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MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Posts: 6466
Given Kudos: 92
Location: Los Angeles CA
6 Tips for Talking About Your Weaknesses
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04 Oct 2017, 10:01
04 Oct 2017, 10:01
Expert Reply
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: 6 Tips for Talking About Your Weaknesses |
 How do you react when you read/hear the weakness question? With this question, schools are assessing how well you self evaluate. Like a business problem, they want to hear your plan of action, your implementation, and your success rate. Here are some tips to help you a) think about and evaluate your weaknesses, and b) be prepared to write about them in an essay or discuss them in an interview. 1. Prepare answers in advance. When an interviewer asks, “So Natalie, tell me about your weaknesses and what you did to overcome them?” you don’t want to be left silent drawing a blank, or worse – caught off guard and say something crazy like, “Gosh, there are so many, I don’t even know where to begin.” Ding! 2. Be honest. If you have been let go from a position, you need to discuss the lessons learned from this negative experience and how you overcame the situation. If you have a procrastination problem, you need to talk about ways in which you’re working on boosting your time management skills. 3. Remain professionally focused. Don’t discuss your addiction to video games or your weakness for chocolate. It’s also certainly not the time to talk about anything inappropriate. We’re talking about work-related, professional weaknesses. 4. Focus on your own weaknesses. Don’t talk about your cousin’s attraction to arson or your mother-in-law’s conspiratorial behavior. Don’t discuss how your boss is a jerk or how you can’t stand your coworker’s habit of nail biting or how your desk is unorganized because the guy you share your cubicle with always throws his garbage your way. This question is about YOU and your weaknesses – don’t shift the attention or blame onto someone else. 5. Proactively address the issues. If you have a quantitative weakness, take courses that address the weakness (accounting, statistics). Don’t wait for the admissions committee to ask you to take a course. If you are uncomfortably shy, getting involved with an organization like Toastmasters can help you and show the committee that you’re taking steps to overcome that challenge. 6. Avoid clichés. “Gee, I guess I just work too hard sometimes” is a copout – the adcom/interviewer will know that deep down you’re proud of your intense work ethic. It is the life of a student to work hard – don’t use that as your “weakness.” If you need help drafting your essay or framing your answer for your interview, Accepted is here to help you. Contact us for assistance.   By Natalie Grinblatt Epstein, an accomplished Accepted consultant/editor (since 2008) and entrepreneur. Natalie is a former MBA Admissions Dean and Director at Ross, Johnson, and Carey. Want Natalie to help you get accepted to business school? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: • 5 Fatal Flaws To Avoid In Your Grad School Statement of Purpose, a free guide • 5 A’s for Your Low GPA, a podcast episode • How Personal is Too Personal? Tags: Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions The post 6 Tips for Talking About Your Weaknesses appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
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MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Posts: 6466
Given Kudos: 92
Location: Los Angeles CA
Reasons to Take the GMAT (Beyond Getting into B-School)
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08 Oct 2017, 09:01
08 Oct 2017, 09:01
Expert Reply
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Reasons to Take the GMAT (Beyond Getting into B-School) |
 Let’s face it: very few people actually take the GMAT unless they’re applying to business schools that require it. The GMAT is notoriously difficult, and no other type of grad school uses it for admissions practices. If you are filling out b-school apps, you already have a pretty compelling reason to take the test! But if you’re pulling out your hair wondering why you’re spending so much time on your GMAT prep, take heart: the work you’re doing now will benefit you far into the future. In fact, there are some pretty compelling reasons to take the GMAT other than just getting into business school. The GMAT polishes your communications skills. Think about this: every single question on the GMAT exam is directly related to the business world. This can confuse and frustrate students working on the verbal reasoning sections of the test. While a lot of the scenarios you’re reading about are about business, they may be unrelated to any business scenario you’ll ever face (but then again, they may be…). On the other hand, what studying for GMAT verbal reasoning helps you to do is to improve your communication. It doesn’t do this by inundating you with flowery vocabulary you need to learn; instead, GMAT verbal is testing how efficiently you communicate: how well do you absorb information? How well can you analyze an argument? And because this is what the section tests, you’ll see your skills in these areas improving as you continue your GMAT practice. This will pay big dividends, not only during your MBA, but as you go on in the business world, as well. The GMAT prepares you to work with both details and patterns. In other words, prepping for the GMAT trains your mind to work on both small and large scales. As you study for GMAT quant, you’ll find that you need to sharpen your skills in picking out relevant details without getting overwhelmed by extraneous information. You’ll get better at organizing information and making precise distinctions. If you’re studying well, you’ll also improve your skills in pattern recognition. Why are these valuable skills? Think about a day in the life of the average manager. He or she encounters huge amounts of information and has to sort through it to pick out what’s germane to the issue or problem at hand. The ability to identify patterns is key to recognizing progress or lack thereof; and being able to work with information on both small and large scales is vital. The GMAT trains you to ask the right questions. The LSAT. The MCAT. The GRE. Not a single one of them has Data Sufficiency questions. Yet the GMAC (the test-makers of the GMAT) obviously find these questions important. Why is that? Because managers are constantly evaluating what information they need to answer a question and what information they have. The GMAT prepares you for high-stakes experiences. At the end of the day, taking GMAT practice testsand preparing for the exam in effect prepares you for the business world—not just in the content of its questions, but also in their form. But perhaps the most valuable aspect of the exam is that it is, in itself, a high-stakes experience. You know, the kind that managers deal with all the time: experiences where a lot rides on your performance. It may be stressful now, but use that stress as a springboard to the world of business. By acquiring these skills during your GMAT study, you’ll be far better prepared for the working world on the other side of your MBA.   Rachel Kapelke-Dale blogs about graduate school admissions for Magoosh. She has a BA from Brown University, and did her own graduate work at the Université de Paris VII (Master Recherche) and University College London (PhD). She has taught and written about test preparation and admissions practices for eight years. Related Resources: • MBA Action Plan: 6 Steps for the 6 Months Before You Apply, a free guide • Affordable Online Test Prep, a podcast episode • The GMAT and Your MBA Admissions Profile Tags: MBA Admissions The post Reasons to Take the GMAT (Beyond Getting into B-School) 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
