“You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?”

What should you do with the no-limit essay?

Don’t submit a book-of-an-essay that is 4000 words or longer.

Don’t submit a hyper-short essay that is 300-words or less.

Take a solid look at your credentials and experiences, and the blend of these that is most likely to make the admissions committee say “yes” to your candidacy. From there, think about how you can put your best credentials in the spotlight in order to persuade the Harvard admissions committee to say “yes” to your candidacy. You should also scour the application form and see what you are writing about in depth in other places – you don’t want too much unnecessary overlap.

For some candidates, the ideal information will be comprised of largely positive information that touches on their professional, academic and extracurricular achievements. For other candidates, you may also have a major flaw to discuss as well, such as a very low GPA. There should be space in the essay to address why that flaw does not define you and what other metrics or experiences are better indicators of your abilities and future potential for success.

You will do well to think about the type of content that most of the Top-7 MBA programs seek to see in their essays and cover some of that ground. What are you passionate about? What has influenced you to be who you are today? What are your long-term goals? Why is Harvard right for you? What are you greatest strengths? What can you contribute to HBS and through your future career?

This essay leaves lots of room for creativity, so take advantage!

Best wishes,

Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)

President, MBA Admit.com

http://www.mbaadmit.com

Email: mbaadmit@aol.com

As an MBA applicant, are you aware of the difference between tasks and skills? Equally importantly, do you understand how focusing on skills rather than tasks in your MBA admissions essays can help you present a much more compelling application?

To illustrate what a task is, consider an example when an engineer needs to improve a product’s reliability and therefore leads a team to perform 5-6 different types of tests on the product. Their task is to complete the tests and improve the reliability. But if you write an essay about the tasks alone, you will fail to present a strong essay.

What is important in the MBA admissions process is not that you successfully ran the appropriate tests, which was one of your tasks. Rather, what is important are the skills that allowed you to lead a team to understand the designated goals, to identify the tests to be conducted, to delegate work in ways that optimized the team’s performance, to set forth a plan of action, to problem solve effectively, etc. Similarly, the investment banking analyst who has designed an innovative new analytical model should not focus too much on the specifics of the model, but on the skills that allowed him/her to create a blueprint for the model, secure input, gain buy-in, present his/her findings effectively, etc.

Focus on the skills behind your work—these can include analytical, leadership, teamwork, communication and problem solving skills. If the admissions committee believes you have mastered these skills, it is much more likely to believe that you are ready to both learn from and contribute to business school. You should be a much more attractive candidate.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
mbaadmit@aol.com

I have received emails from MBA applicants who did not receive admission to one of their top choice schools when they applied on their own last year, and they indicate that when the admission committees supplied feedback, one key factor in their rejection was the fact that the admissions committee did not believe they could successfully make a “change” of career in order to achieve the long-term career goal they had put forth in their essays.

These days, MBA admissions committees are concerned about whether you will be able to land a job after your MBA, and a notable part of your success or failure in doing so is whether an employer will find you attractive for the job that you will be targeting. You will notice that schools like Columbia Business School have two spots on their online application where they ask you to articulate your short-term goal. This underscores the importance of what you write.

So, does it really matter what you write when you respond to the questions asked in many MBA application essays about your short-term and long-term goals? Some candidates think it is unrealistic to expect that they would know before they begin their MBA what they want to be doing in 15 years. But, as indicated by the application forms themselves, as well as noted by admissions committees themselves, concern about placement is a big issue and whether you seem to have developed already some skills relevant to your long-term goal can also be important.

In my experience, your response to the long-term goal question can matter a great deal, and when there appears to be a major disconnect between what you have been doing over the years in your career, and what you state you intend to do in your long-term goal, you can be introducing substantial risk into your application, reducing your admissions odds. There is a big difference between “transitioning” to a new type of role or industry—where there is some relation in terms of skillsets between what you have been doing professionally over the years and what you will be doing in the future—and making a large change. For example, the person trying to go from a project manager role in an engineering division to the head of a retail clothing company will have a harder time in MBA admissions than a person trying to go from a project manager role in a technology manufacturing company to a top corporate executive of a technology company.

