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mbaMission Admissions Consultant
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MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 1) [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 1)
You are competing against thousands of other applicants, and you know none of them, so you may naturally believe that you need any edge available. Because of this, you may feel that you must provide every single detail of your life, exploiting your resume in particular to do so. While we, of course, want you to make the most of your opportunities, we also want to be sure that you are not offering so much information that you are experiencing diminishing returns.

We have found that many resumes—especially those in which every margin is thinned and every font is shrunken—offer too much information. Some become so dense with text that rather than being easily scannable, which is your objective, they become entirely impenetrable and therefore easy to ignore. We often tell our clients that “less is more” and that a brief resume that will be read in full is more beneficial than a dense resume that will not get read at all. At an Association of International Graduate Consultants Conference, eight leading admissions officers were once asked whether they would prefer a one-page or two-page resume, and one person led all the others in declaring, “Everyone together… one page!”

But even with a one-page resume, you need to understand what to include and what to exclude. The answer to this riddle is different for everyone. You may consider jettisoning internships from years gone by, for example, or reducing the number of bullet points offered for past jobs. You could perhaps eliminate entries for community involvements from long ago. Your agenda with your resume should be to create maximum impact, and sometimes that is achieved with fewer words and bullet points. You may need to make tough choices, but the time and effort will be well spent if you ultimately submit a stronger resume and thus make a more compelling statement about yourself.
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GMAT Impact: How to Solve Any Sentence Correction Problem, Part 2 [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: How to Solve Any Sentence Correction Problem, Part 2
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan GMAT’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.

In the Part 1 of this article, we talked about the five-step process to answer Sentence Correction (SC) problems:

  • Take a First Glance

    2. Read the Sentence

    3. Find a Starting Point

    4. Eliminate Answers

    5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4
If you have not already learned that process, read Part 1 before continuing with this article.

Drills to Build Skills

How do you learn to do all this stuff? You are going to build some skills that will help at each stage of the way. The drills are summarized in this post; if you want the full description of each, check out the original article on the Manhattan GMAT blog.

Drill Number 1: First Glance

Open up your Official Guide (OG) and find some lower-numbered SC questions that you have already tried in the past. Give yourself a few seconds (no more than 5!) to glance at a problem, then look away and say out loud what you noticed in those few seconds.

As you develop your First Glance skills, start to read a couple of words: the one right before the underline and the first word of the underline. Do those give you any clues about what might be tested in the problem? For instance, consider this sentence:

Xxx xxxxxx xxxx xx and she xxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxx xxxxx.

I have a strong suspicion that this problem might test parallelism, because the word and falls immediately before the underline. When I read the sentence, I will be looking for an X and Y parallelism structure.

Drill Number 2: Read the Sentence

Take a look at some OG problems you have tried before. Read only the original sentence. Then, look away from the book and articulate aloud, in your own words, what you think the sentence is trying to convey. You do not need to limit yourself to one sentence. You can also glance back at the problem to confirm details.

I want to stress the “out loud” part; you will be able to hear whether the explanation is sufficient. If so, try another problem.

If you are struggling or unsure, then one of two things is happening. Either you just do not understand, or the sentence actually does not have a clear meaning, and this is precisely why the choice is wrong! Decide which you think it is and then check the explanation.

Next Steps

Spend the next week drilling these skills for steps 1 and 2. Then come back here to join us for the third part in the series, in which you will learn two more drills for the later steps of the SC process.
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Monday Morning Essay Tip: How Will You Contribute to the Program? [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: How Will You Contribute to the Program?
A number of business schools have essay questions that ask about the unique contributions you will make to their particular program.

Many candidates unwittingly make the mistake of thinking that a bland summary statement like “I will bring my leadership skills to XYZ School” is sufficient to express their intended contribution. One of the reasons we prefer to work with business school candidates “from start to finish” is so we can proactively prevent such problems. Simply relating a story about a past experience and then repeating the main point does not demonstrate that you can or will make a meaningful contribution to the school. Ideally, you want to go further, explaining how you would apply and use your experience and skills while at the school in a way that would offer some benefit to others, thereby showing a true understanding of your fit with that particular program.

