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11 Jan 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Get Accepted to UT Austin McCombs |
 An overview of the UT McCombs MBA program and what you need to know to get accepted [Show Summary] Rodrigo Malta, UT Austin’s Director of Admissions highlights key factors that make the UT McCombs full time MBA program attractive to many. He discusses what students can expect from a virtual admissions process and gives tips he’s gleaned from his 10+ years in his role. Interview with Rodrigo Malta, Managing Director, MBA Recruitment and Admissions at UT McCombs [Show Notes] Welcome to the 452nd episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for listening. Are you debating whether to apply during Round 3 of this year or Round 1 of next year? It’s a great question, and there are pros and cons to each position. Join me on January 20th at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern for our next MBA Admissions webinar when I’m going to dive deep into who should apply Round 3 and who would be better off waiting until next year. You can reserve your free seat for this webinar, our first MBA webinar of 2022 at accepted.com/round3. It gives me great pleasure to have, for the first time on Admissions Straight Talk, Rodrigo Malta, Managing Director, MBA Recruitment and Admissions at UT Austin McCombs. Rodrigo earned his bachelor’s at Missouri State and his MBA from UT Austin McCombs in 2007. He started working in MBA admissions at McCombs in 2008 and became the Managing Director in 2010. In addition to his duties at UT Austin, Rodrigo is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, of Salesforce’s Recruitment and the Admissions Advisory Council and he’s also UT’s representative on the Graduate Management Admission Council. Rodrigo, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. It’s a pleasure to have you on the show. Can you give us a basic overview of the full-time MBA program at UT, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [2:29] Thank you, Linda, for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Texas McCombs. I’m going to speak and share information primarily about our two-year MBA program at our Austin, Texas, campus. For the full-time MBA program in particular, I think there are three distinctive elements that I would like the listeners to know about as they’re considering different business schools to pursue their studies. First, it’s a highly flexible and deep curriculum that we have for our full-time MBA students. So coming in, we bring in a class of about 260 students from a variety of walks of life and educational and professional backgrounds. It is really important for us to ensure they have kind of that core business foundation, the core classes. You do all your core classes, the majority of that first semester, together in cohorts. We divide those 260 students into four cohorts, and everybody gets that solid academic business foundation to then explore 100+ electives that we have across 20 concentrations in classes that you can take at the business school and outside the business school. This highly flexible and deep curriculum where over 70% of the program itself is self-selected coursework is one of the highlights of our program. The second highlight that I want to share with the listeners are the people. We have amazing individuals pursuing their dreams here at Texas McCombs and amazing faculty members that are going to be supporting you along the way. The combination of the amazing research faculty that is not only creating knowledge, but disseminating it in a really great way in the classroom with students that are thirsty to know more, to make an impact, and the staff that’s going to be there to really advise you and help you navigate all the opportunities of Texas McCombs is really important. So the people are number two. And the last aspect is place. We are really fortunate to be part of one of the primary research institutions in the US at the University of Texas at Austin. It is even luckier that we are in the amazing city of Austin which provides our students with the vibrant business community to put to practice what they’re learning in the classroom, but it’s also an amazing place to live. It is a great place where young people are flocking to, and it’s something that really provides a unique combination of study and fun for our students. So that flexible, deep curriculum, people, and place, are what really makes the Texas McCombs full-time MBA program unique. Of course UT, along with the rest of the entire world, has been affected by COVID. What changes do you see lasting going forward? [5:50] That’s a great question. I will start that with everything that we do at UT Austin, the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff members are top of mind. And with that as a lens and a goal, we are really happy that we were able to do in-person delivery of all of our programs for the fall. We not only delivered classes in person, our student organizations were able to meet in person, and we even had some admission events on campus during late November. It was great to see prospective students coming into our new building and really experiencing the program firsthand. I’m really proud of how our students came together with our faculty and staff to make that possible. For those experiences to be delivered in a safe manner where everybody felt really comfortable and they were able to be delivered successfully. I think a couple things that will continue to be aspects of the COVID experience that we’ll take on as, hopefully, COVID winds down a little will include virtual advising appointments. These were really a big hit with staff and students alike, and just generally the ability of our students to virtually connect with our staff and faculty via Microsoft Teams. I think other schools might use Slack, but it’s really a way for folks to feel engaged in a part of a community, even kind of in a virtual world. From an admissions perspective, we were able to come in and deliver a really solid incoming class with only virtual events, so the class that came in fall of 2021, they didn’t have the opportunity to come for in-person events. We were able, though, to tell them McComb’s story and engage with prospective students in a successful manner virtually, so we’ll see a lot of those engagement opportunities lasting even beyond when we are back to, hopefully, a more normal experience. It is a situation that is ever changing, ever evolving. We understand that the situation that might be happening in Austin may be very different from what’s happening in New York or New Delhi or Sao Paulo, so we completely understand that applicants and prospective students are coming in with different mindsets and different situations. What I urge all your listeners to do is to reach out to us. We’re incredibly accessible via email, via LinkedIn, via a telephone call. We are here to help you and engage with you and make sure that you can submit that successful application, so engage with us. We know that COVID is not going to be resolved in one fell swoop, but I am hopeful that we’re able to take some of the learnings in the past year-and-a-half, and especially what happens this fall and take that momentum on for the spring. When we arrive at a point in time where COVID is considered manageable, do you anticipate a combination of virtual and in-person recruiting events? [9:54] For sure. I think as we come back to in-person events, we want to keep the successful virtual opportunities that were available and well received by prospective students and really think about where the value-add is of that in person touch point. Before we used to go on the road quite often, all over the world, early on in the admission season, then to interview candidates and then to do admitted student events. Now what we’re thinking about on top of the funnel when we’re sharing general admissions information, we can reach a lot more people by hosting a virtual coffee chat. I have a standing coffee chat every week that I have 60 people join at a time and we have great conversations, so I’m reaching a lot of more folks this way, but there’s also very often coming to experience the on-campus, what Texas has access to offer on campus. Coming to our new building and figuring out what the culture is like, and having that in-person experience is really important, so let’s focus on those on-campus events, but in the same token, we’re a global program, so we need to connect with people internationally. So when is it the right time to go to India or go to Europe or go to Africa and connect with those students? We’re thinking about what that looks like and I think, as we figure out what that may entail, we will for sure seek feedback from our prospective students and applicants to see what’s the best ratio of events. I will say that our admissions teams have been working so hard. We always want to do everything and we can’t do everything, so it will be really hard figuring out what we don’t do any more. UT has several dual degree programs, including an Asian Studies, Global Policy Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Russian Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. I’m guessing that travel was an important part of these dual degree programs. Is UT McCombs starting to travel again? [12:47] I’ll say that one thing that all those dual degree programs have in common is that I want to visit all of those places where the focused geographical areas for those studies are. Sign me up for every single one of those trips when we can travel again. For our programs here at UT, we had a few students travel to national conferences like National Black MBA, for example, for Hispanic as well, the ones that were delivered in-person. We actually had a few exchange students that were able to come to us, and mostly from Europe in this fall as well, so we’re starting to pick up some of that travel. And most recently, our part-time MBA program just last week went on their global trips. There were seven trips and we took 150 students abroad, so those opportunities are starting to open up. I think the Texas McCombs MBA program is the trailblazer within UT. We were the first ones to take students back abroad in that manner, and the current plans for our full-time MBA program in particular is to deliver five global study tours over spring break, which is what we normally do and reignite the exchange programs in the other way around, so not only welcome our exchange students from partner universities, but right now the plan is to send close to 25 students abroad for the spring. Again, with the COVID situation, everything is extremely fluid. Even though those part-time MBA global trips, we had to cancel one of the trips at the last minute. There were eight trips and we had to cancel one. We keep a really close eye on what the situation is like, and we prepare students for all scenarios. But I agree with you, Linda, when you said, I wish and hope that COVID is eradicated, but I think in the near term it’s something that we’re going to have to learn to live with. We want to deliver the best academic experience to our students, and we believe that global exposure is a key part of the MBA education, so we want to make our best attempt to deliver those experiences. On the admission side of the house, we’re beginning to travel domestically a little bit. We have a few administrative meet-ups for Round 1 that will happen in January in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and the main Texas cities. We look forward to starting to travel again, maybe a little bit more starting in the spring, as well. Is there something that people don’t know about McCombs that you’d really like them to know, or perhaps a common misconception you’d like to dispel? [17:55] There are two that I often talk about because I get questions about this all the time when I host a virtual chat, or if we’re doing an info session. Oftentimes prospective students think about McCombs being a very regional school, but we do have a global brand in Texas McCombs and the Texas Longhorns in Austin. We place not only a lot of individuals in Texas as you’d expect, but outside of Texas as well. We actually place more students outside of our home state than our comparable programs in New York and California. We are really lucky to be in Austin, which is a place where people like to be and also we place a lot of students in Dallas and Houston. We do place a good amount of students outside of the state of Texas, so we love our Texas residents that go to UT, but we welcome individuals from outside of Texas and all over the world. You don’t have to stay in Texas. You carry that brand with you, and you’re going to be an honorary Austinite and Texan wherever you go after you graduate, but we do have a lot of connections and opportunities for individuals to go beyond the state borders after graduation. Outside of Texas, where are the primary places that UT grads go? [19:27] We place quite a few folks in New York, primarily in the banking sector, some consulting. We also place pretty strongly in the Bay Area, primarily in the technology sector. As of late, we have been placing a lot of folks in Seattle, Denver, and Chicago to a lesser extent, so a variety of different places. I think one of the things that has happened, though, in the past five years is that the number of our students that want to stay in Austin has increased dramatically. I think Austin’s been in the news for relocations of headquarters and opportunities and different industries, so we’re happy to see Austin now has the infrastructure and opportunities to support the students who want to be here, but we continue to, of course, place students outside of the city of Austin. The other misconception is also around career and placement, but it’s more specific to industry. Oftentimes people associate Texas with oil and gas, and I would say to your listeners that we are, if not the best, one of the best places in the country to pursue your studies in energy, but we go beyond the traditional oil and gas field. There’s great balance between traditional oil and gas communities that are available to our students, but we see the growing field of clean technology be a really strong area of interest for individuals that are interested in energy that don’t want to work in oil and gas. We have a CleanTech concentration that mirrors our energy, finance concentration that really focuses on solar and wind in that clean technology space is something that I would like all your listeners to be aware of. Our biggest placement continues to be tech, so over 30% of the class goes into tech, followed by consulting at 20%, and then energy is close to 10% of our placement, but it’s more than just oil and gas. I always think of entrepreneurship in terms of UT. As a matter of fact, a couple of years ago, I interviewed a LBS grad who had done a semester at UT and absolutely loved it. You can find it at accepted.com/393. He just had a wonderful time and started his own business. [22:01] We have a lot of opportunities in the startup space. Entrepreneurship is an area where you can get a great education and solid foundation because we have amazing professors in the space where they are on the board of startup companies and have started their own businesses so you know, practitioners as well as researchers. You get that academic foundation, but I think what makes us special is how accessible Austin is for people to put to practice their business ideas, be it working on their own business ideas or pursuing an interest in this particular area and connecting that space and doing a micro-consulting project or doing an internship or, for those that are able to do it, kind of that entrepreneurial venture full time after graduation. Austin is a great place for that, too. McCombs requires a GMAT or a GRE, but I understand it will also accept the Executive Assessment. Do you have any plans to expand the number of tests that you accept or to be more generous with test waivers? [23:39] For sure. We continue to monitor the test optional developments in the graduate management education space pretty closely. We do not have any current plans to change or add to the types of tests we accept. We do accept the GMAT, GRE, and EA, and accept valid or expired scores for all of those three test categories. As you mentioned, we do have a COVID test waiver in place. We are working really closely with the University of Texas at Austin graduate school admissions to make sure we align with their testing policies, and I don’t see us changing that for the next admission cycle. But again, I feel like everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt given the COVID situation, but the current plan is to continue with what we have in place. UT’s class profile for the class of 2023 has some pretty impressive stats: 704 average GMAT, 318 average GRE total, 3.44 average GPA. What do you look for besides stats? [25:08] We take our holistic review of an application really seriously, so all of the application components that applicants submit are taken under consideration. You are more than your GMAT or GRE or GPA. For us, it’s really important to dive into an applicant’s work experience, and by work experience, we don’t mean the quantity of years or months of experience somebody has, but really the impact and trajectory that someone has had in the workplace. From a culture perspective, we have an incredibly entrepreneurial and collaborative environment here at Texas McCombs, so we’re going to be reviewing letters of recommendation, resumes, essays, and interviews and keeping an eye and ear out for evidence of your collaboration in the workplaces where you’ve been. What’s your entrepreneurial spirit like? Something that we value here at Texas McCombs, and I think it’s part of that Texas spirit is grit, your ability to do the hard work. You roll up your sleeves and get things done. Those are some of the things that we look for in the application itself. I feel like sometimes, a high average GMAT or high average GRE, or a really high GPA may turn some individuals off from considering McCombs or submitting an application, and for those of your listeners that are on the fence maybe saying, “I don’t know. My GMAT is below the average. I’m not going to get in,” talk to us! We are here to support you and help you put your best foot forward. You are more than that number, and we want to hear your story. We love, love, love to hear your story, to hear where you’re coming from, and it’s really a privilege to be in the receiving end of such amazing applications, so work with us, and I think that you’ll be surprised that you can put together a really strong application even if you have below average GMAT or below average GRE. What happens to an application after the applicant hits submit? [28:04] That’s when the hard work for us really begins. I always equate hitting the submit button with the deadline day. For the full time MBA program, we don’t start reviewing your application for the round until the day after the deadline, so if you happen to hit that submit button two weeks before the deadline, you’ll get a couple of automated messages from us. You’ll be invited to engage with us in different types of events, but we don’t really start that application review until the day after the deadline. And what happens the day after the deadline is we start to review the applications at a high level to determine the individuals that we’re going to be inviting to each review. Our goal is always to have 80 to 90% of the interview invitations out for a particular round within three weeks of that deadline date. We are all hands on deck doing that high level review of the applications to get as many of those interview invitations out as possible to give our applicants enough time to prepare for the interview, to schedule the interview, and go through the process. At the same time that interview invitations are going out and we’re starting to interview candidates, the application gets assigned one or two readers, so the reading process is happening at the same time as the interviews are taking place. We usually give an interview deadline day within a particular round so applicants know when they need to schedule that interview by, and then after that date, we start to meet as an admissions committee. The admissions committee is a lot of fun. This fall, for Round 1, we were able to come back to campus and sit in the same room, which was awesome. We’ve been conducting a virtual admissions committee for the past couple Rounds, so it’s a lot of fun to be back with the team in one room. The person that reads your application, your primary reader is kind of your speaker for that particular candidate. And then we discuss all the candidates in committee and decide on the admissions decision and scholarship awards leading up to the decision deadline date, which just so happens that our full-time round one decision deadline notification date is today. You’re looking at everything: the recommendations, the resume, the essay questions. Could you give us a brief overview of how those things fit together? [31:07] Generally speaking, we’re looking at your academic aptitude through the undergraduate and graduate transcripts and any test scores that you’re able to submit as far as the application. That academic aptitude is really important because it is an academically rigorous program. That first semester is incredibly tough with a lot of quantitative heavy classes, so we want to make sure that students are set up for success. When assessing academic aptitude, we’re looking both at those undergraduate graduate transcripts, which for most people are in the past. The test options and the test score help us complement the history that you have with something that might be more up to date. That’s the academic review of the application. We also are interested in your professional trajectory. The average years of work experience for our full-time MBA is 5.5 years so we’re looking for individuals that have had an impact in the industries that they’ve been a part of. We look at your resume, we look at your letter of recommendation as part of the evaluation of your professional trajectory. And for us, again, impact is paramount. Trajectory onward and upward. You don’t have to have the perfect resume. You may have some gaps, especially in a world that has been turned upside down with COVID. That’s perfectly okay. What’s important to do is to help the admissions committee understand what that trajectory was, and if there are any gaps, let us know what happened. So that professional trajectory piece is the second piece of the tripod. And then, the last piece is all about the applicant in Texas McCombs. Why do you want to pursue an MBA? Why Texas McCombs specifically? What are your dreams and your passions, and why do you want to be a part of our community? We assess that piece via the essays and via the interview as well. I think that’s like the admissions tripod and how the different components really interact with each other. How do letters of recommendations fit in? [34:04] The recommendations are more around that professional trajectory. They let us know your impact in the workplace, but we also have some questions around teamwork and collaboration that help us assess the fit with the culture within that letter of recommendation as well. You have two required essays and an optional essay. For essay one, you give the option of a 250 word essay or a one minute video. Do you have any preference? [34:26] We don’t have a preference, so we give you the option. We like prospective student applicants to really pick the communication medium where they’re going to be able to put their best foot forward. I will say that between 20% to 30% of the applicant pool actually do the video, so it might not be as high as some of the applicants may expect. The goal of that first essay is, really, an informal essay for us to get to know you a little bit better. I often encourage applicants to highlight aspects of their candidacy that we may not know from the resume or from the letter of recommendations. Sharing with us information about their passions or the why behind the decisions that they made academically and professionally, are really great ways to use that essay number one. What can applicants expect if they’re lucky enough to be invited to interview? [35:46] I love interviewing candidates when I can. Here at Texas McCombs, the interviews are conducted by admissions officers, current students and alumni. For all the Rounds since COVID, all of our interviews have been conducted virtually. We are hoping that in Round 2 we’ll be able to do the interviews virtually and maybe produce a couple in-person options on campus if the COVID situation allows. The interview is by invitation only. They are blind interviews, which means that the interviewer only has had access to your resume. As we approach the interview, it usually starts with the applicant’s elevator pitch on their background. Usually we like that to be three to five minutes max. And then we dive into questions around why an MBA? Why now? Why Texas McCombs? The interview itselflasts between 30 to 45 minutes. It is behavioral in nature, so lots of “tell me about a time when” types of questions around leadership and collaboration and teamwork. We do not have case interviews or group interviews. And at the end, I think it is always important, for your listeners and applicants in general, to have good questions to ask whoever the interviewer is and important to really tailor the follow up questions that you have to who is interviewing you. Have a different set of questions to ask if you’re being interviewed by a student versus an admissions officer versus an alum. Will you know ahead of time who’s interviewing you? [37:45] You’ll know if they are a student, admissions officer, or alum. You may not know their name until you start the interview. You’ve been doing this for over 10 years. What’s the most common mistake you see applicants make? [38:00] It happens every year no matter how much we communicate it, but I know that your listeners are awesome and they’re not going to make these mistakes because they’re listening to this podcast. So the first one seems really simple, but it’s not answering the essay prompt. As you build your application and you focus on those essays, it is really important for you to engage with individuals within your community. If you have an opportunity to work with an admissions consultant, that’s awesome as well, but always ask yourself and those that are reviewing your essay if you’re appropriately answering the essay prompt. I know that applicants have a lot to share, and they want to share everything with us. Remember that there are a lot of different application components and opportunities for you to share who you are. The essays are a great asset to your application, but it’s only going to be one that you’re going to be able to capitalize on if you answer that essay prompt. So that’s number one. The second one is also around essays, and it seems really basic. I can see some of your listeners may be rolling their eyes whenever they listen to this, but mentioning the wrong school name in the application is a big no-no. It happens more often than you think, so make sure to double, triple check the materials that you’re submitting with your application, that you’re listing out the right school name. The third one is a kind of a new nuance that we’ve been seeing, I would say, as of the past three to five years, which is discrepancies between your resume that you submit with the application and any information that you have out on LinkedIn. As part of the application here at Texas McCombs, applicants can submit their LinkedIn if they have a LinkedIn profile. If you are going to submit