I am in), I am considering buying and reading some of the vault guides. I have used these guides in the past to get into management consulting firms, but have not looked at industry specific guides.

I went through the vault guide to the energy industry, and found it rather disappointing on the basis of the content. Hence before buying other guides to such as the ones to the I-banking, venture capital and the biotech industry, I was wondering if you folks had any opinions?

cheers
ash

how quaint

now the first thing I want to say is that is post is not about HBS bashing.
I was reading the clearadmit blog and noticed a statement that HBS was the first school to require a degree for entry.
"Harvard, consistent with its avowed purposes of establishing business as a profession, was a pioneer in requiring a college degree for entrance."

And then I read about this a few days ago, College dropout enrolled at HBS. Now I really dont understand this.
1) How does one get a master's degree without having a bachelor's degree. (and NO, Im not one of those people who is hung up on degrees, but this sounds fundamentally wrong).
2) How can HBS make this claim of firsts?

hmmmm...food for thought!

Cheers
Ash

And now you can LISTEN to my blog or add it to your podcast even!

I have added a talking functionality to my blog, using talkR. I think its a rather neat utility, it renders the text in the blog in a voice (of a female, I dont think they have more choices as yet). You can also click on the red "talkr" button on the right and add it as a feed to your talkr account, which will allow you to download the feeds from your subscribed blogs as podcasts, which ofcourse you can listen to while driving or riding in the train.

Neat huh? If you are inspired by this and want to start using talkR, click on the other talkR box on the right and subscribe to it. Any money made from referrals will be paid out to charity (that also goes for the adsense money). The sad part is that 6 months later, I have generated only 14$ from adsense, not enough to get the cheque, and hence not enough to give to a charity.

cheers
Ash
PS: it takes some time for the feed to get activated :D

banks and music bands!

If Banks Were Musicians, Citigroup Would Be Ozzy: Mark Gilbert
funny one i got from a mate today!
cheers
ash

sundowner location with Animals!

 

Still hungry?

 

The Cheetah run

As Im sorting some pictures these days from our safari in Aug 2005, Im putting some of the nice ones up on my various blog sites!
this is one of a cheetah off after the lil Thompson gazelle baby (pic below-surrounded by elders). While the elders run, the lil ones hide in the grass to avoid the predator. The cheetah can sustain this run for only 60 seconds MAX! Too bad I did not have a digital, and got only one frame of the cheetah chase !
:(
-ash


 

The Cheetah from BBC "BIG CATS" documentary

now that I have finally started to sort out our travel pics (these ones from Aug 2005), there should be some interesting posts. Ofcourse all the travel blogs are going to land up on (http://pooshtravels.blogspot.com), but before i get that blog sorted here are some random smatterings of our travel pics as i sort them out!
this is the famous cheetah "amber", one of the cubs of kike
she is known to sit on the cars for
1) heat
2) better vantage point for a look out
and when she gets pissed, she is also known to climb to the roof of the jeep and piss inside it!
:) fortunately she was on the other jeep and we got some great pics...
cheers
Poosh

Other reasons why B school can be fun !

So, ofcourse we all rant and rave as to how we will improve our careers and future growth prospects in our essays by writing about the clubs we will join and initiatives in which we will be involved in. We speak about how we will learn from our fellow mates and enrich our lives with the diversity that the college has to offer.

But the one thing that I look forward to the most is an aspect of enriching the experiences of my life, which have absolutely nothing to do with work. Here is a classical example of an event being organised at the Stanford GSB.

I think the opportunity to be involved in events such as this and others (I seen things ranging from "10 days in Gaza" to "diving off Tanzania" to "my arctic journey"), is that I learn new things. things that will may not impact my career, or my plans for global domination (I intend to recreate sun oil and make rockerfeller look like a good hearted man); but these things impact my development as a person and as an individual.

Even though I dont participate in all the clubs, I have seen such interesting posts of events being organised on campus by the various societies/clubs, that its going to be really hard to make choices of what to go to and what not to go to !

the summary...not all choices are made for career and money alone...some of them are made so that we can be more aware human beings (the benefit might be a more humane approach when I become lord and emperor of the world).....but I feel it might make me a more aware person!

