Sample Consultation Overview

Sample Consultation is an attempt to show you how would be a typical communication with a mentor. It should help you figure out following
- More detailed understanding about level of communication with a mentor - Evolve thoughts about your own set of requirements - Help mentors understand the depth required to advice somebody as a mentor

Foreign MBA
IIT JEE

Profile

Mentee
Mentor

Raj, a student from NIT, Trichy studying mechanical engineering. He has recently heard about HBS 2+2 program and wants to inquire more about it. This is his first call with the mentor.
Pratik, a final year student of his Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi. He applied for the HBS 2+2 program last year and got admitted. He will matriculate in fall 2011.

Conversation

Mentee Hello!

Mentor Hello Raj! Pratik here. How are you doing today?

Mentee I’m fine, thank you. Just a little worried about how to proceed with the application.

Mentor That’s no problem. We’ll take care of it. So tell me, how familiar are you with the program?

Mentee To be honest with you, not very much, except the fact that HBS is an amazing place to be and 2+2 sounds like an amazing opportunity Can you please brief me more about it?

Mentor Sure. So, HBS 2+2 is a 2 year deferred MBA program, which means you are granted admission for the MBA program in advance of your enrollment. This, in your case means that you get admitted in 2009 but you enroll in 2012 and graduate in 2014. You can read more about the program on the HBS site.

Mentee Whoa! That sounds like a lot! How much time does that take?

Mentor It depends. I’d suggest you give away your GMAT/GRE/TOEFL first, in the mean time selecting your recommenders. Then you should focus entirely on the essays, this way you will keep your mind focused and leave no confusion. This way you should be able to complete a deserving application within 2-2.5 months. This is of course keeping in mind that you’re in your busiest semester and thus your academic workload won’t permit you to go full time on the application.

Mentee
Thanks for the suggestions; I’ll keep those in mind. Btw what should be my minimum GMAT score, I mean is there any cutoff?

Mentor Well, in fact there are no minimum GMAT requirements. I know of interview offers to people with GMAT as low as 570-600 and no interviews to people with GMAT as high as 760. In my opinion, it is the overall application that matters. This being said, people with similar backgrounds are expected to have similar scores, for eg: all engineers are expected to have high scores, like 680+, so if you’re an engineer and with a score of 620, you better have an amazing application to support it.

Mentee Also, what about the essays? What are they about?

Mentor The detailed essay topics are available on the HBS website. But to give you an idea, they include topics such as,” What are your most substantial accomplishments and why?” So, these questions typically involve a lot of introspection and thought, which justifies the time needed to work upon them.

Mentee So like, for this essay, which accomplishments should I choose? What kind of accomplishments are they looking for?

Mentor They are not looking for any particular accomplishments. This Question is basically an attempt to identify your definition of accomplishment, so the second part of the accomplishment asking WHY becomes more important. But since this is after all an MBA application, the best stories are those which brings out qualities of an individual which are good fits with what an MBA grad may require, such as Leadership, sensitivity, etc.

Mentee Wow! This should take a lot of time. This reminds me, can you tell me an idea about how our timeline will work? I mean for different components like GMAT, Recommendation, Resume and Essays?

Mentor Sure! So, to give you an idea, I’ll say we’ll distribute our consultation sessions over the course of the following 8-10 weeks, depending on how much time you have. So, to start with we will give one call about your background, basic profile evaluation, your strengths and weaknesses etc. Then we’ll do about 2-3 calls over the course of your GMAT preparation formulating a strategy that suits you best, work on your difficulties, and discuss some useful tips. Does this answer your question?

Mentee This sure does! But it’ll be very kind of you if you could talk about Essays and Recommendations as well.

Mentor My pleasure! So, we’ll need about 1-2 calls to get you started on your essays, listening to your stories and achievements, selecting which put you in the best light. Then, once you draft them up, I can surely look at them and tell you how to better them. So in totality, since we have 4 essays, I believe around 6-7 calls for essays over say 3-4 weeks. The time frame could be smaller if we put in more time. Once we get through with the essays, we’ll need just one call about choosing your recommenders and preparing a recommender’s packet that will help them help you best. And to add to this, assuming you’d want to know, we’ll need another session in case you want me to look at your resume’ and a meeting for a possible mock interview.

Mentee
Thanks a ton for those inputs, these should really get me started. I guess the time’s over for today; I look forward to speaking with you next week. I still have questions about the recommendations and how to precisely get started, like the GMAT Prep etc.

Mentor No problems, It was nice talking to you! I look forward to the next meeting as well. Goodbye!

