Decline an Offer with $51,730 Dollars

Urged by Lu, I eventually wrote an email to notify the B-school in Boston that I won't join its program. This school provided me first offer and a fellowship up to $51,730 USD, which is very attractive for me. However, I have decided to attend another B-school which gave me offer on March 7.

I recommended Lu to the School and suggested the school to add more amount of money to support Lu's study in this school. I also expressed my intention to introduce some admitted students in Taiwan to Lu.

These days, I am perplexed by the process of applying I-20 form. Getting the proof of financial support is troublesome and complicated for me, especially when I still live in Beijing. Therefore, I am considering to move back Taiwan in April, to expedite the application of VISA.

Summary of MBA Career Seminar

I met zixi, the legendary founder of one well-known community in the Hall of Oriental Plaza when my new friends and I were heading to CKGSB. She was kind of different from what I imagined. I conversed with her prior to the speech given by Professor Huang Ming, who used teach in Stanford and Chicago Business School.

Professor Huang’s speech is convincing. I wrote down some main points from his sharing as the following.

*The goals for a MBA program:

1. Career Switch
2. Networking
3. Knowledge: use a short time to absorb as many study results from managerial scholars, who have devote their whole life on their research, as you can

*The culture in CBS: Competitive
*The culture in Stanford: Teamwork (Suitable for start-up oriented students)

*What matters in essay writing?
Highlight on social activities and leadership and it must be able to move readers.

*Who want to work in investment banks or consulting firms should choose top 5 B-schools; who want to stay in Fortune 500 has not much difference in any B-schools with top 20.

*Is it hard for Chinese students to land a job in the U.S. after graduation? The best profile for a Chinese student who wants to get a job in America could be someone who understands the western managerial culture, and in the meantime has a deep comprehension about China. This type of person might work in the U.S. for one to two years and then be assigned to China as the top management who is in charge of all China affairs.

An Unexpected Job Opportunity and the End of the TOEFL Registration Battle

In the late afternoon, a specialist of a head hunting company in Shanghai phoned me and provided me some basic information for some position of a Taiwanese company. At first, I was not really interested in it because the location is in Suzhou, a second-tier city in China where many Taiwan companies amass there. However, the salary is attracting, and I found that the company is promising after checking data about it. This company gained a big amount of investments from two famous venture capitals at the end of last year. Now I am really in a dilemma: Should I do my best to land this job opportunity? Or I'd better follow my original plan to start my own business and study abroad afterwards?

I decided to give it a try for this special job. I replied an e-mail to the specialist to ask her to arrange an interview in Beijing ASAP because the GM of the employer is visiting Beijing currently. I want to go through the entire process as soon as possible so that if I do not match the requirements of the employer, I can go on my previous plan without too much waste of time on this interlude.

By the way, yesterday I spent more than 5 hours registering for TOEFL seats. It was definitely a war that thousands of Chinese people sitting in Internet cafés, offices, dormitories or at home stared at the monitors, cursed the stupid website registration system, complained the Department of Education in China and the ETS in the U.S., and cried for the eventual success or unfortunate failure. Some people decided to register for more than one seat because of the fear of facing this kind of torture again. Many students still failed to get any seats for the exam and thus might lose their opportunities for study overseas.

Release of TOEFL Seats and an Appointment with “Strangers”

At midnight, there were about 8 people talking at the same time on the MSN messenger dialog pane, words flowing as fast as river water. I have not done such an online group talking for a long time. Among these people, I only met Candid once at a GMAT activity in February and both Lettuce and Meteor, two girls that I have not contacted since then. Jubilant is someone who sent me his MSN account several days ago and who I left him some offline greetings in Japanese. The main reason that makes us get together is the unconfirmed news from NEEA about today’s release of ibt-TOEFL exam, whose seats in China is in short supply since the beginning of this year.

After a messy conversations, someone proposed we can have a “FB”, a recurrently coined Internet term which means singing in KTV or dining out with friends with one’s own money, if joining the upcoming speech about MBA career next Sunday noon. I promised to join them because I think I do need more social life and I do want to make more local Chinese friends. Among them, I am very impressed by Jubilant’s multilingual ability, versatility and colorful overseas working and life experiences. Additionally, he is only 24 years now, an age which I still stayed at university! I am convinced that the younger generation of China is very competent and has strong competitive advantage in job markets around the world.

Today's release of ibt-TOEFL seats will certainly cause a war for all Chinese students who plan to study abroad. There is no doubt that the release of this time, 25000 vacancies according to some rumor, could not meet the strong demand from the market. We will see what will happen today.