-Ash

Jogging down the memory lane

Breakfast in the bush

Strange tourist with Elephant bone!

Since Im going nuts with Picasa, I thought of posting some random pics from our vacation in Africa last year.
cheers
Ash

 

www.ilove11.nl - Bar and Restaurant!

 

Define modernism

Random graffiti on a wall in Amsterdam. What does modernism mean to you?
-Ash 

Stanford Class visit

Now this is the kind of visit that one should make before they apply for an MBA program, however given the geographical separation, I decided to visit Stanford as I was in the bay area for some business.

Disclaimer: what follows is the stark un-adultrated truth...some folks will like it and some wont.

I had forgotten the whole concept of carpool lanes and clogged bay area freeways, so I was running late for my appointment. Hence I parked my car in an illegal spot on campus (and did not get ticketed later, something which never happened to me when I had lived on that campus, id get ticketed if i looked the other way) and reached the admissions office. Ofcourse they thought that I was a prospective student initially, but as soon as they realised that I was going to be an MBA1 (first year MBA) starting Fall2006, the red carpet was more or less rolled out. My liason at the MBA office came out and had a chat with me for 15 minutes. Everything about my interaction with the staff had a superb personal touch and I am glad that I chose this school. I was instantly given the admit weekend package (which i missed) and also given an admit weekend shirt, which was a good reminder of what college is all about, collecting free t-shirts at job fairs! :D

So I went for the corporate finance class, my other choice was the supply chain class, but I chose a class, out of my zone of comfort. It was given by Prof. Strebulev and I was extremely impressed with the way he conducted the class.

now here is the deal, all those brochures show spanking new classes, however to my disappointment, the carpets were worn out a little and the wooden chairs (though they were pivoted and one could have fun spinning around em) looked a little rickety. OBSERVATION 1: Im spoilt with those fancy leather chairs in our boardrooms, get back to reality ash !

the professor started off the class with a case study on US Tobacco. This was the first time that I saw the case study method in action. It was extremely interesting and now Im convinced it works. Its a balance of drawing in students, taking short deviations to "teach" things (in this case, he took a break from the case to explain what rating agencies are, and how they function and how many comapnies are rated AAA, what it means, etc) and then came back to the case.

Also, here was a learning, when you are in a class, arranged in a semicircle, the best seats are between angles 60 degrees and 120 degrees. In the other seats (0-60, 120-180degrees), you are usually in the blind spot of the professor and hence even if you raise your hand to answer questions, chances are you will go unnoticed !

the discussion in the class was extremely interesting, though I noticed that the professor chose not to pick on the IBankers, but chose students who appeared to be from a more non conventional background. He even spotted a few students saying "Aaah Mr X, so thats where you are hiding"!

however on the flip side, maybe it was just this class, I was somewhat disappointed with the level of..ummm..errr....the level of "intellectual vitality" in this class....somehow i remembered my masters classes being different, the questions being sharper, the approaches being more radical.....in this class however they seemed to be a very high level of order and chaos was starkly absent!

the other thing i was a little bummed about was that a lot of peope were surfing the internet on their wifi connnections, @45,000 for 3 quarters, 6 classes/quarter, 3 classes/week, 12 weeks/quarter ~ $70/class, and this is just tuition expenses! Thats a lot of money spent to be surfing the internet!....or am i getting old fashioned here???

the aweosme thing was that everyone was in flip flops and most people had shorts...the atmosphere was very laid back !

overall, id give my classroom experience a 8/10, the only downside was perhaps the learning atmosphere a bit, but then again..that was one class..one section on a monday morning ! but it does shed some interesting light on the grade disclosure debate...

lunch in the canteen was good...but expensive $7 bowl of mexican goulash and a bottle of water...but then again..i guess Im spoilt with our subsidised lunches where we have a 3 course meal for 4 euros. however the canteen was teeming just like a pub on a friday night and you could feel the energy among the students....

