…and application deadlines for 2012 MBA programs are looming ever closer. Sure, October seems so far off right now, but remember when the 4th of July seemed light years away?

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Here is an excerpt from the Q&A:

Linda Abraham: Can you give, perhaps, one or two guidelines for sending in updates, letters of recommendation, attempting to visit? Is there some guideline you can give waitlisted applicants to Cornell Johnson?

Randall Sawyer: Applicants that are on the waitlist, those who call us every day, or every fifth day, or every week, that is a little much. We can get those [types of] students. That is really the quickest way to come off the waitlist with a “deny” because I have a very dedicated team here at the Johnson School, and many of the students that are on this call have interacted with them. They work very hard to bring in a great class, but taking a phone call every week or needing to call that person back is very taxing because we have 200 people on the waitlist right now. So imagine us getting 200 calls every week to just talk about the waitlist.

The best advice that I can give is to return the waitlist sheet that you have; sign it and return it so that you will stay on the waitlist. And then when something new happens in your life associated with applying to business school, send us an update by email. You can send that to your file manager. Say, “Hey, I just got promoted at work,” or “I was employer of the month,” or “I’ve just completed my finance class”; something like that – something new and noteworthy. Send that, and the file manager will add it to the file, and then when we review the waitlist, we will take a look at that.

Linda Abraham: I’m going to add something here. Every interaction that an applicant has with a school demonstrates their judgment and their character. And applicants, if you are showing a lack of judgment in terms of your interaction by wasting the school’s time, as Randall said, it is going to lead to a “deny”. What you are submitting has to be adding value and perspective and insight into your qualifications and your fit with the Cornell Johnson School.

Randall Sawyer: If I could just add to that to reaffirm your statement, in every phone call, every email, every conversation with students, we are judging you and evaluating you. So if you come across unprofessional or professional, or if you come in or call in, and are rude to my staff, we will take note of that. So understand that there are a lot of eyes on you every time that you contact the office. I don’t want that to make people afraid; I want them to use that to empower themselves to be professional, and to understand that Marcie, the receptionist out front, she and I talk every day about students that come in. And the same goes for the file managers. If someone calls up and has a fit with them, I hear that as well, so be careful.

View the full Cornell Johnson Waitlist Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now or subscribe to the Apple iTunes MBA Admissions Podcast. If you like the podcast, please leave a 5-star review.



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In short, you’re going to need to provide the best answers possible to the application essay questions.

Accepted’s newest special report, Top Executive MBA Program Essay Questions: How to Answer Them Right, will help you answer the required and optional essay questions on top executive MBA applications thoroughly, thoughtfully, and compellingly.

View or download Top Executive MBA Program Essay Questions now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Newsflash: No matter how compelling and well-written your essays are, if they don’t answer the questions as they are presented to you on the application, they will not impress the admissions committee—or at least not in the way you want them to.

Your challenge is two-fold: to understand exactly what each essay question is asking, and to answer the question in the most compelling and impressive fashion.

To meet the challenge, I recommend that you keep the following in mind:

• Each school asks different questions; therefore, each essay you draft should be unique to each essay question and to each program. While you may be able to adapt essays from one school to another, keep in mind that adaptation is not the same as recycling (i.e. DO NOT copy and paste). Adcoms can usually tell the difference between a recycled essay and an essay answers their question—and they certainly prefer the latter.

• Whether you’re applying to business school, grad school, law school, med school, or college, you will need to prove that you are an ideal match, or “fit,” with your chosen school. Be sure to research each program you apply to and to envision yourself at that particular school—on its campus, in its classrooms, interacting with its professors, etc.—while drafting your essay. If you want the adcoms to believe you will be an irreplaceable fixture in their next class, then you’ll have to convince them that your ideals and goals are one with theirs.

Finally, if you are looking for more personalized assistance in composing your application essays or personal statements, please feel free to contact us. Our experienced editors are ready to be of service to you, but please contact us ASAP. Those deadlines are looming large and fast. Don’t wait until we either lack the availability or the time to help you.

Good luck with your applications…and answer those questions directly. Effectively.



Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Here goes:

Admissions committee members are human beings. They are people, just like you and me.

While this may seem obvious to you, I happen to know from reading piles of application essays and personal statements, that while you may understand this concept on one level, your writing does not always reflect this knowledge.

So what does the sheer humanity of admissions people imply? How does the fact that they are humans (and not robots and not monsters and not aliens) affect your personal statements and application essays?