Example 1: “My experience as a stand-up comedian will allow me to bring humor to the Kellogg environment.”

With this statement, the MBA admissions committee is left asking, “How exactly will this applicant bring humor to the environment? Does this person really know what our environment is about?” In contrast, consider the following:

Example 2: “My experience as a stand-up comic will prove particularly useful at Kellogg, a dynamic environment where I will be constantly joining new and energetic study teams. I anticipate using my sense of humor to create more relaxed team environments, helping everyone feel comfortable contributing, though I will use my humor judiciously, such as  to diffuse tense moments during late-night study sessions rather than as a distraction. I believe my skills and experience being funny on stage will also allow me to play an important role in the Kellogg Follies.”

In Example 2, the writer has applied his personal experience and intended contribution directly to the Kellogg experience and has thereby shown a clear connection with the school, proving that he truly identifies with it and accurately understands its nature.
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MBA News: Applications from Energy Professionals Appear on Rise After [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Applications from Energy Professionals Appear on Rise After Oil Plunge
The recent plunge in oil prices has triggered a movement that might reach even the MBA market. According to an article in Forbes, the falling oil prices resulted in 21,322 lost jobs in January alone, the majority of which were seen in the energy industry. In a recent Wall Street Journal piece, MBA program admissions officers speculate that the issues in the energy industry might result in higher MBA application rates and thus a larger number of energy sector professionals entering business school in the fall. Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohriatold the WSJ last month that he has “been surprised by a sudden jump in applications from the energy industry.”

Given that application season is still under way, statistics for the possible increase are not yet available. The WSJ reports that Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, and the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business have all noted increased energy-sector applications. Now that oil prices havedropped by more than half since this past June and could possibly keep falling, only time will tell how MBA admissions will be affected.
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Mission Admission: What About European B-Schools? [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: What About European B-Schools?
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

This week, we consider another option for MBA candidates looking to broaden their business school choices: European MBA programs.

Although many applicants who are competing for places at the top U.S. business schools are well aware of the strengths of the MBA programs at INSEAD and London Business School, even more options are available beyond these two, including IESE, ESADE, Oxford (Said), and Cambridge (Judge). These four schools in particular have been aggressively playing “catch-up” with their better-known brethren by raising funds and dedicating them to scholarships and to enhancing their global brands. Those who know their business schools are also aware that IMD offers a boutique MBA program with remarkable international diversity, very highly regarded academics, and a stellar reputation with international employers.

So, numerous options are available, and each can be explored on its own academic merit, but is earning your MBA in Europe, in itself, a good choice for you? For many, the key issue in determining this is where they would like to be after completing their education. If you are seeking to work in Europe, then clearly, these schools offer an advantage over all but the top five or six schools in the United States. (Harvard Business School, for example, can probably open as many doors in Europe as INSEAD can.) However, if you are seeking to work in the States, then the European schools will not provide the pipeline of opportunities that a top-15 American school could provide, particularly for those who hope to work in a niche industry or with a company that is not a well-known international brand.

Still, beyond the employment picture, studying abroad offers intrinsic value. Two years in London, Fountainbleu, or Lausanne could certainly be its own reward…
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MBA Career Advice: A Closer Look at Your Comfort Zone [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Career Advice: A Closer Look at Your Comfort Zone
In this weekly series, our friends at MBA Career Coaches will be dispensing invaluable advice to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. For more information or to sign up for a free career consultation, visit www.mbacareercoaches.com.

A few months ago we talked about discovering the boundaries of your comfort zone with two polar and stereotypically opposite examples – soft skills vs. hard analytical skills. But the idea of your comfort zone extends to much subtler aspects of your work, not just these two broad categories. Let’s look closer at one very narrow area – giving constructive feedback. When you think about each of these, which of them, if any, seem like they fall outside your comfort zone?