Be careful when stating your long-term goal and, as you write about it, try to make sure your response will serve as an asset for you.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
mbaadmit@aol.com

Many candidates work hard to prepare for the GMAT, yet they are disappointed with scores in the 620-700 range, rather than the hoped-for 710 or above. If a score is beneath 660, most candidates will go back to the drawing board, prepare again and try hard to improve it, knowing that a 660 or lower can cause an automatic rejection at many top MBA programs. But when the score is 700, I often hear candidates struggle with a question about whether to re-take the exam. What is my advice, they ask.

There is no hard-and-fast rule here. The best advice will be very candidate-specific. The ideal answer depends on the profile of the candidate (gender, age, citizenship, ethnicity, industry, etc.) and how strong the candidate’s overall record is (GPA, undergraduate institution, alternative transcript, professional successes, community leadership, etc.). It will also depend on when the candidate is applying. In Round 2, things are often more competitive so you should ideally have a strong GMAT score. If you are applying within an Early Decision pool, an accelerated MBA program, or another special program that tends to have less demand, you likely can have more latitude on the GMAT score.

So, while it is difficult to give general advice about whether to retake a GMAT test if you score between 680-700, here are some guidelines to consider.

A score of 700 can keep many candidates (depending on their profile) within shooting range of top MBA programs, including those like Wharton, Columbia, Booth and Tuck. So, in considering whether to re-take the test, you must think about the impact if your GMAT score goes lower. First, check the online application forms of your target schools. Do they ask for your three most recent GMAT scores, or just the highest score you want to report. If you only have to provide your highest score, there should be no drawback to taking the test again. If you score lower, the school will not see that score before they render a decision on your application, as you will report the higher score.

However, if you must report the most recent score or the 2-3 most recent scores, taking the GMAT again with a 700 already in hand can be risky. If your score goes down and you also have a lower-than-ideal GPA, the second low score can be interpreted as providing “evidence” that your lower-than-ideal GPA was an accurate indicator of your abilities and potential. You will then potentially have two weak spots in your application. In such a risky situation, if you decide to re-take the GMAT, make sure you have already taken a prep course that has helped you understand how to test well on the GMAT. Make sure to also take full mock tests and project your score, and re-test after you are consistently scoring in a higher range that you find acceptable.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
mbaadmit@aol.com

Many MBA applicants write to me highly concerned about their undergraduate GPAs and ask, “Do you think my GPA is too low?” In many cases, there is no cut-and-dry answer to this question. Certainly, statistics about each business school’s average GPA for matriculating students can help you gain a sense of your chances for admission. But beyond this, specifics matter a great deal. For example:

Where did you attend college? If your school was a top-ranked college in its country, your GPA likely can be lower than the GPA of a candidate who attended a much lower-ranked college.

What is your gender? Sorry guys – gals do sometimes have an easier time because, for many business schools, fewer women apply. As a result, women sometimes receive a little more leeway on their GPA.

Are you an overrepresented profile or an underrepresented profile? If you are overrepresented (that is, lots of candidates with your profile – country, ethnicity, industry – apply to business school), your GPA will likely need to be higher. If you are an underrepresented profile, you can usually have latitude to have a GPA that is lower than the average for matriculating students.

Did you have to work your way through school financially? The admissions committee will often cut you some slack if they realize you were juggling work with your academics.

What was your major? Some majors are known to be very difficult, and so what might look like a low GPA in a much “softer” major may be perceived by the admissions committee as a relatively high GPA for your major.

Did you participate in a varsity-level sport in college? If so, most admissions committees will realize that you were diverting a lot of time to the sport, and they might cut you a little slack on your GPA. Representing a school in a varsity-level sport is generally seen as very admirable and an indication of multifaceted talent. (Many MBA candidates might be hopeful that this same reasoning applies to other types of extracurricular activities, yet on the whole it does not. For most other types of extracurricular activities, the committee will feel you had more control over how much time you devoted and will think you should have prioritized well and therefore have maintained a good GPA.)

