Help required to clarify my MBA related questions

Dear Visitor,


I post my profile at the end. I need all of your thoughts to answer my questions:

• I am interested to work for a few years in US post MBA. Hence, I have a strong preference for US schools. But, I understand that most US schools have average experience for incoming students as between 3 to 6 years. Will 13 years be considered too old for the schools.
• Will there be any difference between my GMAT score of 680 and 7XX. Should I retake my GMAT and move to 7XX before applying.
• On a broad range, what schools should I target? Top 10, 10-20 or below 20.
• I intend to apply to a max of 7 schools (2 with safe chances, 3 within exact reach and 2 with exceed reach).
• Schools short listed by me(based on leadership/ General Management with technology flavor) are as below: Any comments on my choice
  • US - MIT Sloan, Haas, UCLA, Darden, Tepper and Mccombs
  • UK - Oxford, Cambridge, Cranfield
  • Canada - Rotman, Ontario, Queens
• I understand that I belong to the WIDEst pool of applicants (Indian/ Male/ IT) with additional drawback of age. Any pointers on how I should look to differentiate myself to stand out from the crowd.
• Any specific schools that comes to your mind to be good for Leadership/ General Management that will be a good fit for me.
• I am given to understand that H1B is becoming a major issue for graduating MBA students. Any idea whether that should discourage me to shift my focus to schools in Canada or UK.

My PROFILE:

• Male, Indian, 34 years, Engineer
• 70% in Engineering - Anna University
• GMAT-680 (Q-48, V-35, AWA-5.0)
• 12 years total experience of which at least 3/4th is international
• 3 years in project procurement/ planning in Heavy Engineering Industry
• 9 years in SAP consulting on technology side.
  • Industries - media, defense, aerospace, utilities, leasing, pension fund
  • Roles: consultant, team lead, development manager, project manager
  • Have lead a team of 10+
• Reason for change
  • Extremely satisfied with what I am today. This is to "sharpen the saw" before my plunge into management roles.
• Social activities: normal
  • Educating 3 girls for the past few years sponsoring all of their expenses (fees, dress, books,…)
  • Contributions for college alumni
• Preferred MBA specializations
  • General Management / Leadership
• Short term career plan
  • Management/ Leadership roles within same IT industry moving up the ladder into strategic roles
• Long term plan
  • Career - Non profit organizations/ service industries
  • Passion - Want to do something back to society

Thanks for your time/ efforts to clarify

Completed my GMAT - 680

I have just completed my GMAT. Got a dismal 680 (Q-48 and V-35). I was expecting it to be in the range of 700 to 730. I was consistently getting in the 7XX range in all my practice exams.

Questions that I have:

• Should I retake my GMAT to achieve a 7XX score or use the time to create a powerful resume & essay.
• What are the colleges that I should target. My target location is US or Canada.
• Will my age of 34 (My one line profile will be 34 Yrs, Indian Male, Consulting, 9 years in ERP) be an asset or disadvantage for US schools. I find most US schools to have young student profile aged between 25 to 30 years.
• I am targeting schools with specialization in General Management or Leadership
  

Auto Driver menace

I am saddened to know that one more initiative (late but at least late) has failed.

Any idea why has it failed. I have few ideas which might be a few major contributing factor

• Chennai Auto drivers have used to the fact of returning back to their base auto stand. This is the prime factor. In Mumbai, Bangalore and in other places, we do not have such "base auto stand" concept. Auto drivers just keep driving on and on and on... till their shift closure hours.
• Chennai Auto drivers are used to the concept of "work less earn more". They want to just be in the stand, talk, chit chat with like minded friends and want to earn their days earning from the one of two passengers who get caught.
• These "base auto stand" concept not only corrupts their auto drivers, but also prevents other auto drivers from adhering to law. The drivers in "base auto stand" do not allow other line autos to park in them. So, those auto drivers who want to just ride on and on as per passenger request will find it difficult to park there for passenger. Hence, over a period of time, those honest drivers are also forced to fall back to the policy of the notorious majority and amalgamate into the auto mafia.

We all have left side driving. Assume an NRI comes back to India from US and says that he wants to drive on the right hand side. Will it be possible. Will it not create chaos and spell disaster. If that is breaking law. What is it that the auto drivers are doing when they do not follow the rates specified by the government.

Government will only establish and frame rules. It is only left to the public to follow it and ensure that others follow it. The final fault lies only with the public for not being able to come together and voice out against this.

Least that can be done:

• Eliminate base auto stand concept.
• Any auto driver can park his vehicle in auto stand
• Passenger should have the right to sit inside the auto tell the destination and auto driver is expected to only turn on the vehicle, turn on the meter and transfer the passenger.
  

Road space eaten away by parked vehicles

The traffic congestion has made the city to limp. But, is the growing vehicle population the only cause. NO. I do not think so.

What else is the root cause of the problem:
The bigger cause is the shrinking road space on account of parkings on both sides of the road.
For Eg: A few years back, Bus # 1 from Thiruvanmiyur to Thiruvottiyur used to take 20 to 30 minutes from Thiruvanmiyur to Mount road during peak hours. The bus used to be like a bullet train with no intermediate places to board (boarding/ alighting when the bus slows down) other than bus stops. Now, it is a limping dog as the entire stretch has got more vehicles and the roads have shrunk.

