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18 Dec 2014, 02:01
| FROM My Journey to Business School: Kellogg…here I come! |
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YES! I got the call a few hours ago congratulating me on being accepted to Kellogg. It still hasn’t sunk in for me. I’ll be back with more details once I stop hyperventilating and jumping for joy. But, YES, YES, YEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!! I made it! :D :D  
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18 Dec 2014, 03:00
| FROM Naija MBA Gal: Where I am now. |
Cloud 9. Less half. I had already started a Booth vs Sloan comparison before I received decisions from both schools. Now I have to decide whether I want a spot in Sloan’s waitlist or not. Before Dec 22. Sadly, I wasn’t planning to make that decision this year. As at yesterday, I was already tilting more towards Booth […]
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18 Dec 2014, 09:01
| FROM John Thunder MBA: Final Results |
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Sloan – Admitted!!! Wharton – Waitlist Booth – Waitlist No Kellogg. Wasn’t enthused about Kellogg anyways. Their campus needs renovation… won’t be renovated in the next 2 years. Not sure what to do now. Sloan was my top choice for technology career path.  
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18 Dec 2014, 13:01
| FROM Scott Duncan: Accepted at Sloan, Waitlisted at Kellogg |
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Wow! After a long time of nothing to talk about, finally I have some news: I was accepted at MIT Sloan and waitlisted at Kellogg. That’s all for now, I have some celebrating to do The post Accepted at Sloan, Waitlisted at Kellogg appeared first on Scott Duncan. |
18 Dec 2014, 22:01
| FROM My Journey to Business School: And then there was one. |
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UCLA Anderson was the only other school I was waiting to hear from, and I really wanted to know if I got in before making a decision on where to attend school. I got the call last night- I’M IN! They were very generous with a scholarship as well! I haven’t received the official update via email yet, so I’ll wait for that before I post anything out here. But it’s time for me to CELEBRATE!! :D :D  
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19 Dec 2014, 10:00
| FROM Pro GMAT: In search of 7_0 |
Finally, a score that I would like to see on the GMAT. 720!! Split 49, 40!! 9 wrong in quant and 8 in verbal. Though the score is good, the matter of concern is only RC. Out of 8 wrongs, 6 were from RC. Surprisingly, no wrong from SC. I was not feeling out of time in … Continue reading →
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22 Dec 2014, 06:00
| FROM Naija MBA Gal: My Dilemma |
I have a big problem. It’s a good problem but a problem nonetheless. I can’t decide whether to pursue Sloan’s waitlist or not. Here’s the issue: My personality is a great fit with Booth. If I wanted anything but entrepreneurship I’d have dropped Sloan without a backward glance. But Sloan is a great school for […]
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22 Dec 2014, 06:00
| FROM GNPTH: The festival season is here & Congrats to my fellow bloggers who got accepted!! |
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It’s been a long time since i posted!!! It feels good to be back in town. I had a wonderful to trip to United States of America. Hope there is more to come in future and ultimately, i wanted to join one of my favorite B-Schools. During this trip, i had the privilege to meet my colleagues and work with them. It was wonderful to meet those people whom you contact/ converse via Lync or Mails daily. Though it was a short trip, I really enjoyed alot in an extend where i even forgot that i’m preparing for GMAT. I did not have time or rather i should say, i was not in a mood to prepare during my travel. I even had a chance to meet my sister almost after 7 months. I had to travel to Detroit over the weekends to meet her and play with my niece. I would say, this was my best trip officially. Now that I’m back. It’s time to start preparing for my GMAT. Actually I’m in no hurry to take it as i planned to be part of class 2018. But I’ll be taking my GMAT by 2nd week of March 2015 Max. So that I can plan or work my profile and get ready to apply for my target B-schools. I also wanted to congrats my fellow applicants- TopDog, Naija MBA Gal, Vandana, Hugo, Grant Me Admission & TheEngineerMBA who got accepted to their target B-Schools. And finally i wish the following for all the people who are reading my blog. 1. May your Christmas be filled with lots of happiness, peace, Love and lots of presents!!!  2. And this new year-2015- May fulfill all your wishes and dreams and may you feel this happiness all year round!!  Until next time, Balaji.  
