“Writing a Powerful Leadership/Achievement Essay" is excerpted from MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools, by Linda Abraham and Judy Gruen. Essays that ask you to write about significant achievements fall under the category of what are known as behavioral or...

As you prepare your MBA applications, don’t let the focus on the longer essays take away your attention from the short answer application boxes. The application boxes aren’t merely the fields of your online application that ask you for your personal and professional information, reason...

By the time you sit down to work on your b-school applications, you’ve already laid much of the groundwork for your candidacy, and a lot of the pieces of your profile are already set. (There’s no going back in time to change your undergrad record!)...

The MBA application process can feel like it touches every corner of your life and career. Applicants need to take the GMAT (or GRE), conduct school research, develop their story and and career goals, write and revise essays and resumes, request recommendations, and attend interviews,...

This is the second post in our series, What HBS is Looking For. So, HBS wants “analytical aptitude and appetite.” Hardly a surprise. You might be tempted to simply skim that section of the website message without giving it much thought. Maybe it’s not as obvious as...

Whether you’re applying for an MBA, a PhD in Public Policy (or many other doctoral fields), or a Masters in Social Work, you’re likely to talk about social enterprise or community service goals in your application. For some, this will be your primary objective –...

7 Steps to MBA Acceptance in 2019 was a great success! Attendees learned what they can do right now (and over the next few months) to ensure that their b-school applications next year are as strong as they can possibly be. If you missed it, or...

If you missed Round 2 deadlines, or if you didn’t get accepted, it’s time to refocus: how will you make a plan to achieve your MBA goals? Does it make sense to apply Round 3? Or should you hold off until next year’s Round 1? There’s...

The answer, as is often the case in MBA admissions, is…it depends. You didn’t think we’d give you a clear cut yes or no answer, did you? FACT: The chances of gaining acceptance decrease as the rounds progress. This means that acceptance rates in R3 are...

You work for the family business and are applying for an MBA. Will this background be a net plus for you, or a minus? How can you make the most of this experience? Whether you work for your family’s tiny startup with headquarters in your home’s...