• Humans like stories, which means that the adcom humans would appreciate if you told them yours. And it should go without saying that true, real-life stories are the way to go—they can be just as compelling as fiction and won’t get you automatically dinged.
• Humans don’t all respond the same way, which means your story will have to appeal to a wide audience. Don’t try to imagine, “What will my reader think of this?” because, frankly, there’s no way for you to know what a single individual will enjoy. Write from your heart without worrying about a single end reader. Some people who read your essay will love it and other may not; your writing will appeal to the greatest number of people if you write honestly. (Just note: One thing all adcoms do have in common is their mutual dislike for typos and sloppy writing.)

Your human interest piece should come alive with personal anecdotes. It should engage your reader not because you wrote it for your particular imagined reader, but because you wrote it wholeheartedly, genuinely, and thoughtfully.

Present your humanity as you would like another human being to read it. Not a machine, not a monster, and not an alien.

Learn how to write a memorable, compelling personal statement or application essay when you view Essays that Stick, a FREE, 45-minute webinar filled with professional writing tips!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The representatives were kind enough to respond to the following admissions questions and more in a post-Q&A interview, and we’ve added their answers to the transcript as well:

Q: I hear so much about students entering the job force post-graduating LBS, how about entrepreneurship? How does the school help address starting or continuing a business post-MBA?

Q: How would you describe the type of student LBS is looking for? What’s one word to describe an LBS graduate?

Q: Does LBS have any specific courses or programs that focus on management in the non-profit or public sector?

Q: The length of the program is 15-21 months. How would a student finish the program in 15 months? Would this impact the possibility of benefiting from an internship or exchange? Are there more course options offered in the 21 month program? Is there a difference in program cost?

Q: Can any of the current MBA students discuss how participating in the Global Leadership Development Programme has helped developed their leadership abilities?

Additionally, here’s a sneak peek into the scintillating transcript:

Linda Abraham: Ira asks, “With regard to the various essays in the application, would you recommend a more formal professional tone, or a lighter tone that reveals some of the applicant’s personality?”

Karen Benge: I think that is a personal decision, but the importance of the essays is that we can get a sense of the individual who has applied. While I don’t recommend being very informal, I would let some personality come through so that we can get a real sense of that. There are points in the application essays where it is more appropriate to do that. For example, there is the question about involvement in the student community. Another question is not as directly related to the course and your career goals.

Peter Johnson: I 100% agree with Karen, and I’m sure it’s something that you will back up Linda, from your years of experience. It’s remarkable sometimes how little effort people put into their essays, and the essays are the most critical part of the application. It’s the short opportunity people have to sell themselves. And sometimes people actually treat it so superficially despite the fact that the rest of their application may be very strong.….. What is critical is that your real personality shines through and that we can really get a sense of who you are and what you would add to the program. So Linda, I’m sure you tell people this all the time: however much time you were planning to spend on the essays, spend twice as much.

View the full Q&A transcript (which includes the post-Q&A interview at the end) to get the answers to the above questions or to review the Q&A from the beginning. You can also download an mp3 version of the conversation and listen to the Q&A on the go!

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Here is an excerpt from the chat on Consortium interviews:

Linda Abraham: Juan asks, “I’m curious about what I should expect at my Consortium interview?”

Travis McAllister-CONSORTIUM: I’m going to refer this one to the schools because the Consortium interview is going to vary. I will say that when you are expecting your Consortium interview, you can choose between a member school representative or a Consortium alum. I tell anyone who has called me that it varies by individual person. We have guidelines and prescriptions about what they can or cannot ask in your interview, but it’s still going to vary by person. So I want to refer to some of the member schools who have or will be conducting Consortium interviews for this round.

Jon Fuller-MICHIGAN ROSS: There probably is a degree of variability if you are interviewing with an alum or if you are interviewing at a specific member school. But again, the guidance that we get is that the interview is supposed to be school neutral, so you probably won’t experience a whole lot of questions based specifically on the school. For instance, if you came and had an interview at Ross, I’m not going to ask you your nitty-gritty thoughts of why you want to come to Ross and espouse the virtues of our program verses any of these other programs or anything like that. The Consortium interview is a general interview where the interviewer’s comments are going to be made available to all of the schools you are applying to through the Consortium. So as such, the approach that we and others take is that it’s more of an assessment of how this person is fit for an MBA in general. How clear are their goals and ambitions and what they want to do with their MBA? How is their professionalism? How is their teamwork in general? And again, the assessment is not supposed to be how that is looking through the lens of our specific program, but how that information is of value to Consortium programs as a whole. So if you’ve been doing your due diligence as you’ve been writing those essays and trying to make an assessment for yourself in terms of why you want to do this, that’s pretty good preparation for hopefully being successful about the interview process.

