Hello Chicago GSB, say Hi to Ganja Turtle...

CHICAGO
Chicago, in comparison to Wharton seems almost, old fashioned...but in a very attractive classic way.Chicago was one of the first universities to start a leadership course and it is, their website claims ...ahem..."still one of the finest". Chicago GSB is known for its strong theoretical foundations and some phenomenal Nobel prize winning faculty. And at a different level, Chicago seems much more level headed and down-to-earth than some of its Ivy league peers. One occasionally hears stories about its "quant-jock" reputation as also about some resident ultra-nerds who use calculus to arrange the furniture...and comes away feeling scared! But interacting with Chicago alumni has somehow put me totally at ease. In the last 2 years of aspiring to go to a business school, I would say the only other school that operates at this personal a level or perhaps at a better level is Tuck - the Tuck staff really impressed me with their very personal touch...if you were to read sghama's blog, you would hear about how he chose Tuck over Chicago... and even Stanford seemed reasonably humble-except for some whacky streaks of "humour",the Stanford reception was quite cool.

But like I found out, apart from the glitzy presentations, the matte laminated classy brochures and the slick websites, the alumni of a B-school remain the best way of finding out how a school is...more or less.

The Chicago interview
Called the alum to fix up a an interview and he was like "dont wear a tie etc"...I was like "Am sorry, sir?"...hes like "Dont wear all that crap - we wanna know how good you are and not how could you look"...am like Wow......"Hey,thank you"...one morning of stupidly roaming around the roads of Bangalore in a dark suit averted!

Managed to find his home located at one of the fabulous palm lined "Hollywoodesque" villa compounds that seem like a piece of America...beautiful place just getting done. The door was opened up by Mrs.Alum who invited me in and offered a glass of water.I sunk into the sofa,came up for air and sunk in again-keenly watched by a pair of cute 10 year old eyes...noticed a lovely copy of a Monet on the wall, a miniature of Cupid & Psyche (After the Pieta, its one of my favs) on the side table. So fa,so good like the ad says. But Ms.Keen-eyes sits opposite me and fixes me with a serious glare...so I try my friendly act "Hi"...and get a stern "HI" for a reply...Over the next 2 minutes, I manage to squeeze out bits of info from the lil lady who glares at me for,I guess,coming on a Sunday morning..."My name is Pooja". Junior who alternates between screaming and smiling and jumping and gurgling was "Vidyuth-brother".

Thankfully the alum comes in by now and rescues me from Ms.Lil Glare...greeted me and took me inside. Explained why and how we would proceed...and the next 1 hour
was easily one of the best interactions I have ever had with an alum - I had read up on his background...what us Tamils would call his "history & geography"...but for
someone who was running his own company and had applied for a fundu patent, he was amazingly down to earth and totally put me at ease...he quizzed me on my goals, my background...whether my childhood was different because of having a Master Mariner father and a professor for a mother...what I planned to at Chicago...why I wrote poetry...and all these questions (I realized later) were almost sidepoints in a what transpired to be a very interesting conversation. He explained how Chicago was good...and why...and why these things mattered. He also explained in a very honest way about what he thought was fundamentally different about Chicago as compared to other schools-with an amazing "3 MBAs in a room" example!(which I have quoted to alteast 10 people by now!)

I was reminded of some of my interactions with prospective students at BIM-Trichy. Finally I was also more than a bit curious about a product that the alums company was coming up with, so asked him to clarify a point which had potential to become an interesting debate....but we were running out of time, so we shook hands and I told him that it was a wonderful experience and possibly my best. I probably sounded like "I think I did really well!" so he said"Thats good for you!"

Its very difficult for an alum to sound this way about an experience or a place unless one is really passionate about it...and in this case, it really showed. It made a whole lot of difference to me - this interview! I am quite convinced that I would fit into Chicago...now if only Ms.Rosemaria Martinelli and her team would agree, we could be done with all the formalities!

Now onwards, my friends,onwards...to 20th December, when the lights of the world will descend on the select few...the chosen ones! Until then like Ulysses,one shall try "to strive, to seek to find and not to yield..."