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MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Posts: 6466
Given Kudos: 92
Location: Los Angeles CA
An Open Letter to 2018 MBA Applicants
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04 Jan 2017, 12:01
04 Jan 2017, 12:01
Expert Reply
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: An Open Letter to 2018 MBA Applicants |
 To: All 2018 MBA Applicants From: Linda Abraham It’s time for my annual memo/harangue/plea/rant. If you are planning to apply Round 1 in the fall, but have not yet thought about why you want an MBA, taken the GMAT/GRE, researched schools, or evaluated your qualifications, please please please keep reading. And then get started! I would like to help you avoid the harried hassle and diminished application quality that accompany rushed applications. Just to be clear: Rushed applications are started just a few weeks before the deadlines by applicants who cogitate, procrastinate, or just start thinking about applying late in the cycle. Instead follow the example of those many applicants who start their applications months before applying and who work steadily to complete them by their deadlines. Those people are getting started now. My 20+ years in this business tell me that those who start the application process 9-12 months before they apply: • Get into more and “better” schools • Are more likely to get scholarships • Are more prepared for b-school when they arrive on campus They simply do better in the MBA application process than those who wait until the eleventh hour (or even the tenth). Those better prepared applicants – they are your real competition. And the best way to compete is to start the race now. Not tomorrow. Not next week or month or quarter. Now. Start Your GMAT or GRE Prep Once you determine that you have a goal that requires an MBA, start preparing for the GMAT or GRE. Don’t wait for the summer or “later.” Your test score is a critical element in your application. Choosing schools without knowing that number leads to all kinds of aggravation, stress, and unpleasant surprises. Every year I get calls, emails, and comments from applicants who bombed the GRE or the GMAT and don’t have time to retake it. They are torn between applying to the programs they really want to attend but where their test score (and perhaps other elements) are less than competitive, and applying to programs where they are competitive but where they aren’t dying to go. It’s a dilemma you can avoid by allowing yourself the time to retake the GRE/GMAT, if necessary. Lower than expected test scores can throw a major monkey wrench in your plans when you take the test within two months of your target deadlines. However, if you bomb it in the spring, you will still have months to prepare again and retake the exam before the deadlines – even the first round deadlines. Where to Apply: Dartboard vs. Intent And then there are the applicants who don’t understand the importance of fit in the application process. They just know they want an MBA from a Top X-ranked school. They may or may not have a specific goal or reason to pursue an MBA, and they really could just as easily be throwing darts at a list of schools to determine where to invest their time and money. Or maybe they just started too late to do the research and reflection that they could’ve and should’ve done had they started earlier. Like now. In any case, this superficial approach could lead to rejection, a very expensive mistake, or a less than optimal MBA experience. Apply purposefully to specific programs that support your goals and at which you are competitive. Don’t apply to rankings. You won’t attend rankings. You’ll attend a graduate business school. Writing is Rewriting & Requires Time Some of you know why you want an MBA, have good reasons for selecting the school you will apply to, and will get the GMAT or GRE score that you want the first time you take the exam; so you may be feeling a little smug. Okay, so you got the first part of the application process done. Yay! However, if you slack off and wait for the last minute to complete your applications, you will end up rushing the writing process for your essays, short answer questions, and resume, or the practice/filming process for video options on your application. Either way, you will end up rushing. Bad idea. And bad ideas lead to bad results. Writing – whether long essays, short essays, scripts, activity descriptions, or resumes – benefits from time. Temporal distance between revisions improves critical analysis and editing. In contrast, scrambling to slap something together leads to sloppy thinking and writing. Getting the GMAT or GRE out of the way, thinking profoundly about fit, and starting your essays early are all important steps, but you can’t just assume that ticking items off of your checklist will get you into b-school. You need something more comprehensive than that… A Holistic, Purposeful Approach to the MBA Application Process New Year’s Resolution: Proceed purposefully, methodically, and thoughtfully so that you submit a superior MBA application to the most appropriate schools at the most desirable deadline for you. We’ve all made resolutions this year, but do yourself a favor and make the resolution above the 2017 resolution that you stick to. I’m going to help you keep this one by laying out the process holistically from January through September so that you can present a superior application. It’s not just the test score or the GPA or the years of work experience or solid extracurriculars. It’s all of the above. I’ve mapped out the process for you here. [Click here to view full size]  If you are aiming for the Round 1 deadlines, you can download the PDF, print it, and tape it on your mirror, wall, fridge, or wherever you’ll regularly see it. Alternatively we have created a public Google doc that you can copy and paste and modify to suit your needs. Then using the timeline as a guide, add the above tasks to your calendar. And do them. If you follow this MBA timeline, your MBA dreams will not be a mad, breathless sprint to the finish line, but a long, steady jog that allows you to successfully complete the MBA application marathon.   By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted and co-author of the definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business SchoolsMBA Admissions from A-Z: 26 Great Tips [Free Guide] • Navigate the MBA Maze: 9 Tips for Getting Accepted • Business School Selectivity Index: Do You Have Competitive Stats for Your Dream School? Tags: MBA Admissions The post An Open Letter to 2018 MBA Applicants appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
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-BB
MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Posts: 6466
Given Kudos: 92
Location: Los Angeles CA
You Can Do It: Reject Rejection!