Way Forward

The mentee found the insights really helpful as it gave him a clear idea about the application process. Over the next calls, he improved his mock GMAT, especially verbal, and got a very good score of 740. Presently, he is working on his accomplishments essay.

Profile

Mentee
Mentor

"Raj, is studying in 12th grade in Delhi Public School. He has been preparing for JEE, but has been facing difficulties to manage the mammoth course with the school classes. He is also struggling with a few topics in Chemistry and Mathematics. This is his third call with mentor
Himanshu, is in second year of his Computer Science Engineering from IIT Delhi. He secured an AIR- 55 in IIT-JEE'2006. He has been phenomenally strong in chemistry and is also a gold medalist in National Mathematics Olympiad.

Conversation

Mentee Hello Himanshu!

Mentor Hello Raj! How are you now?

Mentee I’m fine now, just recovered from my illness. Though I ‘m not able to cope up with what is going on at my coaching classes along with trying to cover up for what I missed. MR:

Mentor I see. I think you should just concentrate on what’s going on in classes right now, as this would ensure sound foundation. And then, whenever you find time, you should try to go back to what you’ve missed.

Mentee Hmm.. I think that might work, as I do have some holidays coming up early next month. Also, I am confused about how to manage my school workload alongside my JEE preparations, what do you think I should do?

Mentor I trust that your Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics school curriculum is also a part of the JEE curriculum. And since you are already enrolled in a coaching class, I think you’d be exploring all the topics in greater details over there than in school. So it makes more sense to just focus on the topics in coaching class as doing topics in advance in school will be redundant when you redo them in the Coaching class.

Mentee And what about English?

Mentor You can always get a crash course on your English Syllabus towards the end of the term, which I think will be very productive.

Mentee
Alright, that sounds reassuring. I have another concern, these days they are teaching Organic Chemistry in the classes, and I am really unable to understand Reaction Mechanisms. What strategy should I follow?

Mentor Reaction Mechanisms, I believe is one of the more conceptual topics in Chemistry. Thus, you should first try to get familiar with the fundamental theory, by reading through the standard texts such as CBSE Chemistry and Class notes. Then, you must try to test your understanding of those concepts by solving a lot of questions with lower difficulty level from the various question banks available. Then to further test your understanding I highly recommend IL Finar for organic chemistry. You must then try to solve some previous years JEE papers. Once you get through this entire process, do not skip any phase as everything is important, I can give you more advanced books to follow, which will help you build solid concepts.

Mentee Aha! I think I figured what went wrong; I directly jumped to the Problem sheets provided during the class. I will try to do more of theory and test my understanding before attempting that. Since you just mentioned IL Finar, I have been quite confused by numerous books available. What should I do?

Mentor I think that is a very important question, and initially even I faced the same difficulty . Most of the time people run for many books and courses and eventually end up nowhere. I re-iterate for chemistry you should start with CBSE, it is very fundamental and covers most things.
Don't get worried by lots of books. You should stick to maximum of two to three books and don't waste your energies on what books other people are using. Of the 2-3 books you use, know which book covers which section best and follow it religiously.

Mentee Your point is very valid. I think I will use CBSE and IL Finar till the time I talk to you next. Can you comment on the pattern of JEE chemistry paper, I have been quite troubled by some questions that come in test series.

Mentor The JEE pattern of chemistry has always kept more focus towards CBSE as compared to Mathematics or Physics. Even we are taught similar JEE concepts in our first year at IIT. Don't get bogged down by the difficult questions in tests, try getting the simple questions right initially. I am sure you would definitely improve with time.

Mentee Now, about my Maths, though I think I have strong understanding, I have a problem with time management. How should I improve?

Mentor The thing with objective tests is that although strong concepts are essential, there are often smarter ways to pull out answers, without working out the complete solution. I suggest that before you attempt to work out the entire solution, glance at the options and rethink the question in light of the options available. In many cases you will be able to remove two-three options, thus increasing your chances of getting the answer right. Or in other cases you would take a shorter route to solve the same problem. And this, out my experience, I can tell you, is a skill you can master with enough practice.

Mentee That’s something I never thought, I would give that a try and tell you how it goes. Also I have seen many of my classmates using such techniques especially for P&C and Probability. I also want to improve my probability, can you suggest some exercise?

Mentor Yes probability is an important topic; you can use Hall and Knight for probability. They have covered the topic very nicely. They start from very basic and gradually increase the difficulty level. I think you would find it very helpful. Do refer to it and let me know if you find any improvement.

Mentee
I will surely work upon your suggestions and I will call you up again to let you know about my progress or if I am stuck anywhere. Thanks a lot for you help and time. I will go now as I have a class.