bottom line..its going to be an interesting two years !

cheers
Ash

and now the sharpened image?

does it look sharper?
my verdict is YES !
-ash 

test of image sharpen

so im testing this new Picasa software, which I think kicks ass for the novice photographer. Im testing the image sharpening feature. this is the unsharpened image. The next one is sharpened. notice the difference?
ash
PS: this is the boabab tree in Selous Tanzania (also known as the upside down tree) 

Test: Random pic from Africa

  

to post an essay or not to post an essay

that is the question !
I have noted that a few bloggers have posted their whole app essays online (I admire them for their bravery, I would not share my childllike writing on a public forum).

But that brings me to the question..is it allright to post our essays online? Do schools have copyright over the stuff that we send to them? Is it safe? Is it ethical?

I personally do not have very strong feelings on this issue. However, I would hesitate to post my essay online on several counts, most of them being related to keeping some rather personal and intimate thoughts/experiences to myself

anyone got any comments on this?
-Ash

The "what matters most" offer !

The B-school journey app journey has been a tiring one...and one of the key ingredients which helped me survive was the blog community here...and keeping my sanity as I read the blogs of various people and connected with em (so what if I did not make it to the top 10 blogs of the 24 nominated blogs - sour grapes..sulk!)

so to pay back to the mba-applicant blogging community...I am making an interesting offer....to read Stanford essays for next year for 5 applicants, who (if they take up this offer) must:

1) Blog about their application experience (during and after)
2) Promise to provide the same sort of feedback to 5 more applicants the year after
3) Are applying to Stanford
4) Will buy me a pitcher of beer, if they get in !

I will do only upto 3 iterations.
The reason that Im making this offer, is not to compete with admissions consultants (and no I do not aspire to be an admissions consultant or an ADCOM member after my MBA degree - though it does sound like a lucrative business, but my writing skills are far from well developed): I'm doing this to provide feedback (based on what I have learned) to share from my experience, in case you overlooked something.

So if someone wants to take up the offer for these five spots, message me at [ ashblog &t gmail d^t com] and I will post your blog link to my site and will provide you feedback on the app process

cheers
ash

Disclaimer: I am sure that B-school will get hectic, but I will try to mantain a turn around time of 1 week. I will provide only feedback, which may or may not improve the quality of your application. It will be upto you, the applicant, to put the feedback into context with your overall app strategy and do what you think needs to be done. If I do land up working in the Stanford student adcom, then I will not review your app incase I come across it.....
Further, feedback provided my include comments like "barf", "glib", etc...the applicant must have tremendous character to withstand some very honest feedback (blame the Dutch...I lost my political correctness in this country)

Reactions to my MBA admit

So, it has become official, about me leaving (still in discussion, sabbatical or quitting) and I have rcvd very interesting reactions, most of them being "why", "this does not make sense", "you dont need it" and NOT EVEN ONE positive reaction from work atleast (few positive reactions from friends). But the most interesting reaction that I felt like posting was from a friend (much older, very successful in a tech role) from bay area, who upon hearing that I will be coming back said:

It will be good to have you back in the neighborhood ... even if it does mean you're becoming a Stanford MBA. With luck, skill and dedication perhaps you'll avoid the all-to-common tendency of MBAs to forget everything they once knew about technology and common sense ;o)
Give me a shout when you're back in country... of course we'll never get together as Stanford Biz School folks have time for nothing but studying ... it's not like getting a PhD. in the sciences you know :o)

I really appreciated the frankness of his thoughts, which is why I value him as a friend so much. BUT...i ponder............

Why are b school folks always perceived as zombies of b school mantras? Is that how they are? sigh...i can only hope that these are specuilations, else i need a lot of luck and dedication to avoid that !

cheers
Ash out

How not to get into HBS

At the start of this post, I must totally admit that this blog entry is inspired by MBAJackAss's blog.

This is was the deal...HBS was my number one choice (tied with Stanford, I thought Id make the choice when I had to cross that bridge, fortunately the decision was made easier when I got my ding from HBS).

