The GMAT Club » b-school application

Jumpstart Your 2014 MBA Applications: Live Webinar

accepted.com — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:36:11 +0000

Are you planning on applying to the top b-school class of 2016? Think you’ve got plenty of time before you need to start worrying about applying? Think again! Those applications will be published before you know it, and if you want to complete them efficiently and effectively, you’ll need to start doing your homework NOW.

Accepted.com’s upcoming webinar, 2014 MBA Applicants: Start Your Engines! 7 Steps to a Stronger MBA Application, will give you the tools you need to get an early start on optimizing your MBA candidacy…before the applications are even released!

The free webinar, which will air live on Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET, will cover important pre-application topics, like, evaluating your qualifications, determining your post-MBA goals, mitigating weaknesses, and more!

Reserve your spot in this FREE webinar today to ensure that when those applications are released, you’re prepared to hit the ground running!

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

Accepted.com’s experienced admissions consultants can help you create the most impressive application possible with comprehensive packages, or provide targeted assistance from picking perfect programs to designing a dazzling resume, constructing engaging essays, or preparing for intense interview s…and more! Accepted.com has guided thousands of applicants to acceptances at top MBA programs since 1994 – we know what works and what doesn’t, so contact us to get started now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Post-submission Action Items

Aringo — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:26:56 +0000

So, you’ve submitted your application and probably think that all hard work is done? think again!

Here are some post-submission tips from Aringo that can help you complete the application process successfully:

Thank your recommenders, who played an important role in your application.
Continue researching the MBA programs, especially the ones you have applied for, so you can decide between several offers and select the school where you fit best, or in order to apply for more schools in later rounds if you are rejected.
Work on support e-mails.
Once you have an interview invitation, you may start your interview preparation. Go over the common interview questions and brush up on your application, essays and resume.
If you happen to be in the area (or have the time/money to travel especially for this) – visit the campus. If you are lucky to meet and “click” with an admissions person or an influential student, that could help. In other cases, the visit may not help much. The lower the school is ranked, the more the visit (or any other way of showing commitment to the school) may help.
If after the application submission there is a positive development in your career (promotion, new job), in your grades (GMAT, GPA, etc.) or in your activities, you may send the Admission Committee an update letter.

Once you receive a decision letter:

Admitted? that’s fantastic! Consider negotiating scholarships (less effective in the top 5 schools, more so in the 5-25 range, and especially if you are really debating between two schools). In your communications with the school, include comments about the importance of the financial consideration is in your decision. You may even very gently ask whether they may be able to offer any help on this. Try finding other methods to finance your studies.
Waitlisted? Read our waitlist tips here.

Good luck!

The Aringo Team.

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MBA Application Assistance

A Six-Item Checklist before Hitting “Submit”

accepted.com — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 21:14:36 +0000

You’re eager to click “Submit” after spending so much time working on your college application…but WAIT! Don’t hit “submit” before going over your application one last time and making sure each of the following six items are checked off your to-do list:

1. Your application presents an accurate, holistic picture of you.

Check (and then double check) that each section of your college application presents you at your very best. The adcoms want to gain a clear picture of who you are as an individual and future student at their school. Make sure that all information is accurate and that each section complements the others, similar to how a single puzzle piece can be combined with others to create a cohesive, complete picture.

2. You’ve shown the adcoms why you should attend your target college.

Admissions readers want to get to know you for the sole purpose of determining whether or not you’d be a good fit for their school. Show how you’re a perfect fit by expressing (if not explicitly, then implicitly) why School X is perfect for you – what you will gain from the program, as well as how you will contribute to it.

3. Your recommenders got the job done.

Two things here: You want to make sure that your recommenders filled out the paperwork and sent it in on time, and that they did a good job. Your role in all this is to choose the best recommenders – that is, people who know you well and who will provide specific examples of those characteristics that they claim you have.

4. Someone has looked over your essays.

Your college essays aren’t complete until you’ve had a second set of eyes (or third or fourth) review them. Recruit a family member, friend, or an Accepted.com editor to read your essays and provide constructive criticism. Don’t be shy or defensive; you want to be made aware of every error so that you can fix it before the buzzer.

5. You’ve proofread your entire application.

Your essays aren’t the only application elements that need editing (though they may require the most attention). You should proofread your entire application for spelling, grammar, and stylistic errors. Everything should look neat and clean and should read clearly and smoothly, and most of all, error-free. You’ll have an easier time catching errors if you read your personal statement out loud during this final proofreading stage.