your LinkedIn profile with your application, and that piece of it is optional the resume is not optional, make sure that the LinkedIn profile matches the resume on the jobs that you’ve had, dates, etc. If there are discrepancies between both of them, you may raise questions from the admissions committee, and you don’t want the admissions committee to have questions. You want to answer any questions that we have. Those discrepancies between resume and LinkedIn can be a little bit tricky sometime, so be on the lookout for that. Some applicants have specific elements of their background that give them grave concern. How do you view applicants who had a dip in grades or perhaps a period of unemployment due to depression or emotional illness? How about applicants who perhaps have an academic infraction or a misdemeanor on their record? [41:41] Great question. To answer scenario number one, I’ll let applicants know that they can use the optional essay to give us more insight into that particular situation. It’s perfectly okay if you had a period of unemployment at some point during your professional career up to this point, and it can be because of depression or emotional illness or just a situation outside of those two factors. With COVID specifically, depending on the industry that you’ve been in, you may have been impacted more heavily, or maybe your family situation where you may have had to quit your job to take care of family members. It can happen here in the US, but it happens, I think, even more often abroad in some of the countries where we have a lot of MBA applicants. So using that optional essay to really help us understand what it was is really key. For the second scenario around an academic infraction or misdemeanor on your record, we have a specific question on the application itself where you can address these two items. There is a limit on the answer to that question. If you feel like you didn’t provide us all of the context around what happened there, you can always use the optional essay to add on some more kind of insight into those particular situations, too. One thing that I will say about academic infractions or misdemeanors, if it’s a DUI, for example, it happens and it’s usually in the past. For us, what we’re looking for is for you to own the situation and own what happened and share with us what you learned from that particular situation. We’re not looking for excuses or pointing a finger saying, “It wasn’t my fault.” Explain the situation for us, own it, and then let us know what you learned from it. That’s the message that I’ll leave your listeners with. Let’s say a listener is thinking about applying for this cycle, they’re looking at a “late” Round 3 application. What advice would you give for that person? Who do you think would be better off waiting until next year to apply? [44:31] That is a great question. We have Round 3 for a reason. We take applications in Round 3. We admit students in Round 3. The one thing that I’ll say with Round 3, though, is applicants in that round need to be ready to go. We receive those applications. We turn the evaluation around really quickly, usually within a month, so you get that admissions decision pretty quickly because you have to be in Austin by early August starting the program. There’s very little runway for you to settle in and get ready. You should be ready to go when you submit that application. For listeners that are really gung ho into starting in fall 2022 and feel ready to do so, I’ll say apply for Round 3. You have that chance so go for it but only if you’re ready to start. For those that are interested in starting in fall of 2023, that will be the next submission cycle, there’s still quite a bit of time. We usually open the application sometime in late July, early August, for that next cycle. We tease a few announcements over the summer, like our new essays and any new updates to the application components. But my advice for those applicants would be to make a plan and give enough time to explore different schools. If you are going to take the exam, make time to prepare for the exam. Whenever you’re taking the GMAT, the GRE or the EA, preparation is key. Make a plan that is really encompassing and make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to study. Also make some time to do some introspection exercises where you can figure out what the right schools that you are going to be applying to, and then work on those essays and submit the applications. Make a calendar plan if you are looking to apply for next fall. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about UT Austin McCombs full-time MBA program? [49:55] Mccombs.utexas.edu is our website, so that’s the best place to learn information about Texas McCombs, but I do encourage your listeners to find me on LinkedIn. Rodrigo Malta is a pretty unique name. If you Google “Rodrigo Malta Texas McCombs email,” my email comes up because I’m the only Rodrigo Malta in all of UT. So if you all have questions, reach out to me. I love to be a connector, and if I don’t know the answer to your question, I likely know the person that does, and I’m happy to connect you with them.  Related links:
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Subscribe:    Podcast Feed The post Get Accepted to UT Austin McCombs [Episode 452] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
21 Jan 2022, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: How an Admissions Committee Views Your MBA Work Experience |
|
[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/How-an-Admissions-Committee-Views-MBA-Work-Experience.jpg[/img] [img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/How-an-Admissions-Committee-Views-MBA-Work-Experience.jpg[/img] As you apply to MBA programs, you need to think about your past work experience and how it all fits into your story. Work experience is important because of what it reveals about you in terms of your character, maturity, and abilities. Even if your GPA and GMAT/GRE scores are spectacular, your work experience still needs to impress the admissions readers. Post-college employment reveals that you have “grown-up” experience in taking direction, meeting deadlines, assuming responsibility, and [url=https://blog.accepted.com/display-teamwork-in-application-essays/]working in teams[/url]. These are all highly relevant in a program where group projects are the norm. Developing a baseline track record in your field also gives you industry knowledge and the ability to contribute your insights to class discussions. Finally, recruiters prefer MBAs with work experience. What follows are some thoughts on how admissions committees think about certain types of work experience, and how you may want to frame your own work experience during your MBA application process. Traditional work experience You may have worked in marketing but not at P&G; worked in banking but not at Goldman Sachs; worked in technology but not at Google. Will your experience at a modest, relatively unknown company count as much to admissions committees compared with applicants who have worked for brands with cache? Fear not! The quality of the work that you do is much more important than working at a name-brand institution. When brand experience is a bonus That being said, brand name experience might potentially give you an edge, at least on the surface. For example, if you worked for a large company such as Infosys, Google, Goldman Sachs, or Bloomberg Financial, the adcoms will understand that you were a small fish in a large pond. They will appreciate that you had to work harder to stand out, but they will also look for signs of your talent. Advancement in large companies is often slow because they are highly structured and bureaucratic, with less room to dazzle supervisors with distinctive skills and abilities. The schools are familiar with the typical path, and if your talents were recognized in such a large organization and you were given a project normally given to someone above your pay grade, or if you were fast-tracked for a promotion, this will add stature to your application. Additionally, the fact that a large company with a valued brand name hired you in the first place is another indication that you probably have at least some of what your MBA program is looking for. [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/consulting?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=how_adcom_views_work_experience&utm_source=blog_inline][b]Work with a seasoned consultant to polish the presentation of your work experience and your entire application[/b] >>[/url] Even at big-name companies, the substance of your work is still the most important ingredient There are a few things admissions committees will want to see to verify that the experience within the organization is strong as well. [list][*][b]Longevity:[/b] If you only were employed at a brand name firm for one year or less, there could be a concern that you did not thrive in that work environment. On the other hand, if you have been employed for two or more years, that duration signals competence, persistence, and hard work. [/*][*][b]Promotions: [/b]Were you promoted or did you otherwise earn increased responsibilities? Regardless of company, those boosts are the best proof that you are considered highly capable by management, and therefore have a great future ahead of you. [/*][*][b]Movement:[/b] If you have more than one brand name on your resume, that is a strong signal as well that you were able to successfully transition from one world-class firm to another–or perhaps you were poached. [/*][*][b]Insight:[/b] Working at a major company provides an additional benefit too: an admissions committee will see that you have experienced the inner workings of an organization that is best-in-class, and therefore can provide valuable perspectives in class discussions. Top companies clearly have done something right to earn their reputations, and you have been exposed to and internalized techniques and practices that have enabled their growth to the top. [/*][/list] For all these reasons, experience working with A-list companies can provide an edge in the initial review process. However, bottom line, what really matters is the substance of your work rather than where you performed it. Admissions committees seek students who will [url=https://blog.accepted.com/different-dimensions-diversity-episode-193/]have as wide a range of experiences as possible[/url], and especially experiences that are relevant to an MBA curriculum. When faculty are teaching a particular subject and students have real-world experience in that subject, the lessons come to life. As such, the skills and knowledge you gained from significant projects managed from start to finish matter a great deal. Involvement with strategic initiatives matters. You need not have been involved in a multimillion-dollar deal to gain strong leadership and management skills. Small projects can shine, too! Even small projects that you “own” can be extremely valuable in providing expertise in particular areas. As you advance in your career, always be on the lookout for projects that allow you to take on a significant leadership role and provide you with a degree of autonomy. Make the most of your resume real estate On [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/resume]your resume[/url], you need to reduce notable achievements to one bullet point each, and you need to make that bullet point as impactful as possible. For example, “Led a team of eight to cut costs in the supply chain by 20% through strategic re-purposing of older machines.” This example shows leadership, strategic thinking, and tangible results, all really important stuff! This is what admissions committees want to see. It doesn’t matter if the size of the project was $10,000 or $1,000,000, or that it was done at Boeing or Jane’s Jewelry Creations. What matters is that you provided significant results to your company. Can you show increasing responsibility? In addition to having tangible real-world experience to share in the classroom, admissions committees are also looking for upward mobility. If you have a track record of promotions, your mobility will be immediately obvious on a resume. [url=https://blog.accepted.com/4-tips-for-demonstrating-professional-growth-in-a-flat-organization/]Even if you don’t have that growth,[/url] however, you can still employ thoughtful wording to showcase how your responsibilities have increased over time: “Rewarded with project management of X following successful implementation of social media planning schedule.” Essays also offer a place to highlight forward momentum, depending on the topic. Being trusted with greater responsibilities is the clearest signal of strong work experience for MBA programs that you can provide. It shows that you have what it takes to succeed in the program and in your career beyond. What about non-traditional work experience? Applicants with non-traditional work experience often worry whether their experiences will be considered relevant in an MBA classroom. I have even heard this from doctors, lawyers, military officers, and other people of impressive accomplishments. Believe it or not, the less traditional one’s work experience, the more an admissions committee may be interested! When putting together a cohort, admissions committee members strive to make it [url=https://blog.accepted.com/writing-the-diversity-essay/]as diverse as possible[/url], in every way possible – job function, industry, culture, etc. Imagine if a class was made up of only finance people? Or IT engineers? How rich would the discussion be across all courses? Not very! That’s why schools are delighted by non-traditional applicants, and you can be assured that your application will get noticed. Individuals coming from a non-business background are assumed to have approached issues and problems with a different perspective and set of priorities that may allow for additional learning opportunities for their classmates–and possibly even the faculty! However, as a non-traditional applicant, you will need to have two things solidly in your profile in order to be seriously considered for admission: [list][*][b]Stellar grades in a few courses that can indicate your ability to succeed with quant work (e.g. statistics, calculus) in a demanding MBA program, and/or a top-notch GMAT or GRE score.[/b] [b] [/b]Since much of your degree’s coursework may not be directly relatable to a business program’s curriculum, the school needs assurance that you will be able to handle the MBA courses. If quant courses are missing from your transcript (and if you don’t knock the GMAT or GRE out of the park), you should consider taking an algebra, business math, or statistics course at a local community college or online to alleviate any concern there. Once enrolled, aim for a B or better. [/*][*][b]A solid reason for needing an MBA[/b] [b] [/b]Believe it or not, there are serial degree seekers out there. Since your reason for pursuing an MBA will most likely not be obvious based on your previous work experience, you must do an outstanding job of presenting your career goals and objectives. [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/why-mba]Why is an MBA necessary[/url] to get you where you want to go?[/*][/list] A non-traditional background can give you a leg up with an admissions committee. But once you have their attention, you’ve got to make your case for acceptance with a mind-blowing application. You’ll need to convince them that you will thrive in their program and require the education their program provides to achieve your dreams. Does entrepreneurship count as work experience? Yes! If you launched an entrepreneurial venture or joined a startup, you will have the opportunity to show how you survived and perhaps even thrived in those risky, exciting, uncharted waters. In a small company you would have had more occasions to display your adaptability and versatility. You probably also handled a wider variety of roles and had more responsibility with less supervision. Most applicants with these experiences have learned invaluable lessons on a faster track than if they had worked in established firms. Even if their ventures were short-lived, they wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. Not only did they have to toggle among many disparate kinds of tasks, ranging from sales to public relations to product design, but they also learned – sometimes the hard way – fundamental rules of business planning and formation. If you write about being an entrepreneur, however, you will have to demonstrate that this was not a euphemism for “unemployed.” Your business may or may not have succeeded, but showing how you planned and executed it will speak volumes about you. You can write about how you strategized, determined the need in the market for your product or service, and the logical sequence of steps you employed to launch and manage your enterprise. Presenting self-employment experience on a resume Creating a resume as a self-employed individual presents some challenges. If you already have an established business, some of this information is superfluous, but if you have been doing contract work, there are details to manage beyond the summary of the work you have been doing. Company name If you own an established business, you probably already have a company name, but if you are doing freelance work or contract consulting, you might not. You should consider creating a company name that helps the reader understand you are indeed self-employed, with a purposeful, grown-up name. It could be something as simple as “John Smith Media Consulting” or “E-Commerce Branding Solutions.” Job title If you are doing contract work or other freelancing, avoid putting “Self-employed” or “Freelancer” as your title. Consider “CEO/Founder,” or if that is overreach, something like “Senior Consultant” or “Senior Engineer.” Choose something that is as close to what your title would be were you employed by someone else, but without sounding puffed up or self-congratulatory. If you have an existing business, the “CEO/Founder” designation is most likely an accurate depiction. Describing your work experience If you run a business with tangible goods or services, mapping out your experience should be fairly straightforward. Contractors should discuss projects you have worked on for various firms or individuals, listing details and successes of those projects as much as you can without violating any confidentiality agreements. Hopefully, you have some [url=https://blog.accepted.com/essay-tip-the-importance-of-details/]good, quantifiable results[/url] that you can point to. Here are some examples of how you could present projects: “Overhauled payment system for $XMM automotive parts manufacturer, resulting in reduction of A/P by 20%.” “Performed research and presented findings related to a proposed expansion of a non-profit into a new territory. Research results were subsequently shared with existing donors, who then funded 100% of the planned expansion.” “Designed website and implemented social media strategy and tactics for eight-member startup in the energy industry.” How much work experience for MBA programs is enough? How much is too much? Most applicants for two-year, full-time MBA programs have from 3-8 years of experience. If you have been working longer than that, you should probably [url=https://blog.accepted.com/emba-the-ultimate-guide-for-applicants/]consider an EMBA[/url] or other program geared for the more experienced professional. Unless [url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-for-an-mba-with-no-work-experience-what-you-need-to-know/#schools]a program actively courts younger applicants[/url], two years of work experience is usually the effective minimum you will need to prove that you can contribute to and benefit from the program. Bottom Line It isn’t only the quantity of work experience or whether you gained that experience in a small startup or at Google that matters to MBA admissions committees. It’s the ability to show how much you have contributed and what impact you have had. In whatever work experiences you have had since graduating from college, if you can prove that your focus, determination, collegiality, initiative, and maturity paved the way for you to have an impact on the job, you are several steps closer to a seat in your chosen MBA class. Explaining the kind of work experience you have and your career progression in a meaningful way will help the adcoms get to know you better. Furthermore, even two years of full-time, professional employment can lend credibility and substance to your stated career goals. These goals will not seem to be based on a youthful, fuzzy, naive dream but on real-world business experience that has tested, refined and clarified them as well as your roadmap to get there. [b]Want to make sure you present your work experience in the best possible way? Work with a seasoned consultant at Accepted to polish the presentation of your work experience and your entire application. [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/consulting?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=how_adcom_views_work_experience&utm_source=blog]Contact us today![/url][/b] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590.png[/img][/url] [img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/jen-weld-admissions-consultant-accepted.jpg[/img] Jen Weld is a former Accepted admissions consultant and Assistant Director of Admissions at Cornell’s EMBA program. She has an additional 10 years of experience in higher ed and corporate marketing. [url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_jen&utm_source=blog][b]Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/b][/url] [b]Related Resources:[/b] • [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/selectivity-index]The B-School Selectivity Index: Are You Competitive at Your Dream School? [/url] • [url=https://blog.accepted.com/7-tips-for-mba-applicants-from-family-businesses/]7 Tips for MBA Applicants from Family Businesses[/url] • [url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-for-an-mba-with-no-work-experience-what-you-need-to-know/]Applying for an MBA with No Work Experience: What You Need to Know[/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-an-admissions-committee-views-mba-work-experience/]How an Admissions Committee Views Your MBA Work Experience[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
25 Jan 2022, 10:01
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Why Is This Successful Leader Investing In an Oxford Said Executive MBA? |
 The intersection of business and human rights led to the Oxford Said EMBA [Show Summary] Anthony Triolo is a champion of social justice with an impressive work history serving countries all over the globe. He’s currently earning his Executive MBA at Oxford Said and shares what led him to the program and how he intends to incorporate his learning in the next steps of his career journey. Interview with Anthony Triolo, Oxford Said Executive MBA candidate [Show Notes] Thanks for joining me for this, the 454th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Before I dive into today’s interview, I want to invite you to download Ace The EMBA, Expert Advice For The Rising Executive. This free guide will compliment today’s podcast and give you suggestions on how to choose the right EMBA program for you, how to differentiate yourself from your competition – in a positive way – and how to present yourself effectively as a business leader who will bring credit to any program that accepts you. Download Ace The EMBA. I’d like to welcome to Admissions Straight Talk, Anthony Triolo. Anthony has an absolutely fascinating background. After graduating from Yale with a bachelor’s in history and political science in 2000, he went on to work on the Truth And Reconciliation Commission for Sierra Leone, where he worked from 2003-2009 in differing roles, all relating to justice. He then worked as a Senior Associate for the UN’s Special Tribunal for Lebanon at the Hague. After serving in additional roles related to international law and justice, he became the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Rule of Law Collaborative at the University of South Carolina in 2020. While all the above is extremely impressive and interesting, he has been invited to Admissions Straight Talk because he recently began his Executive MBA at the Oxford Said Business School as an Executive MBA Director Awardee, which earned him a sizable financial award. Let’s get right to it. In preparing for the call, I saw the phrase “transitional justice”, several times in your bios and in your work. So I have to ask you, what is transitional justice? [2:35] Transitional justice is a way to help societies who are grappling with the legacy of massive human rights abuses confront their past so they can move forward and have a more prosperous future. We usually talk about transitional justice in the post-conflict setting. I’ve worked on transitional justice initiatives on a global scale and usually what that means is prosecuting individuals who were responsible for war crimes that were committed during the conflict. It’s about truth telling, telling the story of what happened during the conflict and making recommendations for the way forward. It’s about reparative justice for the victims, and it’s about institutional reform. How do we repair what was broken and make it better so that the occurrence of violence doesn’t happen again? In reality, transitional justice is not only limited to post-conflict societies. It includes all societies across the board, including the U.S. Given your career progress to date, why did you decide to even consider an Executive MBA? [3:51] I’m 20 years into my professional career, and I’m sort of reading the tea leaves. I’m really interested in the intersection of business and human rights. I’ve worked a lot in the public sector, but I realize in order to really make an impact and have a transformative impact in the world, you need greater partnerships between the public and private sector. I was thinking that the MBA could help me get a better understanding of the private sector to help build those partnerships that are necessary to bring about change in our society. That’s what really led me to pursue the Executive MBA. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] How did it feel when you were notified of the Director’s Award? [7:29] I was thrilled. Honestly, I didn’t know how many people were given the offer. I later found out it was only seven of us amongst 70 in the class. I felt recognized for all the work that I had done, and I felt recognized for the fact that I would be a valuable member of the class and that I would have something different to contribute. I’m in a class with a lot of CEOs and business executives, not many people with my background. I think the admissions committee felt that I reflected a certain background that could be unique and really would be rewarding to my classmates. It was an honor. Honestly, the minute I found out that I was given the award, I knew that Oxford was the right place for me. Can you tell us a little bit about your EMBA studies and how they’re structured? You’re in the United States right now, right? [8:26] I am. The great thing about the Oxford program is that we meet every five to six weeks in person, and we’re meeting for a full week. Most EMBA programs are on the weekend. Oxford really values the time that we spend with each other. I just completed my third module, there are about 21 modules over two years, and I’ve gone to the UK twice in that time period. It’s been an amazing experience to be able to spend a week with my classmates each time. They say that the most valuable part of an EMBA program is the networking and I think it’s really given us a chance to get to know each other and spend that time together. Do you have a week of classes at that point when you’re together? [9:27] Yes, a full week. Do you have assignments in between? [9:30] We do, we have assignments and assessments. We’re each assigned a small group or team to work with so I’m in regular contact with my team, and I have to say that’s been one of the best experiences so far. They really did a great job in matching us in terms of the teams that we’re in. I have five other members that are part of my team from all over the globe, in the US, Europe, Africa, and we meet on a regular basis and we really support each other. Is it a lockstep program where everybody goes through the same time taking the same classes? [9:59] Correct. It’s a lockstep program. I’m with this group, this team for the entire duration of the program, which is over a two year period. Is it difficult residing in the United States and being part of an international cohort with this kind of base in the UK? You mentioned you got together three times and you were twice in the UK. Where were you the third time? [10:15] Well, the first time was virtual because of the pandemic. Not everyone was able to travel, and they wanted to make it equal for everyone. So the first module was online and the following two modules were hybrid. Most of us were in person, but a few people, because of COVID restrictions, were remote. Are you meeting regularly with your teammates via Zoom? [10:49] Yes. On a weekly basis, regular https://gmatclub.com/chat chats, emails, telephone calls, we’re regularly in touch. There’s quite a bit of reading that has to be done between modules. Once we complete a module, usually we’re completing a class. So for example, in the three modules that I’ve had so far, I’ve had Analytics, I’ve had Leadership and I’ve had Firms and Markets. I’ve already completed an assessment for Analytics and I’m working on two other assessments that are due in January. So far, do you think that the program is serving your goals and meeting your expectations? [11:25] Absolutely. The one thing I would say about Oxford, which really impresses me is their Career Services Department. I feel that many in my class are really looking to transition career paths and the Career Services Department is really strong. They’ve been very active from day one. We have different industry advisors. We can work with different career counselors and I regularly make use of those services that are available to us. I think Oxford is very strong on this and really trying to help build the network and make you feel that you’re part of that network. I’ve reached out to many alums who have already been so helpful.  What have you most enjoyed about your EMBA studies at Oxford so far and how many modules are there total? You mentioned you’ve completed three. [12:25] There are 21 modules in total. Not all of them will be at Oxford. Some will be in international locations to be determined. Some may be in South Africa depending on the elective that you take. The best part for me is the global nature of the program and being in a classroom with people from so many different countries, such rich experiences, different industries. I think Oxford did an amazing job of bringing together a diverse group of people to the class. We’re already learning from each other. I would say that I’m learning just as much from my classmates as I am from my professors. The networking opportunities that have already been available to me are outstanding. I highly recommend the program to anyone who’s considering it. Has there been anything that really surprised you in the program? [13:20] Well, I’m surprised at how well I’m doing at the mathematical stuff. It’s been quite a bit of time since I took a math class. Analytics was the first class, and I was surprised at how well I was doing in the class. What do you think could be improved or done differently? [13:48] That’s a good question. I think they need to have a better ratio of male to female students in the class. Right now the ratio is 70:30 male:female. They could do a better job of recruiting more female candidates which would increase the diversity of the class. They could offer additional overseas opportunities, since we are a global program. Having classes in other countries would be really interesting, but otherwise, I have to be honest, Linda, I’m pretty satisfied. I’m really happy with the program. Now you’re working full time, right? [14:38] I am working full time. How are you handling the juggling necessary to work full time and go to school part-time and take off weeks here and there to go to modules? [14:41] I’m not going to lie to you. It’s not easy, but I’m managing. I think I’m just so excited to be part of the program that I don’t view it as a hindrance. The other interesting thing, which I think would sort of be different at another school where there were only weekend classes is the fact that none of my weekends are really consumed by this. Because I go to class for one full week, I can do my classwork at my own pace the other weeks until the next module. If I time myself and really allocate my time efficiently, it’s really manageable. I will admit one thing, and I hear it’s common for other people in my situation, is that since starting the program, I feel I’m more invested in the Oxford program than I am in my actual work. I think that’s partially because I’m interested in transitioning a bit and I invest a lot of time in the Oxford program. I’m still getting my work done of course, and I’m doing a great job, but I’m prioritizing the Oxford program. Do you see yourself changing your career direction as a result of your Oxford experience? [16:00] I’m still passionate about human rights issues, sustainability issues, and social impact. I just think it’s probably from a different angle. I haven’t ruled out sustainability positions within private corporations. In general, I feel like times are changing and the business sector and the private sector is more attuned to issues of justice and human rights. They have to be because the consumers demand it, in a way. Oxford has created a niche for itself in terms of being that business school that really does focus on social impact issues. The number of classmates I have that are interested in climate change issues is quite high. I’m still committed to the principles that have guided me throughout my career, but I just may approach it a bit differently moving forward. What advice would you have for those interested in pursuing the Executive MBA and specifically the Oxford Said EMBA? [17:04] I would say, really think about why you want to do a program. It is a big investment in terms of resources and time. So be clear about why you want to do this and think about the program that would best address your needs and think carefully and talk to alums. Before I took the decision of going to Oxford, I reached out to many alums, not only at Oxford, but at other schools that I was accepted to, to get a better sense of what’s the best fit for me. In terms of Oxford, if you’re looking for a global program, Oxford’s one of the best. The thing about the Said School, is that it’s embedded in the university so you really do have the resources of the university as a whole to work with you and other schools. At Oxford, it’s a collegiate system so there are many different colleges that make up the university and each of us in the EMBA program is assigned to a specific college. In fact, when I’m there for the week, I actually live in the college that I’m assigned to. So I’m embedded into that program. I’m in Lady Margaret Hall and I actually live there with other graduate students during that week. So that really enriches the experience as well. The other interesting thing is that when you’re a student, you’re also a member of the Oxford Political Union so you can go listen to the debates, go listen to the speakers that are coming on campus. You really are embedded in the university in a way that I think other EMBA programs don’t allow you to do so. So I think that’s what really makes Oxford unique. What about specifically the Oxford Said Executive MBA Program? If somebody determines that they are interested in that, what advice would you have for them? [19:39] Just make sure that you’re able to take the time off to do the program. If you’re really interested in getting to know your classmates, this is the program for you. The fact that you get to spend so much time with them and you’re not just running in on a Friday and leaving on a Saturday. You’re really spending a full week with your classmates, and it gives you that opportunity to connect. I would reach out to other alum in the program. I’m always happy to speak to others who are interested in it. I think the fact that it’s focused on social impact, it’s focused on being as global as possible, it’s focused on bringing together a cohort from so many different countries – if that’s what’s interesting to you, I think that you would find it valuable. Lastly, if you are looking to transition, I can’t think of a better school. Oxford is really aware of the fact that many of its EMBA students are interested in transitioning. I kind of got that when I was speaking to other schools but I didn’t get a sense of that as much as I did with Oxford. They really do work with you in helping you through that process. If you’re a student who’s looking for that, Oxford should be at the top of your list. Is there anything you would’ve liked me to ask you? [21:08] I think you did it, you hit every point. Relevant links:
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Subscribe: Podcast Feed The post Why Is This Successful Leader Investing In an Oxford Said Executive MBA? [Episode 454] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
02 Feb 2022, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Identifying the Ingredients of a Winning Essay |
  As you gear up to write your application essays, you may have looked at sample “winning” essays published in books or on websites, only to ask yourself afterward, “Sure, these are great, but what do these essays have to do with me?” This blog series will show you how to plan for, draft, and edit outstanding essays. By the end of this series, you will approach your writing with confidence, as you apply what you have learned to your task. Ready to get started? Great! Let’s learn how to go from example to exemplary right now. Let’s jump right in and get started by looking at two sample essays to see what makes them so effective. The first essay, The Public Health Student, opens with a question: “What if people lived healthier lives, practiced preventive medicine, and took precautions against illness and disease?” The “what if?” opening immediately engages the reader and at the same time tells us that the writer aspires to a career in the healthcare sector. We do not have to wait to discover the theme of the essay; it’s right there in the first sentence. [Click Here to Read the Full Essay] Let’s look at this great first paragraph: notice how every sentence builds on the sentence that precedes it, adding context for the applicant’s decision to apply to a public health program. By the second sentence, she begins to present her background in the healthcare field, and by the third sentence, she explains why she now doubts that her initial, chosen field of physical therapy will be satisfying in the long-term. She demonstrates self-knowledge in this realization, self-knowledge that has come from her experiences thus far in the healthcare field. By the end of the paragraph, we clearly appreciate the applicant’s motivations for wanting a career on the bigger, broader stage of public health, rather than as a PT. Her decision reflects a logical progression in her career and in her thinking. As the essay continues, she continues to build her case for admission by linking her prior work and education to their relevance to the public health field. She writes about relevant coursework she has taken, followed immediately by a succinct discussion of her field work experience. She doesn’t simply list what she did; she goes deeper, discussing what she learned and how these experiences and insights have solidified her commitment to earning the MPH degree. Her conclusion is also very effective because she has returned to her opening “what if?” theme. Here she asks a new question: “What if an aspirin a day could prevent heart attacks?” emphasizing that everything she has learned and done so far keeps her riveted by the challenge of finding answers to significant questions in public health. This essay works because the prose is clear and active. Every sentence offers something new or additional information; there is no fluff. She demonstrates mature self-knowledge, a logical career progression, and offers relevant, specific facts that add strength to her candidacy. This clarity and momentum keeps the pace moving, effectively building the writer’s profile as a promising and serious MPH applicant. Now let’s take a look at the Returning to School essay from Accepted’s law school section. This essay opens with a colorful, compelling scene that immediately places the reader in the story: “Fourteen grumpy doctors stare across an enormous oak conference table at me. It is seven o’clock in the morning, and most of the group is still wearing wrinkled green scrubs indicating they worked through the night. None of the doctors look ready to digest the extremely technical information contained in the eight studies stacked neatly in front of them. My job is to present each study, review all relevant economic data, and answer any questions in such a way that the audience will conclude that the new drug I am selling is better than the one they have been prescribing. One of the physicians gruffly informs me, through a mouthful of Danish, that he is leaving in ten minutes so I had better start my pitch.” Don’t you already feel for this writer and his formidable challenge? I don’t know about you, but he had me hooked right away, and I was rooting for him to win over this very tough audience. That last sentence is also colorful and wonderful, really setting the tone for the essay and the writer’s frustrations at the limitations of his role. [Click Here to Read the Full Essay] This four-paragraph essay really packs a punch. While only half of the length of the MPH essay, it still delivers the same winning elements, including specific highlights of career achievements (the writer was Rookie of the Year at his company) and clear and convincing reasons for a career change. He clearly explains his disappointment and fatigue: “My job became less challenging as I had to repeatedly remind the doctors of what I had already discussed with them.” As “one of the industry’s top representatives,” we can understand his quest for a higher-level intellectual challenge, and cites his work experience and science background that will transfer to a new career in medical law. He makes a convincing case that he is capable of achieving this goal. In the last sentence, he effectively refers back to the “grumpy physicians” we had already met, though with some softness, which keeps him from appearing arrogant. Both writers so far have brought their essays full circle. Having read and analyzed these essays, you will now have a better grasp of the types of experiences that can build a case for your grad school candidacy. Start making a list of the experiences you have had that will create a compelling scene that will grab your readers’ attention from the first sentence and not let it go until they have reached the final, satisfying conclusion. Summary Tips:
In the next post in this series, we’ll show you how to choose a theme for your exemplary statement of purpose. Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application when you check out our catalog of application services. Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay.  By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related resources:
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03 Feb 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance (and Reduce Your Stress!) Before the 2022 MBA Application Season |
 Do You Have the Right Plan to Win an MBA Acceptance in 2022? The key to a successful MBA application is planning, planning, and more planning. With so much research to do and so many deadlines to keep track of, you don’t want to get caught unprepared. We can help. Our upcoming webinar on Wednesday, February 16, How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance (and Reduce Your Stress!) Before the 2022 MBA Application Season, will show you when to begin targeting the dozens of tasks required for your application. Planning for these tasks months in advance will ease your stress while strengthening your application overall, boosting your chances of acceptance at the schools of your choice. There is simply nobody better qualified to offer this webinar than Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham. With more than 25 years’ experience guiding clients through the b-school admissions process, Linda will suggest when you should begin the tasks of profile assessment; defining your post-MBA goals; test prep and planning; school research; choosing recommenders, and drafting your essays and resume. Following this guide will ease your stress and prepare you for success! The session is free, but registration is required. Hurry and reserve your seat today! Register Now:  For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! The post How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance (and Reduce Your Stress!) Before the 2022 MBA Application Season appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
06 Feb 2022, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ex2Ex-2_2022.jpg[/img] [url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/from-example-to-exemplary-guide][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ex2Ex-2_2022.jpg[/img][/url] All effective essays have a distinctive theme. Referring back to the essays we read [url=https://blog.accepted.com/identifying-the-ingredients-of-a-winning-essay/]in the previous post[/url], we might say that [url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/sampessay03]our MPH candidate’s theme[/url] was her passion for finding answers to significant public health issues. [url=https://www.accepted.com/law/sampessay02]Our law school applicant’s theme[/url] was his yearning for greater intellectual challenges while remaining in the healthcare field. It may take time and introspection to find your theme. The questions below are designed to [url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_finding_theme_for_sop&utm_source=article]help you define your essay’s main message[/url]. Your answers will also help you express your goals, values as they relate to your career choice, motivations for pursuing a graduate degree, and professional dreams. While introspection isn’t as popular an activity as, say, yoga or streaming TV and movies, it’s an important part of this process. Give it some time; your essay will be much better for it. [list][*]Why are you passionate about – or at least committed to – your career choice? [/*][*]Diving deeper into the question above, what experiences in your life (personal, educational, professional) have influenced your career goals the most? [/*][*]Has any individual played a major role in helping you discover these goals or values? [/*][*]What do you hope to achieve in your career? [/*][*]What would career success look like in five years? Ten years? [/*][*]What [url=https://blog.accepted.com/proving-character-traits-in-your-application-essays/]personal strengths[/url] (communication skills, empathy, persistence, etc) do you bring to this career? [/*][*]What professional skills (organizational, clinical, teaching, mentoring, etc) do you bring to this career? [/*][*]What experiences can you write about that will highlight these strengths? [/*][*]After the admissions committee has read your essays, what three words would you hope they would use to describe you? Would you like them to consider you “driven,” “intelligent,” and “creative?” How about “dedicated,” “a leader,” and “focused?” No matter what image you want to create, think about experiences that will illustrate those qualities.[/*][/list] Once you begin to think about these questions, some answers will come to you quickly, while others will require time to percolate. Write down your ideas, memories, and insights as they come. As they pile up, you will identify those experiences that were colorful or dramatic enough to become your essay introduction. If you are writing multiple essays, such as for [url=https://blog.accepted.com/resources/mba-admissions/mba-essay-tip-posts/]different MBA programs[/url], each one must have its own theme. The admissions committee members want to see you as a multifaceted individual and have crafted their questions accordingly. These questions provide you the opportunity to display different aspects of yourself, your values, and your personality. [b]Summary Tips:[/b] [list][*]Carve out some time for introspection about your career goals, values, and motivation. (Yes, that means your phone is in another room, or at least on “Do Not Disturb” mode.) [/*][*]Develop distinct themes for each essay required for any program requiring more than one essay. Use these opportunities to show yourself as a multifaceted individual.[/*][/list] In the next post in this series, we’ll share insights into how to write an exemplary MBA goals essay. [b]Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application when you [url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_finding_theme_for_sop&utm_source=blog]check out our catalog of application services[/url]. Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay. [/b] [url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_finding_theme_for_sop&utm_source=blog_cta][img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/CV3WcHBDtq93TEsCW3PxncpJPX7IYfo93w_Eq5z6zRfP_EuYy6OrCmyE_pfc8OpXA4ThSqEkxthVKIqh--gNTHnKs7Pc4dpEXYxO6AjeQYJ-GqNfURaAutnjN5uIVlsLMks4Cb_T[/img][/url] By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools. [b][url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_Judy&utm_source=blog]Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/url][/b] [b]Related Resources:[/b] [list][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/from-example-to-exemplary-guide]From Example to Exemplary: How to Use Sample Essays to Make Your Essay Outstanding[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-write-a-goal-statement-for-graduate-school/]How to Write a Goal Statement for Graduate School[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/showing-strengths-in-application-essays/]3 Tips for Showing Strengths in Your Application Essays[/url][/*][/list] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/from-example-to-exemplary-2-a-theme-for-your-statement-of-purpose/]Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
09 Feb 2022, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Follow the Calendar to Ensure MBA Acceptance in 2022 |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Max_Chance_Reduce_Stress_2022.jpg[/img] [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/maximize-your-chances-of-acceptance?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=webinar&utm_medium=Maximize_Your_Chances_of_Acceptance_Feb_2022_p2][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Max_Chance_Reduce_Stress_2022.jpg[/img][/url] Time marches on, and every month during 2022 is a month when you can be making strides toward an MBA application that will wow the admissions committee. With so many demands on your time, don’t you want to follow a time-tested strategy that will help you tackle each step toward acceptance? From analyzing your profile to defining your goals to researching programs and finding recommenders, this roadmap is the plan that winners will use. Join us on Wednesday, February 16 at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET for our free, information-packed webinar, [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/maximize-your-chances-of-acceptance?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=webinar&utm_medium=Maximize_Your_Chances_of_Acceptance_Feb_2022_p2]How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance (and Reduce Your Stress!) Before the 2022 MBA Application Season[/url]. This engaging presentation provides a practical approach to crafting a successful MBA application. Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham will show you how to: [list][*]Create an eight-month application calendar with goals for each month [/*][*]Cultivate a purpose-driven and goal-centered attitude towards your application [/*][*]Understand your profile and how to strengthen it [/*][*]Define your all-important post-MBA goals [/*][*]Plan content for essays [/*][*]Secure compelling recommendations[/*][/list] This session is free, but seats are filling up fast. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to do some intentional and effective planning for your MBA application. [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/maximize-your-chances-of-acceptance?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=webinar&utm_medium=Maximize_Your_Chances_of_Acceptance_Feb_2022_p2]Register today![/url] [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_mba&utm_source=blog][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/accepted_admissions_consulting.jpg[/img][/url] For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_mba&utm_source=blog][b]Want an MBA admissions expert [/b][b]to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch![/b][/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/follow-the-calendar-to-ensure-mba-acceptance-in-2022/]Follow the Calendar to Ensure MBA Acceptance in 2022[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
13 Feb 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Develop Your 2022 MBA Strategy NOW |
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Our free, one-hour webinar, How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance (and Reduce Your Stress!) Before the 2022 MBA Application Season, is airing live on Wednesday, February 16, and you can still register to join us! No, it isn’t too early to start this process! Competition for top programs is intense–even the smallest misstep can derail your application, leading to disappointment for you. This webinar offers an invaluable blueprint for approaching your applications using the calendar as your guide, ensuring enough time for every vital step of the way. You’ll learn when to begin each step along the path to creating an outstanding MBA application package that will boost your chances for acceptance. With professional guidance from Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham, one of the nation’s leading MBA consultants, your application is sure to catch the adcom’s attention. Investing in just one hour to join us will help you boost your chances of being ACCEPTED! What a great ROI! Save your spot here! For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! The post Develop Your 2022 MBA Strategy NOW appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