On a personal note, I am sorta glad that I got dinged for two reasons
1) Personally I am better off being in the bay area, as my wife is from there. So as I immerse myself into a lot of course work (though I have a feeling that she will be helping me with my cases too), she has her own network of friends and family and does not have to start from scratch.
2) I will not deny that not getting into HBS hurt my ego more, than hopefully my future career prospects and personal aspirations. Everytime in my life when I get too comfortable or cocky, such events happen, and they have a remarkable effect on cooling down my temprament and helping me focus more.

So, going back to profile analysis and why I did not get into HBS !

1) M/28/India (live in The Netherlands) - lots of applicants from this category, infact being of indian ethnicity and this age bracket hurts a little

2) GMAT 720, Undergrad - ChemEng (Bombay) top 5%, Masters - Petroleum Eng (Stanford)GPA:4.0 - I would consider this as a strong part of my app, as I am Indian but not from the traditional IT background, my GMAT percentiles were also reasonably balanced (86 percentile verbal and 90 percentile quant, 6.0 AWA).

3) 4.5 year work experience in the oil business working projects on 4 continents and 9 countries - at the outset, one could take this as a very strong point. However, perhaps the biggest frustration is (and I realised this as I had my mgmt consultant and I banking friends comment on my essays), is that most people dont understand this business, its critical issues (besides gas going to $4/gal) and whats cool here. For example, when I described some "cool" things which I did , most of my friends went...well thats not a big deal. But given that we work in a business with 4-5 other partners (competing oil firms), governments and NGOs, even simple things like agreeing on the route of a pipeline, takes one year and is a significant achievement. Also, trying to communicate the challenges faced by our business, I noticed that a lot of people could not relate to things, as they were "normal" in other businesses.
At the same time, not many people from this business apply for MBA degrees and it should have put me in the category of "novel" candidates (unless they bunched me with the "manufacturing" group)
[To understand this business better, I recommend reading a book called THE PRIZE]

4) Recommendations: reasonably solid. Though I was told by some of my recommenders that they had to talk to some of their counterparts who had mba degrees (as they told me later), because it turns out that:
a) the European style of writing recommendations is very different from the American style
b)European recommendations tend to be more generic
However, I think that my recommenders must have put in EXTREMELY solid recommendations, as I did get into Wharton and Stanford

5) Leadership skills: HBS has a strng focus on this. Since my early days as a student in school to my college days, to my current position, I have held leadership positions and hence was very confident. However in my leadership essay, I described a leadership situation in the oil business, and in retrospect I feel that though it was a really good example of leadership, people unfamiliar with the business could not relate to it (ofcourse the failing is mine, for not being able to understand my audience and cater my essay)


6) The essays: I think this was the most important part of the app for me. And I was always a little uneasy with 1 essay. I think, I nailed all the essays but for the most important one "THREE SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS". The biggest mistake I made (or so I think), is that I chose three generic achievements. eg. my time at Stanford and how I evolved then from a student who had just lived in India, not travelled anywhere in the world to a person with a broad view, working and leading different student societies etc. But I get it generic. I put in too many details of what all I did as a student. Similarly for my other achievements, instead on focusing on something specific like ,say delivering reserves numbers for company X in country Y to the SEC, with solid detail of the challenges and what the achievement was); instead I spoke about the achievement over a protracted period of time, with too many examples, and was not able to communicate clearly, what the challenge was in each case and why it was an achievement.
Perhaps that is the reason why, I was not even invited for an interview at HBS. So my advice for essays would be:

1) Understand your audience. When you know that they might not relate to your job/line of work, dont be in denial about it. Tailor your essays so that even a high school student with zero business skills understands what you are tryin to say.

2) Focus your essay topics on specific examples and cases. The problem with being generic is that you may not be able to specify in detail what the problems were and how the solutions made sense

3) Dont shy away from hard metrics. Put in those numbers, eg. as a result of this, company X saved $50 million for the next 3 years

Any comments?

cheers
Ash

Interesting study link for Excel !

http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~pecklund/ExcelReview/ExcelReview.htm

Stanford Essay A: What matters most and why?