Jim Holmen-INDIANA: In many respects the Consortium interview is going to be, with the exception of it not being school specific, no different than any other admission interview that you may encounter at any other school. And I would prepare for it the same way that you would prepare for a job interview: getting a sense of your accomplishments and your past experiences. Often the best preparation for an admissions interview is making good progress in your application for admission and your admission essays. Because often the interview provides you the opportunity to bring your application to life a bit and to help us better understand your career goals, your reasons for pursuing an MBA, and what you will be able to attribute to your MBA program, and the kind of accomplishments and the impact you’ve had on past organizations that you’ve been a part of.

Visit our website to view the full transcript or listen to the mp3 of the Q&A.

What do you hope to be asked during your MBA admissions interview? Let us know what you think when you enter Accepted.com’s Facebook Fans MBA Face-Off Contest! You could win interview prep resources valued up to $50!

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Accepted.com editors and consultants will now answer your admissions and application questions on LinkedIn! Ask us about anything from school selection to choosing essay topics to interviewing to dealing with waitlist woes to choosing the right school when you have the delightful dilemma of multiple acceptances. We’ll respond ASAP.

In addition, we plan to invite other professionals (like GMAT prep experts and career counselors) to join in this group. It’s in its infancy now, but with your participation it will become a resource that will serve you for years to come.

Join our LinkedIn Group today!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

According to the article, the spokesmen for the companies defend their ghostwriting businesses, claiming that they help their clients express themselves, and that there is nothing unethical about that. In fact, explains David Burton of Essaywriter, most clients who use the services are international candidates and need help putting their thoughts into words in English. There is no plagiarism, he insists, and “once the essays are in the hands of clients, they use them as they see fit.”

“I can’t tell you that every student who uses our services does not use the work as his own …It would be fraudulent to pass the work of someone else off as your own,” he says. “It’s not fraudulent to give an example of your work to someone, who you think is honest.”

Business schools administrators all agree that submitting ghostwritten essays is unethical, the essays comprise a significant portion of the admissions decision, and by turning in an essay written by someone else, applicants are being deceptive.

The BW article then shifts to an explanation of how legitimate consultancies differ from the essay writing firms: “Unlike essay writers, admissions consultants provide a broad range of services, from advising on GMAT preparation and choosing programs to preparing for interviews and providing feedback on essays.” To ensure that applicants choose a legitimate firm, the article continues, they should check that their consultancy in question is a member of the professional alliance, the Association of International graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC).

It’s satisfying to see both the press and the schools distinguishing between consultants who guide and edit and the essay writing services that think and write for applicants.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

We ran out of time at the end of the Q&A and were left with a few unanswered questions. Below you will find the answers to those questions that James Frick was kind enough to answer for us via email.

Q: Do you view being unemployed and applying detrimental?

Not at all. We all understand it has been a difficult economy, and many exceptional candidates have faced similar challenging circumstances in recent years.  In talking to students in years past who were laid off prior to applying for business school, it often turned out to be a blessing in disguise in that it put a plan into motion for them to ultimately better equip and prepare themselves for their career path by allowing them to refocus and add additional training and networking opportunities that an MBA program provides.

If you are facing a similar situation, we would recommend that you be proactive in speaking to it in your application materials (most likely, the essays and interview).  You also want to demonstrate the positive steps you have taken in the time since you have been unemployed (i.e. researching post-MBA career paths, becoming more involved with a non-profit or community organization).

Q: In my opinion, one of Tepper’s key strengths is in combining technology and management. Does this reflect in its preference for candidates?

There are many students who come from a technical background and are drawn to our program because they want to be a leader or a strategist in that space.  However, there are many others who choose the Tepper School because they have not yet had this experience or training and feel it will be a powerful addition to their skillset.  In a typical year, we see nearly a 50/50 split between students who come from a technical background with their undergraduate studies and those who come from a more non-technical background.

There are indeed numerous opportunities in the curriculum for students to focus their studies in technology, including the general MBA with concentrations in information systems and strategy, and our track in Technology Leadership, which combines courses from the Tepper School with graduate courses in the School of Computer Science.  However, students who choose to focus in other areas will still leave the program adept at utilizing technology in strategic decision making through their exposure to it in our required course sequence.

Q: What opportunities do families of students have to be involved with the Tepper community?

Our close-knit community extends well beyond current students to include partners, children and pets!  We have a terrific partner group which does a great job in building your network and scheduling all sorts of social and cultural activities.  You can visit them online at: http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/current-students/current-graduate-students/student-clubs/tepper-partners-club/index.aspx.  Most activities outside of the classroom, such as our weekly social, B**rs, as well as larger events such as casino night are open to all students and partners.  In times past, partners of current students have taken courses at the larger university as a non-degree seeking student, or audited courses from the Tepper School (on occasion, the partner has also opted to pursue her/his MBA from the Tepper School as well J).  The university also offers a partner ID for a nominal fee, which grants partners access to university resources such as libraries, computer labs, and athletic facilities.

View the full Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best