PS. While I tried to connect to the Internet to post above content, I suddenly found that there was something wrong about the connection. I was very anxiety about this because several hours later I also have to grab a seat for myself. I prompted contacting my ISP and spent about two hours working with them. Fortunately, the problem has solved. I asked the ISP lady about the possible reason for my connection problem. She told me that it might be caused by too many people using the Internet for the moment. Does that imply millions of Chinese are online waiting for the first gun shot to secure a TOEFL exam vacancy now? I can not help suspecting this possibility, because I have never encounter any Internet connection problem since this ISP provide service for me!

Several Observations about CKGSB MBA Program

This afternoon, I joined the information session about CKGSB MBA program in Oriental Plaza, a complex where the richest Asian Li Ka-shing invested in. Generally speaking, I got a fair impression on today's arrangement. Here come some observations and comments on this school:

First, CKGSB, which is founded in 2002 by the Li Ka-shing Foundation, is very ambitious to set its goal as a top 10 business school in 10 years, although it is so young. Indeed, this announce could be just a propagandistic strategy to attract talented students. However, it is also true that this mission impossible could be achieved only in China, if there is a possibility for any new business school to attain this kind of astonished achievement. The reason is, of course, that China is the focus around the world and that the booming economy of China can fuel any brave valiant attempt.

Second, to complete a mission impossible, CKGSB has to take some unconventional and unusual actions to solicit more excellent students. A very different approach in CKGSB MBA program is that applicants are allowed to have interview first, and then, if passed the interview, get a so-called “conditional offer”, which means the applicants afterwards need to take GMAT and to achieve the minimum requirement for GMAT score, so that CKGSB would issue the official admission offers for them. Above-mentioned practice is different from the usual procedure of most B-schools, which require the GMAT score before the decision to give any interview. The purpose of CKGSB, I believe, is to attract some outstanding applicants who have problems to take GMAT earlier.

Third, CKGSB holds several GMAT reading clubs, or studying groups, in order to assist all MBA applicants to share mutual experiences and then get as high as possible score at the exam. It also invites some teachers in New Oriental School, a well-known cram school which has listed in the American stock market, to instruct these club members. It is wise to do so because this activity enhance more opportunities for CKGSB to reach those exceptional applicants, and these applicants can also become familiar with this school in the process of studying in this kind of organization.

Forth, CKGSB knows how to attract eyeballs and how to prompt its information session. It organizes a professor’s speech prior to the introduction of admission officer. Today's topic is “Brand Position of Tsingtao beer”, which can lure many attendees for sure.

http://www.ckgsb.edu.cn/

Thousands of Chinese Students Unable to Register TOEFL Are HeadingAbroad to Take It!

The Number One Pass in The World
Originally uploaded by taigerwan.

TOEFL is all the rage just now. Last week when it was available to register the exam from July to October, all the seats were occupied in four and a half hours, making many students anxious about no opportunities for taking TOEFL. Furthermore, the process of registering a seat was a torture that many people spend more than one day to grab one because the webpage of the Chinese version registration website appeared error message all the time, provoking people even more frustrated and furious. Until now, there are still a big many students unable to get a seat for exam, a incredible and chaotic situation that one in any countries can hardly imagine. Some of those miserable students have no other choices and, thus, are forced to go abroad to take the TOEFL exam.

This is definitely caused by short supply of seats for such a big population country. Indeed, this situation may be partly because the implementation of iBT TOEFL, a new practice which the entire problems are sent out from the test center in the U.S., requires hardware equipment, such as computers and access to the Internet, and, thus, the places where qualify to such requirements might not be as many as those in the PBT or CBT TOEFL times. However, another reason could also be that the institution of arranging iBT TOEFL in China has very limited ability to organize the exam here. One of the proofs was the slow response of the website when thousands of people trying to register their own seats at the same time, obviously deriving from the poor capability of its servers. But I do not think the ETS, the owner of TOEFL, dares to change this institution unless it does not plan to keep promoting its business in China, because this institution, actually, is the Department of Education of China.

Another unpleasant thing is that the price to take TOEFL in China is much higher than that in other countries. In China, one has to register a seat on a Chinese version website operated by the Chinese authorities and the price listed on it is RMB 1370, higher than the price on the international website set by ETS. Hence, who are making money from Chinese students?