Mentor All the best for your class, talk to you later!

Way Forward

Mentee consulted mentor for guidance on each step till he took IIT exam. The mentee found the complete conversation very useful as mentor was very knowledgeable and fantastic as a motivator in troubled, low times.

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	Mentee		Mentor
Raj, a student from NIT, Trichy studying mechanical engineering. He has recently heard about HBS 2+2 program and wants to inquire more about it. This is his first call with the mentor.		Pratik, a final year student of his Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi. He applied for the HBS 2+2 program last year and got admitted. He will matriculate in fall 2011.

Mentee	Hello!
Mentor	Hello Raj! Pratik here. How are you doing today?
Mentee	I’m fine, thank you. Just a little worried about how to proceed with the application.
Mentor	That’s no problem. We’ll take care of it. So tell me, how familiar are you with the program?
Mentee	To be honest with you, not very much, except the fact that HBS is an amazing place to be and 2+2 sounds like an amazing opportunity Can you please brief me more about it?
Mentor	Sure. So, HBS 2+2 is a 2 year deferred MBA program, which means you are granted admission for the MBA program in advance of your enrollment. This, in your case means that you get admitted in 2009 but you enroll in 2012 and graduate in 2014. You can read more about the program on the HBS site.
Mentee	Whoa! That sounds like a lot! How much time does that take?
Mentor	It depends. I’d suggest you give away your GMAT/GRE/TOEFL first, in the mean time selecting your recommenders. Then you should focus entirely on the essays, this way you will keep your mind focused and leave no confusion. This way you should be able to complete a deserving application within 2-2.5 months. This is of course keeping in mind that you’re in your busiest semester and thus your academic workload won’t permit you to go full time on the application.
Mentee	Thanks for the suggestions; I’ll keep those in mind. Btw what should be my minimum GMAT score, I mean is there any cutoff?
Mentor	Well, in fact there are no minimum GMAT requirements. I know of interview offers to people with GMAT as low as 570-600 and no interviews to people with GMAT as high as 760. In my opinion, it is the overall application that matters. This being said, people with similar backgrounds are expected to have similar scores, for eg: all engineers are expected to have high scores, like 680+, so if you’re an engineer and with a score of 620, you better have an amazing application to support it.
Mentee	Also, what about the essays? What are they about?
Mentor	The detailed essay topics are available on the HBS website. But to give you an idea, they include topics such as,” What are your most substantial accomplishments and why?” So, these questions typically involve a lot of introspection and thought, which justifies the time needed to work upon them.
Mentee	So like, for this essay, which accomplishments should I choose? What kind of accomplishments are they looking for?
Mentor	They are not looking for any particular accomplishments. This Question is basically an attempt to identify your definition of accomplishment, so the second part of the accomplishment asking WHY becomes more important. But since this is after all an MBA application, the best stories are those which brings out qualities of an individual which are good fits with what an MBA grad may require, such as Leadership, sensitivity, etc.
Mentee	Wow! This should take a lot of time. This reminds me, can you tell me an idea about how our timeline will work? I mean for different components like GMAT, Recommendation, Resume and Essays?
Mentor	Sure! So, to give you an idea, I’ll say we’ll distribute our consultation sessions over the course of the following 8-10 weeks, depending on how much time you have. So, to start with we will give one call about your background, basic profile evaluation, your strengths and weaknesses etc. Then we’ll do about 2-3 calls over the course of your GMAT preparation formulating a strategy that suits you best, work on your difficulties, and discuss some useful tips. Does this answer your question?
Mentee	This sure does! But it’ll be very kind of you if you could talk about Essays and Recommendations as well.
Mentor	My pleasure! So, we’ll need about 1-2 calls to get you started on your essays, listening to your stories and achievements, selecting which put you in the best light. Then, once you draft them up, I can surely look at them and tell you how to better them. So in totality, since we have 4 essays, I believe around 6-7 calls for essays over say 3-4 weeks. The time frame could be smaller if we put in more time. Once we get through with the essays, we’ll need just one call about choosing your recommenders and preparing a recommender’s packet that will help them help you best. And to add to this, assuming you’d want to know, we’ll need another session in case you want me to look at your resume’ and a meeting for a possible mock interview.
Mentee	Thanks a ton for those inputs, these should really get me started. I guess the time’s over for today; I look forward to speaking with you next week. I still have questions about the recommendations and how to precisely get started, like the GMAT Prep etc.
Mentor	No problems, It was nice talking to you! I look forward to the next meeting as well. Goodbye!