6. You still have some time.

Rushing your application may force you to conduct a less thorough final edit, or to skip filling out a section entirely. The last thing you want is to spend so much time on an application, only to submit something sloppy because you lost track of time. Submitting a day or two early will ensure that you’re submitting your application because you’re truly ready to do so, and not because you have 6 minutes before it’s too late, so you’d better send it in before you miss your chance. Additionally, servers are often overloaded due to heavy last-minute volume. Play it safe.

Have you completed your checklist? Are you sure? If so, then you should confidently hit “Submit” and heave a sigh of relief. We’re all rooting for you!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

Toronto Rotman 2013 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips

accepted.com — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 21:21:30 +0000

The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business is one of the leading business schools in Canada. Known for its design approach to MBA education and strong emphasis on problem solving, Rotman’s program is growing in size and renown.

Essays Questions:

1. What is your post-MBA career goal and why do you think this career would be a good match? How will the Rotman MBA help you to achieve your goal? (Please limit your answer to 500 words.)

This is a classic, straight-forward MBA goals question, with a little twist. What do you want to do with your MBA (what do you want to do after your MBA?) and why is Rotman the best school to help you achieve your goal (the right route)?

Define your goal in terms of the function you want to perform and the industry you want to work in. You may also want to specify geographic location, if it’s an important part of your goal. You don’t have to specific the company you want to work for, but you can say you want to work for companies like X.

The twist in this question is that Rotman wants to know how you chose this goal. What appeals to you about this path? How do you know it’s right for you?

Finally, how will the Rotman’s program and approach to business education help you achieve your goals? Focus on the distinctive aspects of Rotman in your response.

A possible structure for your essay: Start your response with an anecdote about an achievement that illustrates your goal’s appeal to you. Then provide the reasons this event or experience is important to you, describe your goal and then detail how Rotman will help you attain it.

For more ideas on responding to this and other MBA goals question, please see MBA Goals: A-Z.

2. Tell us about a time when you had to overcome an obstacle and describe the outcome. (Please limit your answer to 250 words.)

This is a fairly short essay and a straight-forward one at that. I recommend an obstacle that you have overcome and that you handled well. Discuss the situation you faced, the challenges it presented, and how you responded. Finally what was the result? What did you learn from the experience. If possible, be anecdotal in telling the story and avoid cliches when analyzing what you learned.

3. Video essay: The Rotman School is introducing a new video essay component as a pilot project in our admissions process this year. You will be asked two questions, both questions are designed to be answered without any advanced preparation and will allow us to get to know you, your personality, interests, passions, and talents much better than we could in a written essay. Click the following link to start the video essay (this will only take a few minutes to complete): www.kiratalent.com/interview/rotman2013

This is totally new and quite innovative. To prepare, you need to practice for the experience of talking to a video camera with no feedback from another human being. Having created videos for Accepted, I found the experience very unnatural.

Until the questions become known, practice answering “What do you do for fun? What are your passions, interests, and hobbies?” This is an example given in the BW article about the Rotman interview. Time your responses and train yourself to answer in no more than 90 seconds.

4. Optional Essay: Is there anything that you think the Admissions Committee should know which you feel has not been covered by the rest of the application? If you believe your credentials and essays represent you fairly, do not feel obligated to answer this question.

Use this essay to provide context for information that doesn’t present your abilities accurately. For example, if you worked significant hour during college and your GPA took a hit, that’s something to share with the Admissions Committee. Or if you were sick the semester that your GPA was only a 2.0, but you averaged a 3.5 the rest of college, that information is important for the Admissions Committee to know. For more suggestions, please see The Optional Question: To Be or not To Be.

Deadlines:

Please be aware that admission to Rotman is highly competitive and the class may become full before the final application deadline date. Therefore, while the final deadline date in the annual application cycle is June 1, it is highly recommended that applicants submit their completed applications as early as possible within the application cycle for the best chance of being admitted.

Deadline	Admission decision by
Round 1: October 9, 2012 Round 2: January 7, 2013 Round 3: March 4, 2013* Round 4: April 29, 2013 Round 5: June 1, 2013**	December 14, 2012 March 8, 2013 May 10, 2013 June 14, 2013 June 30, 2013

*Round 4 is the final deadline for international applicants, but we strongly encourage you to apply by Round 3 to ensure adequate processing time for study permits and loans.

