Last minute lists

I'm out of India in 10 days. People keep calling to wish me or meet me once before I go. My departure keeps coming up in every conversation. But strangely, I don't feel I'm going anywhere at all. I definitely don't feel I'm going "back to school" because right now I'm just going on a 2-week holiday. This inertia is something I've never felt before and I'm sure it's not going to help me get acclimatized to school quickly. I keep telling myself this is because I don't know what to expect in the next few months and I'm just a little reluctant to let go of all the familiarity. But I'm not really convinced with my own excuses.

Moving on to less uncertain things... Now I think I know what are the things I need to pack and what are the other miscellaneous things I need to wrap up before I go. I will put down the list here for people who might find some use for it over the next 2 months or so...

Packing List:
I'm listing out just the categories of items. The specific things in each catergory varies from person to person and may be very different depending on where you are traveling from. A little googling can find you many really extensive packing lists.

• Documents (Education, B-school related, work related, medical prescriptions and health history, travel related, financial documents, insurance, driving license with international permit. Ensure that documents needed during travel are easily accessible )
• Photographs (in standard sizes and the negative/soft copy for later use)
• Money (Cash, Travelers' checks, credit cards)
• Important phone numbers and addresses
• Medicines (with prescription)
• Clothes
• Prescription Spectacles/contact lenses (carry a spare)
• Toiletry (just for a month till you know your way around the new place)
• Footwear
• Accessories (bags, watches, belts, jewelery, goggles etc.)
• Books
• CDs, DVDs (that you absolutely must carry)
• Gifts (if any)
• Food items (this is specific to Indians)
• Utensils (mainly cooker and tawa, this again is specific to Indians)
• Backpacks/briefcases etc.
  

Things to wrap up before leaving:

• Change of address wherever applicable
• Car driving license with international permit
  
• Eye, dental and general health check up, immunization shots
  
• Closing of back accounts/credit cards/other subscriptions
• Leave signed checks, signed empty sheets of paper etc. at home for emergencies (this might be specific to Indians)
  
• Leave copies of all documents at home
  
• Buy travel insurance if needed
• Change money
• Reconfirm flight(s)/seats/on-board meal selection
• Weigh luggage to ensure you are within the limit or make plans to pay for additional baggage
• If someone is receiving you call the person and reconfirm flight timing. If not make plans for transit from airport to apartment/hotel/wherever

I might have forgotten some things. So I will add to these lists as and when I come across something I've missed.

Too much of this good life?

Right now the most fortunate thing in my life is having an uncle who has, or rather had a bag manufacturing business AND who sent us large bags (and smaller ones too) every time someone in the family went abroad.

Now, to give you an idea of my misery:

My shopping done, the obvious next step was packing, which I(read my mother) started yesterday. And I have LOTS of stuff. I wonder what the Lufthansa guys were thinking when they set the 46kg weight limit on luggage. Don't they know Indians at all? Last night we packed a bag completely with way less than half my stuff and thought it's good to go. But we found that it weighed only 20kgs :-(. Now that's disastrous. Thankfully we have a bag of the next size at home (refer previous paragraph about uncles and free bags :D). Now we have to unpack the packed bag and use the larger one instead, which is really nothing to crib about, but I hate packing (which my mom makes me sit and watch) and I'm on vacation and hence entitled to crib just a wee bit.

Now about other bags... I bought a couple of really nice handbags recently and they make me feel like a girl again :-). I'm also surrounded by a hundred "not so nice" plastic bags containing all my shopping and my room looks like a warehouse. You will find me huddled up and sleeping in whatever space I can find between the bags and my books.

I'm getting a little too used to joblessness and it's heavenly. I don't laze around but I love not having to account for my time or use it gainfully to earn my living :-). Pity the fun has to end so soon. C'est la vie...

Shopping, Swimming, Studying. And yeah, Flying Ants too!!!

My shopping list is shrinking!!! I bought my luggage today and 4 pairs of Jeans yesterday. I still have to buy formal wear and some other miscellaneous stuff. I'm so glad I can finish shopping sooner than I expected :-). And I totally enjoy my hour or so of swimming everyday...

I was getting worried that I might not be able to take waiver exams because I could not find books that have the relevant material at my library except for 2 subjects. I don't want to buy books as I cannot carry them and ironically, buying the course texts will be a waste of money if I manage to waive the courses :-(. But things became peachy again once I saw the dates for the waiver exams I want to take. They are spaced out and give me enough time to borrow books and prepare even after I get to Wharton. Anyway I was secretly wishing I won't have to study too much before school :D. Now I can play hookey, guiltlessly that too!