Other factors beyond these also affect the GPA assessment. If you are concerned about your GPA, try to evaluate how these and other mitigating factors might affect the way admission committees will view your GPA. These simple methods can help you understand whether your GPA will be seen as a strength or weakness of your MBA application.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
mbaadmit@aol.com

Columbia GSB Application and Deadlines Released, 2013-2014

The 2013-2014 Columbia MBA admission essays and deadlines have been released, along with the application. See this link:

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/mba

ROLLING ADMISSIONS

Columbia has a rolling admissions process, which means that you can submit the application at any time before the final deadline for submission, and the school will review applications and offer admissions/rejections as the applications come in. The longer you wait to submit your application, the more seats will have been allocated. Thus, in theory, admission will be more competitive the closer you get to the final deadlines. The final deadlines for submission are as follows:

FINAL DEADLINES
Columbia GSB Full-time MBA Application Deadlines:

August 2014 Entry

Early Decision: October 2, 2013

Merit Fellowship Consideration: January 6, 2014

Regular Decision: April 9, 2014

January 2014 Entry

October 2, 2013

All deadlines are 11:59 p.m. EST on the date listed.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com

http://www.mbaadmit.com

Email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Ask about our Buy-1-Get-1-Free Gold Package Special – Valid through June 5, 2013.

MBA Admit.com: Proudly, one of the most affordable top-quality MBA admissions consulting companies, with prices nearly 50% lower than our direct competitors.

Should You Apply Early Decision?
Each year as the new admissions season approaches, candidates who are thinking ahead begin to ponder early on whether they should apply to some top MBA programs through Early Decision rounds. There are many factors you should bear in mind when assessing whether Early Decision is a good choice for you.

There are some candidates for whom Early Decision is a clear and easy choice. For example, some candidates are simply sold on a particular business school and know it is their first choice, so they want to apply through Early Decision in order to know as soon as possible whether they have admission (and if so, they might choose not to apply elsewhere). Some applicants want to gain admission to a good business school early on so that they can feel “safer” in applying to reach schools, knowing that they have an admission in hand already.

Other candidates for business school have a notable weakness or challenge to overcome in their qualifications or profile. Perhaps a candidate is coming from a small, regional company that is less attractive to some top MBA programs. Some candidates have only a marginally acceptable GMAT score and cannot improve it notably. Some candidates had hiccups in their undergraduate records, resulting in a lower-than-desired GPA. Depending on what the challenge is, such candidates should think through how to time their MBA applications excellently in order to maximize the odds that they might override the challenge(s) in their qualifications or profile. An Early Decision pool can often offer a good alternative for such candidates.

Indeed, sometimes when a candidate with a notable weakness in their profile approaches us in Round 1 or Round 2 for assistance in preparing their MBA applications, we at MBA Admit.com can see they would have had a better chance of overriding their weakness in an Early Decision round. For those who think ahead, it can pay off wonderfully. We had many candidates who fared well in admissions last year likely because they applied through Early Decision. In one example, a candidate gained admission to Columbia Business School with a 2.3 GPA in a graduate degree. I believe Early Decision made all of the difference for him and that he would not necessarily have fared as well in the regular decision pool.

Consider another scenario: Once you become aware of the nuances of admission for each of your target schools, you may learn that one school does not favor candidates coming from small start-ups. If you are from a small start-up and you want to attend that business school, you may be best off applying early so that hopefully you will be one of the candidates they admit from this sort of background. Thus, Early Decision or Round 1 might be ideal for you. If you wait too late, you may find that you are competing for a tiny number of seats that are still left for candidates applying from small companies. In contrast, if you know that a school tends to favor candidates of your profile and you do not have a notable weakness to override, you might have latitude to wait until Round 2 for that school and you might want to apply in an earlier round to MBA programs where you face more difficult odds.

Assess your candidacy well to determine if Early Decision is an option you should be entertaining. If you have a notable weakness, applying Early Decision to at least one school might be a great strategic move.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com

http://www.mbaadmit.com

Email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Ask about our Buy-1-Get-1-Free Gold Package Special – Valid through June 5, 2013.

MBA Admit.com: Proudly, one of the most affordable top-quality MBA admissions consulting companies, with prices nearly 50% lower than our direct competitors.