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22 Dec 2014, 09:01
| FROM Pro GMAT: They won it! |
Its been a busy month for all, since few of my friends got admitted who were waiting eagerly for the admissions decision and few are still fighting for the gmat (this group includes me as well). Congratulations to Vandana, NaijaMBAgal, TopDogMBA, GrantMeAdmission, under prescription and others (sorry, if I missed someone. Please make your presence … Continue reading →
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22 Dec 2014, 09:01
| FROM Scott Duncan: Five things I did differently that earned me an acceptance at a top MBA program |
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As I have have mentioned before, last year I was rejected by five top MBA programs. This year, something changed. I have been accepted by MIT Sloan, waitlisted at Kellogg, and my application is under further consideration at HBS. Already a big difference! Although going through this process a year ago definitely made it easier for me this time around, there were five key differences this year that I think made the difference between success and another year of failure. 1. I worked with what I had You can’t change what you can’t change. Last year, I was full of self-doubt. I didn’t go to an Ivy-League school. I didn’t have a 4.0 GPA. I didn’t work at a brand-name firm. I knew that this is the profile that I was applying with, but for some reason I let that get in the way. It enabled me to procrastinate on my applications, and I’m sure the self-doubt came through in my essays and in my interviews. This year, I didn’t see these elements of my application as weaknesses. Instead, I knew that these were things I couldn’t change, and knowing that my background was fixed was actually liberating. Not looking into the past enabled me to focus on completing my application and telling my story in the best light possible. Which leads me to my next point: 2. I owned my story Last year, I had a concrete line of reasoning as to why I needed an MBA from a top program. But if you asked me to explain why, I wouldn’t have been able to articulate it very well. This was common for a lot of different pieces of my background. Why did you become an engineer? Why do you work in the medical device industry? Why [this] school? I had vague ideas of why I made the decisions I did in my education and career and a better idea of what I expected from a top MBA program, but saying them out loud and off the cuff was difficult. It was only through a painful process of self-reflection that I was able to effectively communicate the thoughts that had been bouncing around inside of my head for years. 3. I let go of perfectionism Why did I struggle with articulating my story in the first place? Perfectionism. I was so worried about saying the right thing or saying the magic words that the adcom wanted to hear that I let it get in the way of effectively communicating. Have you gotten your application to the 90% mark and struggled to get it over the finish line? Have you stared blankly at a blank page, trying to think of what to write? I feel your pain, and I realized that there are no magic words. Is changing this sentence structure really going to make the difference between getting in and being rejected. I would hope not. Letting go of perfectionism allowed me to get over the “make work” of my application and focus on the things that really matter – what points I want to communicate, why those points are important, and how to communicate them most effectively. 4. I increased my GMAT score With a GMAT score of 680 last year, I was in the 80% range for most of the schools I was applying to. But, this was still a risk on my application since it was at least 30 points below the averages for many top schools. So, I took 4 weeks to study (again), focused on what I was doing wrong and not what I was doing right, and took the GMAT again, scoring a 710. It was hard for me to admit that quant was a weakness (c’mon I’m an engineer, I’m supposed to be good at this!) but drilling through the easy stuff I was getting wrong really moved the needle. 5. I relaxed The combination of 1-4 allowed me to approach my applications in a different state of mind this year. Last year I was frazzled. Stressed. Confused. Not exactly an ideal state to be in when applying. Having been through the process a year earlier helped, but overall, this year I knew much more about what I wanted, why I wanted it, and how to tell that story to someone else. Conclusion All those rejections last year made me re-think a lot, but there is no question that it strengthened my application. I couldn’t be more thrilled with how this year turned out. Are you struggling with any of the points I mentioned? Sign up and never miss a post Subscribe Now!  I value your privacy and would never spam you. Unsubscribe at any time. The post Five things I did differently that earned me an acceptance at a top MBA program appeared first on Scott Duncan. |