Consider giving constructive feedback to…

  • A subordinate who is generally performing well
  • A subordinate who is flailing
  • A peer that you also view as a competitor
  • A close peer who has helped you a lot so far but is currently struggling with an important task
  • A superior with whom you have a great relationship
  • A superior with whom you have a challenging relationship
  • A beloved client who is struggling significantly with a task and putting the project at risk
  • A client with whom you have struggled to create an effective working relationship
Even if you have never given feedback under these circumstances, you can imagine that some of these conversations would certainly fall outside your comfort zone. In this case, the boundaries may be defined by where he or she is relative to you in your organizational hierarchy, how much affinity you feel for this person, and how well he or she is currently performing. Whether you feel comfortable delivering feedback to someone depends not on who they are, but on where your own boundaries lie.

If you have high ambitions for your career, you will put yourself in roles where you encounter the boundary of your comfort zone on a weekly, if not daily basis. Apply this lens to your work this week. Start just with the conversations you will have in the course of your work. Which conversations make you feel a little uneasy, nervous, or even scared? Then resolve to consciously step outside of your comfort zone in those conversations. Be sure you have the support of your peers and mentors as you take these small risks. Communicate with them and solicit their counsel.

Every time you step outside your comfort zone, your comfort zone expands, and there is no exhilaration quite like knowing that something new, that once seemed impossible, is now possible. Seek these small victories and extend your professional limits bit by bit. To learn how an MBA Career Coach can help support you as you take bigger risks and extend your comfort zone, sign up for a free consultation today.
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B-School Chart of the Week: MBA Intellectual Capital Rankings 2014 [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: MBA Intellectual Capital Rankings 2014
Although quantifying a school’s profile certainly does not tell you everything, it can sometimes be helpful in simplifying the many differences between the various MBA programs. Each week, we bring you a chart to help you decide which of the schools’ strengths speak to you.

Some people may be surprised to see the Rady School of Management at the University of California (UC), San Diego—which stands modestly at number 51 in Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2014 overall MBA rankings—besting the likes of such top-tier Ivy League titans as Harvard Business School (HBS) in the area of intellectual capital. Although HBS’s number-eight position according to this measure could perhaps be explained by the program’s emphasis on publishing case studies rather than scholarly articles (the former are not considered in Bloomberg Businessweek’s tabulation of research), the list is nonetheless interesting in the variety of schools represented.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the Rady School boasted the most prolific business faculty in the United States in 2014. Earning top billing for intellectual capital is an honor that “is quite impressive for a business school that was established only a decade ago,” observes UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. The business school’s dean, Robert S. Sullivan, commented that the distinction is “a direct consequence of the Rady School’s successes in recruiting world class faculty.”

In fact, Bloomberg Businessweek’s overall ranking is calculated as an aggregate of three factors, of which intellectual capital carries the least weight: 45% of the overall ranking is determined by recruiters’ feedback on recent MBA hires, another 45% is determined by reviews from graduating MBAs of their respective programs, and just 10% is accounted for by intellectual capital, which marks the volume and quality of faculty publications in leading business journals within the past five years.

Unless you are pursuing a PhD, faculty research output is probably not a foremost concern when looking for the best return on your business school investment. Still, Bloomberg Businessweek’s tally of scholarly contributions does provide a more heterogeneous view of the leading MBA programs—revealing that important intellectual activity is being conducted at schools that might be otherwise eclipsed on the usual top-ten lists.

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Professor Profiles: Sankaran Venkataraman, UVA’s Darden School [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Sankaran Venkataraman, UVA’s Darden School
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a school, but the educational experience at the business school is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we focus on Sankaran Venkataraman from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business Administration.


Sankaran Venkataraman 
(“eStrategy” and “Introduction to Entrepreneurship”)—who is known around the campus of the University of Virginia’s (UVA’s) Darden School as simply “Venkat”—is an internationally recognized expert on entrepreneurship. He is the MasterCard Professor of Business Administration at Darden and the senior associate dean for faculty and research. He has edited the Journal of Business Venturing and consulted to the U.S. Department of Commerce on promoting entrepreneurship globally. He is also a coauthor of The Innovation Journey (Oxford University Press, 2008) and coeditor of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Regions Around the World: Theory, Evidence, and Implications (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008). Venkat earned one of Darden’s awards for most outstanding faculty in 2008 and is generally considered one of the school’s most popular professors. In January 2010, Venkat earned the Academy of Management’s Decade Award for the paper published ten years earlier that has had the greatest impact on scholarship in the fields of management and organizations.