15 Feb 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: How to Get Accepted to Oxford Saïd Business School |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hannah_Griffiths_Jan_2022.jpg[/img] [url=https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/457_Hannah-Griffiths_2022.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hannah_Griffiths_Jan_2022.jpg[/img][/url] Find out what the Oxford Saïd MBA program has to offer [Show Summary] Hannah Griffiths, Oxford Saïd Business School’s MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager, shares how the school aims to equip leaders to effect change in various sectors all over the world. Additionally, Hannah highlights what it takes to get accepted. Interview with Hannah Griffiths, Oxford Saïd Business School’s MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager [Show Notes] Welcome to the 457th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for tuning in. Before we get to our wonderful guest, I’d like to invite you to join me for our next live MBA webinar. I will present “[url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/maximize-your-chances-of-acceptance]How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance and Reduce Your Stress Before the 2022 Application Season[/url],” and I’m going to present it tomorrow, February 16th. During the webinar, I’m going to give you a plan that can prepare you for a successful MBA application this fall. The presentation is free, but you do need to reserve your seat, and you can do so at [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/maximize-your-chances-of-acceptance]accepted.com/457webinar[/url]. It gives me great pleasure to have on Admissions Straight Talk for the first time [url=https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/457_Hannah-Griffiths_2022.mp3]Hannah Griffiths, MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager[/url] for Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. Hannah earned her Master’s in English from the University College Cork and shortly thereafter started working at Oxford in different roles and in different parts of the university. She’s been there for most of her professional career. Since November 2019, she has been the MBA Recruitment and Admissions Manager for Oxford Saïd. Can you give us an overview of the Oxford Saïd MBA program for those listeners who aren’t that familiar with it, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [1:55] Yes, absolutely. The Saïd Business School is a business school that is embedded within Oxford University. Our MBA program is a one-year MBA program, and given that the business school is embedded within a world-class university, that does impact the MBA experience in a number of different ways. One of those ways is that the students can expect in the one-year program a lot of academic rigor. Our program is an intensive one-year MBA. It aims to include everything that a candidate would maybe anticipate finding on a two-year program but packed into a 12-month period. The main aim of the business school and of the MBA program is to prepare our students to be responsible business leaders and individuals who, as they move through their career in the future, are prepared to tackle world-scale problems, challenges, and to really see business as a vehicle to drive change, be that within the organizations that they work in, the sectors that they choose to work in, in their communities and sometimes on a larger scale in the countries that they choose to be based in. In addition to academic rigor, another thing to highlight that students could anticipate finding on the Oxford MBA, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/writing-the-diversity-essay/]is an incredibly diverse cohort[/url]. Our student body is largely international. Our current class is 94% international, with 71 different nationalities represented across the class. Diversity of thought is something that’s very important to us at the Oxford MBA as well. We have a very broad range of different sector backgrounds represented in our cohort. That also means that students can expect a diverse range of career outcomes and also a global alumni network that will be very far-reaching in depth and breadth as well. And obviously access to the greater Oxford community network, correct? [4:00] Yes, absolutely, which largely comes from their college membership while they’re with us in Oxford. But in terms of that alumni network, absolutely. They gain the benefit of having a network that they will have via the business school and then obviously another network that comes via the university as well. One of the concerns with a one-year program is that maybe there won’t be an opportunity for an internship. It’s harder to make career changes. How would you address that concern? [4:26] Really good question and as I said at the beginning, the Oxford MBA is certainly not for the faint-hearted in that it does aim to kind of pack all of those different components into the 12 months that students are with us. We do have the option for students to do an internship when they are on the Oxford MBA. That comes in the summer semester of the program and where the students do have a bit of flexibility in choosing what they would like to spend that final semester on. Some students choose to do some additional electives at that point and to stay with us at Oxford, kind of gain the last couple of months of opportunity to benefit from being part of the wider university. But a good percentage of our students do choose to do an internship at that point, usually about 30 to 40% of the cohort. There’s also the option for students to do a strategic consultancy project at that point in the MBA as well. For any students who are looking to maybe pivot into consulting after the MBA, that’s a good opportunity for them to gain some practical, hands-on experience in that space as well. We find that a large percentage of our cohort does pivot after the program. I don’t have a precise figure for the cohort that just graduated, but it usually tends to be about 65% of the class that will pivot their career after the MBA, with 35% either accelerating or returning to the company that they were part of before they joined us. At this point, do people have any trouble going back to their home country? You said it’s 94% international at Oxford. What about those who want to stay in the UK? Is the UK open to students staying for a couple of years? [6:02] I should have said in relation to the internship, that’s not tied to the UK solely. We do have students who will go international for their internship opportunities if there is a particular market that they’re keen to move to post-MBA. In terms of the opportunity to remain in the UK once they have completed the program, that is something that’s popular with our students. So ordinarily, about 50% of our cohort will remain in Europe after the MBA, not specifically in the UK, but we do envision that the percentage that opts to remain in the UK will increase in the coming years, mainly due to the introduction of a new two-year post-study work visa that the UK government has recently introduced. Since the summer just passed, our MBA students have access to apply for that visa, and it means that they can work in the UK for two years after they graduate from a program without needing company sponsorship to do so. It’s a great opportunity for MBA students as a lot of them want to gain a couple of years of international exposure after they complete their MBA, and for employers as well because it means they have the chance to have someone be part of their organization for a couple of years, make sure they’re the right fit, and then potentially go on to sponsor them, if they see a role for that person within the organization long-term. It’s a really, really great opportunity for any MBA students who are keen to have the opportunity to stay in the UK after their MBA. You mentioned the college system at Oxford. That’s very different. Can you describe it? [7:44] It’s a really, really good question and definitely something that is unique to a small number of universities that offer MBAs. For anybody who’s not familiar with Oxford university, it’s essentially just set up or made up of academic departments and colleges. So for students who join us on the MBA, the academic department that they belong to is the Saïd Business School, and then in addition to their membership of the business school, they have the opportunity to become a member of one of Oxford university’s 39 colleges. The college benefits the experience in a number of different ways and is definitely a unique layer that’s added onto the MBA experience at Oxford. The main thing that it provides students with is access to an additional network, not just a network of different people who they’ll meet on the MBA, but people who are studying across a broad range of different subjects, essentially. Students find when they are at their college that if they attend a dinner or a lunch there, for example, they’ll sometimes be sitting opposite somebody who’s getting a PhD in astrophysics and beside somebody who is studying philosophy as an undergraduate. That opportunity to really broaden their horizons, to gain insights, have conversations with people from different backgrounds, focusing on different areas is something that really adds to their MBA experience. It adds a very traditional Oxfordian element to the year that they’re in Oxford. Anybody who has Googled Oxford and is familiar with those images of those historic beautiful college buildings will have an idea of what it’s like. Or if you’ve seen Harry Potter and are familiar with the famous dining hall scene. The college offers the opportunity to participate in that. Our MBA students will attend formal dinners at their colleges in those dining halls. They’ll have middle common rooms, where they’ll be able to meet and socialize with other students who are members of their college. They absolutely have access to sports and societies as well. So MBA students will frequently play sports for their college or join clubs and societies at their college as well. It gives them access to things like the Oxford Union, the world-famous debating society that is part of the university. A lot of MBA students get very actively involved in that for the year that they’re with us. I think the Oxford brand and the college allows us to attract speakers, guests from across the world that maybe students wouldn’t have access to until they come to somewhere like Oxford. I’ve had conversations with MBA students before who have mentioned that they have gone to a talk at their college or at the Oxford Union and have met the president of the country that they’ve come from. That’s not something that they would ever have had the opportunity to do in their home country, but somehow coming to Oxford has given them that opportunity as well. It really adds in that regard, and then obviously from a practical perspective as well, a lot of our students will source their accommodation, et cetera, via their college. They won’t live on the college campus, because that’s largely kept for undergraduate students, but their college will have accommodation options dotted around the city, and a large percentage of MBA students will access that. Are the colleges defined by a specific interest? Are they randomly assigned? Is it an affinity of some kind? [11:15] That’s something that MBA students will frequently ask as well because once you are admitted onto the MBA, you do have the opportunity to apply to become a member of a particular college, which a lot of students enjoy researching and deciding on. There are very, very small differences between them. I would say students will sometimes choose based on very practical reasons. The colleges will vary in terms of the number of MBA students that they admit, for example. So some of our students will want to become part of a college where they know that there’ll be a large number of MBA students. Other students want to be part of a college where they’ll have the opportunity to really expand their network and will go somewhere where there are hardly any MBA students. Sports is a big driver in terms of selecting colleges. So all colleges will have sports teams, but some colleges will maybe have a better reputation than others for performing well in certain sports. There’ll be aspects like that as well. A lot of students will look to alumni. So they’ll look at maybe famous people who have come through different colleges over the years, and the university obviously has quite an exciting, extensive range of alumni that it can boast to have. If you think of somewhere like Christchurch College, for example, that’s where Lewis Carroll was a lecturer and is apparently where he came up with the storyline for Alice in Wonderland. There’s all of that history and tradition, and all of the colleges will have their own unique stories that they can tell. So students will be attracted to different aspects of that. It’s a really exciting part of the MBA journey at Oxford. Once you are admitted to the program, the next step then is researching the colleges and deciding which one you might want to apply to and then starting to look at how that can add to your MBA experience. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] One of the trends in US MBA admissions is test optionality and test waivers. Any plan to go in that direction at Oxford Saïd? [30:12] No, not that I’m aware of. I would think for us at Saïd, we would probably be impacted in making a change like that by being part of the wider university. Students are applying to us at the business school, but they are applying to a program of the university and there are some requirements that we would have to probably apply to the university if we wanted to change them, which could be quite a tricky process. We would be slightly limited that way, but I don’t think there’s an appetite for that at the business school, to be honest. I think for us, the GMAT and GRE scores are an important indication of a candidate’s ability in relation to being able to participate in the program. Because we review applications holistically, we have a very broad range of scores represented across the cohort so I don’t think that there’s a need for us to eliminate the tests. We have students who apply to the program where you can’t actually even take the GMAT in the country that they currently live in so we do review the scores with a regional lens from that perspective and take that into account when we’re reviewing applications. For us, there’s no sense that a GMAT or a GRE score really impedes a candidate from being considered for a place on the program, and so as a result we don’t really have an appetite to get rid of the scores. What would you say to applicants who want to apply this year? They’d love to start with the next cohort, but they’re concerned about applying late. [31:55] Our stage three deadline is passed so candidates can no longer apply in that stage but we have one stage remaining. I would say if you are somebody who is tied to starting your MBA in September 2022 for either personal or professional reasons, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/should-you-apply-to-b-school-round-3-or-next-year-2/]then I would absolutely encourage you to apply in stage four[/url]. I understand people’s hesitancy around that. It is a more competitive application stage than some of the earlier stages, and there is a smaller amount of scholarship and funding opportunity for candidates who apply at that stage in the process. However, candidates who have strong applications for the program will be admitted regardless of the stage that they apply. There will be spaces available, and if you are somebody who has a strong application ready to go and you are committed to starting your MBA in September 2022, then I would absolutely encourage you, by all means, to go for stage four. If you are somebody who isn’t tied to a September 2022 start and you have the option to start in September 2023 and there are no cons to doing so, then there are obviously advantages to applying in the earlier stages of the next application cycle. But certainly, if that’s not an option for you and you’re ready to go in terms of having your application already ready at this point, then we would absolutely encourage you to apply in stage four. Okay, great. What advice would you give someone thinking of a fall 2022 or later application? [33:45] I would say start planning early. Particularly if you are somebody who is coming to maybe the GMAT or GRE as a fresh starter, you don’t have a score already, make sure that you give yourself enough time to prepare for those tests. We recommend usually about three months, if you’re starting from scratch, to do prep to give yourself a chance to come through with a competitive score. You also maybe want to give yourself a window to potentially take the test again in advance of the stage deadline. We often find candidates are scoring quite well on practice tests, but then when they come to sit for real, for whatever reason, their score drops a little bit. Giving yourself that window of opportunity to maybe sit again can be good in advance of an application, and that’s certainly not something that’s frowned upon. I think sometimes candidates worry that it looks bad if they take the GMAT or GRE a number of times. It’s absolutely the opposite. It shows a level of perseverance and dedication to wanting to put your best foot forward in terms of an MBA application. That’s absolutely not viewed negatively by the committee at Saïd in any regard. So planning in terms of your GMAT, GRE. [url=https://blog.accepted.com/mba_application_timeline_how_to_get_accepted/]READ: MBA Application Timeline: How to Get Accepted in 2022 >>[/url] I would also say planning in terms of funding is important. There are a large number of scholarship opportunities available at Oxford, but I think it’s good for candidates even in that early stage to start thinking about how they’re going to finance their MBA and if they are somebody who’s admitted to the program who’s not successful in securing a scholarship that they’re aware maybe of what their options are in terms of other funding opportunities. It’s good to do that research in advance of your application as well. [url=https://blog.accepted.com/which-mba-program-is-right-for-me-the-ultimate-guide-to-choosing-an-mba-program/]Research, in general[/url], is important. Certainly do your research around the business school with a view to working out if you feel it’s the right place for you, but don’t let that research impact your application too much. Don’t try to shoehorn yourself into the type of candidate that you think we’re looking for based on that research. Use it as a guide for you to make sure that you think Saïd is a place that you would fit and a place that you would benefit from the program. But then, as I said earlier, just aim to be yourself through the application. What would you have liked me to ask you? [36:08] Oh, that’s a good question. Interestingly, I would say that something that candidates often want to ask us about or maybe that we don’t address in terms of the events that we run are rankings. I know it’s something that is really important to candidates when they are researching MBA programs. As I said earlier, we know that candidates are looking at a number of different schools, and ranking obviously plays a part in terms of the schools that they are looking at. We do sometimes have candidates who will reach out to us and say, “The business school looks great. The MBA looks great. But [url=https://blog.accepted.com/busting-2-mba-myths/]your ranking is lower than some of the other schools that I’m looking at[/url].” For us, it’s an area that we should talk about a bit more in terms of why the school ranks where it does and our feelings around that, which I think are largely based around what the school is all about and what we’re trying to do with the MBA program. As I said, we’re trying to create responsible business leaders who are going to go on and take on world-scale challenges as they move across their careers in the future. The diversity that we have in our cohort leads obviously to diversity in terms of career choices in the future as well, and that leads to a diversity of salaries maybe that other business schools don’t have. For people who aren’t aware, salaries play a big part in terms of business school ranking, which is something that impacts Saïd quite strongly. I think because we feel very strongly about what we’re trying to do with our MBA program and about the skills and the ideas that we’re trying to instill in our students, we embrace that diversity and what we’re trying to do over a higher ranking, which we could probably go for if we really wanted to. The school ranks well in a number of areas that are really important to us. One of the things that I haven’t touched on is gender diversity in our MBA cohort. Saïd always ranks really high in terms of the female representation that you’ll find on our MBA. 44% of our current class is female. 47% of our last cohort was female, and we’re pushing all the time to move towards 50% representation in our MBA class. We’ll always rank really high in rankings in that regard. We always rank really well as well in terms of achieving aims. Students who come to our program score the school really highly in that regard as well. Those are things that we maybe value a little bit more. That’s something that candidates would probably not have expected me to say is something that I would’ve liked to have been asked about, but I do think it’s an important part of the conversation, because it is something that candidates will look at when they’re thinking about applying to a school, and it’s good maybe to give them a sense of why Saïd doesn’t rank as highly as maybe they would be anticipating it to. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Oxford Saïd’s full-time MBA program? [39:53] [url=https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/programmes/mbas]Our website[/url] is probably the best place for students to go. You can download our brochure there. We also have an events page on our website that we would really recommend prospective candidates look at. We run a number of different virtual events across the year that we would absolutely love for people to join if they are interested in learning a bit more about the program, and then obviously very happy to have any listeners reach out to me via LinkedIn as well if they are interested in learning more about the Oxford MBA. [url=https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/457_Hannah-Griffiths_2022.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ListenToTheShow.png[/img][/url] [b]Related Links:[/b] [list][*][url=https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/programmes/mbas]Oxford Said MBA Program[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/oxford-said-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Oxford Said MBA Essay Tips[/url][/*][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/maximize-your-chances-of-acceptance]How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance[/url], a webinar[/*][*][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/consulting?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=podcast457_hannah_griffiths_oxford_said_2022&utm_source=blog]Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services[/url][/*][/list] [b]Related shows:[/b] [list][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/why-is-this-successful-leader-investing-in-an-oxford-said-executive-mba-episode-454/]Why Is This Successful Leader Investing In an Oxford Said Executive MBA?[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/would-you-like-to-improve-your-language-skills-episode-446/]Would You Like to Improve Your Language Skills?[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/what-prospective-mbas-need-to-know-about-applying-to-insead-episode-417/]What Prospective MBAs Need to Know About Applying to INSEAD[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/what-to-expect-from-the-mba-experience-at-cambridge-judge-business-school-episode-407/]What to Expect from the MBA Experience at Cambridge Judge Business School[/url][/*][/list] [b]Subscribe:[/b] [url=https://www.accepted.com/stitcher][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/admissions-straight-talk-stitcher.png[/img][/url] [url=https://subscribeonandroid.com/blog.accepted.com/feed/podcast/][img]https://assets.blubrry.com/soa/BadgeLarge.png[/img][/url] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590.png[/img][/url] [url=https://blog.accepted.com/feed/podcast/][b]Podcast Feed[/b][/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-accepted-to-oxford-said-business-school-episode-457/]How to Get Accepted to Oxford Said Business School [Episode 457][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
17 Feb 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Financial Times Ranks Wharton as #1 in 2022 Rankings |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Financial_Times_Wharton_1_CTA.jpg[/img] [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/selectivity-index][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Financial_Times_Wharton_1_CTA.jpg[/img][/url] The [url=https://rankings.ft.com/rankings/2866/mba-2022]Financial Times[/url] has released its global rankings of the best MBA programs and has considerably shuffled the deck. Several top-ranked programs fell several notches, while others rose considerably. For the first time since 2011, Wharton has returned to its status as #1 in FT’s list. Other programs that made giant strides in the rankings include Columbia Business School (ranked 8th in 2020), and [url=https://blog.accepted.com/kellogg-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Kellogg (Northwestern)[/url], now #5 (11th place in 2020). One reason for such huge fluctuations was that five of the top U.S. programs ([url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/harvard-business-school?hsLang=en]Harvard[/url], [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/stanford-graduate-school-of-business]Stanford[/url], [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-wharton?hsLang=en]Wharton[/url], [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/mit-ama]MIT[/url], and [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-columbia-business-school]Columbia[/url]) were not listed at all last year at all, skewing that year’s results. Other highly rated programs that suffered serious tumbles in the rankings include [url=https://blog.accepted.com/london-business-school-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]London Business School[/url], [url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-an-mba-from-dartmouth-tuck-episode-430/]Tuck (Dartmouth)[/url], and [url=https://blog.accepted.com/uva-darden-executive-mba-essay-tips-and-deadlines/]UVA Darden[/url]. In fact, 69 of the 91 schools ranked fell in the rankings, many of them by double digits. Compared with last year, many of these schools’ rankings looked like riders on a roller coaster, with some plunging far below and others rising by as much as 20 points to unprecedented heights. As we have cautioned before, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/do-mba-rankings-matter/]it’s vital to keep these rankings in perspective[/url]. They are based on many variables that have little or nothing to do with the quality of the curricula per se. 2022 RankSchool2021 RankY-O-Y Change 1[url=https://blog.accepted.com/wharton-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]UPenn Wharton[/url]N/AN/A 2[url=https://blog.accepted.com/columbia-business-school-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Columbia[/url]N/AN/A 3[url=https://blog.accepted.com/what-prospective-mbas-need-to-know-about-applying-to-insead-episode-417/]INSEAD[/url]1-2 3[url=https://blog.accepted.com/harvard-business-school-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/] Harvard[/url]N/AN/A 5[url=https://blog.accepted.com/kellogg-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Northwestern Kellogg[/url]6-1 6[url=https://blog.accepted.com/stanford-gsb-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Stanford GSB[/url]N/AN/A 7[url=https://blog.accepted.com/chicago-booth-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Chicago Booth[/url]3-4 8[url=https://blog.accepted.com/london-business-school-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]London Business School[/url]2-6 9[url=https://blog.accepted.com/yale-som-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Yale SOM[/url]4-5 10IESE4-6 11HEC Paris7-4 11[url=https://blog.accepted.com/mit-sloan-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]MIT Sloan[/url]N/AN/A 13SDA Bocconi SOM12-1 14[url=https://blog.accepted.com/nyu-stern-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]NYU Stern[/url]13-1 14[url=https://blog.accepted.com/uc-berkeley-haas-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]UC-Berkeley Haas[/url]N/AN/A 16CEIBS7-9 17[url=https://blog.accepted.com/cornell-sc-johnson-college-of-business-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Cornell Johnson[/url]15-2 18[url=https://blog.accepted.com/dartmouth-tuck-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Dartmouth Tuck[/url]10-8 19[url=https://blog.accepted.com/duke-fuqua-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Duke Fuqua[/url]9-10 20[url=https://blog.accepted.com/uva-darden-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]UVA Darden[/url]11-9 21Nat’l Univ. of Singapore14-7 22[url=https://blog.accepted.com/cambridge-judge-mba-application-tips-deadlines/]Cambridge Judge[/url]16-6 23[url=https://blog.accepted.com/cmu-tepper-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]CMU Tepper[/url]27+4 24[url=https://blog.accepted.com/michigan-ross-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Michigan Ross[/url]21-3 25USC Marshall24-1 26[url=https://blog.accepted.com/ucla-anderson-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]UCLA Anderson[/url]N/AN/A 27[url=https://blog.accepted.com/georgetown-mcdonough-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Georgetown McDonough[/url]17-10 28IMD19-9 29WU Olin25-4 30[url=https://blog.accepted.com/university-of-washington-foster-school-of-business-essay-tips-and-deadlines/]UW Foster[/url]28-2 [b]Do you see yourself in one of these top programs? Find out how working one-on-one with one of our Admissions Consultants can [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=FT_2022_rankings&utm_source=blog]help get you ACCEPTED[/url]![/b] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/6f59af66-a942-476e-a35a-feafe5c6a5c2][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/6f59af66-a942-476e-a35a-feafe5c6a5c2.png[/img][/url] By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools. [b][url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_Judy&utm_source=blog]Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/url][/b] [b]Related Resources:[/b] [list][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba-admissions-report]Top 10 or Bust: Dispelling 2 MBA Myths[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/mba-programs-go-stem-certified/]Top MBA Programs Get STEM-Certified to Attract Int’l Students[/url][/*][*][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/selectivity-index]B-School Selectivity Index: Discover the Schools Where You are a Competitive Applicant[/url][/*][/list] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/financial-times-international-mba-rankings/]Financial Times Ranks Wharton as #1 in 2022 Rankings[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