Who is responsible. Each and every one of us. Our present society seems to think that road space is for parking vehicles.
Let me illustrate with an example from my life. We are used to park our car in a car park within our house. The entire neighborhood looks as though we are idiots and some have even recommended us to convert the car parking into a commercial establishment and to park our car on the streets. They are of course recommending us in "good faith" so that we can make some money.
If this thought process continues, we are heading for a dangerous breakdown.

Who else is responsible:
Some bad elements within the enforcement is collecting bribes to allow this to happen. Looks like that they are collecting rental for public roads.
Have we not seen policemen (not all) walking from shop to shop in their neighborhood collecting Mamool. Their collection is very similar to a landlord collecting rent or a mafia don collecting hafta. Either way, the few corrupt policemen want the pubic roads to be used for parking so that they can get their rental. The other policemen who are good are unable to stop this as the law does not give them the tools to fight.

What are the options possible:

• Bottoms-up approach - Convince the residents that streets and roads are for driving vehicles and walking public. Will we accept, if our room is blocked with a big wall. We will not. But, we are allowing our houses to be blocked by these illegal parking and happily we also park and contribute to it.
• Tops-Down approach - Make ALL roads "NO PARKING ZONE" during peak hours "7 AM to 10 AM" and from "5 PM to 8 PM". Temporary exceptions can be given if the residents/ people who will benefit approach the government and pay rental. This too is only on exceptional cases and that too for limited time frame.
  

Is encumbrance certificate sufficient to ensure property title?

Is encumbrance certificate sufficient to ensure property title?

Courtesty: The Hindu dt Jan 05 2008 http://www.hindu.com/pp/2008/01/05/stories/2008010550070500.htm

The encumbrance certificate contains all the transactions registered relating to a particular property for a period (as required), writes C.H. Gopinatha Rao

— Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

Useful: An encumbrance certificate will help arrive at proper entitlement of the property. Encumbrance is a legal term for anything that affects or limits the title of a property, such as mortgages, leases, easements, and liens. In regards to property transaction encumbrance certificate is a document issued by the Registrar’s office. The encumbrance certificate contains all the transactions registered relating to a particular property for a period (as required). It is advisable to get encumbrance certificate before effecting any transactions. This will als o help in arriving at proper entitlement of the property.

The non-testamentary documents relating to immovable properties are registered under BOOK 1 and preserved permanently which only will reflect in the encumbrance certificate. The documents registered under BOOK 1 include the deeds of sale, gift, settlement, partition, release, mortgage, rectification, consent, exchange discharge, security cancellation, mortgage assignment and agreements of lease and sale. It also includes any documents for consideration or supplemental documents to the documents executed for consideration with the description of immovable property. Book No 2: records reasons for refusal to register the documents. Book No. 3: Register of Wills and authorities to adopt. Book No 4: Miscellaneous Register. Book No 5: Register of deposit of Wills.

Unregistered mortgages

The encumbrance certificate issued by the Registrar’s office will not reveal some items which include unregistered mortgages, arrears in taxes to be paid to statutory authorities, status of tenancy, suits pending before the court acquisition proceedings. The Registrar is not liable to be sued, for any claim or demand for reason of anything done or not done in good faith in his official capacity.

The EC will not reveal documents that are executed but not registered within the time allowed by the Registration Act. The effect of registration is only to make the title absolute and unquestionable. A document may not be valid as long as it remains unregistered if no transaction has taken place during the period for which the application is made for EC.

Any order of attachment by the court will be communicated to the Registering officer within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or any part of the immovable property is situated and the same will be reflected in the encumbrance certificate. Anybody can apply for encumbrance certificate except in case of Will. In case of Will, the legatee can apply after the demise of the testator with the death certificate and the document can be obtained only by the parties to the dead.

Documents pending registration but already presented in the Registrar’s office (due to deficient stamp duty paid and pending for decision ) will not be reflected in the Encumbrance certificate.

GMAT Preparation Materials

Must have materials:

1. Official Guide - This is the bible
2. powerprep test preparation software
3. gmatprep test preparation software
4. 1000s from scoretop.com
   

Nice to have materials:

1. Kaplan Premier Program or Kaplan 800 - This will really stretch you in Quants
2. Princeton verbal workout or OG11 verbal workout
   

GMAT Challenges

It is difficult to study, if you are taking a competitive exam like GMAT for the first time and that you have not taken any serious exams in the past 13 years.

It is difficult to study. Very difficult, if you have a wife and two kids, each of them eagerly looking for each and every moment of your spare time to be with you, talk with you and shower you with affection.

It is difficult to study, if you have a demanding job that requires you to always be on the edge and perform lots of travel.


Well, I have all the above reasons that wanted to discourage me from preparing for GMAT. But, luckily for me, I was able to squeeze in 2 to 3 hours a day on regular basis for the past 6 months to prepare for my GMAT. It took 6 months for me to crack the GMAT. I would have spent at least 50% of the 6 months for actual study. The rest was consumed by my official deliverables and travel. My study hours was early morning 3 AM to 6 AM whenever I was at home.