Paying for Your MBA as an International Student
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09 Oct 2017, 09:01
09 Oct 2017, 09:01
Expert Reply
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Paying for Your MBA as an International Student |
 If an international MBA has crossed your mind, you’ve probably taken a minute to look at the price tag of a programme or two. Now that you’ve picked yourself up off the floor and still can’t manage to shake your desire to pursue this amazing experience, you’ve got the difficult task of figuring out how you’ll fund your education. It’s hardly the only challenge you’ll face as an international grad student. There are also study visas and accommodation to secure – and that’s before considering how much effort goes into every application and the dreaded GMAT exam. But, you won’t be able to get your visa without having your finances in order first. So it’s not even worth worrying about accommodation yet. You can (and perhaps should) worry a little about GMAT preparation, but MBA financing also takes some time, and you can’t start on it too soon. How do international MBAs finance their education? There’s no simple answer to this question. Every student pulls together a unique financing package, and yours is going to be inherently different from everyone else’s. Generally speaking, however, MBAs pay for their education using the same basic sources: • Personal (and/or family) savings • Scholarships and bursaries • Personal sources of unsecured credit (such as credit cards) • Family or personal loans • Private or government loans While it is possible for many international grad students to work in their host countries, the demands of an MBA programme are intense, and it’s not always possible to manage working and studying at the same time. Most MBA students can’t factor simultaneous employment into their budget, and it’s not advisable if you can avoid it. Instead, it’s best to focus on funds you can obtain before leaving for your studies. And the reality is that you’re probably going to look at all of the potential funding sources and make use of a combination of options. Which sources should you consider first? Scholarships and bursaries should always be your first port of call. This is free money for your education; you need never repay it (unless you do something that causes the provider to rescind the package). Many universities, especially American ones, place you within their financial aid system as soon as you’ve accepted a seat at their institution. Some provide you with an aid package along with your acceptance letter (perhaps helping you to choose their institution over another). But there are plenty of other options, and it’s worth it to investigate as many as you can. Then, it’s time to consider your personal savings, and depending on the cultural norms in your country – your family’s financial assets. But, you shouldn’t start trying to squeeze for the last tiny coin from your family – it’s really only a matter of noting what’s available if nothing else comes through. After all, not everyone has a small personal fortune that they’re willing to dole out. Family loans, on the other hand, are becoming a norm in many parts of the world. Whether it’s a small amount or a large amount, it’s critical to have everything in writing. Not only are their legal frameworks for personal loans in most countries, but you’ll need to demonstrate how you received whatever money you have to receive a study visa. If you live in a country where the government offers or subsidizes study loans, you will also want to investigate these before you approach private lenders; usually, their interest rates and repayment terms are favourable. And then there are private study loans As an international student, there are three different private loan sources that you should investigate: • Private local banks • Private banks in your host country • Private loans from international providers, like Prodigy Finance Your first stop is likely to be a private bank in your home country. Logic would tell you that these institutions are best placed to provide you with a loan – they have access to your financial history and your credit records. But, you may want to brace yourself for a bumpy ride. Local banks, especially in emerging economies and developing countries, often aren’t in a position to lend to international students. They’re unable to price the risk on those that are leaving the country as soon as they receive their loan – and many can’t fathom that an education could cost that much (remember how you first felt?). There are other challenges that you may need to tackle as well, for example, loan disbursement in local currencies which then require you to pay the transfer and exchange fees. And, depending on the level of bureaucracy, it could take months to finalize your loan and secure the proof needed for your visa application. Believe it or not, you may have access to loans in your host country. But, don’t start jumping up and down yet, these aren’t always as easy or as straightforward as you may like. Banks in your host country are almost always going to require a local cosigner with strong financial standing. That’s perfect if you have family in your host country that are willing to back you up – or if your university is willing to act as a cosigner for you (though, you shouldn’t expect that as a norm, only as a bonus). It’s at this point that many accepted students throw their hands up in frustration. Some loans are unavailable, others don’t cover enough of the expenses, and then there are those with prohibitively high interest rates. So, what’s this about Prodigy Finance? Prodigy Finance is a lending platform that provides postgraduate loans to international students from 150 countries attending the world’s top universities, who would otherwise have no alternative access to finance. The loans are collectively funded by a community of alumni, institutional investors and qualified private investors who receive both a financial and social return. Since 2007, Prodigy Finance has provided more than US$323 million in funding to over 7,100 students with exceptionally strong repayment. Take a moment to learn more about Prodigy Finance loans and which schools are currently supported. After all, funding shouldn’t be a barrier to education – nor should it keep you up at night; your GMAT prep will do that all by itself.   Katie studied human rights and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Kent State University while working with NGOs in Geneva, Switzerland. Although she has since settled in South Africa, with work towards a Masters in Forced Migration through the University of the Witswatersrand, nothing stops her from being a proud American. Although writing is often solitary work, Katie has been part of the Prodigy Finance Team as the Content Specialist since 2013. She also loves rugby, sloppy Mexican food and Tudor history which means you could find her in any section of a bookstore. Related Resources: • How to Fund Your MBA Abroad, a free webinar • MBA Scholarships: How do I Apply and What Should I Emphasize? • Having Trouble Securing a Loan for Your International MBA? Tags: MBA Admissions The post Paying for Your MBA as an International Student 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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