Columbia MBA Essay Topics and Application 2013-2014: Analysis and Tips

The 2013-2014 Columbia MBA admission essays have been released, along with the application. See this link:

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/mba

Below, we provide some analysis about what is new about this year’s application and tips about how to provide great responses to Columbia’s MBA essays.

Short Question about Career Goals on Application Form

Once again this year, Columbia has added a place for a short response on its application form, where you must provide a concise summary of your immediate, post-MBA professional goal. Here is the question as it appears on the online application:

What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? Required by all applicants. 100 characters.

The things that are distinct about this question this year include:

1. The space you have to articulate your immediate goal has been cut in half compared to the past two years: you have 100 characters instead of 200 characters in which to respond. Please note, that is characters, not words. One hundred characters translates into approximately 18-25 words, so you must keep your response on-point.
2. The question asks for your immediate professional goal, not your long-term goal. (The first year this short response was introduced two years ago, it did not specify short-term or long-term goal.)
3. The question asks you to comment about your post-MBA goal.

While in the ideal world you would present a very distinctive goal here, 100 characters does not provide much room for that. Just make sure to try to respond with an answer that seems achievable based on your background and the Columbia curriculum. Make sure to focus on the post-MBA goal; thus, you should not be talking about your goals while in business school. Even if you have equally well-defined non-professional post-MBA goals in mind, this is not the place to share them. You can find a way to weave a reference to well-defined non-professional post-MBA goals into your essay content, should you desire to do so.

GMAT Score

Once again this year, Columbia does not ask that you report all of your GMAT scores, nor does it ask for you to report the most recent three GMAT scores. For those of you who have a lower score that you would prefer that the school not see when determining whether or not to admit you, you should jump for joy. The school is only asking you to report one score, and obviously you will choose your highest valid score. You also need to report how many times you have taken the GMAT, but your lowest score does not need to be a part of your online application.

Resume

The Columbia full-time online application indicates on the resume page that you should “provide a current resume or CV of 1 to 2 pages.”

For candidates who have a large number of meaningful extracurricular activities to elaborate on, or who have a long length of work experience, you should consider providing a resume longer than one page, so that you can highlight your excellent credentials and experience in an ideal amount of detail.

Section for Describing Extracurricular Activities

The application appears to provide ample space for you to elaborate on key extracurricular activities. Be sure to use this space wisely, providing a solid amount of information about your leadership in the community and other extracurricular activities in ways that will be attractive to Columbia.

Columbia MBA Essay Questions 2013-2014

The essay questions are these:

Essay 1. Given your individual background, why are you pursuing a Columbia MBA at this time? (500 words)

Essay 2. Columbia Business School is located in the heart of the world’s business capital – Manhattan. How do you anticipate that New York City will impact your experience at Columbia? (250 words)

Essay 3. What will the people in your Cluster be pleasantly surprised to learn about you? (250 words)

Optional Essay. Is there any further information that you wish to provide the Admissions Committee? Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history. (Maximum 500 words)

This year, you have a total of 1500 words to provide a case for your admission to Columbia Business School. This is a good amount of content (a typical MBA essay set allows a maximum of 1600-2100 words in the admission essays).

Notably, these questions do not explicitly ask you about your long-term goal. But, you can (and in many cases, you probably should) explicitly mention this in response to question #1. Columbia also removed its question from last year, which asked you to elaborate on a personal experience that influenced you. If you have a notable personal experience you would like the school to know about, you can write about that in the optional essay.

Given the nature of the four available MBA essay questions, you should think carefully about which credentials and experiences you most want the admissions committee to consider in depth and that should help you identify responses for your essays.

We at MBA Admit.com will soon provide in another blog tips for how to answer the Columbia essays excellently, as well as how you should think about responding to the Optional Essay.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com

http://www.mbaadmit.com

Email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Ask about our Buy-1-Get-1-Free Gold Package Special – Valid through June 5, 2013.

MBA Admit.com: Proudly, one of the most affordable top-quality MBA admissions consulting companies, with prices nearly 50% lower than our direct competitors.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the United States’ oldest business school, offers two distinct MBA programs: the regular, full-time MBA offered at the Philadelphia campus, and the EMBA, offered at both the Philadelphia and San Francisco campuses. While the curriculum, academic rigor and benefits of the degree are largely the same, the main differences between the programs lie in the makeup of students and the programs’ structures.