A second-year student we interviewed described Venkat as “very analytical, very smart and teaching on the top edge of marketing analytics.” Added a recent alumnus, “He will help much more than you would expect a professor to help.” Another alumnus with whom we spoke recounted meeting Venkat at an Indian Affairs party only a few weeks into his first year: “He [Venkat] quickly realized that I did not know who he was and told me that he was a student in another section. I led him around, introducing him to other new students until I eventually realized that he was pulling my leg.”

For more information about UVA Darden and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Beyond the MBA Classroom: MBgAy Party at Michigan Ross [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: MBgAy Party at Michigan Ross
When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment but are also making a commitment to a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school.

The student group Ross Out for Business hosted its first school-wide event, called MBgAy, in 2009, making it one of the newer events on the Michigan Ross social calendar. The party/fundraiser, which sold out very quickly, was held at a club in Ann Arbor and featured a drag fashion show followed by dancing—the event has since become an annual affair. Profits are split between a selected charity and the club’s scholarship fund for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students. One first-year student we interviewed just days after the February 2011 party described the event as a “must see—for everyone.” In 2015, as in past years, a portion of the proceeds raised went to support the Trevor Project, a national organization providing suicide and crisis intervention for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Michigan Ross and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Diamonds in the Rough: Wisconsin School of Business at the University [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15.

Applicants who have clear objectives for their post-MBA career may find that choosing a business school curriculum with focused career specializations can be beneficial. The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers a uniquely applied learning experience for ten areas of specialization:

  • Arts administration
  • Brand and product management
  • Corporate finance and investment banking
  • Investment research and portfolio management
  • Marketing research
  • Operations and technology management
  • Real estate
  • Risk management and insurance
  • Strategic human resource management
  • Supply chain management
Immersive engagement begins early in the program, simultaneously with first-year core courses. For example, during their first semester, student teams work to perform an integrated company analysis of a publicly traded company of their choosing. By the time students break out into courses within their designated focus, they are ready to gain hands-on experience through applied projects. Investment research and portfolio management students, for example, practice managing a portfolio with more than $50M in assets, while many other areas of specialization involve partnering with businesses and organizations.
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MBA News: Cornell Johnson Unveils New Curriculum [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Cornell Johnson Unveils New Curriculum
The Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University has revamped the curriculum for its two-year MBA program. According to an article on the school’s news bulletin, Johnson began reevaluating its curriculum in 2011 and gathered an extensive amount of data over the subsequent two years from more than 1,000 alumni who attended the school during the previous 12 class years.

“We are committed to being one of the top business schools in the world, and that means refining our curriculum to speak to a complex business environment,” commented Johnson’s associate dean for MBA programs, Vishal Gaur. The new curriculum, which is now available for the Class of 2016, focuses on three main components: critical thinking, leadership skills, and decision analysis. Business education requires continuous improvement, as well as big jumps,” Gaur added. “As we implement the new Johnson curriculum, we are also thinking of the next educational innovations that will leverage the strengths of Cornell’s two campuses.”

The revised curriculum includes such courses as “The Art of Innovation: A Design Thinking Immersion” and “Making Design Thinking Work,” which the school claims will equip students to become “future innovators.” The new class “Core Leadership Skills for a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) World” will be led by a retired U.S. Army General, and for the “FinTech Trek and Hackathon” course, students will travel to Cornell Tech in New York City to learn about problem solving in the financial industry and to take part in a 24-hour hackathon, during which they will develop a new financial service or product.
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Friday Factoid: Studying Health Enterprise Management at Kellogg [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Studying Health Enterprise Management at Kellogg
An often unsung program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management is the school’s Health Enterprise Management program, and a “star” within this program is the Global Health Initiative (GHI)—co-founded by Kellogg professor Daniel Diermeier, with several students in leadership and advisory roles—in which academics, students, corporations, and nonprofits create products that solve medical problems around the world. As evidence of the program’s profile, in 2006, the GHI received a $4.9M grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop diagnostic devices capable of identifying the HIV virus.