As a follow on to my previous post, on Stanford Essay A, what matters most and why?

I had promised to post more on this essay, once I got to know the result from Stanford, which fortunately was positive. It is my strong belief, that:
a) This essay cannot be written in one go. It needs several iterations to evolve
b) Stanford is definitely looking for people, who are driven by certain fundamental beliefs and convictions. Deep down inside, I believe, that we all are indeed driven by some beliefs and convictions, and it takes some introspection for us to understand this. I discovered this, much to a pleasant surprise, during the application process (read previous post on this evolved)
c) Be honest, cos if you are not, it will not be your voice, and i honestly believe that a true and honest voice connects better with the reader...


So this is what I wrote in my essay. Because of the personal nature of the essay, I am not going to post the entire essay and shall just post the first few paragraphs. But this is what drives me and forms the basis of my beliefs and this is what I hope to be honest to, for the rest of my life.

I am posting this on the site, to to illustrate that the Stanford Essay A is not about one's writing abilities, but it is all about reflecting on some honest thoughts which drive the individual, and penning them down (sounds easy, but it takes a lot of time).

Cheers and best of luck with future B school apps.
Ash

As a young kid I remember being disappointed in my geography classes to learn that most of the planet had already been explored and that one could circumnavigate the world in 24 hours, unlike the 3 years that it took Magellan’s crew. I have since discovered that the joy of exploration lies in discovering new societies and cultures for oneself; even if the exploration begins by filling out forms in long immigration queues, instead of landing on sandy beaches propelled by winds bellowing in the sails of a wooden ship.
I have found meaning in exploring cultures to discover the ideas and practices that define the fabric of the society. In the process, I try to see how they could contribute to other societies, and help people break out of traditional approaches to embrace change and new ideas.

Hello from Alexandria

Howdy there !

 

Greetings from Alexandria...Egypt...the exotic city on the north coast of Egypt...which boasts ruins right from the ancient Greek times to the Romans..to the Pharoahs....to Islamic era....a city of contrasts and a city of delights....absolutely splendid...though nothing compared to the hustle of Cairo (was there last year)....

 

For those of you who ever travel to Egypt....besides visiting the pyramids and other ruins..id highly recommend looking at the Roman ruins...they are quite pretty...and make sure that you step outside your wonderful hotels and instead of eating....braised duck with mandarin sauce...try some street food...here are some good recommendations...top of the list has to be something called 'Khushari'...its a medley of speghetti..rice..macroni...made in tomato sauce..topped with lentils and baked onions.....served on the side with garlic and hot sauce....mmm.....it totally kicks asss....ofcours then there is the falafel...for those of us in Europe who are used to eating this after a night of getting pissed ...this preparation is starkly different....ofcourse try the stew made with beef and okra....

 

well....now..im off to sit and soak some sun (desparately need that living in holland)....will keep you folks posted...on the personal front..i find that my negotiating abilties and stakeholder management skills need drastic improvement....3 days on the ship with 8 other family members...and i lost it at the dinner table last night...nice gentle thoughts...nice positive things....

 

ciao ciao all

ash

radio silence ....

off on a vacation for the next two weeks....sounds interesting...no really..
im gonna be stuck on a BIG boat with my parents..my inlaws and their parents...wohoo....the nerves on my head are already bulging...the joys of being married....


good luck to all you folks still waiting to hear from some more schools and thanks to others who really helped me keep it together as I was about to fall apart...
cheers
Ash

Notification: Blog Name update

This is to inform you all, that the name of my blog has changed.
Thank you all, who kept my hopes alive as I was jaded and almost sure that I would not get an admit...
i wish i could write more right now...but im too incoherent..

cheers
Ash

double ding?

looking at BW week posts....DB has started calling...no call here yet..looks like its over
:(
Wharton or no B school..thats the option to dwell over the next weeks to come....
-A