A very funny thing happened a couple of days ago. I was sitting at my comp and suddenly something fell into my left eye. No amount of jumping up and down, rubbing, scratching or splashing water could get the thing out. Finally, when I managed to twist my left eye completely out of shape and peered into it with my right eye, what should I find but an ant sticking to my eye-lid. Yes, a RED ANT. I tried removing it with my finger, a dry handkerchief, a wet handkerchief, a Johnsons ear bud and other such objects in rapid succession, but to no avail. The dead ant was hanging on to my eye with its tiny little tentacle (as I found out much later). I had to finally visit the doctor who initially put up quite a fight to locate the ant, while telling me all about flying ants/insects and how they put their tentacles to effective use in such situations. Then I, by now very familiar with the art of nearly gouging my eye out, helped him locate it in a jiffy, quite dexterously, if I may say so myself :-). He then anesthetized my eye with an eyedrop which in turn made my tongue and lips numb too. I sat clenching my fists and gritting my teeth as he held my eye open and pinched the ant out with a pair of forceps. Gross? Oh yeah!

Now I have to use eye drops which flow into my throat and make me sick and an eye ointment which sticks my eye closed for about an hour. I never thought THIS will happen in my life. Kudos to the ant!

10 days out of a job

My last day at work was 31st May and my team gave me a really nice farewell. I had to cut a huge cake, make a speech and got a lot of unexpected gifts from friends. I got quite sad during the last few days at work but managed to spend considerable time with all my good friends and hopefully will keep in touch with all of them.

Until 3rd June I was really busy with packing (I wrapped each of the 100 odd books I owned in Bangalore with polythene and taped it, you can imagine how long that takes!), last minute meetings with friends, social visits that my mom insisted on, delivering the stuff I gave away, calling people on my phone book before I surrendered my phone etc. Those 3 days were more hectic than my full time job :-).

I have been in Chennai for a week now. I thought it will be really weird not having a job to go for every morning(or afternoon :D) and I expected to take a long time getting used to it. Thanks to the long list of things I need to do before I leave India, I don't feel much of a difference. On the very day I landed in Chennai I had to rush to get my learner's license, enroll in car driving school and begin my immunization schedule. I also got a new internet connection at home, enquired about money exchange, travel insurance etc. etc. etc.

We are rebuilding the house we used to live in. It is the house I lived in for 22 years and much as I hated to see it demolished, I am still very excited about the new plan and all the ideas I have for the house. So I've been spending a lot of time with my mom picking out wall shades, tile patterns and other fixtures, giving specifications to the carpenter etc. And I must say I'm enjoying it and am quite sad that I will never live there again and will not even stay in India long enough to see the completed house.

The "Get Started" packet arrived from Wharton and I'm done reading the 2 booklets in it. Wharton allows students to waive courses and the waiver information guide (on a CD) is a whopping 350 pages long. Being an Engineer, I cannot waive even a single course by credential. However, I have a list of courses that, with little or no effort, I might be able to waive through exams . Waiving some courses will go a long way in reducing my first year course load. So I'm rather unsuccessfully trying to motivate myself to learn the basics of these subjects.

I went shopping yesterday and bought a bunch of clothes. I still have loads of things to buy before the end of the month. Because I'm not very fond of shopping I'm trying to space out my shopping expeditions so that I don't get frustrated and give up too soon. At least the traffic situation in Chennai is better than that in Bangalore and does not add to my reluctance to go shopping. And yeah, now that I have paid all my previous bills, the wallet is steadily getting thinner :-(. On a side note, I found a really nice swimming pool and will go swimming everyday from today!

I might sound quite busy and excited, but there are a few things I miss about Bangalore:

• My friends at work. I have many friends in Chennai, but they all have jobs to keep.
• The weather which was getting really nice when I left.
• Weaving erratically through the crazy Bangalore traffic, I don't have enough opportunity to do that in Chennai :-)
• My trusty 2-wheeler :-(, although I have a friend's spare vehicle to use in Chennai.

But I guess my mom's food and all the time in the world to do as I please pretty much make up for it... That's about it from me at the moment. I really will blog regularly henceforth...

A long overdue update...

I'm writing this post more out of pity and a sense of duty towards my blog than a true inclination to write :-). Things have hit a lull on the MBA front especially after getting my visa and I don't know what to write.

In the last 3 weeks- I bought my tickets, paid the deposit for my apartment, bought furniture and just got started on my shopping. I'm yet to pay for any of these things (Yes, I seem to have a lot of people who want to spend money for me) and am going to swoon when I dole out all that cash one of these days :-(. I bought 4 pairs of shoes/sandals, a pair of shades and the watch you see in the picture :D!

I found buyers for my 2-wheeler and other household stuff in Bangalore. But I get to keep them till 3 June when I leave Bangalore for good. I also found someone to takeover my room and saved my flatmate a roomie-hunt.