Wharton, in the heart of Philadelphia, is one of the world’s top-ranked business schools, having been ranked number one by the Financial Times each year from 2000 to 2009, and again in 2011. The EMBA program certifies students with a fully-fledged MBA degree and is aimed toward a student population where the average candidate has ten or more years of work experience. (In my experience, however, candidates can be successful with less work experience than this, and many of the applicants I have assisted to gain admission have been between the ages of 28-35.)

Wharton EMBA students are held to high admissions standards and academic requirements. Admission for the Wharton EMBA is generally one of the most competitive among the top EMBA programs. EMBA students follow the same academic curriculum and are taught by the same world-ranked faculty as full-time Wharton MBA students. With over 91,000 alumni in over 140 countries, Wharton offers all of its graduates a larger alumni base than any other top U.S. business school, supplying its students with resources that continue on far past graduation.

As opposed to the 20-month length that is required of the full-time MBA, the MBA for executives runs over the course of 24 months, starting and ending in May, and requiring students to attend classes during alternate Friday/Saturday weekends. In addition to mandatory weekend classes, EMBA students are also required to participate in a one-week international study trip, where students venture with their program to a foreign country to witness firsthand business growth, entrepreneurship, marketing dynamics, and other aspects of business building. Additionally, students in the residential EMBA program form tight bonds as they not only learn together, but live together on campus.

Currently, over 40% of Wharton EMBA students hold advanced degrees before entering into the program. With this picture, EMBA students are placed side-by-side with like-minded participants who share a love of high-level learning and will be able to apply their knowledge obtained at Wharton directly to their work from week to week. With such an integrative curriculum that allows for building close friendships and key knowledge bases, the Wharton EMBA offers not only an unparalleled MBA degree, but an unparalleled experience.

– Dr. Shel Watts and the Staff of MBA Admit.com
www.mbaadmit.com
Email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Many candidates ask me what I think about the top U.K. and European MBA programs. There are many excellent options to consider. One of my favorites is INSEAD, or the European Institute of Business Administration. Referred to by some as the “Harvard of Europe,” INSEAD is one of Europe’s most predominant and distinguished graduate business schools. INSEAD is most known for offering a multicultural, international experience for future business leaders to gain an understanding of global business building. With campuses in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and affiliations with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a student exchange program at Kellogg School of Management, and mutual contracts with Harvard Business School, Stanford School of Business, and Kellogg School of Management to share career advising resources, INSEAD is uniquely positioned to give its students access to an uncontested wealth of information and opportunity.

The INSEAD MBA program is taught on both the Asia Campus in Singapore and the Europe Campus in Fontainebleau, France. The Middle East Campus in Abu Dhabi only functions for the executive education program. Most MBA students spend their tenure on both the Asia and Europe campuses. Additionally, MBA students are given the opportunity to participate in an exchange program at the North American campus in New York City.

INSEAD distinguishes itself from many other MBA programs in that the program is completed within the span of one year. This one-year intensive program challenges the brightest and the best students to push themselves to gain the most practical knowledge, academic prowess, and business-focused competency within a total of ten months, thus saving money on an extended MBA program and allowing students to spend only minimal time out of the job market.

With such a diverse class, part of the INSEAD experience is learning to collaborate and build alliances with colleagues of different cultures, backgrounds, and with ideas very different from one’s own. Thus, each INSEAD MBA student is strategically placed in a group of five to six classmates, with each person representing a unique perspective. Groups are assigned during the first four months to cover the core curriculum, whereas groups for the elective segment of the program are to be chosen by the students. In each case, the group experience teaches the importance of learning to negotiate, collaborate, and stimulate each dynamic person within the group.

At INSEAD, one gains a distinct international experience; INSEAD is one of the most influential top-tier business schools worldwide. With over eighty nationalities represented in each class and alumni from over 150 countries on all continents, the INSEAD experience is the perfect place to begin and build a globally impacting career.

- Dr. Shel Watts and the Staff of MBA Admit.com
www.mbaadmit.com
Email: mbaadmit@aol.com