22 Dec 2014, 12:00
| FROM MBA Data Guru: Cornell MBA Acceptance Rate Analysis |
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Cornell MBA Acceptance Rate Analysis Many MBA applicants wonder what their chances of getting into a top school is. This analysis looks at Cornell MBA acceptance rate based on data such as GMAT, GPA, undergraduate major, and age at application. The average acceptance rate at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management is 22%, which is higher than all of the schools in the top 10 but lower than many of the schools ranked 11 to 20. Cornell MBA Acceptance Rate by GMAT  As you would expect, GMAT has a high impact on Cornell MBA acceptance rate. Theaverage GMAT for the Cornell MBA class of 2016 is 700. Although GMAT does affect Cornell MBA acceptance rate, GMAT has a smaller importance than other schools such as Kellogg. Increasing your GMAT score by 30 points raises your chance of admission by 5% at Kellogg but only by 2% at Cornell. Cornell MBA Acceptance Rate by GPA Strangely enough it appears that GPA has little to no impact on your acceptance rate at Johnson. When I ran the logistic regression, GPA was the first variable I eliminated. Even at Stanford, GPA wasn’t eliminated until almost at the end. This suggests to me that Cornell really doesn’t care about GPA. If you have a low GPA and a high GMAT, then you should be applying to Cornell for the highest chance of admission. The average GPA from my data set, which came from GMAT Club, was 3.40 for both accepted and for declined applicants. Cornell MBA Acceptance Rate by Age  Although your GPA doesn’t matter to Cornell, the age at which you apply does matter. Similar to other schools, such as NYU, the age at which you apply does impact your chance of admission. Cornell prefers candidates who are close to the average age of around 27 or 28. The further you deviate from this average age, the lower your chances of admission are. I believe that the schools do this for two reasons. The first is that young people don’t have as much work experience, so they tend to have less to contribute to the conversation in class. At the other end, candidates that are too old are harder to place in recruiting because companies wonder why someone who is so old is getting an MBA. I have noticed that the women in my program tend to be younger on average than the men. I imagine that the admissions department will give women a little more leeway on applying younger because some women want to finish their MBA before they start a family. Other Factors that Impact Acceptance Rate Candidates who apply while living in India have a lower acceptance rate, while those applying while in the US have a higher admission rate. Applicants who majored in engineering during their undergraduate program have a lower acceptance rate. The admission rate for applicants who are currently working in manufacturing is significantly lower than anyone else. Good luck with your applications! MBA Data Guru - Data and analytics that will help you in the MBA admissions process |
22 Dec 2014, 17:00
| FROM MBA Data Guru: Duke MBA Acceptance Rate Analysis |
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Duke MBA Acceptance Rate Analysis Duke’s Fuqua School of Business is one of the top 20 MBA programs in the US. The Duke MBA acceptance rate is 25%, which means that any applicant accepted should be proud of themselves. The next question is obviously what characteristics does the Duke admissions committee look for in Fuqua applicants? Not only are GMAT and GPA important factors that will impact your admissions, but also your age and the round you apply in will affect your chance of being accepted. Duke MBA Acceptance Rate by GMAT  The average Duke applicant has a GMAT of 690, several points lower than the 697 for accepted candidates. As expected the acceptance rate increases as an applicants GMAT rises. The graph above shows Duke MBA acceptance rate by GMAT for the average applicant with a GPA of 3.35. Duke MBA Acceptance Rate by GPA  Unlike schools such as Stanford and Cornell, GPA does affect Duke MBA acceptance rate. The average applicant has a GPA of 3.35, however accepted applicant’s GPA is slightly higher. Above you can see the admission rate by GPA at Fuqua. Duke MBA Acceptance Rate GMAT vs. GPA  Now that you know that GMAT and GPA both matter to Duke, the next question is which is more important. My admissions analysis shows that Duke prefers GMAT over GPA*. A high score on the GMAT will increase Duke MBA acceptance rate from 25% to 30%. However, a high GPA only increases your chance of admission at Duke to 