**Round 5 is the final deadline for domestic applicants.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools .

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

Business School Application Advice From an MBA

accepted.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:52:26 +0000

A guest post from the Classy Career Girl, Anna Runyan, who earned her MBA from the Rady School of Management.

The business school application can be a stressful process and one that often leaves applicants disappointed and frustrated. Hopefully these tips will make your application process easier and you can use what I have learned to achieve your dream of going to business school.

1. GMAT preparation: Devote a month or two to study for the GMAT before you start applying to schools so that you can focus on the test and not worry about what score you need, writing essays and getting recommendations.

I took the GMAT right after college and thought I would ace it without studying. I was wrong and did very poorly on the test. After I failed, I enrolled in a GMAT course but still did not feel adequately prepared so I ended up putting my MBA dream on hold. After a few years, I buckled down and started studying every night after work. The second time I took the GMAT I was very relaxed and much more prepared. The only reason I did great the second time was because I was focused on one thing, the GMAT, and not all the other parts of the application that would come later.

2. Information Sessions: Don’t think about attending or applying to a school unless you have attended an information session.

Most of my co-workers who are interested in business school think and talk about it a lot but don’t take that next step of finding out if business school is right for them. The best way to do this is by attending an information session where you can ask questions and meet current students. I went to many information sessions before applying to schools because I found it was a great way to see if the school was right for me. I went to one school where no one talked to me and I knew I wouldn’t like the environment. Another school I went to I found that everyone was very friendly. This was the school that I eventually decided to attend but I never would have known which one was right for me if I did not attend an information session.

3. Recommendations: Choose someone you know and trust. Do you know about your recommender’s family and what they like to do on the weekends? If not, get to know them well before you ask them to write you a recommendation.

By making an effort to get to know your recommender, it allows them to also get to know you. Your recommendation will be much better if your recommender knows you well and thinks of you as a friend. You want your recommender to fight for you and put in the time to write a great application. Make it easy for them by giving them a list of your reasons for wanting to go back to school and your recent accomplishments at work. Most importantly, make sure you give them a thank you gift after they write you a recommendation.

4. More tips to survive the application process:

During interviews, be ready to explain how you can contribute and what you can teach to your classmates.
During decision time, try to not think about rankings and instead make your decision to attend the school that will make you happiest.
If you are facing a tough decision, ask those closest to you for advice. Sometimes, others know you better than yourself and can give you advice that makes the most sense.
Consider options like attending business school part-time. There are many benefits to keeping your job while going to school and sometimes you can even finish just as fast.

I hope that these tips have been helpful to you. I wish you the best of luck in getting into the business school of your dreams.

Classy Career Girl, a blog written by Anna Runyan, provides advice to young professionals on how to be classy as they climb the corporate ladder. Her blog covers topics such as business chic fashion, career motivation, personal development, networking, and office etiquette. Connect with her at http://www.classycareergirl.com. If you would like to learn more about how to find a career that you love to go to everyday, check out her free video training series at http://www.getmycareerunstuck.com.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

CMU Tepper 2013 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips

accepted.com — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:54:51 +0000

The key to admissions success here is to exhibit your keen analytical capabilities through your essays—that and your strong passion for learning and your desire to expand your role as an innovative leader. Get those points across to the adcom members and you could be well on your way to the tech-savvy business education that only Tepper can provide.

ESSAY A (Required)

What are your short-term and long-term goals? How will a Tepper MBA help you to achieve these goals? (Please include any information regarding what steps you have taken to learn more about the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.) (Maximum length= 2 double-spaced pages in 12 pt font)

Straight-forward MBA goals question. What do you want to do immediately after earning your MBA? What do you want to do 5-10 years down the road? Yes your longer term goals can be fuzzier, but you should be able to show clear direction. Be sure to include in your response how Tepper’s program (not ranking, reputation, or other generalities that apply to all top programs) will help you achieve your goals.

As you do your research, attend info sessions, and visit campuses, look for the distinctive pieces to any MBA program that appeal to you. Then use that data to demonstrate how well you know the program and what a great fit you are for the given school.