I have 10 working days(with 2 weekends in the middle) at my job. I still have a lot of work and looks like I will have to slog all the way till I leave on 31 May. I am a little undecided on whether it feels good or bad to have a lot of work until the very last day. At times I feel nice and important. At other times I just want to go home and sleep.

My mom is coming to Bangalore at the end of the month! I have to pack something like 80 books, a cupboard full of clothes(I think I should get rid of most of them and buy a whole new wardrobe before I become a pauper student :D), a computer and its table and other miscellaneous stuff that I have acquired over the last couple of years. My mom is indispensable in such a situation!

I'm really looking forward to my month in Chennai. I mainly want the home-cooked food, the beach and the lazing around. I am conveniently leaving out the shopping because I hate shopping and hate even more to think that I cannot postpone it beyond the last week of June :-(. Relocating is such a pain and doing it 50Kgs is nightmarish.

Since it's making me a little morose, I will stop writing now. More on my plans for my stay in Chennai and my California trip coming up!

Congratulations to Wharton R2 admits!

My hearty congratulations to all people admitted to Wharton in Round 2! This must be a really exciting time for you. Boy! Do I remember how it feels :-)! Party hard to let it sink in :D. And then the boring paper work will start... Do feel free to email me with any queries you might have about matriculating to Wharton. I would be glad to help.

Admits in Bangalore/Chennai, how about meeting up?

Update on my matriculation:
My I20 is ready and is on its way to me. I have made arrangements to wire my deposit and will be mailing across my matriculation materials next week. The only pending item after that will be visa.

$$$

Wharton awarded me $20,000 through a combination of a fellowship and a need-based grant. This means they met the 10% stipulated student contribution. Now I don't need to show any personal sources of funding as I have a guaranteed loan for the entire remaining amount :-). They've also mentioned that I could also get some corporate fellowship in addition to this.

My financial woes are fast-disappearing! I totally love this :D

Apartment Search Over!

Thanks a ton to everyone who extended support and valuable advice in my woeful post about my apartment search.

I have a few nice updates on the matriculation front. First of all, I found an apartment! I will be taking over a current student's apartment. My future roomie and me had our eyes on this building all the while, it's one of the safer apartments at a reasonable rent. Now we just have to sign the lease. Here I would like to note how helpful the B-School community is (Wharton and all other schools). When I was trying to shortlist places I mailed pagalguy asking for the contact of a couple of Indian girls so that I could discuss the safety factor with them. I mailed one of the girls he pointed me to and the very next day my apartment search ended. Within 24 hours, she replied answering all my questions and also offering her apartment. So people, it really really helps to reach out to people, even those we don't know personally.

I faxed my verification authorization to Kroll on Thursday. The very next day I got a mail saying that the authorization has been processed and that they will begin the verification process shortly.

Wharton has said that the financial aid committee will meet this week to process the first batch of scholarship applications. So I should get my scholarship result and the loan amount I'm eligible for within 2-4 weeks starting Monday. I have completed my I20 application except for the financial details for which I need to get my loan information from Wharton. So I guess I can complete my I20 application in a month or so too.

The list of things I need to do is slowly disappearing :-). I have been meaning to start on the suggested readings for B-school, but I'm stuck up with my classics mania. I'm simply not able to draw myself to the business/management section at the bookstore :-(

The Wharton scholarship essay

I've been getting quite a few queries about the scholarship essay for the fellowships/grants at Wharton. This post will hopefully collate the information I collected to help me complete the essays. I will also write a bit about the approach I adopted.

I believe there is a single question that rankles every applicant. I will address it here:

Should I make a case for need or merit?

Most of the fellowships are merit-based. The need based grants are for people who are in dire financial circumstances. Given this fact, it is a trifle too risky to make a case only for need. Ideally one should devote most of the space to demonstrate merit and make a mention of need if he/she will really be unable to meet the part of the expenses not covered by loans. Since the financial aid office does not see the rest of the application, one can pick and choose from examples used in the application essays. However, the personal statement is only 500 words long and it would be wise to use one's discretion and wisely pick only 2-3 best examples to elaborate on. I personally feel this will be more effective than attempting to summarize every achievement within 500 words. It is not enough to just talk about achievements here, real merit can be demonstrated if one's learnings and how these learnings will enable him/her add value to the Wharton community is evident.

I feel the resume needs to be utilized really effectively here. Remember it's just a single page. So it can be used to quantify all your achievements and serve to trace out the milestones in your life(for which there is no space in the personal statement). A crisp resume with all the important stuff (bulleted and aptly bold faced) that logically leads to the explanations in the personal statement might just do the trick.

Another space-saving thing I came know is that it is not necessary to mention any particular fellowship(s) you are applying to. They themselves determine which ones the applicant is eligible for and evaluate him/her for all of them.

Hope this information is useful. Feel free to leave a comment about any query that you might have.