28%. For applicants with a high GMAT and low GPA, Duke is a good school at which to apply. For example an applicant with a 750 GMAT and 3.0 GPA has a 29% chance of getting into Duke. Duke MBA Acceptance Rate GMAT vs. GPA  Similar to other schools such as Stern, age impacts acceptance rate. Applicants who are around 27 to 28 have the highest chance of being accepted at Duke, while older and younger candidates have lower odds of being admitted. My hypothesis is that younger applicants don’t bring as much work experience to the class room discussion while older applicants are hard to place at top companies during on campus recruiting. Duke MBA Acceptance Rate by Round  I looked into how application round affected your chance of admission at Duke, and it was not statistically significant. Even the low round 3 acceptance rate cannot be confirmed as accurate because of low volume. Don’t worry too much about applying first or second round, but you may want to avoid round 3 just to be safe. Other Factors Affecting Acceptance Rate People applying from India had a significantly lower chance of admissions, while applicants from the US had a higher acceptance rate at Duke. Applicants who majored in business had a slightly lower admission rate. Military applicants had an astonishingly high acceptance rate of 50%. So all you veterans out there should strongly consider applying to Duke. The data used for this analysis comes from GMAT Club. *For GMAT vs. GPA comparison a high score is defined by one standard deviation above the average GMAT or GPA. MBA Data Guru - Data and analytics that will help you in the MBA admissions process |
23 Dec 2014, 01:01
| FROM Pulling That MBA Trigger: GMAT done, dusted and cancelled. 700 (49Q, 38V) |
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So I guess the title says it all. I knew the Quant section went well, wasn’t too sure about the Verbal but yeah, clearly didn’t go as expected! I’m not too disappointed because I knew this was a long shot. It would have been nice to be applying with a higher GMAT but now that it’s done, I guess I’ll just focus on the other parts of the application! I cancelled the score right away and didn’t report them, so my 710 still stands. In other news, I’m travelling for about a week! It’s gonna be a welcome break from the GMAT insanity. Hopefully this will give me the time I need to clear my head and kill my essays. After I come back it’s gonna be an avalanche of deadlines so I’ll need all the rest I can get! Happy holidays everyone!  
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23 Dec 2014, 15:00
| FROM MBA Data Guru: Booth Admissions Rate Analysis |
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Booth Admissions Rate Analysis University of Chicago is a fairly selective business school with an acceptance rate of 22%. Similar to Kellogg, Booth has one of the higher acceptance rates for a top 10 school. While building an MBA admission calculator, I uncovered some insights on how Booth evaluates MBA applicants. Booth Admissions Rate by GMAT  The graph above demonstrates that GMAT has a high impact on Booth admissions. Increasing your GMAT from 650 to 750 more than doubles your chance of admission. The average GMAT score for an applicant is 718, but theadmitted applicants have a slightly higher GMAT of 724. Booth Admissions Rate by GPA  A high GPA will give you a slightly higher acceptance rate at University of Chicago, but it is easy to see that GPA doesn’t have a very large impact on admission rate. Even with a 3.0 GPA the Booth acceptance rate is 18% which is higher than the acceptance rate at Harvard for an applicant with a 4.0. Booth Acceptance Rate GMAT vs. GPA  The graph above compares the importance of GMAT vs. GPA to Booth admissions. Candidates with a high GMAT score had a significantly higher acceptance rate than those who had a high GPA. If you have a high GMAT and a low GPA, University of Chicago is an ideal school at which to apply. For example an applicant with 3.0 GPA and a 760 GMAT has a 25% chance of being admitted. Booth Admission Rate by Age  Similar to Duke and Cornell, the Booth admission committee prefers applicants who are around 27. The further a candidate is from the average age, the lower their chance of acceptance is. I believe that this is because candidates with around 5 years of work experience have worked long enough to impress potential employers and contribute to classroom discussion while not being over qualified for on campus recruiting positions. Booth Admissions Rate by Round  Which round you apply in does actually affect your chance of admission at University of Chicago. There is a small drop off in acceptance rate between round 1 and 2, but then a large drop in round 3. Other Factors that Impact Booth Acceptance Rate Applicants who are living in India have only a 7% chance of being accepted at Booth. Science and Math majors have a slightly higher chance of admission. Liberal Arts and Humanities majors have an exceptionally high chance of being accepted, at 56%, while Engineering majors have lower odds at 17%. I think that it is not that Booth is specifically trying to attract Liberal Arts majors, but that they are trying to bring in more women, who happen to be more likely to major in Liberal Arts. Finally investment bankers have only a 14% acceptance rate at Booth. MBA Data Guru - Data and analytics that will help you in the MBA admissions process |