Regarding CMU, you may want to refer to its mini-semester structure or its MBA tracks and cross-campus curriculum. Explain how any or all of these elements will help you achieve your goal. If Tepper professors are prominent in your area of interest, discuss how their research jives with your professional interests. Your ability to connect these details and your goals builds a stellar goals essay.

ESSAY B (Required)

The Tepper School is looking for individuals who will make an impact. Give an example of a time where you made an impact in your professional or academic life. (Maximum length= 2 double-spaced pages in 12 pt font)

In this MBA essay, show how you have contributed actively in the past to your team at work or perhaps a group project in class. Did your suggestion enable the team to finish the project on time? Did you inspire and unite your teammates and lead them to unprecedented victory in the academic decathlon? Please note that Tepper is looking for an example, not a theoretical treatise. Stories work well for this (and many other ) kinds of questions.

ESSAY C (Required)

Describe an obstacle or ethical challenge that you have faced in your professional or academic life. How did you deal with this situation and what did you learn from it? (Maximum length= 1 double-spaced page in 12 pt font)

This is a fairly short essay and a straight-forward one at that. I recommend an obstacle that you have overcome or an ethical challenge that you handled well. Discuss the situation you faced, the challenges it presented and then how you responded. Finally what did you learn from the experience. If possible, be anecdotal in discussing in telling the story and avoid cliches when analyzing what you learned.

ESSAY D (Required)

Please answer one of the following two questions. Please clearly specify which question you are answering. (Maximum length= 1 double-spaced page in 12 pt font. )

1. Outside of my professional and/or academic life, one thing that people would be surprised to know about me is…

2. Outside of my professional and/or academic life, I am especially proud of…

This question is a freebie, a wild card. You can really write about anything non-professional that will give the admissions committee insight into YOU. As it has in the previous essays, Tepper wants you to focus on one aspect of your life, and they clearly want it to be non-professional. It can be fun or serious. My advice is that it should complement the characteristics revealed in the other essay. Where do you break with whatever stereotype is out there about you? That topic might be a great response to D1. When have you contributed and had impact in a non-professional context.

ESSAY E (Optional)

Is there anything else that you think we should know as we evaluate your application?

If you believe your credentials and essays represent you fairly, you should not feel obligated to answer this question. This essay is intended to provide a place for you to add information that you think is important but is not covered elsewhere in the application. This could include clarification of your employment or academic record, choice of recommenders or helpful context for the admissions committee in reviewing your application.

Use this optional essay, or lose an opportunity to provide even more reasons for Tepper to admit you. Just don’t rehash information found elsewhere. That’s a waste of time — yours and your reader’s.

If you would like professional guidance with your CMU Tepper MBA application, please consider Accepted’s MBA essay editing and MBA admissions consulting or our CMU Tepper School Package, which include advising, editing, interview coaching, and a resume edit for the Tepper MBA application.

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

5 Ways to Make B-Schools Love You

accepted.com — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:52:13 +0000

Together with the GMAT Club, we will be hosting an MBA webinar called 5 Ways to Make B-Schools Love You on Tuesday, August 21st at 6:00 PM PT / 9:00 PM ET.

If you want to create a b-school application that will make the adcom swoon, then you won’t want to miss this event. During the FREE webinar, we will be offering specific advice on how to convince top b-school adcom members that their next MBA class simply NEEDS you in order to thrive by creating an application that will take their breath away!

Reserve your spot for 5 Ways to Make B-Schools Love You now!

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

MBA Admissions: 3 Reasons It’s a Good Time to Apply

accepted.com — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:16:37 +0000

A recent Businessweek article, “As Applications Flag, U.S. B-Schools Hit the Road,” discusses the implications of the new five-year GMAT test taking low (8% fewer tests taken in 2011 than in 2010). Not surprisingly, the number of U.S. applicants applying to U.S. b-schools is also on the decline with 10% fewer than last year.

In response to these declines, U.S. b-schools are increasing their recruiting and advertising efforts. One reason why they are so quick to “hit the road” and ramp up their campaigns is so that they improve their selectivity rankings. When fewer applicants apply to their programs, a higher percentage of applicants get accepted, thus making them appear less selective. Top schools want to maintain their edge as being highly competitive and exclusive.

