Effects of the Recession on India

Jon and Ray made interesting comments in my recession post. Both pointed out the number of jobs and the low opportunity cost.
Agreed the opportunity cost is low now. But there's another angle to the continuing recession. With the stock market plunging all the time, the exchange rate keeps climbing. Not to mention educational interest loans. It was 12% when i started to apply in July, by end August it had become 13%!!! In India, the dollar went from Rs42 to Rs49. That's a Rs7 increase. Multiply this by the cost of your US education. Factor in your bank rate and the withdrawal of bank loans to top colleges. I'm wondering how long before Indian students stop applying?? How long before the cost becomes too prohibitive? How long before the the competitive Indian/IT/Male pool stops being as competitive as it is now??

Question on B-School Form: Please indicate if you can pay the fees if accepted into our program

How much is too (Much/Little)??

As a Mod on two different forums, its not unusual for me to come across/receive requests for helps from first-time GMAT takers. What is unusual is almost always there is this one line that is constant--" i need to enter into the school i want."

And i always want to ask-- How do you know you need that much? Did the school tell you?? What if you got -10points? Would you really NOT get in?

Is it because they are first-timers that they are so obsessed with getting a specific score? Or did they just look at the average and think "Hey, i need to get that score and i'l get in" ?? Isnt either approach wrong? You aim to get the highest score you can, hopefully get a score that's within the ball-park of your college score and then work your ass off on your essays. That's how you get in.

Then again, given how every applicant at a top-school is a superior applicant, is the GMAT the ONLY differentiating way for colleges to know who's going to make the most of the education/chances that he will get for coming to them?

Isnt trying to achieve a specific score asking for a little too much?

What if the Recession Continues...?

I was returning from church today, thinking about future plans and as usual my thoughts drifted towards the recession. We know that with the recession, the number of applicants has been on the rise. Students are hoping to ride out the recession by gaining what is definitely an advantageous education.

But What if the recession continues? What if those who enter this year, graduating two years from now, suddenly find that they are still in the middle of a tight job market? What if their salaries are well below the current average? Does it then justify them taking 2 whole years off?? How do they justify the high tuition fees of atleast 80k when the salaries they get will ensure that they are paying off those loans for a really long time to come?? What about international students? Far worse a situation for them. Is it then wise to rush for an MBA now? Or are you better off staying in your job and saving for a rainy day? Or rainy season for that matter.

Case Studies.

Up until I came here, I had had no exposure to the case study system. As such, i didnt really know how it worked. A few people i asked said its basically a bunch of notes regarding a particular topic and then there's the cold-call. Most people i spoke to didnt talk so much about the case-study as they did about the dreaded "Cold-Call" I suppose that's a valid enough fear considering that you are in top-notch school and the pressure to sound good is omnipresent.

I've been in my course for nearly 5weeks now. 2 of my courses, Entrepreneurship and Marketing are case-study based. The same proff takes both classes. He only cold-calls in the Marketing case. Luckily, i've not been called in the marketing class, and i've invariably landed up well read for the Etr class.

But the American system of education is interesting to say the least. Highly recommended. I'm in a full-time course with a lot of free time yet i'm not as prepared for my other classes as i should be(it helps that my proff for Etr and Mkt is also my advisor :D )

Opinions on Case-Studies
Its been interesting. Sure its a long read and the numbers at the end of it are often a meaningless jumble of figures, but sometimes the end-notes make for interesting reading(Did you know that by the time he was 17,Dell was earning 18,000 a year! in 1982!!!)
Am i enjoying the case study? You bet!! Proff Kasouf throws out interesting questions and then has us students battle it out with each other(umm we are graded on class participation but that's not important) the quality of ideas put forth is enlightening. My class is not a bunch of students in the same program but a mix of people pursuing different prgorams. So there are a coupla MBAs, a physics major, mech major, Me, an engineer dude with some 15yrs of work-ex thus ensurin he's Head, of whatever, freshers etc etc. There's a lively discussion which the proff augments with notes and videos. He's requested us to not look at how the case ended and to a large part people dont or atleast those that do, are honest enough to admit that they did and this is what they had picked before lookin it up.

Of course,i'm only reading 2 cases a week so i dont know the work-load in b-schools. But for now, Case-Study method it is! :)