20 Feb 2022, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Revise and Polish Your Application Essays |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ex2Ex-5_2022.jpg[/img] [url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/from-example-to-exemplary-guide][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ex2Ex-5_2022.jpg[/img][/url] You’ve got your first draft ready – this is a great milestone! Now it’s time to revise and edit. Outstanding essays are not sprung into the world on the first draft. Here’s how to [url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_revise_polish_your_essays&utm_source=article]edit and polish until your essay shines[/url]: [b]1. Let your essay rest for a day or two[/b], particularly after an intensive writing session. You’ll return to your writing with fresh eyes and undoubtedly see ways to strengthen it immediately. One of the most common problems plaguing application essays is bland, forgettable prose. As you look at your essay again, look for and root out [url=https://blog.accepted.com/generic-itis-prevention/]generic writing[/url], such as in the following sentence: “Although I have been responsible for a lot of exciting projects, I want to move into management, which may not happen on my current path.” What kind of projects? What made them exciting? Why wouldn’t a management path be open to the writer? Has this been explained? Let’s resuscitate this prose by adding appropriate [b]details[/b]. “My role as a product manager for a mid-sized giftware business has allowed me to develop my creativity as well as communication and market research skills. As exciting as it has been to have helped plan and release our innovative kitchen giftware, whose designs are based on famous Impressionist paintings, I want to move more into management, which seems unlikely at this family-owned and managed company.” Adding details takes more room but it makes your essay come alive. It is so important, in fact, that it’s better to write about fewer examples but flesh each out in greater detail than to write a laundry list of vague accomplishments or character traits you feel you possess. “[url=https://blog.accepted.com/showing-strengths-in-application-essays/]Show, don’t tell[/url],” remains a cardinal rule in writing. [b]2. Ditch the passive voice[/b] – this will further enliven and tighten your writing. “Negotiations over the extent of the website design were carried out by a team of managers and myself, representing the technical team.” This passive construction is draggy. Move the “doer” of the action to the head of the sentence for a resulting sentence that makes you sound like a leader (and is five words shorter): “I represented the technical team in negotiations with management over the extent of the website design.” [b]3.[/b] [b]Read your essay aloud.[/b] When you listen to your essay, you’ll likely catch small mistakes that you inadvertently missed during the editing process and that you may also easily miss when reading silently. Reading aloud, you will also hear which sentences can benefit from some tightening, expanding, or other improvements. [b]4.[/b] [b]Assess for overall quality control.[/b] Has your essay achieved the goal you set out for it? Do you sound like the irresistibly focused, thoughtful, and energetic individual you want to sound like? Make sure that the voice you created on the page resonates positively. [b]Summary Tips:[/b] [list][*]Wait a day after writing a draft so you can return to it with a fresh perspective. [/*][*]Look for instances of bland writing or passive voice, then replace with more specific, active prose. [/*][*]Read your essay aloud so you can hear any weak spots, as well as hear the overall voice you have created. Does your essay meet your goals? If not, keep revising and enlist an experienced editor to help get you to the finish line.[/*][/list] Conclusion [url=https://blog.accepted.com/tag/example-to-exemplary/]If you have read this whole series[/url], congratulations! You’ve taken an important step toward planning, drafting, and editing a successful application essay. Now it’s time to move from general tips to personalized advice tailored just for you. Here’s how it works: [list][*][url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_revise_polish_your_essays&utm_source=blog]Explore our admissions consulting & editing services[/url] and find the option that best suits your needs. [/*][*]You will partner with an admissions expert who will work with you directly to help you discover your competitive advantage and use it to get accepted to your dream school. [/*][*]Shoot us an email letting us know when you’ve been accepted. It makes our day![/*][/list] Need help figuring out which service is best for you? [url=https://www.accepted.com/how-can-we-help?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_revise_polish_your_essays&utm_source=blog]Click here for more guidance.[/url] [url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_revise_polish_your_essays&utm_source=blog][b]GET ACCEPTED![/b][/url] [b]Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application when you [url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_revise_polish_your_essays&utm_source=blog]check out our catalog of application services[/url]. Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay.[/b] [url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=ex2ex_revise_polish_your_essays&utm_source=blog][img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/TgNM2uk2Qd0PqViWH1JIpVpw1tF49owaJECaz1HBCWv6Be4OAlNH5GayVY_X_r6eeAhXlm7zGc6O2nA5ti2CD3ZX9Kv3be5nco_HnUPwOsiOP_O2alp5Y0ScGyNiqPTFc9DTuy8B[/img][/url] By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools. [b][url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_Judy&utm_source=blog]Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/url][/b] [b]Related Resources:[/b] • [url=https://reports.accepted.com/five-fatal-flaws-grad-school-statement-of-purpose]Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Personal Statement[/url], a free guide • [url=https://blog.accepted.com/showing-strengths-in-application-essays/]3 Tips for Showing Strengths in Your Application Essays[/url] • [url=https://blog.accepted.com/bring-your-personal-statement-to-life-with-vivid-active-verbs/]Bring Your Personal Statement to Life With Vivid, Active Verbs[/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/from-example-to-exemplary-5-revise-and-polish-your-essays/]Revise and Polish Your Application Essays[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
23 Feb 2022, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Build Your Blueprint for MBA Application Success in 2022 |
 Did you miss our recent webinar, How to Maximize Your Chances of Acceptance (and Reduce Your Stress!) Before the 2022 MBA Application Season? This comprehensive expert presentation on creating an effective, long-term game plan for your b-school application is now available to watch. Be smart, lower your stress and get the tools you need to maximize your chances of acceptance into your top choice program. Watch the recording here! For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! The post Build Your Blueprint for MBA Application Success in 2022 appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
15 Mar 2022, 09:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Get Accepted to UW’s Foster School of Business |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Amber_Janke_Feb_2022.jpg[/img] [url=https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/461_Amber-Janke_2022.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Amber_Janke_Feb_2022.jpg[/img][/url] All you need to know about UW’s Foster MBA program [Show Summary] Amber Janke, Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions at Foster School of Business shares everything potential applicants should know about the collaborative MBA program. Amber Janke, Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions at Foster School of Business talks about how to get accepted [Show Notes] Welcome to the 461st episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for listening. You’ve seen the stats that most people have a great return on their MBA investment, but what about you individually? Are you going to see that return? How much is it likely to be? We created a tool that will help you assess whether the MBA is likely to be a good investment for you individually. Just go to [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/roi-calculator]www.accepted.com/mbaroicalc[/url], complete the brief questionnaire, and you’ll not only get an assessment but also the opportunity to calculate different scenarios. It gives me great pleasure to have [url=https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/461_Amber-Janke_2022.mp3]for the first time on Admissions Straight Talk, Amber Janke[/url]. Amber earned her BA at Chapman University and then went to NYU, where she earned her MA in Higher Education Administration and Student Affairs. She also started her career in higher ed as the Assistant Director of Admissions at NYU. She moved to Foster as Associate Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions in 2016, and became the Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions for Foster School of Business in 2019. Can you give a basic overview of the Full-time MBA Program at Foster for listeners who may not be that familiar with it? [2:24] Absolutely. We have your classic two-year [url=https://blog.accepted.com/university-of-washington-foster-school-of-business-essay-tips-and-deadlines/]Full-time MBA Program here at the Foster School[/url]. The first year is very focused on a strong MBA foundation. It’s focused on leadership, teamwork, and we’re very big on hands-on experiential learning here at Foster. You get that in the first-year curriculum. In the second year, our students get to choose the elective courses that best suit their career goals. We don’t have specific concentrations or areas of studies that students are required to choose. Instead, they really get to customize their degree in a way that makes sense for their career goals. Do students graduate with a concentration? [3:09] They don’t graduate with a concentration, they graduate with an MBA, but we really encourage them to share the things that they’ve learned and worked on, on their resumes. Is the first year lockstep, where students are with the same cohort? [3:27] Yes, we are a lockstep program. We’re a pretty small cohort. We typically have no more than about 125-130 students. We’re very focused on community and culture here at Foster. Our students are very big on helping each other achieve their goals. Our students are very driven and want to make a positive impact on the world, but they also want to help others do the same and it’s something that I think is pretty special here at the Foster School. What don’t people know about Foster that you would want them to know? Is there a myth out there about Foster that you would like to dispel? [4:04] I think there is an impression, and there is some truth to it, that there is a lot of interest and placement in technology, post-MBA here at Foster. We certainly have the benefit of having many technology companies right in our backyard. Our students are interested in that, but we also have really strong placement in marketing, consulting, and finance as well. That’s one thing that I think sometimes people are a little bit surprised about. While we have a lot of students who pursue careers at those companies post-MBA here in Washington, we also have students that are working across the US as well. We have an expansion across the US. Where do most of your grads go outside of Seattle? [4:59] California, Chicago, New York City. We’ve seen more placement in other areas in the country as well. Does Foster have any plans to consider the Executive Assessment Exam? [5:37] That’s a good question. I know I’m here to talk about the Full-time MBA Program today, but we also have an evening MBA program, which is based on our Full-time MBA Program. It’s a very similar experience, they also get access to the same career resources as our Full-time MBA Program. We are currently accepting the Executive Assessment for our evening program. We are going to see how that goes and we might consider it for full-time in the future but right now the Full-time MBA Program doesn’t accept the Executive Assessment. Who would you advise to apply without a test score? [6:12] We have a [url=https://foster.uw.edu/academics/degree-programs/full-time-mba/admissions/faq/]long FAQ[/url] on our website, which I encourage people to go take a look at but I’ll try to summarize a bit of it today. We think there is some value in the GRE and the GMAT, and that’s why we still encourage people to take it. We also understand that people may come from experiences or backgrounds that already show that proficiency and the exam might not be as helpful to them. Or that people may have had trouble accessing the exam, especially with COVID these past two years. We wanted to create a pathway and an opportunity for people to show quantitative and analytical readiness outside of an exam. We ask our applicants to answer two questions in the application if they’re choosing to apply Test-Optional. One is, “How have you shown readiness through your prior academic experience?” The second is, “How have you shown quantum analytical readiness through your professional experience?” Then we review the application based on the information that is provided to us. It really is a personal decision. It’s different than a waiver because I know a lot of schools are doing waivers. Instead of the school making the decision for the applicant, the applicant is making the decision on how they can best present their application. We felt like that was important. They know their background and their skills and their candidacy best, and so we want them to be able to have the opportunity to provide that information to us. We also have admissions counselors who are happy to meet one-on-one if applicants are trying to decide, “[url=https://blog.accepted.com/should-you-take-the-gre-or-gmat-for-test-optional-mba-programs/]Am I a good fit to apply Test-Optional?[/url]” You can absolutely schedule a time to meet one-on-one with us as well. This is our first year doing Test-Optional so we are definitely learning, and we are committed to doing this for at least two years here at Foster. We’ll see how that goes in the future. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] Can you give us some insight into what happens to an application after the applicant hits submit? How are the applications processed and evaluated to determine who actually receives an interview invitation? [10:45] I will add, just to back up for a moment and share a little bit more about what we’re looking for. We are also looking for our students to learn from one another. We expect students to come in with some level of expertise or knowledge or experience that they’re going to contribute to the cohort certainly. That is something that we consider when we’re looking at applications. As I mentioned, we have that holistic review. Once people hit Submit, there are a couple of things that happen. One is, once they hit submit, they’ll receive a follow-up from us and they’ll be invited to do the video admissions interview. Everyone is invited to do that video interview. People are asked two questions as part of that. It is really meant to get to know applicants a little bit more to see how they think on their feet. Once we receive that video interview submission, our admissions committee sits down and starts to review applications holistically. We’re looking at every aspect of their application and determining who is competitive to move forward to interview. It’s tough because we receive a lot of applications, and we cannot move everyone forward to an admissions interview. It just isn’t possible with the number of hours in the day. It is a competitive pool, and so we are really looking for people who demonstrate academic readiness, who show readiness in terms of their career, you don’t have to be a leader yet, but [url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/leadership-in-admissions-2]you want to show leadership potential[/url]. Looking at other aspects, have you done your research into the program? What can you share with us about it? Not just why you want an MBA, but why you want an MBA from Foster. Once you’re invited to interview, there are some other steps in the process as well. What’s the purpose of the video essay? [12:46] It’s really just to allow the admissions committee to see how people think on their feet and allows people to share a little bit about themselves personally. There are no trick questions as part of the video interviews. There are questions about people’s experiences, but just so that we can get a sense of the applicant outside of their written application. It’s a chance for us to learn a little bit more about how they communicate and who they are. What can applicants expect if they’re lucky enough to get invited for an interview? [13:32] I will say our admissions team loves doing interviews. We do something that’s a little different than some other programs, in that it is the core full-time admissions team that is doing the interviews. We don’t have students doing interviews. We don’t have alumni doing interviews. We have the admissions committee doing the interviews. It’s one-on-one, though some of our other programs at Foster have more of a team aspect, which is fun, but for the Full-time MBA Program, it is a one-on-one interview really meant to learn more about you. Candidates should approach it as a job interview, but expect some questions that are going to be a little bit different than you might receive in a job interview. Of course, we’re wanting to learn more about their [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/why-mba]MBA goals[/url], what they’re looking for in an MBA Program, etc. There are no trick questions. I always tell applicants when they’re nervous that this is about them. They’re an expert in themselves. They should already be ready to answer the questions. And really, we’re looking for that potential to join the program in the admissions interview. [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/f71ec6dd-5f29-4c17-83c2-9a4afd585b19][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/f71ec6dd-5f29-4c17-83c2-9a4afd585b19.png[/img][/url] What’s the most common mistake you see applicants make in the application process? [15:21] I have a couple that I want to share. One is not being authentic in your application. I think sometimes people believe that the admissions committee wants to hear just one thing or a certain thing. Really what we’re trying to do is [url=https://blog.accepted.com/admissions-tip/]get to know each individual applicant authentically[/url]. We want to know who you are. We want to know what your goals and dreams are, we want to know who you truly are and what your experiences have been. Time and time again, I’ll talk with an applicant for an info interview and they say, “Well, my friends are telling me I shouldn’t share this very lofty goal.” And I tell them, “Well, you should think about what you really want to achieve. Certainly have a Plan B, but if that’s really what you want to achieve, you’re going to want to share that as part of your application.” That is one thing, people feeling as though they can’t be authentic in their application and I would encourage you to do so because if you aren’t authentic, we’ll be able to see that in an interview. So that’s really important. The second is just not doing research on the program ahead of time. We know you want an MBA, but why do you want a Foster MBA? We’re a small program. We can help you achieve certain things. We want to know that people really want to be part of this type of program, but you’ve got to do the research on your end as well. It’s not just about the MBA. It’s about what you are looking for in an MBA experience, and doing some of the [url=https://blog.accepted.com/focus-fit-episode-162/]research ahead of time to learn if you think a program might be a right fit for you[/url]. You don’t have to have it all figured it out yet, that’s part of the MBA application process. But start to do some of the work on your end to really understand not just why you want an MBA, but why you want an MBA from Foster or maybe another program. I sometimes talk to applicants who will say they want to work for Microsoft or Amazon or some other company. Does that lead you to believe why they want it? Would your response be that’s a good reason or would you be looking for more details? [17:30] Certainly, those are part of people’s goals and they might have certain companies or roles in mind, but an MBA program is not just about what you do immediately post-MBA. It’s about what the experience is for the two years that you’re here. It’s about what you want to gain, how you want to learn, want to grow for five years, 10 years down the line. You might not have a sense of exactly where that journey is going to take you, but I think having that sense of understanding what a program can help you achieve and what you’re going to be able to contribute and learn from a program is really helpful too. My piece of advice that I always give applicants, and I definitely have borrowed this from one of our assistant deans who has since retired, is that you want to find a program where you can thrive. That’s what I really see for our students here at Foster. We want students who are going to come here to make an impact, and really be able to take advantage of all those opportunities now and later, because that’s something that we see as a true benefit to our community. It’s not just about what’s happening with our students now. It’s our alums who come back, it’s what’s happening in the greater Seattle community, or the greater business community, where we see our students making an impact. I think that’s really important. What surprises your students most when they start at Foster? [19:32] We really are trying to do our best to make sure that people have all the information as they prepare for the program, and really understand everything before they come to Foster. I think something that may be surprising is that the collaboration is not just lip service. We truly are a very collaborative community here at Foster. I actually received a note from one of our current first-year students who said, “I knew that Foster was a place where I wanted to be, and I knew that the community was really important, but I didn’t anticipate how my classmates would be so helpful.” I think people understand it in theory and in concept, but when you see it in practice in the classroom that may be a little bit of a surprise. I don’t know if that’s unique to Foster as much as how instrumental an MBA experience can be, but certainly, it’s something that we are very focused on here at Foster. This question is from an international student: How do you consider international students who apply to universities and cannot pay at least 5% to 10% of the fees? Do you get irritated? [21:07] No, not at all. We’re not irritated. Seattle is a global city. Our MBA program is a global program. We want international students. [url=https://blog.accepted.com/different-dimensions-diversity-episode-193/]We want different voices[/url], different experiences in our classroom. We know that people are coming from all different sorts of backgrounds. Everyone who applies to the Foster MBA Program is automatically considered for scholarship. That is something that we consider. We have been fortunate to receive some more scholarship funding in recent years so while not every single student receives a scholarship, a significant amount of students do, and if we’re able to offer in-state tuition, we do try to do that as part of a scholarship package. What advice do you have for applicants applying this cycle, and who are denied and they want to reapply? [22:06] We always encourage reapplicants to reach out to us over the summer. We say this in our email as well, but you can set up a time to meet with an admissions counselor one-on-one. We’re not going to be able to give you specific feedback on your application, but we can talk to you about what you think you can do better, how to address reapplying and how you can really show your best self in the application. Every year we admit somebody who’s a reapplicant. I just want to encourage people that just because this year didn’t work out, doesn’t mean next year won’t work out. It can be dependent on the applicant pool. Maybe an additional year of work experience is really going to give you some valuable experiences that you didn’t even realize were going to be helpful for your application the next year. [url=https://blog.accepted.com/reapplying-to-business-school-how-to-do-it-right-the-second-time-around/]I encourage you to reapply[/url] and to reach out to us if you plan to do so. Should wait-listed applicants provide you with updates when they have something to say? [23:38] Yes. We actually tried to demystify this a couple of years ago because we realized we weren’t explicitly telling people, “Yes, you can follow up with us with the updates.” So now it is stated in our waitlist notification that they can absolutely reach out to us. What advice would you give to someone thinking ahead to a fall 2022 or later application? [24:14] I would say it’s never too early to reach out and start getting to know the Foster School. We are just starting to open up to in-person events on campus, which we’re very excited about. Washington state is starting to open up some restrictions so we’re hopeful that in the spring, we’ll start to offer a couple of in-person events. Then as we roll into summer and the fall, we hope to bring back more of the events that we’ve had in person. Though of course, I think you’ve probably heard this from other schools as well, virtual has given a lot of access. Our virtual events have given a lot of access to folks, but we would like to be able to bring people back on campus. Our students are on campus, but we just haven’t been able to open it up to guests yet. I hope that we’re going to be able to do so shortly. We have an event for our part-time MBA program coming up next week so we’re super excited to see how that goes and then moving forward, we hope to open up more. Is there anything you would’ve liked me to ask you? [25:30] That’s a good question. I think one thing that I didn’t touch upon is just about how amazing our faculty here at Foster is. Our faculty are doing really amazing research in their fields, but they’re also amazing teachers, they know our students on a first-name basis, and they’re invested in their success. When I talk about that student community that is invested in one another, the faculty and the staff are a part of that too. I think that being part of a small community like that – where faculty knows your name or they invite you over to dinner – that’s a pretty amazing experience for students. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about UW Foster’s Full-time MBA Program? [26:22] They can go to [url=https://foster.uw.edu]foster.uw.edu[/url], and you can visit us on our Full-time MBA site. [url=https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/461_Amber-Janke_2022.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ListenToTheShow.png[/img][/url] [b]Related links:[/b] [list][*][url=https://foster.uw.edu/academics/degree-programs/full-time-mba/]UW Foster School of Business MBA[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/university-of-washington-foster-school-of-business-essay-tips-and-deadlines/]UW Foster School of Business MBA Essay Tips and Deadline[/url][/*][*][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/roi-calculator]MBA ROI Calculator[/url][/*][*][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/consulting?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=podcast461_amber_janke_foster_2022&utm_source=blog]Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services[/url][/*][/list] [b]Related shows:[/b] [list][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/get-accepted-to-ut-austin-mccombs-episode-452/]UT McCombs Interview with Rodrigo Malta[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/what-makes-yale-som-unique-episode-442/]What Makes Yale SOM Unique?[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/this-london-business-school-mbas-startup-is-protecting-your-online-privacy-episode-393/]This London Business School MBA’s Startup Is Protecting Your Online Privacy[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/duke-enrolls-its-strongest-mba-class-ever-hear-from-its-admissions-dean-episode-434/]Duke Fuqua Interview with Shari Hubert[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-into-darden-mba-episode-439/]UVA Darden Interview with Dawna Clarke[/url][/*][/list] [b]Subscribe:[/b] [url=https://www.accepted.com/stitcher][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/admissions-straight-talk-stitcher.png[/img][/url] [url=https://subscribeonandroid.com/blog.accepted.com/feed/podcast/][img]https://assets.blubrry.com/soa/BadgeLarge.png[/img][/url] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/c02bd076-c5e2-45e6-b09d-9c5e3065ccd6][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/c02bd076-c5e2-45e6-b09d-9c5e3065ccd6.png[/img][/url] [url=https://blog.accepted.com/feed/podcast/][b]Podcast Feed[/b][/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/get-accepted-to-uws-foster-school-of-business-episode-461/]Get Accepted to UW’s Foster School of Business [Episode 461][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
17 Mar 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Trevor’s Journey from Hawaii High School Teacher to University of Arizona Full-Time MBA Student |
 Learn how real students and recent grads have navigated their way through the business school admissions process and b-school itself with our What is Business School Really Like? series. Meet Trevor, a full-time MBA student at U. of Arizona. Trevor’s journey to his MBA speaks to his personal values of Respect, Honesty, Diligence, and Aloha. Trevor, thank you for sharing your story with us! Let’s start at the beginning… Where did you go to undergrad and what did you major in? Trevor: I completed my undergrad at the University of Hawaii at Manoa for my Bachelor’s in Secondary Education-English Language Arts and my Master’s in Educational Foundations. As a school teacher, what was your inspiration or epiphany for deciding to pursue an MBA? Trevor: My inspiration was twofold. First, I wanted to be able to build generational wealth so my family would not have to struggle like we did when I was a kid. As I looked 20 years on the horizon, my salary as a teacher would still be significantly less than many entry level tech roles. Second, I knew what I did in my classroom mattered—I absolutely loved teaching. Though, I knew I could inspire more kids by scaling my reach…I had no idea how I would do it (I still don’t!), but I took the leap anyway. During the application process, you were also working full-time. What did that look like and how were you able to balance it all? Trevor: Truth be told, I struggled balancing working 60 hours a week as a teacher/advisor with trying to study for the GMAT and work through the application process. Realistically, this looked like waking up at 4am to lesson plan, prep my classroom, grade papers, and work on student council advisor tasks and working till 5pm, then study and research till about 8 or 9pm…usually the first one in and last one out of work. Not a glamorous experience, but one that humbled me and prepared me for the rigorous MBA program! Which “tools” – such as an app, technique, lifehack, website, guide, mantra, or advice – got you through the application process and into your target school? Trevor: Find your outlets. I had such an amazing group of support around me, and I could not be more grateful. From my boss bringing me food when she saw me working late to students surprising me with coffee to get through a tough day—your support system matters. I was never the academic with the best test scores (GMAT included!) or a student with natural talent, but I was always an “outwork anyone” kind of person. My advice would be to remember your “why” and keep that close to you as you embark on challenging endeavors. Every day I had the privilege of seeing my students work hard for their future, and I got to work alongside them on my own personal goals, too! There are so many factors that go into accepting an offer at an MBA program! Which metrics did you use and what was most important to you? Trevor: Let’s not pretend I got accepted into a Top 10 MBA program (because I did not!), but I did get accepted to a few great schools. I had no idea what I wanted to do after I graduate, which made the decision even more scary. I used two “metrics” to decide:
Let’s revisit the day you got your acceptance letter, we’re anxious to know how you celebrated. Trevor: Senior Luau Night (like a Prom), but for my students in Hawaii we did it a bit different. We had Kolohe Kai (one of Hawaii’s biggest artists) standing by, and a hundred kids dressed in aloha attire ready for a night of fun. An event that my student council team worked on for 2 years. It’s Showtime! Then a random call from Tucson, Arizona comes in. With a fire extinguisher in one hand (fire knife dancers were on deck!), I answered the phone. I was excited, but this night wasn’t about an MBA. So, the “celebration” was seeing the kids enjoy a great night of food, fun, and good music and making sure the fire knife dancers didn’t burn the place down! Congratulations on completing your first year! What advice would you give the incoming freshman class starting an MBA program? Trevor: In the MBA, it’s not about the grades you make, it’s about the hands you shake. Not my quote, but one that fits well! The most value I found was outside the classes. My career coaches, classmates, and alumni mentors were the best parts of the program. It’s easy to miss this, but the big picture matters. And finally, what advice would you give your younger self? Trevor: “Slow down. Be grateful.” I tell myself this every day and it makes a world of difference. If any of this resonated with you or if you have questions, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn! I love connecting and learning from new perspectives! Do you want to be featured in our next ‘What is Business School Really Like?’ post? Know someone else who you’d love to see featured? Are there questions you’d like us to ask our students in this series? LET US KNOW! Are you setting out on your own b-school journey? We can help you reach the finish line! Check out our MBA Admissions Consulting Services to team up with an admissions expert who will help you join the ranks of thousands of Accepted clients who get accepted to their dream schools.  For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related resources:
The post Trevor’s Journey from Hawaii High School Teacher to University of Arizona Full-Time MBA Student appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
24 Mar 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Shortlisting and Visiting Business Schools |
 In deciding whether to apply to specific MBA programs, you need to understand how the schools differ. What are their relative strengths and weaknesses? It isn’t easy to get a real sense of what makes a school unique: they all claim top faculties, great student bodies, and professional networks that will sizzle when you graduate. How can you tell the differences among these programs? Follow these steps to do your research:
If you can get to campus, here are some visiting-day tips to maximize your experience:
Visiting schools is only part of the planning and strategizing that you’ll need to do when applying to business school. Check out Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services for individual guidance through the entire application process. Visit schools. Create a winning application. Get ACCEPTED!  For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources:
The post Shortlisting and Visiting Business Schools appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
29 Mar 2022, 09:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Elissa Sangster, CEO of the Forte Foundation, Returns for AST’s 10th Anniversary |
 A peek into what change the Forte Foundation is implementing [Show Summary] In honor of Admissions Straight Talk’s 10th anniversary episode, our first ever guest is back. Elissa Sangster is the CEO of the Forte Foundation which is at the forefront of increasing female representation in the business world – from the classroom to the workforce. Interview with Elissa Sangster, CEO of the Forte Foundation [Show Notes] Thanks for joining me for the 463rd episode of Admissions Straight Talk. I love hosting Admissions Straight Talk because of the fascinating guests I’m privileged to talk to. But today’s show is extra special. It marks Admissions Straight Talk’s 10th anniversary. The first show aired on March 29th, 2012, almost exactly 10 years ago. So, first I have to thank you, our listeners for tuning in and sharing your valuable time and attention with me and our guests. I also have to thank the guests who share their time, experience, and expertise with you and me during the interview. And one of the people I have to give extra thanks to today is our guest Elissa Sangster. Elissa was willing to be Admissions Straight Talk’s first guest when there was no track record, no stats to report, no download numbers. Today, I can talk to prospective guests about our 650,000 total downloads, but I couldn’t 10 years ago when Elissa first said yes. So thank you again, Elissa. That’s why this show is special to me. This show should be special to you because of Elissa’s critical role as head of the Forte Foundation, which has made enormous strides in increasing women’s representation in business school and business through her profound insider’s knowledge of the business school and professional world. Elissa earned her MBA at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School in 1994, and immediately became the Assistant Director of its MBA program. She moved to UT Austin in 1997, where she served in different roles, including the Assistant Dean and Director of McCombs’ MBA program. In 2004, she became the first Director of Forte Foundation, a consortium of business schools and companies working to increase the number of women in business leadership roles. She’s been successfully running and growing Forte Foundation ever since. Can you give a background on the Forte Foundation and its growth? [2:47] Sure, absolutely. We started back in 2001 when there was a research study being done by Catalyst. A lot of business schools and companies were looking at women’s advancement into business school and into business leadership positions and corporations and there was grave concern about what was holding women back. So the research came out with a study that we then built into a business plan for an organization. That’s really where the launch of Forte began. That was in about 2001, and then in 2002, we held our first event which was a series of MBA forums. We had five of them in 2002 and really continued to grow. I came on board full-time in 2004 as the first full-time employee of the organization. As you said, that’s kind of been the history, and here we are today in 2022. We’re really excited to see where we go from here. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] What support does Forte provide to women once they get into business school and even after business school? [14:32] The first important support is the Forte fellowships which are awarded every year since our first class in 2005. We had about 35 women in that first MBA fellow class. The agreement with our business schools is that these women would get around a $20,000 scholarship to support them going to school. If you fast forward to this past fall, the group that enrolled was about 2,000 women who received a very similar amount of support. They vary a little bit by schools, but that is a huge number compared to where we were back in 2005. That’s one of the most important support systems. They also get access to our MBA conference, which has been a flagship event for us for many years. This is a two-day program where they get to meet our core partners, the school partners are with us, they get professional development, they have a career fair, they learn more about different industries that MBAs go into, all of the different things that they need to be thinking about as they go into their MBA program. We’ve had that since 2004. We also have a Financial Service Fast Track that’s specifically focused on MBA women. That’s for anybody interested in investment management or investment banking. That’s a two-day program, and it’s open to any woman who wants to attend that’s going into one of our partner schools. Then we have a new program that we’re about to launch called MBA Takeoff. It’s going to be a program prior to our conference that really focuses on MBA success and how you prepare yourself to make the most of your team experience and your classroom experience. It’s not a career-focused program, it really is about the mentality of what you’re about to go through. How are you going to engage with your team in the classroom? How are you going to make sure your voice is heard with faculty? What kind of impact do you want to make on your campus? How do you lead in a classroom environment? We cover a lot of those things that they need to be thinking about before they get to campus and then have to start doing them almost immediately. That program is built on a FranklinCovey model who we’ve been partnering with. We’ve created an entire curriculum that is self-paced so they can jump in and it’s all done through videos, readings, and assessments. Then they have drop-in places where they can connect with the other women going through the program. That’s brand new this year. We work with the women in business clubs. We have career fairs for MBA women to connect with employers. We do webinars around career advancement and career topics that are really important for them to be considering. There are just so many things that you can take advantage of by being in the Forte community when you’re an MBA student. Does the Forte community continue once women leave business school? [17:32] It does. It’s a place we’re developing in our strategy. We’re really starting to build out our post-MBA offerings. A couple of them are new. We’ve always had Women Lead webinar series, which is very much focused on professional development for women at any stage in their career but we are adding to that something called Rise. We’re doing the first pilot with just 15 women and it starts in about a week. That program is for women 10 years post-MBA who are thinking about what that next step is, or they’re stuck and they want to switch, or they’ve stepped out and they’re ready to step back in. We look at what exactly it is they’re going through. This is a very intensive kind of executive education type course where there’s coaching, programming, and content, but it’s really meant to move them to the next step, whatever that is. That program is something we’re piloting. We also have something called Career Strategist, that is going to pilot in the fall that’s for early-career women who are maybe 2-4 years post-college thinking about a similar transition and really making sure that they found their place and that they didn’t undersell themselves as they left college. We help them make sure they have found their niche and establish that we are going to be able to be there to support them. We also encourage them to consider an MBA at some point and are able to give them that programming access, but primarily it’s a career-focused program.  Do you have anything for women who have left the workforce to start a family and are looking to reenter? [20:01] We don’t have a program specifically about reentry, but Rise would be also helpful for that phase of the reentry process. I know there are programs like iRelaunch and they partner specifically with companies around that. Being a part of the Forte community and staying engaged even if you’re not working full-time is one of the things I would encourage women to do, even if they’re not quite sure what they want that step to be when they’re ready to return. Whatever time they can spend staying plugged in, I think that helps your reentry go a lot more smoothly. What are the other benefits of being a Forte fellow? [21:13] We have resume books for Forte fellows only and we give those to our employers, so these women get visibility with the employer group. We do programs on their campuses, we encourage their administration to meet with them and get to know them. Sometimes I come, and we have a tea or something just to connect with the fellows, but we do try to give them as much visibility and then we also keep up with them after they graduate. We monitor and track them, we want to know where they’re employed, what kind of promotions they’ve had. We try to connect with them geographically. We just had a Forte fellows coffee for the 2005-2010 class. We’re really trying to continue to have those virtually. Now that everybody’s on Zoom it’s the best thing to be able to connect with people in geographic areas like that. We have coffee with the fellows, we send them all a Starbucks gift card and then tell them to go grab their coffee and join us on a Zoom at 10 o’clock in the morning. We get to catch up, see what they’re doing, learn what they’re challenged by in their career, and see if there is anything Forte can do to help them. That was amazing a couple of weeks ago, just having about 10 of them on a call with us. We keep doing those every two or three months, just to make sure we know what’s going on. We also meet with our Edie Hunt Inspiration Award winners, who are all of the women that received these awards at our MBA conference over the last 10 to 15 years. That’s amazing to hear what they’re accomplishing and all the different career paths they’ve headed down. Those are some of the benefits of Zoom and the pandemic and virtual programming. What does Forte offer women with entrepreneurial ambitions? [24:14] In our programming, conferences, and webinars, we’re always pulling in women who are entrepreneurs and having them talk about what that experience is. In terms of role models and advice, we have a lot of places you can read stories, profiles, come to a webinar, download something we’ve recorded in the past. One of the challenges the pandemic brought, was doing something we did at our MBA conference when it was live and that was our pitch competition. We used to bring in four teams that had been vetted over. I think we might have had 50 people apply and then we would narrow it down to four teams that would come and present at our MBA conference, a business idea. They would pitch it to a panel of judges and then they would get an award to some seed money for their business idea. We had done that for three or four years at the conference, but pulling that off virtually just didn’t work. It wasn’t the right kind of vibe. We’re not going back to that this year. I don’t know if we’re going to pick it up a little bit later or not, but in terms of actual competition and prize money and things like that, that was a really nice thing to point to. We might go back to it at some point, but mostly I would say our content is what we have to offer entrepreneur women or the network if they’re interested in connecting with other women out there that are in that space. Is Forte active outside of the United States? [25:42] We don’t have chapters or anything like that but we do have partner schools in Europe and in Canada that are very interested in recruiting North American women to their campuses and recruiting women from other parts of the globe onto their campus for their MBA program. We don’t have college programming at any location outside of the US. Everything is here. But at the MBA level, we have those partners, we have companies, we actually have added a couple of companies that are headquartered globally versus in the US. That’s the first pivot. We have a European school advisory group that we’re meeting with regularly to make sure that we’re doing what they need us to be doing in terms of gender on their campuses. We’re always running through new programs. Again, the pandemic has put a little bit of a dent in the progress on that, but I would say we’ll start picking back up here pretty soon on that outreach. I also mentioned the conference. We previously had 700 women that would come to our live and in-person conference. Last year and the year before, we had 1400 women who logged in and participated virtually, and we know that a huge portion of that was non-US women who were able to log in the middle of the night, some of them had slept during the day. They had all kinds of funny stories about how they were making time for this conference. They were also excited to be able to come not because they couldn’t get here for it, they couldn’t get here and get back and then get here again to start school. It was truly a travel problem and a visa problem for them to be able to come to the live event. So that’s why I said it’s really hard for us to go back to not having both virtual and in-person. MBA Takeoff is one way that we can really extend that virtual offering to a large group of women who are not going to be able to travel stateside to go to that program before going to their program full-time. Where do you see Forte going from here? [28:21] I mentioned a couple of those programs that we have coming up, and those are all pilots for this year. We built Career Strategist which is for college women, and then MBA Takeoff built on the FranklinCovey platform. We took all of our content and our gender lens and really built it around that FranklinCovey content. But those two things are part of our strategic plan, which is to build out this program portfolio that we have. We looked at everything we do, and we asked ourselves, “What are the gaps that women would see? If I’m a woman starting my freshman year in college and I’m a part of Forte, what are those stepping stones throughout my career that get me to a seasoned professional business person?” And then we started filling those in. Over the course of our strategic plan, we came up with that early career place. If you graduate college, we didn’t have a real program for you other than MBA Launch. There’s a lot of other things going on in your life when you’re an early-career person so, we built that Career Strategist. I’m not going to tell you about all the programs, but basically, that pipeline of programs is what we’re focused on the pillars of our strategic plan. The second one is really around workplace change and thinking about what it is that people need to be equipped with, both men and women as they go into the workforce and where Forte has the opportunity to impact them when it comes to gender equity in the workplace. What kind of programming and education can we give them so that Forte isn’t going to go and change the work environment, but these individuals who have had a mindset shift who can then go make that change? A lot of the work we’re doing around gender equity and allies for gender equity is where we’re going to spend time in terms of the workplace change. The third pillar is around enduring relationships. One of the things that we want to be as an organization is a place that you can come and this be your place, your hub. This is where you feel like you either made an impact or have been impacted by the work Forte’s doing. We’re making sure that we can track and tell the story of how women have gone from those college programs into the pre-MBA, graduated from business school, moved on, and still came back and connected with us in our professional programs. That’s really important to us. It’s important to us from our corporate and our school partners that we have those connections and that we maintain them. It’s also important to us for the individual women to have that experience with Forte. So building our systems, tracking that, and creating this affinity back to the organization is another area where we’re