Implications for MBA Applicants:

These numbers mean opportunity for MBA applicants. Not go wild craziness, but opportunity nonetheless. I am not suggesting that you apply only to the elite programs when your grades, work experience, and test scores are strictly subterranean. I am suggesting that you should stretch a little in your school choices. Apply to programs where you are competitive and that support your goals (see the Accepted Positioning System) according to the available data (which reflect the past), and then add a program or two that are unlikely acceptances, but that you really, really want to go to. Particularly if these “stretch” programs are outside the top 10, your chances of acceptance at one of these stretch programs are probably much better than they were last year – or any time in the last five years.
Yield at programs outside the top ten will decline. Expect to see more movement on waitlists this year. If fewer applicants submit more applications, as the results become known, schools will experience more declined offers, more “melt,” and lower yield. They will be forced to turn increasingly to their waitlists.
If the volume decline continues, expect to have more financial aid offers as schools attempt to seal the deal with accepted applicants. At least that’s the silver lining for law school applicants following the law school market implosion.

It’s a good year to be applying to business school.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

UC Berkeley Haas 2013 MBA Application Questions, Tips, & Deadlines

accepted.com — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:23:16 +0000

UC Berkeley Haas has released its 2012 application essays. It reduced the number of required essays by one and shorted it’s longest essay by 250 words, reducing the maximum for its goals essay from 1000 words to 750 words.

Supplemental Information:

1. If you have not provided a letter of recommendation from your current supervisor, please explain; otherwise, enter N/A.

Keep it short and sweet. This is primarily for those of you who don’t want to tell your boss yet that you plan to leave.

2. List in order of importance all community and professional organizations and extracurricular activities in which you have been involved during or after university studies. Indicate the nature of the activity or organization, size of the organization, dates of involvement, offices held, and average number of hours spent per month.

Whenever possible, quantify your impact or contribution. Please note that Haas is not interested in high school grades or activities.

3. List full-time and part-time jobs held during undergraduate or graduate studies, indicating the employer, job title, employment dates, location, and the number of hours worked per week for each position held prior to the completion of your degree.

Again, quantify as much as possible your responsibilities and impact. Focus on achievements. Avoid job descriptions that are obvious from your job title.

4. Please explain all gaps in your employment since earning your university degree.

Provide the circumstances, but as always, be succinct. If your position was eliminated during a restructuring and it took you three months to find a job, say so. No harm, no foul. If the layoff was much longer, also indicate how you used your time, other than job-searching. Learning new skills or serving your community, if true, would be great to mention here.

5. If you have ever been subject to academic discipline, placed on probation, suspended, or required to withdraw from any college or university, please explain. If not, please enter N/A. (An affirmative response to this question does not automatically disqualify you from admission.)

Please, please, please don’t “forget” to answer this question if it applies to you. It’s far worse to omit it than to answer it.

Required Essays:

At Berkeley-Haas, our distinctive culture is defined by four key principles — Question the status quo; Confidence without attitude; Students always; and Beyond yourself. We seek candidates from a broad range of cultures, backgrounds, and industries who demonstrate a strong cultural fit with our program and defining principles. Please use the following essays as an opportunity to reflect on and share with us the values, experiences, and accomplishments that have helped shape who you are. (Learn more about Berkeley-Haas’ Defining Principles).

1. If you could choose one song that expresses who you are, what is it and why? (250 word maximum)

If it’s heavy metal, go for it. And if it’s a Beethoven Sonata, let it sing forth. And if it’s a classic folk song that you learned as a child in a non-Western country, don’t hesitate to share that information too. The what isn’t nearly as important as they why. Be authentic and tell them your favorite song, whatever it is. And then tell them why you love it. Is it the lyrics, the melody, or the meaning you ascribe to it?

2. What is your most significant accomplishment? (250 word maximum)

What are you most proud of? When did you make a real contribution and go “beyond yourself”? Tell the story of your accomplishment, but also reflect on it. Why do you consider it the “most significant”? Was it the impact you had on others, or the impact the experience had on you, or what the experience says about you?

For a brief article on accomplishments, please see “What is an Accomplishment?”

3. Describe a time when you questioned an established practice or thought within an organization. How did your actions create positive change? (250 word maximum)

These questions go to the heart of leadership. This one also reflects Haas’ core principle, “question the status quo.”

So please think of one time — not several — when you questioned the way things are within a school, club, department, or organization, and you made a difference. What was the positive change and how did you motivate, persuade, and lead?