Another impressive experiential offering is the multidisciplinary “Medical Innovation” lab class, which brings together industry leaders, top faculty members, and students from several of Northwestern’s graduate schools (Law, Engineering, Medicine, and Business). In this two-term course, students experience the “entire innovation life cycle” from a variety of perspectives: scientific, legal, and entrepreneurial/managerial. Students even shadow surgeons and observe clinicians to facilitate their own brainstorming sessions for an innovative product—an actual product is created and presented to potential investors. Clearly, Kellogg provides students interested in health care with an opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty (and then sanitize them after, of course).
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MBA Biz Quiz: A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Biz Quiz: A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That
Staying on top of business news is an important part of actively managing your career. Whether you are seeking new opportunities in your industry, preparing for job interviews, or applying to business school, being able to speak intelligently about current events in business is an indispensable tool to help you connect with fellow professionals and convey your passion for your chosen field.

Test your knowledge of important business trends and economic developments affecting industry with this bi-weekly MBA Biz Quiz brought to you by our sister company MBA Career Coaches! It is a fun and simple way to stay engaged with business news.

This week’s quiz represents a little bit of everything.

1. In 2014, Apple became the fifth-largest personal computer seller in the world. What percent of the PC industry’s profits are attributable to Apple?

a. 20 percent

b. 30 percent

c. 40 percent

d. 50 percent

2. Which country is the latest entrant into the Euro Zone?

a. Lithuania

b. Latvia

c. Liechtenstein

d. Luxembourg

3. Taylor Swift’s latest album 1989 sold nearly 1.29 million copies in the US in its first week. What percentage of total album sales did Taylor Swift represent?

a. 1 percent

b. 8 percent

c. 16 percent

d. 22 percent

4. Who is Britain’s biggest retailer?

a. Marks & Spencer

b. Harrods

c. Tesco

d. Walmart

5. Volkswagen owns all of the following car brands except:

a. Audi

b. BMW

c. Bentley

d. Porsche

Answers: 1(d) 2(a) 3(d) 4(c) 5(b)

Explanations

  • In the third quarter of 2014, bythe research firm IDC’s estimates, Apple became the fifth-largest PC seller in the world. Though its market share is dwarfed by the Windows PC giants Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Acer, Apple is predicted to rake in about half of the PC industry’s profits.
  • As of January 1, 2015, Lithuania was the latest member of the Euro Zone.
  • According to Nielsen SoundScan, Taylor Swift’s 1989 represented approximately 22 percent of total album sales in the US. It’s the largest sales week for a record since Eminem’s The Eminem Showin 2002, and the biggest release in the past two years by far, topping heavy hitters such as Beyoncé, Coldplay, and Lady Gaga.
  • Britain’s biggest retailer is Tesco.
  • Volkswagen does not own BMW.
Sources

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MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 2) [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 2)
We previously discussed observing limits with your resume. This week, we take a similar approach with your essays—in particular, your goals essay. Many business schools ask candidates to discuss their career progress first in their classic goals essay:

Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA.

Whereas other schools do not request any professional context:

What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will our school help you achieve these goals?

Many applicants will seize on these broad, open-ended questions to discuss their career histories in depth, offering far more than mere context for their goals. Such candidates worry that they will miss a crucial opportunity to present their professional accomplishments and therefore write a complete career history. In response to a question like the first one we presented here, some candidates will mistakenly use 75% or more of the word space provided just discussing their career progression to date. Although this may seem “brief” to the applicant, the truth is that focusing so extensively on your past minimizes your opportunity to discuss other crucial aspects of your candidacy.

You will be unable to thoroughly address your reasons for wanting an MBA and your interest in the school if you devote too much of your essay to detailing your past career progress. Providing context for your goals by giving an overview of your career to date is unquestionably important, but you must be sure to balance the different sections of your essay. Clearly conveying your goals and your reasons for choosing a particular school is crucial so that you connect with your target, rather than miss it entirely.
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MBA News: MBA Graduates’ Companies Soar [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: MBA Graduates’ Companies Soar
February was quite the month for a couple of MBA graduates — two companies that were created when their founders were still in business schools have raised notable amounts of funding, with one of them quadrupling its operating budget.