TS Ten-Day Conversations

Yesterday afternoon, I read a stunning excellent book by accident. It was after my lunch that I downloaded a old book from chapter one to chapter three - the other seven chapters were not available because this book will be published this year -– and then planed to browse several pages to get an idea of this famous works about application of oversea studying. However, once I begun reading the first page, I can't help keeping on reading it and, eventually, I spent all my afternoon on the first 3 chapters. The book is just a miracle. Usually, I am impatient to read too many words at one time. So this situation is very rare for me. Besides, I was shocked by the deep implications and inflection inside the book.
It is hard to imagine that a book talking about the process of studying abroad can become a legend in China. It has been written since 2005 and was published on a famous online forum. The content is about ten times conversation between an applicant who latter succeed in his application in Harvard University and a founder of above-mentioned forum and a CEO of a company which help students to apply overseas school. The author is clever to a frightening degree for many readers, including me. I guess the lead character is just a makeup role and the book bear the intention to advertise that company, touting more students to buy its services. But nobody can deny that the thoughts inside the book is such an attraction and an inspiration, that not only destroys most people's original thoughts about application for overseas studying, but also challenges everybody's attitude toward life, making the topic elevate to a philosophic level. Because of its outstanding writing, all the readers who hate advertisements turned out to become eager to read one episode after another - those articles are separated into ten times to publish in about a half year, making a sensation that a big number of people can't wait to read the latest content.
This practice by itself is a very successful marking approach, which not only promoted the brand name of the company, but also gave favor to students or its customers. This is a win-win situation.

Capital Library and My New Bicycle

About a week before I took GMAT on March 21, my bicycle was stolen in front of Huateng Club, where I went swimming regularly. When I found the broken lock abandoned on the curb, I feel very calm. This was my second time losing my bicycle in 3 months. Buying a new bicycle in China, no matter in Shanghai or in Beijing, is risky because the bicycle can disappear anywhere and anytime.
I went to Carrefour to buy a new bicycle again, because I can not find any stores selling used bicycle nearby, and because the people’s service attitude in another cheaper bicycle stores were very bad, making me uing to talk with them any more. When I got back home, all of the sudden, I found an email form GMAC in my mailbox. Instantly, I turned to become nervous. Now it is the time to find out how many score I get in AWA. Besides, I still cannot believe that my total score is above 700, even though the figure is in black and white on the unofficial report. Taking a deep breath and then entering the authentication code on the web page, finally, I prove that I do get the satisfying score and I got 4.5 AWA. It is not a good score for the AWA, but I absolutely don't want to take GMAT again! I will move on to my next stage, the preparation of the TOEFL exam.
Taking my new bicycle to the Capital Library to borrow some books about TOEFL, I suddenly got complicated feelings. I used to take my stolen bicycle to the Library to prepare GMAT for a long time, but now, when I achieve the goal, that bicycle was gone and there is another new one under my feet!

Back to Study and Some thoughts about Blog

After more than one week's messy life, I returned to Capital library to study. In the morning I read about 15 SC explanations, and in the afternoon I finished 20 CR questions. Although my progress was quite slow, my status was okay. At least I resumed the preparation. I plan to last this arrangement until February 14, the date I returned Taiwan. I should finish the OG 11 before departure from Beijing.

I can't help visiting SA’s blog again. His writing allures me and his story moves me. I was captured by his gay love story. From his article, I know that he works in Guo Mao, where I worked before my resignation. Now he is a famous blogger with upcoming 3 millions click rate. He deserves the popularity because of his special background, spiritual openness, and writing talent. Living not far away from his place, I wonder whether some day I can meet him or even know him.

I used to have the same thought of meeting a blogger before when I was fascinated with the blog written by Wang Xi, a strange man about my age. At that time, I still worked in Shanghai, whereas he lived in Beijing. Now I moved to Beijing, but I have lost interests in visiting his blog frequently. I guess that my interest is always changing and that a blogger's enchanting story always gets one day to be depleted.

My GMAT partner

Cat sent me a text message to tell me her GMAT score this morning.

In the evening, she called me and expressed how disappointed she felt. I can tell that her voice become kind of strange. At some time, I guess she was about to sob. I can only comfort her to take it easy.

She said she might take the exam again. Well, if so, then we will study hard together again!

Never GIve Up

I avoid to call it a "failure", but it is indeed a failure for me.

I was considering to give up my MBA dream and thinking that I might not have the potential as a B-school student. But after two days' consideration, I found that I still can not let it go. I feel so reluctant to give it up after months' preparation. Maybe I "should" give myself one more opportunity. Or I shall say that I "must" give myself one more opportunity so that in the future I won't feel regreted that I give up in the half way.

After two day's indulgence in the Internet, I will start to return to my study for GMAT. Probably take this exam on March again. No matter how many times I might fail this exams, I decide to keep taking it untill getting a satisfying result.