{"id":43344,"date":"2018-09-11T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/essential-mba-admissions-tips-from-the-gatekeepers-at-stanford-gsb-berkeley-haas\/"},"modified":"2018-09-11T07:00:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T14:00:38","slug":"essential-mba-admissions-tips-from-the-gatekeepers-at-stanford-gsb-berkeley-haas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/essential-mba-admissions-tips-from-the-gatekeepers-at-stanford-gsb-berkeley-haas\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential MBA Admissions Tips From The Gatekeepers At Stanford GSB, Berkeley Haas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat I\u2019m really looking for is what have you done and how has that mattered in any organization you\u2019ve touched,\u201d says Stanford GSB Admissions Director Kristen Moss. \u201cI like to get practical \u2013 some people aren\u2019t great test takers. So, what have you done with your smarts?\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n

Moss\u2019s remarks on the qualities she seeks among Stanford\u2019s MBA candidates were among the gems that emerged during the 2018 CentreCourt MBA Festival<\/a> in San Francisco, which featured a panel discussion with Admissions Directors from Stanford GSB<\/a>, Berkeley Haas<\/a> and Imperial College Business College. I had the privilege of moderating last weekend\u2019s conversation, probing Admissions Directors for industry trends and insights to support business school hopefuls in the application process.<\/p>\n

<\/code><\/p>\n

Here are seven top tips directly from the panel discussion on what\u00a0MBA Admissions Directors\u00a0are looking for.\u00a0<\/strong>You can catch the full conversation in the video link above.<\/p>\n

1. Stanford GSB on the GMAT<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe [GMAT] score and the GPA are two small things we look at in the whole application. For us what\u2019s really important is the impact you\u2019ve had \u2013 on your teams, your organizations, the groups you\u2019ve been with\u2026 So please, don\u2019t take yourself out of the process because your score doesn\u2019t have a number 7 in front of it.\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Stanford GSB Admissions Director Kristen Moss<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Berkeley Haas on the importance of extracurriculars:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, while the description of work achievements and things is very important, one of the things I enjoy is seeing what people put at the bottom of their resume… secretly I enjoy jumping down to the bottom to say, ‘what’s this person really about beyond their day-to-day job?’\u201d \u2013 Berkeley Haas Admission Director Pete Johnson\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Imperial on having a typical profile<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t look at any industry background unfavorably at all. It\u2019s you, first and foremost \u2013 and your background, where you\u2019re coming from and what you\u2019re wanting out of this program and how you\u2019re going to deploy what you\u2019ve learned subsequently. We will not have any kind\u00a0of blinkers on in terms of, ‘oh, we’ve already got those of people from banking or financial consulting.’ We are very much looking at an individual.\u201d \u2013 Imperial Admissions’ Andy Durban<\/em><\/p>\n

4. What GSB is looking for:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we read an application, we\u2019re looking for your strengths. Not everybody\u2019s going to spike in the same place\u2026 so think for yourself as an applicant \u2018what are my strengths?\u2019 \u2026What I\u2019m really looking for is what have you done and how has that mattered in any organization you\u2019ve touched.\u201d \u2013 Kristen Moss, GSB<\/em><\/p>\n

5. Mistakes to avoid:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m often surprised by the amount of people who apply and they’re potentially taking a decision that is so important, financially and life-altering, without having properly engaged with the people that are there to be engaged\u2026 [Even if] you’re not able to visit us in person, there are so many other channels that you can you can use. Come to the webinars, get directly in touch with people like me and my team, connect with alumni on LinkedIn \u2013 [find] this whole wealth of alumni at your doorstep.\u201d \u2013 Andy Durban, Imperial<\/em><\/p>\n

6. The best way to gauge mutual fit:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTalk with recent alumni about their experience and ask them some of the hard questions\u00a0that you’re probably not going to ask us. I think that’s the best way to really find out what the experience is going to be like and what some of the opportunities are. The students and the recent alumni not only can relate their own experience, they can tell you about the experience of their classmates and friends.\u201d \u2013 Pete Johnson, Haas<\/em><\/p>\n

7. Your recommender strategy: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am looking for those fine details about what did this person do, how are they distinctive? There are 50 different ways to be a leader but tell me a couple of them\u2026 For us it doesn\u2019t matter what their title is, whether they\u2019re an alumni or not. It really is, who can tell us, and show us, the scope and scale of those accomplishments.\u201d \u2013 Kristen Moss, GSB<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more highlights from CentreCourt San Francisco and Los Angeles, coming soon on the Fortuna Admissions blog<\/a>. The CentreCourt MBA Festival, co-hosted by Fortuna’s Matt Symonds <\/a>and Poets&Quants, is coming next to Houston (September 13), Toronto (September 15), Chicago (Sept. 18), Washington, D.C. (Sept. 20) and New York City (Sept. 22). Learn more or register to attend<\/a> one of these free events in a city near you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat I\u2019m really looking for is what have you done and how has that mattered in any organization you\u2019ve touched,\u201d says Stanford GSB Admissions Director Kristen Moss. \u201cI like to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1831,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-fortuna-admissions","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}