24 Dec 2014, 11:00
| FROM Pro GMAT: Christmas Wishes |
:)  My special wishes to you and to all those who are close to you. May you have a Christmas that is more special than it has ever been. !Quick Update: Took another prep test and scored 730 (50, 38). Still 4 wrong in RC. :/Filed under: General Post Tagged: exam, GMAT, GMATPrep, … Continue reading →
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25 Dec 2014, 09:00
| FROM Naija MBA Gal: Happy Holidays |
Have a blissful one people and may 2015 be good to us all. With love from Nigeria 
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29 Dec 2014, 07:01
| FROM TopDogMBA - A Reapplicant's Tail: Here, there and everywhere |
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Merry Christmas everyone! I’m currently enjoying some time off, catching up with family and friends I’ve largely ignored during the past year, and taking some long walks in the countryside! I’m also working through my options having secured admits from INDAWG, MIT Woof and been put on the waitlist at UBark (Wharton). It’s a great position to be in – don’t get me wrong! – but the decision is still not simple. I’m going to use the festive holiday to decide my new year strategy, as well as play with this delightful toy that I got in my stocking on Christmas morning   Expect more updates from me soon, including reviews on the two consultants that helped get me to this fantastic position. Happy holidays and all the best for a prosperous 2015!  
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30 Dec 2014, 10:00
| FROM The MBA Journey of an African Doctor: Grateful for 2014 |
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It was a roller coaster of a year, but it ended up as one of the best years of my life to far. I am so grateful for how things turned out and, sincerely, I couldn’t have asked for better. Everything worked together for good: from all the dings from Harvard to Stanford GSB to Wharton to the strange outcome at INSEAD and then to getting into London Business School Exec MBA and only to end up with a deferral, it was a serious journey and it has brought me to where I am today. A few weeks after getting over the fact that I had to defer my admission till September 2015, I took a very hard look at my life. I wondered – what if I applied the same laser focus I had during the application process into what exactly I wanted to do with my life, what would I achieve? I am so glad that I embarked on another journey of soul searching. This time around there were no questions from some admission committee members; I crafted the questions myself and I answered them, not to satisfy some Adcom members but to satisfy myself. I did not need any consultant for this either and there was no time limit. I must confess. A lot has happened in three months when I started the journey. I am an investment manager and my motivation to go to business school was to develop the business side of things so I would be able to converge my experiences as a medical doctor and an investment manager. Right now I am in the process of incorporating a Hedge Fund that will partially morph into a Healthcare focused Private Equity Fund in a few years. Strangely, the Federal Government of Nigeria signed the National Health Bill into law a two weeks ago; this bill encourages private participation in the healthcare industry in Nigeria. This is what I have waited for, for so long. I also sampled the opinion of a few friends about the Hedge Fund and I got a resounding support: I have even gotten funds lined up waiting for the fund to get rolling. But I am keeping my fingers crossed at this time. People will promise you things out of politeness but when the time comes to deliver, the stories will start. But the thought of running my own Hedge Fund, doing what I really like doing and setting the investment rules, while honing my business skills at London Business School is an adventure that I am looking forward to in 2015. A lot has really happened in just three months since I deferred my admission because of work, and I am positive that a lot of many more good things will happen in the next nine months before school starts. I can’t wait!  