spending our time. There are still many more programs in that program portfolio to build out over the next couple of years but I think that’s primarily where we’re headed. Do you have programs for men who want to support Forte’s mission? [32:22] We do. We started what we had at the time called Men as Allies on our MBA campuses. We built a toolkit for MBA men to start a chapter on their campus and really gave them a guide about everything they need to think about to start a student organization, but specifically what would be the purpose and the meaning behind having a male ally club. Usually, they were embedded in the Women in Business clubs so that they could all work together on those gender equity challenges on their campus, or in their future career, so they can have those kinds of conversations. Then we morphed that as we quickly realized those students were graduating and going out into the workplac. They were used to having very advanced conversations around equity and their employer, honestly, wasn’t even close to having those conversations. They said, “We need Forte to come in and help with this conversation.” That was when we started the Male Ally chapters back in 2015. Then the Me Too movement happened and that really escalated the conversation much faster and you saw more programming around this. Now we have chapters on the MBA school campuses, we also have a curriculum that is around allies for gender equity that can be taught, not just to men, but for all individuals who are interested in talking more about the equity conversation and being allies, not only for women but for underrepresented or for disabilities. There are a lot of different ways that that can show up in the workplace. So, we have that curriculum that companies can actually purchase, or we can deliver for them. We’ve done it all virtually, we’ve done it live and in-person, but we’ve also made it easy to do virtually. We also have an Inclusive Leadership program that you can do as an individual. It doesn’t have to be a whole company that says, “We want you to come in and implement this,” but a company could send two people to this program. All of that’s available and it all started with a panel at one of our partner meetings about this man ambassador group at Harvard at HBS. We took that and interviewed all of these men and women who were involved in it on three campuses, wrote that toolkit, and now it’s morphed into all of these different tentacles of gender equity and allyship. What advice would you give a young woman in college considering different careers and maybe business or an MBA? [35:38] It all depends on who I’m talking to, but I would say that not to discount business. If you are someone who does, make sure you give it a full exploration and that you understand that there are a lot of amazing paths. There’s so much opportunity in so many different ways that you can pursue a business career. We’ve seen the misperceptions – it’s not aligned with you philosophically, you want to do something good and you want to help people, etc. I think that just a little exploration, just digging a little under the surface and you can figure out exactly how to match that passion and interest up with a business career. It really is a place that makes things happen. It’s an opportunity to grab power. Power is not a dirty word. It’s influence. It’s not greed. It’s not selfishness. It is the power to take control of systems and use them to make the good happen in the world that you want to happen and we need more women in those seats of power. If you’re thinking about an MBA, know what your “why” is and understand what you want to get out of it. Make sure you’ve talked to people who you admire and who are in careers that you think seem interesting and do the research and think about what doors that MBA opens up to you that are going to be very difficult for you to open yourself because of the pathways that have been established by companies that recruit on those campuses and are looking for top talent. Make sure that you position yourself on that road to success. There are organizations like Forte, people like me, and the men and women on my team who are here to help you be successful. The schools are your cheerleaders too. They want to see you succeed. There’s a lot of support in that MBA network. We just want more of that for women in the business world. Where can listeners learn more about the Forte Foundation? [44:52] They can go to our website at www.fortefoundation.org. Related links:
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Subscribe: Podcast Feed The post Elissa Sangster, CEO of the Forte Foundation, Returns for AST’s 10th Anniversary [Episode 463] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
31 Mar 2022, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: U.S. News MBA Rankings 2023 [Full-Time & Part-Time] |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2023-mba-rankings-us-news.jpg[/img] [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/fit][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2023-mba-rankings-us-news.jpg[/img][/url] Chicago Booth and Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) share the #1 spotlight in [url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/mba-rankings]U.S. News’ Best Business Schools[/url] of 2023 rankings, released March 29. The metrics for the rankings are based on career placement success, student excellence and qualitative assessments by experts. MBA rankings are studied voraciously by applicants, students, and alumni [url=https://blog.accepted.com/do-mba-rankings-matter/]but remain controversial[/url]. [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590.png[/img][/url] Notable changes this year [list][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/chicago-booth-mba?hsLang=en]Chicago Booth[/url]’s rise reflected improvements on several metrics: a class GMAT score up by six points to 730; an acceptance that fell by five points to 22.6%; a higher score by corporate recruiters that now matches [url=https://blog.accepted.com/harvard-business-school-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Harvard[/url] and [url=https://blog.accepted.com/wharton-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Wharton[/url]; and a spike in average salary and sign-on bonus for last year’s MBA grads of $7,300 to a record $180,144–the second-highest of any business school. (NYU Stern had the highest of all schools at $181,803.) Placement for the Class of 2021 jumped five points three months after graduation, at 96.4%. [/*][*]Wharton’s acceptance rate dropped by 4.9 percentage points to 18.2% and their average GMAT score rose by one point. Wharton MBAs enjoyed a jump in average salary and signing bonuses by $6,600 to $179,692, the second-highest of all schools behind only Booth. Job placement three months after commencement moved up by 3.3 percentage points to 96.8%. [/*][*]Top-ranked schools continued to jostle for position, with some flagship programs rising and others falling. [url=https://blog.accepted.com/stanford-gsb-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Stanford’s GSB[/url] dropped by three notches, tying with [url=https://blog.accepted.com/kellogg-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Kellogg (Northwestern)[/url] for #3. Harvard and MIT Sloan remain tied at #5–no change from last year. Yale University’s SOM notched its highest ranking ever at #7, with Columbia and Haas (UC Berkeley) nipping at its heels, sharing the #8 ranking. Yale’s rise stemmed from a six-point rise in its average GMAT score to 726; a drop of six percentage points on its acceptance rate to 23.6%; and a dramatic 8.8 percentage improvement on its placement rate three months after graduation to 94.1%. [/*][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/harvard-business-school]Harvard Business School[/url]’s fifth-place showing reflects a surprisingly low employment at graduation of 69.0%, lower than any other Top 10 school. Its placement rate three months after graduation was 92.3%, the second-lowest for a Top 10 program. And the average salary and bonus for Harvard’s MBAs last year was $172,774, lower than seven other U.S. business schools. Harvard lost out on other metrics as well, including a higher admit rate of 12.5%, up from 9.2% last year, and average GMAT and undergrad GPAs that were lower than many other competitors. [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/michigan-ross-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Ross (University of Michigan)[/url] ascended into the Top 10 from #13, while Tuck (Dartmouth College) dropped to #11. Stern (NYU) and Fuqua (Duke University) share the #12 spot. Many other programs in the top 25 leaped forward, including Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, rising five places to #21 and Mendoza College of Business (Notre Dame) gaining 11 places to rank 25th. [/*][*]Outside the Top 25, Washington University’s Olin Business School in St. Louis rose seven spots to #29 and the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business rose eight positions to place #47.[/*][/list] While U.S. News had dropped [url=https://blog.accepted.com/should-you-take-the-gre-or-gmat-for-test-optional-mba-programs/]standardized test scores[/url] from its online MBA ranking earlier this year, it kept the average class GMAT and GRE scores in its formula for the full-time program rankings. The rankings were based on a survey of all 493 institutions with master’s-level business programs in the U.S. accredited by AACSB International. A total of 363 survey recipients responded; the final rankings are based on 134 business schools that provided enough data on their [url=https://blog.accepted.com/resources/mba-admissions/mba-essay-tip-posts/]full-time MBA programs[/url] and had large enough 2021 graduating classes seeking employment for valid comparisons. The rankings also include some programs conferring degrees such as Master of Science in Management and Master of Science in Industrial Administration. U.S. News 2023 Top 10 Full-Time MBA Programs [b]Rank 2023[/b][b]Rank 2022[/b][b]School[/b][b]Location[/b]13University of Chicago (Booth)Chicago, IL12University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)Philadelphia, PA34Northwestern University (Kellogg)Evanston, IL31Stanford UniversityStanford, CA55Harvard UniversityAllston, MA55Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)Cambridge, MA79Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT87Columbia UniversityNew York, NY87University of California, Berkeley (Haas)Berkeley, CA1013University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ross)Ann Arbor, MI U.S. News 2023 Top 10 Part-Time MBA Programs [b]Rank 2023[/b][b]Rank 2022[/b][b]School[/b][b]Location[/b]11University of Chicago (Booth)Chicago, IL22University of California, Berkeley (Haas)Berkeley, CA33Northwestern University (Kellogg)Evanston, IL44New York University (Stern)New York, NY55University of California, Los Angeles (Anderson)Los Angeles, CA66Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)Pittsburgh, PA77University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ross)Ann Arbor, MI87University of Texas, Austin (McCombs)Austin, TX99University of Southern California (Marshall)Los Angeles, CA1014University of Washington (Foster)Seattle, WA [b]Hoping to start business school in 2023 at one of these top-ranked programs? Check out our [/b][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=US_News_2023_rankings&utm_source=blog][b]MBA Admissions Consulting & Editing Services[/b][/url][b] and work one-on-one with an expert consultant to create an application that will get you ACCEPTED![/b] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/6f59af66-a942-476e-a35a-feafe5c6a5c2][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/6f59af66-a942-476e-a35a-feafe5c6a5c2.png[/img][/url] By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools. [b][url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_Judy&utm_source=blog]Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/url][/b] [b]Related Resources:[/b] [list][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/do-mba-rankings-matter/]Do MBA Rankings Matter?[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/when-is-the-mba-worth-the-time-and-money-episode-346/]Is an MBA Worth It, or Is the Sky Falling Down on the MBA Degree?[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/financial-times-international-mba-rankings/]Financial Times Ranks Wharton as #1[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/m7-mba-programs-everything-you-need-to-know/]M7 MBA Programs: Everything You Need to Know[/url][/*][/list] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/u-s-news-mba-rankings-2023-full-time-part-time/]U.S. News MBA Rankings 2023 [Full-Time & Part-Time][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
05 Apr 2022, 13:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Applying to Wharton Lauder? Do Your Research! |
 Discover what opportunities the Wharton Lauder MBA program offers [Show Summary] Kara Keenan Sweeney, Director of Admissions Marketing and Financial Aid at the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Penn Law School shares how the program continues to offer global opportunities during a COVID influenced world. [Show Notes] Welcome to the 465th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me today and whenever you’re able to tune in. The featured resource for today’s show is Fitting in and Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions. Your application needs to show that you’re going to do both, and that’s the difficult paradox at the heart of admissions. Master that paradox, and you are well on your way to acceptance. Download the free guide. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Kara Keenan Sweeney, Director of Admissions Marketing and Financial Aid at the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Penn Law School. Kara has an extensive background in graduate admissions, starting with her master’s in higher administration at Columbia, and then moving onto admissions positions at INSEAD, the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State, and now the Lauder Institute. Can you give us an overview of the Wharton Lauder program for those listeners who aren’t that familiar with it? [1:45] The Lauder program was founded in the mid-1980s by the Lauder family to work with Wharton to help educate and generate a new, globally-minded group of business leaders. When students come to the Lauder Institute, they’re earning a Master of Arts in International Studies at the same time, they’re getting their MBA from Wharton. Basically, it’s an MA/MBA joint degree fully integrated into the MBA program. When students come to Lauder, they focus on one of our six programs of concentration. Five of those programs are regionally focused. We have a program on Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Latin America, and then what we call the SAMENA region or South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. That’s our fifth regional program. We also have a global program for our students who have already had fairly significant global experience. In our regional program students are almost in every case also focused on a language. We have 10 languages of instruction at Lauder. When they come to Lauder they’re already speaking a language at an advanced level, and then they’ll continue to work on that language until they get to the superior or the fluent level over the two years as part of their studies at Lauder. It’s a fully integrated joint degree. We have a small program with about 70 to 80 students a year. It’s a really international community and just an amazing group to be a part of. Are you also a joint program with the law school? [3:22] That’s right. Thanks for highlighting that. We do have a joint agreement with the law school as well. Each year we have a handful of students that do it. It’s not really by design; it’s a little bit by default. The law school has just less than 200 students a year over at Penn Law. Wharton is up to about 900. There are just a lot more MBA students. The Wharton program was founded to really work and fit in specifically with the Wharton school way back when it was founded. Our law school partnership is a little bit more recent, but in the class that’s starting this summer, we actually have three incoming JD students. We’re really happy to have them in the program. We love to have them, but we just tend to have fewer of them. Does the Lauder Institute only work with applicants interested in dual degrees? [4:13] Exactly. Lauder only offers a joint degree. Students take about two classes a semester at Lauder. They take their normal Wharton course load or their normal course load over at Penn Law. At Lauder, we borrow the credits from the other degree so that they can graduate with both because some of the Lauder courses count towards the Wharton degree and vice versa. But no, we don’t offer standalone degrees, only a joint degree program for students in one of the other graduate programs at Penn. Does the dual degree program take the same amount of time as just an MBA or JD degree? [4:46] Exactly. For Lauder, if you’re doing law school, you complete your first year of law school at Penn Law independent of Lauder. Then your second and third years would be as part of the Lauder program. At Wharton, you actually start Lauder first. We have a summer term that preempts the Wharton program and then you start the Wharton program in August each year and then you graduate on time with the rest of your Wharton class two years later. Has anybody ever tried to do an MBA/JD with the Lauder program? [5:20] I think it’s a little bit hard considering the coursework, the requirements, and also the cap on the number of classes you can take. You can do a joint degree, but I think triple is hard. We actually have an alum who did the MBA and Lauder simultaneously and then later on went to law school and did three years of a JD program. I think it’s almost impossible to do all three at once. We definitely have some students who are interested in both. The other partnership that you can do with Wharton is the healthcare management program. We actually get the question a lot from applicants, “Can I do Lauder and the healthcare program?” You can’t do both at the same time, however, you can do Wharton Lauder and then take a lot of the healthcare courses. For anyone who’s interested in international healthcare, whatever the case may be, you can do Wharton and Lauder and still take a lot of the healthcare coursework and program. How has Wharton Lauder, a program that reveled in travel, adapted and adjusted its plans during the pandemic? [6:32] Just like the rest of the world, we were particularly affected a lot in terms of graduate programming, because as you mentioned so much of our programming is focused on the immersions for our students. Historically, all of our students have done a summer immersion as well as other immersions over the two years of the program. In March 2020, we put a halt to all travel, not just at Lauder, but throughout the university. We were really thankful that our two largest classes came through over those two years of COVID. We have 80 students in each of our current classes. Last summer, we were able to actually have the students come to Philadelphia and do a Philadelphia immersion, which was great considering most of our students are not from Philadelphia. A lot of our students are from outside of the U.S. actually so it was great for them to be able to come to campus. The classes were virtual, but we did have a lot of Philly cultural experiences for our students. They were able to take tours. They explored some of the different ethnic neighborhoods in Philly. There was a lot that they could do in Philadelphia. Last year all of our students were taking classes virtually, but there were opportunities for students to meet outdoors. We moved most of our programming online pretty seamlessly. I think our students were still able to build culture and build community. Of course, in the language classes, a lot of those things still took place. The great news is that as of last August, our students were actually able to start traveling again. We had about a year-long pause on travel, which of course was not just us, but everyone really and then last August we had our first intercultural venture start up again. The students went to Alaska to study indigenous communities, which was great. A little later on, in the fall of October, we had a group of students go to Iceland to study gender equity and women entrepreneurship. We were one of the first groups at Penn and certainly at Wharton and Lauder to start traveling again. Our students have been doing smaller immersions and actually right now over spring break, all of our students are traveling. We have about four locations around the world. Senegal, Israel, Poland-Hungary, and India. We’re fully ramped up. We’ve also had students traveling and doing research as part of their master thesis project with the Global Knowledge Lab and we’re planning on summer immersions taking place this coming summer of 2022. I would say things are fairly robustly returning to normal for Lauder. Maybe not fully the way they looked pre-COVID but quite similar to the way they were in the past. How is the war in Ukraine affecting travel and the Lauder immersion program to Poland and Hungary? [9:43] All of us were cautious about the students traveling to Poland and Hungary during this time. They are in safe locations. Initially, with the world and how volatile it is right now, we were concerned about COVID protocols. Of course, the students had to test and do everything they would do as part of the country’s requirements. That was our focus pretty much leading up to the trip, then of course the terrible situation with Ukraine happened. Our students still did go. In fact, they’re blogging about their experience, which will be part of some of the social media posts that we have over the next couple of weeks about their experience going to these countries during this time. Right now we’re trying to maintain as much normalcy as we can for our students. There have been different ways for our students to seek out support if they feel like they need to do that as part of what’s going on. Of course, we have students coming from that part of the world or have family origins in that part of the world, and really everyone’s affected at this point, whether it’s directly or indirectly. We’re making sure we’re there for our students in sort of an emotional support way and also making sure we educate our students. In the last couple of weeks, I can’t tell you the number of talks, sessions, and lunchtime talks that there have been at Lauder and throughout the university on the situation so our students can understand it better. We have alumni hosting events as well. There’s a strong focus on that region, but also a strong desire to have things be as normal as possible for our students now and of course, going into the summer as well. How do you go through an application? [11:53] The great thing with Lauder is you can actually apply simultaneously with your application to Wharton. You complete the Wharton application online, your Wharton essays, letters of recommendation, standardized tests, and then within the Wharton application, you indicate that you’re also interested in applying to Lauder. It’s a supplemental application built into the Wharton application online. For Lauder, we ask for a couple of specific things. We ask for the results of your language score. All of our students who apply to Lauder have to take something called the Oral Proficiency Interview or OPI. It’s administered by a third company called The Language Testing Institute. For anyone who’s listening, you can find all of that information on our website. It’s actually quite a good resource. There are audio clips of language tests that have taken place in the past and also more helpful information on preparing for the OPI. Our students take the OPI, it’s a 30-minute phone conversation in a different language. In order to be admitted to Lauder, students have to test at least at the advanced low level or above in one of the 10 languages that we teach. If they’re interested in applying to our global or our Africa general track, they have to test a superior level in any language other than English. Essentially that means being fully bilingual. It can be in their native language provided it’s not English. That’s for anybody who’s a non-native English speaker who also, of course, is fluent in English. The global program is designed for students who have had fairly significant international experience already and are looking for more of a macro level experience studying global studies from that wider lens, looking at issues across regions, that sort of thing. Our Africa general track is also for students who are fluent in any language other than English, and are interested in focusing on the entire continent of Africa. Historically, we had called it the Anglophone Africa track, but that was kind of a misnomer because our students were really studying the entire continent, not just English-speaking Africa. We also have an Africa Francophone track which is for students who can test at the advanced level in French. The language component is important as part of the application as well as over the duration of the two years in the program. Does every Lauder participant know at least two languages? [14:38] Yes, I would say every Lauder applicant has advanced knowledge of a language in addition to English. English is the language of instruction at Wharton and a lot of classes at Lauder. You also have to be either fluent or advanced in any language other than English, or one of the 10 languages that we teach at Lauder. What are the 10 languages that you teach at Lauder? [15:02] I’ll break it down by program of concentration. For Africa, we have a French track. For our Europe program, we offer Spanish, Russian, French, and German. For Latin America, we offer Spanish and Portuguese. In Eastern and Southeast Asia, we have Mandarin, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Our last program of concentration is the SAMENA track and we offer Arabic and Hindi. Those are the 10 languages. When you’re applying to the program, you’re taking an OPI in one of those 10 languages if you plan to pursue regional studies with language. Or you’re taking the OPI in any language other than English for our Africa general or global program. What about students who speak a different language outside of the 10 offered languages? [15:52] We only have 10 languages right now. We are always adding more. A few years ago we added Korean. We have seen interest in a Vietnamese track. We’re getting a lot more interest with students in that language profile. It’s not to say that we won’t add languages, but right now those are our 10 languages. There are opportunities through the school of arts and sciences to take advanced language in some of the classes that Lauder doesn’t teach, but we have a formula for Lauder. It’s those regional programs with one of the 10 languages global Africa track. The other components of the application are two essays for Lauder. Our first essay asks you to talk a little bit about why you’re interested in Lauder and why you’re applying to your chosen program of concentration. Our second essay is actually new this year. We ask applicants to talk about what they might like to research as part of the master thesis project at Lauder. For those who are unfamiliar with that, it’s called the Global Knowledge Lab. It’s definitely another opportunity to go to our website and read about the GKL, as we call it, to learn a little bit more about the project. Basically, it’s a master thesis project. Students can write about virtually anything that they’re interested in doing, as long as it relates to their program of concentration. We’ve had students write about things coming from the arts and entertainment perspective and the sports world. We’ve had students write about blockchain, finance, history. Some of our students have actually leveraged the GKL to transition to a job after Lauder. We had a student a few years back who wrote about the NBA in China and was able, through contacts that he made, to take a job with the National Hockey League in New York. He was really able to leverage that research. We’ve had other students work on just passion projects. A few years ago, we had a student who was really interested in the history of North Africa so he wrote about that even though that’s not his personal background. It’s just an opportunity for our students to do master’s research as part of the MA degree. It’s definitely different from what you would do at the MBA program and they’ll actually do on the ground research as well to build research. The second component of the GKL project is a group project. When students are approaching the application, they don’t need to know fully what they would like to research. They’re not committed to it, but we want them to understand that the master’s thesis project is a big part of Lauder. You’ll have a ton of support as you do this project over two years, but we want you to be thinking about what you might like to research. Show us that you’ve gone to the website and have read a little bit about what the GKL is so you’re coming fully educated on what the project is. Do you plan to keep the same application questions for next year? [19:07] That’s a great question. We’re not totally done with this admission cycle. I think we might revert to having one question that encompasses two parts. There are two required essays for Wharton and two for Lauder. We realize that’s four essays to apply to the program. Presumably, we’re not the only program you’re applying to, so we want to be mindful of the applicants and how much time they’re devoting to it. I think that knowing why you’re applying to Lauder, your chosen program of concentration, and knowing what you might like to research as part of the GKL will still be part of the essay questions in some form whether they’re duplicative of what we have this year, perhaps not but I think you can think about that as part of your applications. So the OPI and essays are two really big things. We’ll ask you to tell us a little bit about any international experience that you’ve had. We look at that as three months or more outside of your home country. When you submit your application, it is a joint application to both programs. I emphasize that because your application is not reviewed independently by two admissions committees. It’s reviewed jointly. The Lauder admissions committee actually takes the lead with the review of your application. Myself, my colleague, our second-year students, who are trained to read applications, will read your Wharton and Lauder application from start to finish and we’re actually trained to evaluate your Wharton application as well. We’ll read your Wharton essays, all of that in tandem with your Lauder application.  