4. Describe a time when you were a student of your own failure. What specific insight from this experience has shaped your development? (250 word maximum)

Another essential quality in leaders and a Haas core principle here: Students always. Combine with a heavy dose of resilience and you will have a dynamite essay. Show that you can learn from a failure and rebound. That quality implies you can take prudent risks, experience failure, grow and move on.

Again, choose ONE time, tell the story, and then discuss what you learned from it and how you have applied that lesson since the initial failure.

5. a. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How have your professional experiences prepared you to achieve these goals?
b. How will an MBA from Haas help you achieve these goals? (750 word maximum for 5a. and 5b.)

Standard MBA goals question. What are you short-term and long-term goals? How do your goals flow from your professional experience? What are the one or two key experiences that shaped your goals, and how do they reveal you have what it takes to achieve those aims? How will the Haas MBA at this point in time help you achieve your goals?

You will find the Haas posts in Accepted’s series on MBA Career Goals and the Business Schools that Support Them helpful in responding to part b.

Optional Essays:

1. Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)

A bonus! If there is an element in your background, be it personal, academic or professional, that you have not revealed elsewhere and would like the adcom to know about, this is the spot. Give them another reason to admit you, but don’t submit the grand summary, appeal, or closing statement. Keep it succinct and focused. Obviously, you could use this essay to explain a weakness, but that would leave your application ending on a weakness, which is less than optimal. Try to fit the explanation in somewhere else in the app or if necessary tuck the weakness into this essay, but have the main focus of this essay be something positive. For example: Your pride in working your way through undergrad, the challenges, and the ultimate satisfaction of learning to manage your time. An essay with this core idea explains a less than stellar GPA; it won’t justify a 2.0.

2. If not clearly evident, please discuss ways in which you have demonstrated strong quantitative abilities, or plan to strengthen quantitative abilities. You do not need to list courses that appear on your transcript. (250 word maximum)

If you are a liberal arts graduate or the proverbial poet applying to business school or if you simply don’t have a lot of math on your transcript or on your resume, you need to respond to this question. You could show that your work may be more quantitative than initially assumed or you could discuss quantitative courses you are taking now that do not yet appear on your transcript.

UC Berkeley Haas 2013 MBA Deadlines

Round Due Date Notification
Round One October 17, 2012 January 10, 2013
Round Two November 29, 2012 February 21, 2013
Round Three January 16, 2013 April 11, 2013
Round Four March 12, 2013 May 16, 2013

If you would like help with your Haas MBA application, please consider Accepted’s MBA essay editing and MBA admissions consulting or our Haas School Package.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools .

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.

MBA Admissions A-Z: X is for XXX – Keeping it Clean

accepted.com — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 19:09:12 +0000

Top 6 Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Accounts

Back in the olden days (like 15+ years ago), the adcom saw your MBA application…and that was it. Now, with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the popularity of blogging (especially among MBA applicants), the adcom have access to a whole lot more than the professional file that you carefully present to them.

Which is why you need to be careful. Very careful.

Here are 6 things that admissions members could tag with a red flag:

Pictures or videos of you doing stupid stuff – you know what it is.
Inappropriate email addresses.
Blog posts/status updates/Tweets using inappropriate language or curse words.
Blog posts/status updates/Tweets written in poor English.
Blog posts/status updates/Tweets that are slanderous or mean.
Anything that indicates that you’re involved in illegal activity.

Please go through each and every one of your social media accounts and CLEAN THEM UP. Delete anything that may make you look bad, untag yourself in your friends’ photos and videos if you need to, and last, but certainly not least, make sure that your privacy settings are set at the very highest possible standards. These platforms are constantly changing their privacy rules; stay on top of them to insure that only those people that you WANT to see your activity are the ones who have access to it.

Going forward, realize that anything in digital format is pretty hard to keep private. And every move you make does not need to be recorded for posterity, especially those that will make you cringe in the future.

Note: An increasing percentage of top b-school adcom (and potential employers) DO use Google as a resource when trying to learn more about applicants. Your professional reputation is at stake here!

Learn more about the do’s and don’ts of creating the right MBA application image when you view Accepted.com’s tip-filled resource A Winning MBA Application Strategy 101.

This post is part of an ongoing series, MBA Admissions A-Z, that offers applicants insightful tips on every aspect of the business school admissions process. Join us as we explore the ABCs of the MBA!

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog, the official blog of Accepted.com.