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01 Jan 2015, 09:01
| FROM TopDogMBA - A Reapplicant's Tail: Fixing a hole …Admissionado review |
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The following consultant review is similar to my existing review on GMAT Club. I’ve also reviewed MBA Over 30 here. I first learned about Admissionado as their founder, Jon Frank, hosted a free webinar about ‘Dealing with a Ding’. I was one of the lucky few chosen to be critiqued in the webinar and, while not a pleasant experience, I really appreciated the straight talking, no nonsense approach employed by Jon. This isn’t a service for those of you wanting someone to praise you constantly and tell you what a good job you’re doing – this is tough love! My consultant was a former Admissions Fellow at my top choice b school. We had a great free Skype session which overran the allotted time, but I just had a lot of questions and she wasn’t in a hurry and didn’t rush me. After the call, I tried to imagine finding time to not only figure out my strategy, but also to write my resume, essays, manage my recommenders, all while having to check my own work and try to find friends who would help me out and review it. I decided I wanted a paid consultant, someone I could jump straight in and start discussing my stories with, someone who was always available and would push me to do more and better. The Junior Deluxe package was great for this; it wasn’t cheap but in line with other leading consulting firms. Best of all, I could bolt on additional services like Skype calls and urgent reviews of my essays (sadly, I did have to resort to this once or twice!), all in a very transparent way. If I had any negative comments to make, I’d say that it took several days to get comments back on essays. This is because not only my consultant was reviewing them, but also an editor who added a lot of comments on how to improve the writing style, what else I could talk about, how to build the story more effectively etc. It was only a problem because I was busy for weeks at a time (with non-MBA stuff) and when I was free I liked to focus in on my essays for days at a time. If you’re like me, then just make sure you spread the essays out – one school on Monday, another on Tuesday etc. – once I figured this out it was easy to adjust my schedule. Like I said, this is really not a major issue but I struggle to think of anything bad to say about Admissionado. And, as my Christmas post summarised, I’m now in the privileged position of having to choose between two admits from INSEAD and MIT Sloan, and whether to pursue the waitlist at Wharton. I hope this review is helpful to you if you’re considering using Admissionado – feel free to reach out if you have any questions.  
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01 Jan 2015, 09:01
| FROM TopDogMBA - A Reapplicant's Tail: Fixing a hole …MBA Over 30 review |
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I engaged the services of prolific MBA blogger ‘MBA Over 30′ – aka Mr. Lawrence Cole – to help me with my applications to two b schools (MIT Sloan and Wharton). One of the reasons was because I enjoyed his blog a lot in between getting dinged (x5!) last season and my decision to re-apply this time around. Lawrence also got offers from these two schools as an older candidate so knew all about my situation. As I’ve written about here, I also used a dedicated admissions consultant from Admissionado – a much more expensive proposition! With that background in mind, I’ve been using Lawrence to test some ideas and get a second opinion on my application strategy, essays, interview tactics. He’s also been very resourceful when it comes to deciding which school to go to and, more recently, my waitlist strategy for Wharton! Lawrence is always prompt, and he sent me some useful material to help gather my thoughts, greatest hits in my career etc. to use in my essays. He set me a lot of challenging goals and chased me to get started on things. In general he reviewed and turned around comments on essays within 1-2 days so I could get on to the next draft quickly. He was also OK if I pushed him for quicker feedback. This is in contrast to my professional consultant, where my check book had to come out a few times to get faster feedback! On the critical side, I initially found his answers to be quite short and to the point. I didn’t mind given the expert help I was getting from my other consultant, but if you’re the sort that wants to be guided by the hand through this whole process then you might want to consider an alternative service. Nonetheless, Lawrence has direct, on-the-ground experience as a full-time MBA and has helped a lot of people like me (and you) get interview invites and admits from top b schools in Europe and the US. Ultimately, this is an issue about money and what you’re prepared to spend. You will get a lot more experience from a professional admissions consultant, but a lot of that knowledge you can find for yourself from free resources and doing your homework (and, dare I say, using your common sense). If you have the money – and, after all, we’re talking about 1-2% of what you’re prepared to spend on an MBA – then why not do what I did and use both resources!? Having said that, if you’re savvy, full of energy and have time and the drive to navigate the process yourself without your hand being held, Lawrence is a great guy with many successes behind him. I heartily endorse his services and getting a Free MBA Profile Review. I hope this review is helpful to you if you’re considering using MBA Over 30 – feel free to reach out if you have any questions.  
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 11:30am NY / 3:30pm London / 9pm Mumbai Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
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