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05 Jan 2017, 10:01
05 Jan 2017, 10:01
Expert Reply
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: You Can Do It: Reject Rejection! |
 For some, the new year is a time for hearing good admissions news; but for others, 2017 may be off to a grim start. If you’ve received a rejection letter from your target school (or – sigh – from all your target schools), then you may be feeling more doom and less hopeful for the coming year. It’s hard to get into grad school – harder now than ever before, with more applicants vying for those top spots than in recent years. The blow can be particularly brutal if you scored interviews or made it to the waitlist – if you came this close to getting in – and then received that fateful letter after your hopes had been so high. Time for a reality check! It’s okay to be bummed, but let’s try not to make bad news worse than it has to be. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. Don’t. Instead, vent as much as you need to, and then start moving on. Here are three ways you can do that: 1. Revise your plans. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option any more, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e., getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things; think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. 2. Reapply to top-choice and other programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, “serious” group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and they (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing “no” into a triumphant “yes.” Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get at least some positive results (e.g., interviews) overall. 3. Keep things in perspective. Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. These tips will help you keep perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. And if reapplication is your answer, then make sure you get in touch – Accepted is here to help you learn from your mistakes and create a take 2 application that will get you IN.   Related Resources: • Rejected! What Next? • Medical School Reapplicant Advice: 6 Tips for Success • Rejection Review Services Tags: Admissions Consulting, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions The post You Can Do It: Reject Rejection! appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it.
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MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Posts: 6466
Given Kudos: 92
Location: Los Angeles CA
A McDonough MBA Student’s Take on Journalism & Social Responsibility
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06 Jan 2017, 10:01
06 Jan 2017, 10:01
Expert Reply
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: A McDonough MBA Student’s Take on Journalism & Social Responsibility |
 This interview is the latest in an Accepted blog series featuring interviews with MBA students, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at top MBA programs. And now for a chat with Gabe Nelson… Accepted: We’d like to get to know you! Where are you from? Where and what did you study as an undergrad? Gabe: I grew up in Washington, D.C., just a few miles up the road from Georgetown University. Then I went away to college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where I double-majored in Political Science and English and learned how a real winter feels. After graduating in 2009, I worked as a journalist for seven years before going back to school. Accepted: If you could describe yourself in 3 words, what would they be? Gabe: I’d say I’m intellectual, focused and honest. (For better and for worse!) Accepted: If you could meet any famous person – past or present – who would it be and why? Gabe: It’s kind of strange, but as a business school student I’ve thought a lot about the empire-builders of ancient history. People like Cyrus the Great and Augustus Caesar. It’s not much of a stretch to describe them as the corporate titans of their day. They used skills and resources and strategy to group people into a multinational empire. For an empire to last, it needs a socioeconomic and political system that is stable enough not to collapse. These leaders did that without modern science or technology or a modern understanding of political science, economics and psychology. I wish I could talk to them and understand how they did what they did. What motivated them? How did they lead the people around them? How did they organize their empires and why? How did they justify or come to terms with the negative consequences of their actions? Accepted: Where are you currently attending b-school? What year are you? Gabe: I started the full-time MBA program at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business this August. I’m a first year and a proud member of the Saxa cohort. (We have four cohorts in our full-time program: Hoya, Saxa, Blue and Gray.) Accepted: What made you ultimately decide on Georgetown McDonough? How did you know it was the right “fit”? Gabe: Having grown up in Washington and studied political science, I’m passionate about the intersection of business and society. I personally believe that a healthy free market relies on society to set and enforce the rules of free and fair exchange. And it was clear to me that Georgetown was the absolute best place to learn about this interplay. Just last month, I got to walk out of class and watch Treasury Secretary Jack Lew give a speech in our main lecture hall. In our own building, we had one of the most powerful financial regulators in the world talking about the high-stakes decisions we learn about in finance and accounting, everything from corporate tax rates to incentives to repatriate foreign earnings. These are opportunities that you cannot get anywhere else. I was also drawn to the new Certificate in Non-Market Strategy, which focuses on elements of strategy that do not follow traditional economic logic, like interactions with regulators and the legal system. You apply during your first year, so I’m about to put in my application. There were some other personal factors in my decision. I got married over the summer and I needed to consider where my wife and I would both be happy to live. Finances were also important to me. But I really knew McDonough was the right place when I visited for an admitted students weekend last winter. I went to two of them back to back. One was for McDonough and the other for a Top 5 brand-name program. It’s easy to be drawn to the allure of the brand-name school, but I felt so at home with McDonough. It was smaller, more intimate. The people were kind and supportive. Lots of students seemed to care about using business to do good, not just to do well for themselves. It all felt right. In my first few months at school, this has been absolutely borne out. It’s a rigorous program. We work very hard; academics aren’t