MIT MBA is not a prestigious as the Harvard MBA. HBS had George Bush, or some other Bush I think. Still it ranks among the top MBA programs in the USA because it is supposed to be a powerhouse of quantitative analysis.
Even though I didn’t expect to get in, thanks to poor grades by IIT professors who took pride in their grading, I had received 56 in my GMAT quantitative, my guess placing me at 99.99% or better, actually the best ever, there was nothing to lose but US $50, my application fee.
I got rejected and since I expected it, there was no hurt feeling and soon forgotten.
A few years later, I met an Indian who had done his BS, MS in electrical and computer science from MIT and grew up in a poor farmer’s family in India. Impressed! I checked his background, simple internet searches, and found that he got in MBA program too with full financial aid provided by the Class of ’62 or ’63.
Impressed! Impressed! Impressed!
I met him several time, mostly in passing or him screaming at me. Bob Oliver, a famous professor at Univ. of California at Berkeley and former chairman of Fair Isaac used to take him to talk to head honchos at places like Well Fargo. My ex-colleague mentioned some name in awe that he met him. I contrast I did on top of MBA, CFA, CFP, actuarial exams etc. Nobody even glanced at me. I was just ignored. Robert Oliver and his student Dr. Andrew Rudd (chairman of MSCI BARRA) passed me several time in passing, but not even once they looked at me. I remember, once the company needed some money for smooth running and paying this MIT guy’s salary of a quarter of a million dollar a year, he and Rudd went inside a room in full view, and after 15 minutes, they came out, and the deal was done. Magic!
Some of you are wondering you can’t be a genius like this guy so why waste your time on this story. Wait a minute. Are you smart enough to serve chole-bhatura in roadside dhaba in Chandigarh? If yes, you have a chance. This guy’s English was like of those youngsters from Chandigarh. Seems like you have a chance to be financial and technical whiz of the century. Need a few small thing extra. Will be covered later.