	Mentee		Mentor
"Raj, is studying in 12th grade in Delhi Public School. He has been preparing for JEE, but has been facing difficulties to manage the mammoth course with the school classes. He is also struggling with a few topics in Chemistry and Mathematics. This is his third call with mentor		Himanshu, is in second year of his Computer Science Engineering from IIT Delhi. He secured an AIR- 55 in IIT-JEE'2006. He has been phenomenally strong in chemistry and is also a gold medalist in National Mathematics Olympiad.

Mentee	Hello Himanshu!
Mentor	Hello Raj! How are you now?
Mentee	I’m fine now, just recovered from my illness. Though I ‘m not able to cope up with what is going on at my coaching classes along with trying to cover up for what I missed. MR:
Mentor	I see. I think you should just concentrate on what’s going on in classes right now, as this would ensure sound foundation. And then, whenever you find time, you should try to go back to what you’ve missed.
Mentee	Hmm.. I think that might work, as I do have some holidays coming up early next month. Also, I am confused about how to manage my school workload alongside my JEE preparations, what do you think I should do?
Mentor	I trust that your Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics school curriculum is also a part of the JEE curriculum. And since you are already enrolled in a coaching class, I think you’d be exploring all the topics in greater details over there than in school. So it makes more sense to just focus on the topics in coaching class as doing topics in advance in school will be redundant when you redo them in the Coaching class.
Mentee	And what about English?
Mentor	You can always get a crash course on your English Syllabus towards the end of the term, which I think will be very productive.
Mentee	Alright, that sounds reassuring. I have another concern, these days they are teaching Organic Chemistry in the classes, and I am really unable to understand Reaction Mechanisms. What strategy should I follow?
Mentor	Reaction Mechanisms, I believe is one of the more conceptual topics in Chemistry. Thus, you should first try to get familiar with the fundamental theory, by reading through the standard texts such as CBSE Chemistry and Class notes. Then, you must try to test your understanding of those concepts by solving a lot of questions with lower difficulty level from the various question banks available. Then to further test your understanding I highly recommend IL Finar for organic chemistry. You must then try to solve some previous years JEE papers. Once you get through this entire process, do not skip any phase as everything is important, I can give you more advanced books to follow, which will help you build solid concepts.
Mentee	Aha! I think I figured what went wrong; I directly jumped to the Problem sheets provided during the class. I will try to do more of theory and test my understanding before attempting that. Since you just mentioned IL Finar, I have been quite confused by numerous books available. What should I do?
Mentor	I think that is a very important question, and initially even I faced the same difficulty . Most of the time people run for many books and courses and eventually end up nowhere. I re-iterate for chemistry you should start with CBSE, it is very fundamental and covers most things. Don't get worried by lots of books. You should stick to maximum of two to three books and don't waste your energies on what books other people are using. Of the 2-3 books you use, know which book covers which section best and follow it religiously.
Mentee	Your point is very valid. I think I will use CBSE and IL Finar till the time I talk to you next. Can you comment on the pattern of JEE chemistry paper, I have been quite troubled by some questions that come in test series.
Mentor	The JEE pattern of chemistry has always kept more focus towards CBSE as compared to Mathematics or Physics. Even we are taught similar JEE concepts in our first year at IIT. Don't get bogged down by the difficult questions in tests, try getting the simple questions right initially. I am sure you would definitely improve with time.
Mentee	Now, about my Maths, though I think I have strong understanding, I have a problem with time management. How should I improve?
Mentor	The thing with objective tests is that although strong concepts are essential, there are often smarter ways to pull out answers, without working out the complete solution. I suggest that before you attempt to work out the entire solution, glance at the options and rethink the question in light of the options available. In many cases you will be able to remove two-three options, thus increasing your chances of getting the answer right. Or in other cases you would take a shorter route to solve the same problem. And this, out my experience, I can tell you, is a skill you can master with enough practice.
Mentee	That’s something I never thought, I would give that a try and tell you how it goes. Also I have seen many of my classmates using such techniques especially for P&C and Probability. I also want to improve my probability, can you suggest some exercise?
Mentor	Yes probability is an important topic; you can use Hall and Knight for probability. They have covered the topic very nicely. They start from very basic and gradually increase the difficulty level. I think you would find it very helpful. Do refer to it and let me know if you find any improvement.
Mentee	I will surely work upon your suggestions and I will call you up again to let you know about my progress or if I am stuck anywhere. Thanks a lot for you help and time. I will go now as I have a class.
Mentor	All the best for your class, talk to you later!

How It Works

Sample Consultation Overview