an afterthought here. But it isn’t a competitive environment at all. People care about each other and they do anything they can to help their peers. This is a place where if someone is strong in a certain subject, they don’t just try to beat the curve. They run review sessions and help lift up their peers. It’s a community. Accepted: Looking back at the application process, what would you say was your greatest challenge? How would you advise other applicants who may be experiencing similar challenges? Gabe: Reflecting on the applications I submitted, my biggest challenge was probably my background as a journalist. Business schools are looking for team players, and working as a reporter is kind of a “lone wolf” job. It’s also a squishy, creative profession, so it was difficult for me to quantify how my work actually created value for my company. For anyone who is in a similar position, I think it’s so important to find ways to address your perceived shortcomings. Schools want to see that you’re aware of your weaknesses, that you understand what it will take to succeed and that you are committed to making yourself a more well-rounded professional. When I think about my most effective essays, this is where they succeeded. Accepted: What are some of your most rewarding extracurricular activities (both before entering Georgetown and current activities)? How have those activities helped shape your career? Gabe: While I was in college at the University of Michigan, I started working as a news reporter at The Michigan Daily, the student newspaper. After a few years I rose up the ranks to become managing editor, staying up late every night editing the pages of the newspaper and sending them to the printer. It was what inspired me to go into journalism after I graduated in 2009. After college I worked as a reporter, first covering environmental and energy policy on Capitol Hill. Then I joined Automotive News, the business journal of the auto industry, with assignments in Washington and San Francisco. Although I knew fairly quickly that I didn’t want to work as a journalist forever, I don’t regret my choice for a second. It was a blast. While working in Washington, DC, I volunteered as an IRS-certified volunteer tax preparer. I can’t say that it shaped my career, but I think it helped me develop empathy. By doing someone’s taxes, you learn so much about their family and their work and their life. You understand how many people in the United States are struggling to make ends meet, and you hear horror stories about the ways that businesses (landlords, employers, utilities) have treated them. It doesn’t map directly onto my career, but I think this kind of empathy is hugely important for business leaders. Businesses can have a positive impact on people’s lives or a negative impact. We as leaders all need to bear responsibility for the type of impact we will have. Here at Georgetown, I’ve been an active member of Net Impact, which is dedicated to using the power of business for social and environmental good. It has been a great opportunity to connect with like-minded students and learn about careers at the intersection of business and society. Five or ten years ago, the trend for big corporations was to dedicate specific executives to sustainability or corporate social responsibility. Through events like the national Net Impact conference and our Net Impact career day, I’m seeing that start to change. Companies are starting to expect all of their executives to think about social responsibility. And that has shaped my goals, so I’m thinking of working within a traditional role like corporate strategy while aligning the business to make the world a better place. Accepted: Lastly, some people are unsure of how they’ll manage all aspects of life, work, and an MBA program. Can you share your top three tips for staying on top of everything? Gabe: There’s a common theme to my advice: pick your priorities. Time is at a premium and you simply can’t do everything. 1. Pick your extracurricular priorities before classes start. There are so many things to do, from student organizations to case competitions to career treks. You need to decide what’s important to you. If you want to solve real-world business challenges, choose your case competitions and form strong teams. If you want a leadership role on campus, choose the role and make a plan to get it. There are so many opportunities that if you come into school and dabble without a clear focus, the first semester will be over before you know it and you won’t be on track to meet your goals. 2. Make time for self-care activities that matter to you. The first few months of an MBA are insanely busy. We at McDonough arrived on campus and immediately dove into an intensive preterm course called Structure of Global Industries that stuffs 3 credits into three weeks. Some of my classmates who used to go to the gym everyday stopped going to the gym. People deprived themselves of sleep. They stopped spending time with their spouses and kids and friends. My advice: you need to resist this urge. Decide what you need to be happy and make time for it. There’s always one more reading for class, one more recruiter presentation, one more club meeting. If you’re actually happy, you’ll do so much better at the activities you choose to do. 3. Put learning above grades. To be sure, a few companies care about your grades. (If you’re targeting those companies, you already know who they are.) But the vast majority of companies care much less about your grades than they care about your skills, your experience, your intelligence and your personality. Be sure to use your time in school to truly develop skills and experience and grow as a person. If you want to learn financial modeling but you have no background, go for it. If you want to become a better leader or teammate, focus your efforts on team projects. If you want to open your network to new people, do it. If that means you get a B- in a class, then so be it. Odds are, nobody cares about that B- besides you. Feel free to check out Gabe’s website Gabe Nelson and follow him on Twitter (@GabrielKNelson). Thank you Gabe for sharing your story and advice with us – we wish you continued success! [b]For one-on-one guidance with your b-school application, check out our MBA Application Packages.[/b] Do you want to be featured in Accepted’s blog? If you want to share your med school journey with the world (or at least with our readers), email us at bloggers@accepted.com.  Related Resources: • Linda Abraham on Overcoming Weaknesses • Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Right One • Georgetown McDonough 2016-17 MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines Tags: MBA Admissions The post A McDonough MBA Student’s Take on Journalism & Social Responsibility appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it.
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