Appetizer Before The Meal At Your B-School - Guidelines To Follow Before You Join A B-School

  To all the MBA aspirants, who are scurrying here and there attending back to back interviews, trying to catch up with every single current affair, planning your finances for MBA; STOP! Take a moment to yourself and take a deep breath.

I know how overwhelming Jan-May will be. Jan with your results, February to April with all your interview prep ups and back to back interviews and finally May (which would seem to go on forever) because the thought of results would be taunting you all over. I was exactly where you were, 1 year back. I am going to spill out a few secrets (Ssshhh keep them to yourself like how I am doing so now :p) that you can use as life hacks and make your transition into the MBA world better and smoother.
After your interviews; while waiting for results:
Let us fast forward to May; the most haunting month ever for an MBA aspirant, the month where the announcement of results plays” peek-ah-boo” with you. Most of us would just have sleepless nights thinking and worrying. I will definitely not tell you to stop worrying, but let me give you a reality check here-You are never getting this phase of your life ever again!

By that I mean, you have done your part and there is absolutely nothing that you can do to steer your results anymore; worrying or anticipating isn’t going to help either. So, with all your liabilities off the table, grab hold of this time and go taste the world however you want!  Because, when you get into your b-school you will have assignments, deadlines, summer internships, weekend classes, simulations, projects, viva, presentations, batch meetings and so much more to worry about. And after that, you will probably join an MNC or start you business post which you will get hitched! Life will be fun then too, but it will be different; never in the way you wished you could have had before joining the MBA world.  So go out there, make yourselves a bucket list, grab a backpack (like literally!!) and get going! Keep yourselves busy; try out all the things you have fantasised about and never yield into the devil in your head who is trying to make use of an empty brain as its workshop!
When the results finally arrive!

Results are always spread out; it isn’t a one day moment of truth. Initially, it will be so mind boggling, but trust me you will get used to it. So either of the two things can happen to you now; (1) you would have got yourself a kick-ass admit! (2) you just end up wishing that things worked out better. Let’s save up the happy moments for towards the end. So in the case where you end up wishing that things could have worked better, don’t worry. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason. You deserve a huge pat on your back because you know how much of efforts you put in. But this is the design of life; things DO go wrong, irrespectively. Well, it has to, else how will you get the chance to grab better opportunities out there? So take a week or even a month and relax; treat yourself to amazing food, sleep movies or whatever that can lift your mind off things. Screw all the advice you have received so far. Abraham Lincoln once said,”Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”- likewise, if you are going to give the competitive exams another try, gear up, prepare yourself mentally, get all the rest you can get and start fresh! Even otherwise, don’t yield into the pressures of the society and take time to decide what you want to do next in life (even if you want to break for a year or two, GO AHEAD!).

Now, have you got yourself a kiss-ass admit? Kudos to you! And welcome to the endless world of MBA! Get ready for the two most amazing years. Who does not love amusement parks? Well, my definition of MBA is a 2 year trip to an amusement park. There will be so much going on and you will want to jump into every ride. The most exciting rides will have a long queue you will have to wait in (yes, I mean the hefty competition here :P ), you will be pushed to try out the scariest rides with strangers (pretty strangers you wish!), there will be all those ups and downs you will race through on the roller-coasters, you will become tired but you will relentlessly be on a lookout for more rides and finally when you have to go; you just don’t want to!
At this point of time, you will be held up by so many things deciding which admit to take up (in case you got yourself multiple admits), exploring various ways to finance your MBA, researching the domain or your field of interest etc. Amongst all these, I would suggest that you do three most important things.

1)   Network
Nobody else can give you a better and clearer idea about your B-School than your seniors/ friends/alumni from that same B-School. Yes, go ahead and shoot out all your nerdy questions to them (we are all into top B-Schools and the nerd quotient has to prevail anyway! :P), but most importantly, gain more insights about the lifestyle there. For instance ask the laundry services, food outlets, transportation facilities, shopping options, the dress codes and what the hip people wear(we have to be updated about the fashion trends right? You wouldn’t want to carry a suitcase full of outdated clothes!), the climates, how the water would affect your hair (I am sure we don’t want to end up balding) and what are the things we have to carry initially with us etc (you get the gist right?)

2) Shopping
Yes! Shop till you drop! (Unless you hate shopping!). Make a list and get all your essentials from undergarments (get as many pairs as you could! You wouldn’t want to end up washing your undies every single day!) to cool night wears (you will be roaming in your b-school in night wears 80% of the time!) to hip clothes to accessories to well ..ummm, make your list and you will know! ;)

3) FAMILY AND FRIENDS <3
Do realise that MBA curriculums are extremely rigorous, especially the initial two semesters. Lucky you, if your b-school is near home. And it is during these two semesters that you will be extremely homesick and home is often once/twice in 6 months! Also after an MBA, you do not know where your Job placement will be. Yes, we will always make time for family and friends, but at least for a year, you may be distanced out. So spend all the time you can with them (you will have loads of lone hours in your hostel rooms), make your mom cook meals for you instead of going out (home food is something you will miss the most!), have movie marathons with them or even take them shopping with you (killing two birds with one stone, they say). Make sure you never feel, “Damn I miss my mom; I should have spent more time with her."

So that’s all people! I don’t want to end this article by saying all the best, never be afraid to be yourself and soar greater heights; it’s too cliché! (But oops, I just did that!) .