Jonathan Stein launched Betterment, which provides fully automated investment management to clients, in 2010 while completing his MBA studies at Columbia Business School. In February, Stein announced the addition of $60M in funding, which brought the company’s total to $105M. Betterment manages nearly $1.5B in investments for approximately 70,000 clients.

HourlyNerd, which began as a class project by Harvard Business School students in 2013, provides companies with the possibility of hiring MBA students and graduates as part-time business consultants. The firm originally raised $4M in Series A investments. In February, HourlyNerd announced that it received $7.8M in Series B investments after a funding round led by Highland Capital Partners, with support from Greylock Partners, the Kraft Group, Maria Thomas (the former CEO of Etsy), and angel investor Semil Shah, among others.

Both companies believe that the time for their innovations has come. “We are increasingly seeing consulting firms both buying and selling projects on our site, as their demand and capacity fluctuate,” remarked HourlyNerd co-CEO and co-founder Rob Biederman, adding, “HourlyNerd is becoming the global spot market for business talent.” Jonathan Stein of Betterment expressed similar views about his venture: “Seven years ago, virtually everyone I told about Betterment advised me to try something less ambitious. Today, we are the leader in a category.”
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MBA News: U.S. MBA Programs Confident Preparation of Students for Care [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: U.S. MBA Programs Confident Preparation of Students for Careers  
A Kaplan Test Prep survey reveals that U.S. MBA programs feel strongly that they are properly equipping students for their post-graduation careers. Of the admissions officers Kaplan interviewed at more than 20 American business schools, 95% asserted that “today’s MBA graduates in the U.S. are properly prepared for the changing employment landscape.” In addition, 95% and 92% of the participants believe that American business schools prepare aspiring MBAs better for the workplace than do similar European and Asian programs, respectively.

Yet, as Kaplan notes, overseas programs are in fact doing quite well. For its 2014 Global Employability University Ranking, the French human resources consultancy Emerging surveyed 2,500 recruiters in 20 countries, ultimately naming the University of Cambridge in Great Britain as the top program. Although U.S. business schools claimed six of the ranking’s top ten spots, programs based in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany were also well represented, while schools in France, Hong Kong, India, and Australia numbered among the top 25. “The top programs in Europe prepare their students as well as—or even better than—American counterparts,” insisted the dean of the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School in speaking with Top MBA. “I do not accept the survey results as being a fair reflection of reality.”
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Monday Morning Essay Tip: Vary Your Sentence Length [#permalink]
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Vary Your Sentence Length
Many essay writers use medium-length sentences (like this one) in their essays. Few use short sentences (like this one). Likewise, few use long sentences in their essays, even though long sentences (like this one) can often play a useful role in an essay’s structure and story.

Confused? Consider the following example:

“At XYZ Inc., I was the manager in charge of leading a team of 12 staff members. Included in my team were four engineers, four marketing professionals, and four market analysts. Our goal was to develop a new thingamajig within six months. We worked really hard over the six months and succeeded. The new thingamajig is now on the market and is selling well. As a result of my efforts, I was promoted to vice-president.”

All these sentences have approximately the same number of words—and the same rhythm/cadence. Thus, they make up a paragraph that is fairly boring to read. Nothing changes. The structure just repeats itself over and over again, with one medium-length sentence following another medium-length sentence.

Now consider this example:*

“At XYZ Inc., I was the manager in charge of leading a thingamajig development team of 12 staff members, four of whom were engineers, four were marketing professionals, and four were market analysts. We had just six months to launch our new product. The team worked really hard and succeeded, and the new thingamajig is now on the market, where it is selling well. As a result of my efforts, I was promoted to vice-president.”

The sentences in this paragraph are varied—the first is quite long, the second is very short, the third is medium-long and the fourth medium-short. Sentence variety makes for a much more interesting read, and one very short sentence in the middle of some longer ones can provide precisely the kind of contrast and drama that MBA application essays so often need.

*This is a simplified example for illustration purposes. If this were an actual essay, we would encourage the applicant to offer greater insight into his/her experience launching the product.
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