The good thing about that is you’re only evaluated in the pool for the Wharton Lauder pool. So with Wharton and Lauder, it’s a highly self-selected group of applicants who have applied to the program. They know the language requirement. They’ve had some international experience. They want to do two degrees. Often, people will be concerned that they disadvantage themselves by applying to Lauder, but really it’s kind of the inverse. You’re actually only applying amongst a much smaller pool of really highly qualified applicants versus the 5,000-7,000 applications that Wharton gets. We do make a joint decision with Wharton. We’ll meet as part of a joint admissions committee so that you’re jointly offered admission to both programs, but Lauder does take the lead with that application review. The last component for the Lauder application is actually after you’ve submitted it. For Lauder, there is a dedicated interview in addition to the Wharton team-based discussion. You’ll do the normal Wharton application interview process and then at Lauder, you’ll have about a 30-minute interview with a current student or an alum or a staff member specifically focused on your interest at the Lauder program. What gets you excited about an application to Lauder? [22:42] Most of our applicants are coming with, not necessarily tons of international experience, but we do see that most of our students have had some international exposure. It’s sort of a given that they’ll have that. What excites me about an application is when they can tie that into the program, to their interests at Lauder, and to their long-term goals. Seeing how it’s relevant not just to something really interesting on their resume or interesting on their CV, but something that really is telling about what they’ll bring to the classroom. Maybe you spent two years working in Egypt after you graduated from college, that’s great. Maybe you were working, let’s say you were doing consulting, but what did you learn that are the intangibles that you can bring to the classroom, to the class discussion? Really, what we’re looking for at Lauder is evidence of that cultural or global mindset that you don’t necessarily have as perhaps somebody who spends time outside of your own country. You can seek that out or you could kind of live in that bubble that some people tend to do when they travel or work abroad. It’s important for our applicants to show evidence to the admissions committee that they’re really culturally curious about the world, they see the value of culture and language. Travel is an amazing experience, but I think learning from that and what you can bring back to the classroom and then take to your profession gives you those intangible skills. I think that’s really important. Bring that to your essays, bring that to your interview discussion. I think it’s really important to show us that you have the soft skills as well in addition to that, maybe on-the-ground experience outside of your own country. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] Is it possible to refer an applicant from the Lauder pool to the regular MBA admissions if you see they’ll be a better fit there? [31:08] I’m glad you asked that because we do get that question a lot as well. On the application, applicants can check a box that indicates if they’re not admitted to Lauder, they would still like to be considered for the Wharton-only program. Be sure to check that box if you’re still interested in Wharton. In reviewing the application, we actually have the ability to do exactly what you’re saying, “This person for X, Y, and Z reason isn’t maybe a fit for Lauder, but would be great for Wharton.” In the actual admissions committee, when we’re going through every applicant, we’ll maybe talk about, “Hey, this person really doesn’t have international exposure.” We do sometimes have people who apply before they have their language score, they get their language score, and no matter how hard they work on it, they’re not able to get to our minimum score of advanced low. In that case, we really can’t admit them for Lauder, but they can certainly be admitted for Wharton. Each year there are a handful of students who are admitted to Wharton only. I would say if you’re a good fit for Lauder and you’ve got a great Wharton application, there’s really no reason why you wouldn’t be admitted unless it’s something really glaring like the language score or something like that. But yes, you absolutely will still be considered for Wharton only if for some reason Lauder isn’t fit. What is the Lauder interview like? [32:28] It’s probably a little bit more to what our applicants might be thinking about in a typical MBA interview, but a 30-minute conversation. We’ve been doing them over Zoom for the last couple of years but historically we have done them on campus or really all over the world for a lot based on where our applicants are living. So if you’re in Tokyo, or London, or São Paulo, we have alums in all of these places who can conduct interviews. Right now we’re doing them on Zoom, we’ll see if that continues. For Lauder, it’s really a couple of things. The most important thing for us is why not just Wharton on its own? Why Lauder? What’s key about the Lauder program that you won’t get through Wharton on its own? Of course at Wharton, you can travel. There mini immersions that you can do but what are you really looking to gain through Luader? Why does our program make sense for you? We’ll ask about short and long-term goals. We’ll ask about your language skills. Why do you want to study a language if that’s a part of the program for you? What would you like to research? We’ll ask for evidence of that cross-cultural mindset. We’ll ask you to give some examples of times when you were dealing with a cultural barrier that you had to navigate. They’re our typical straightforward questions. I don’t think anything that’ll be too shocking, but definitely good for our applicants to prepare for that, similar to how you would for a job interview. I always tell people you want to come prepared, bring your resume, be prepared to talk about your strengths, about your gaps, about your goals. Where do a lot of grads get you jobs? [33:58] We have the usual suspects to some extent in terms of post MBA outcomes for Lauder students with a caveat that a lot of our students are doing that work may be for Amazon, or McKinsey, or in finance internationally. We have quite a lot of international students at Lauder who are looking to stay in the U.S. for a couple of years and gain some U.S. experience. They’re going to New York or to the West Coast or to Chicago, wherever the case may be. We also have students whether they’re from the U.S. or not looking to work in region. I would say students come to Lauder for a couple of reasons. Some of them are really going to work the two years because they want to do private equity in China or private equity in Nigeria and that is the focus for them. So they focus, they work on their language, they work on all of these things to have that as a job. For some of our students, it’s private equity anywhere. It doesn’t matter. So maybe the industry or the role is the primary driver and location is second or third. But our typical outcomes are technology. Amazon is the number one hire for Wharton and Lauder for the past couple of years. Not by a huge number, but definitely number one and after that it’s consulting and financial services but we are seeing an increasing number of students go into social impact, into NGOs, into some development work. Of course, each year we see more and more students both at Wharton and Lauder interested in entrepreneurship. So I would say those are the five areas that jump out which are fairly similar to the MBA. We see about one out of every three Lauder students working outside of their home country after graduation with a lot of the international students wanting to stay in the U.S. for a few years. Here are some questions from an international listener. “Why are most compulsory admission essay prompts so personal? On a personal note, I cried trying to unearth memories I had buried so deeply, so I could write truthfully. It was a worthwhile experience and a reconciliation with the past that made me feel very vulnerable.” Is vulnerability in an essay whether perceived, real, or imagined a good element? [35:41] I don’t know about vulnerability in particular, but I would say when you’re writing your essays, you want to draw from your personal experiences. Business schools are looking to bring students who have had interesting professional experiences and have a strong aptitude for whatever they’re looking to do afterward, but they’re also looking to bring in good community members. I know that’s a big focus for Wharton in particular. You don’t have to tell us a sob story about your upbringing. The funny thing is, I do feel like now we’re seeing more and more personal stories come to light whether applicants think that’s what we want to read or not. I feel some of our applicants now generationally are maybe more attuned to talking about themselves on a personal level. I feel that years back, you would have seen people keeping it very professional. I think it’s good to have a combination. It’s not a therapy session. I don’t think you need to go to the heart of something that you would find upsetting. I think you want to write about something that’s really personal and important to you, but also something that has practical applications to the community of Wharton, perhaps in some ways your professional experience, your backgrounds, your goals. Think of it in a practical or strategic way. I don’t think you need to get so personal with us that it leaves you feeling uncomfortable. You want to feel like you wrote a good essay that shows part of your character and how you can bring that strong character to the graduate program. For Lauder, our essays are a bit more directive in terms of academic experiences, but of course, we’re bringing individuals to our programs and we want to make sure they’re good community members. Some of those essays are looking to find that you’re going to be a good contributor. The second question from our listener is, “How do you consider international students who apply to universities and cannot pay at least 5% to 10% of the fees? Do you get irritated and wonder if they consider the university a charity home?” [38:20] No, definitely not. We have a ton of international students at Lauder. We have students coming from all over the world, of course, where there are huge disparate salaries but we do expect that students have done their research and frankly, I don’t know of a ton of students receiving 100% full funding to both programs. At Lauder, we’re very lucky to be very generously funded by the Lauder family. For Lauder, most of our students are receiving the average award for fellowships of $40,000 and the cost of the program is around $45,000 to $50,000 each year, depending on some of the travel components. Most of the Lauder students are actually receiving full or near to full funding for the Lauder program. On the Wharton side, you have to approach it as if you’re applying to an elite business school. It’s a huge investment. Studies on MBA programs show that within five years, the return on investment is really worthwhile. You have to think about the financials. Do you want to take out a loan? The average student isn’t getting full funding. When we’re reading your application, we’re not thinking about that at all. We’re looking at the quality of your application. In terms of finance and funding, that comes after you’ve been admitted to the program. For Lauder, every student who comes to Lauder is admitted to the program and receives at least a merit-based award and then you have the opportunity at Lauder to apply for need-based funding on top of that. At Wharton, they have generous funding, but again, not everybody is getting a full scholarship. You have to come into it knowing that realistically, you’re probably going to have to fund part of the program through your loans or through your financing. What would you have liked me to ask you? [40:30] That’s a good question. You asked me a little bit about what makes me excited about reading an application. I think maybe one question is like, “What’s our ideal student?” It’s sort of unfair to say there is such a thing as an ideal student. I think something that maybe is probably more practical is, “What makes a successful student in the program? What do we see from the application stage which then makes them successful?” In talking about the community aspect or being a good community member, I think that’s more and more important as years go by, especially with what COVID taught us. You’re going to have unprecedented challenges. COVID of course, is this huge world crisis that kind of threw us all for a loop and hopefully, we don’t experience something else like that in our lifetime, but for our students, when they’re in the program and long term, they’re always going to have challenges that are thrown their way whether they’re big or small. Know that coming to a rigorous place like Wharton and Lauder, you’re going to be very busy, you’re going to have a ton of demands, but still make an effort to be a good community member, to be collegial, to be kind, to have these intangibles. Of course, with COVID in the U.S., we had a big societal upheaval with Black Lives Matter and other sorts of social crises, political change in the country. I think everyone is feeling in general worn out from the last couple of years. Knowing that experience has been really difficult for everyone, whether you’re a student, a staff member at a university, a professor and coming to the program and filming with the mindset of being a good community member, somebody who’s going to make a good contribution, be positive, patient, be kind I think those are the things that I personally am looking for to see in applicants, in addition to having a strong academic and professional background. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about the Wharton Institute’s joint MA/MBA and MA/JD programs? [43:03] You can learn more about Lauder by going to our site, which is lauder.wharton.upenn.edu. Related Links:
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18 Apr 2022, 09:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: How Do Your Top Choice MBA Programs Rank in Accepted’s Selectivity Index? |
 This year’s MBA Selectivity Index™ is here! Accepted developed the MBA Selectivity Index to help you apply realistically and effectively to business school. The index takes the most recent U.S. News rankings data and reflects the schools’ average GPA, test scores, and acceptance rates so that you can assess the relative difficulty of acceptance. You can also order the schools by average test score, GPA, or acceptance rate. We chose to focus on these key metrics not because they are solely determinative (because they are not), but because they do illustrate how difficult it is to gain acceptance to a school relative to other programs. These particular metrics also suggest which schools may be focusing on a certain aspect of an applicant’s profile and which may not. Average GMAT and GPA for top MBA programs Here are some stats we found when analyzing the U.S. News data this year:
 Why did we develop the Selectivity Index? Because we noticed that applicants tended to:
At Accepted, we don’t routinely discourage our clients from pursuing their dream schools – all you have to lose is the time spent putting together the application and the fee to submit, and at the end of the day strong examples of leadership and impact are always going to capture the attention of an admissions committee. That said, it makes sense for you to realistically assess your competitiveness at your target schools by comparing your test scores and grades as well as the non-quantitative factors in your profile to the known stats and stated criteria of the schools you want to attend. How to use the information in the Selectivity Index You can’t apply to b-school in a bubble. You must evaluate your qualifications in parallel to the average stats for your target schools. Here’s what we recommend you do:
A few of you may be thinking: “I know my chances aren’t great at my target schools. But I’m working and making good money. It doesn’t pay for me to apply to any but the most prestigious schools.” There are some applicants in this situation, but very few. If you’re one of them, you are applying rationally. If you aren’t one of them and you could achieve your goals at programs where you are competitive, then chances are you are relying too heavily on reputation over fit. Weaknesses in the MBA Selectivity Index While we feel this is a useful tool for anyone considering business school, when it comes to just stats there are some things missing.
Finally, while the Selectivity Index does reveal the relative level of competition at different programs, it doesn’t excuse you from making sure that the schools where you are competitive will also help you achieve your goals. It does you no good to get into a program that won’t help you go down your chosen path and realize your dreams. Get an admissions consultant’s help with your MBA application Looking for an additional way to improve your odds? Work with an Accepted admissions consultant to be sure that you are getting the best advice possible to position yourself well at your schools of choice. Don’t find yourself disappointed at the end of the admissions cycle – work with Accepted, sharpen your competitive edge…and get accepted! For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources:
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20 Apr 2022, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: MBA Options: Full-Time MBA vs. Part-Time MBA vs. EMBA |
 At its core, the MBA is a graduate program in business administration for professionals who seek knowledge, skills, a credential, and/or a network to advance in business and to maximize their business performance. While “MBA” makes many people automatically think of a two-year, full-time program, in recent years the variations on the MBA theme have multiplied, in response to the changing and diversifying needs and interests of students and organizations. Natalie’s story When I was applying to b-school, I contemplated part-time vs. full-time, and one of my best friends, Colleen, had to make the same decision at the same time. Ultimately, I decided to attend the full-time program at the University of Michigan. Colleen decided to attend a part-time program at the University of Michigan. We shared 60% of the same classes, 40% of the same professors, and even had a class together. (At the time, Michigan offered courses where they reserved half the registrations for full-time students and half the registrations for part-time students. Since that time, the school has dramatically changed the full-time curriculum and it is unlikely that we would overlap now like we did then.) I graduated two years before Colleen with a unique internship, an opportunity to begin a new career, and a lot of debt. Colleen advanced quickly with the company that hired her upon our graduation from college and graduated without debt because her company sponsored her education. We both have the same degree. Now as an Accepted consultant and as a former Admissions Director and Dean of full-time, part-time, and EMBA programs, I lend you my insight and guidance from the other side of the table in this brief analysis of programs. Getting to know the MBA players Are you ready to explore the various players in MBA admissions? Here’s a roundup of the main MBA options that are currently available, and their benefits and drawbacks. Full-time MBA programs This is a two-year, full-time program with an internship in the summer. It targets business (and sometimes other) professionals with roughly 3-8 years of experience. These programs are perfect for career-changers in the 25-30 year old range that can afford the opportunity cost of leaving work to immerse themselves in education and experience. Obtaining a new position post-MBA is often a major focus of students, and recruiting by potential employers is a significant benefit of attending a full-time MBA. A business school’s reputation relies mostly on its full-time MBA program’s brand value. Those programs consume the largest portion of the school’s budget, and they rarely make revenue for the school. More than 90% of all scholarships and fellowships are dedicated to full-time students. Pros
Cons
Part-time MBA programs Ideal for people who don’t want to leave their company or industry for any significant period or who can’t afford to stop working. Such programs target people who are employed full time, under the premise that students’ ongoing work will inform classroom discussion and projects. Part-time MBA students tend to be a little older than full-time MBA students. While these programs have traditionally served local students, increasingly they are offering varied structures and online components to attract distance students. They do not generally offer as much access to recruiters. Often admission is less competitive than for the same school’s full-time program, enabling part-time students to obtain a “brand” that they may not qualify for otherwise. These programs are the cash cow of MBA programs and live in the shadow of their smaller full-time counterpart. They take very few resources, but they often share the same faculty as the full-time program. Aggregated, the part-time applicant pool is not as competitive or as diverse since schools typically receive fewer applications, and they are limited to their immediate region and the industries that dominate that region. Furthermore, part-time programs have the capacity to serve at least as many and often more students than their full-time counterparts. As much as schools say the quality of the full-time students and the part-time students are the same, the quality is dependent on location and how that location generates applications. Bigger cities have an easier time of attracting great applicants to their part-time program and can maintain higher quality standards, but full-time programs generate applications from around the globe and it’s much easier to pick and choose candidates for admission. Pros
Cons
Executive MBA programs Executive MBA programs are part-time programs targeting seasoned managers and entrepreneurs — typically people in their mid-thirties to late forties (depending on the program) whose rise to senior level is imminent or who are already in senior management. There is a range within this category in terms of desired/required length of experience. While coursework covers the same topics as regular MBA programs, it’s developed and presented with the higher level perspective. A great benefit of EMBA programs is the chance to network and form relationships with peers from a variety of industries and functions at a career phase when a fresh perspective is quite valuable, but sometimes hard to obtain. These programs don’t target career changers, but are increasingly used by and open to them, even though most EMBA programs don’t offer formal recruiting. EMBA programs are also lucrative for schools, but they typically are not as large as full-time programs, and schools charge a premium for the EMBA program. These programs are typically held every other weekend and tend to be less generous with financial aid than their full-time cousins. Pros
Cons
For EMBA admissions advice, check out EMBA: The Ultimate Guide for Applicants. Specialized graduate management programs These programs offer the MBA course with a focus on a specific industry or function, there are such options among both regular and executive MBA programs. They vary in their formats and approaches. Boston University’s Social Impact Full-Time MBA is an example of a two-year specialized MBA, UC Irvine’s Health Care Executive MBA (HCEMBA) is an example of a specialized EMBA. The Cornell Tech MBA is an example of a one-year specialized MBA. Pros
Cons
While you usually can’t apply to two different types of MBA programs at the same school in the same admissions cycle, you can do so in different cycles. And you can apply to different types of programs at different schools at the same time. For example, if someone is between regular and executive MBA in terms of age or length of experience, they could apply to some regular MBAs that trend older and some executive MBAs that trend younger. Or someone may apply to full-time MBA programs but also apply to a part-time program nearby as an acceptable back-up. Which is the ideal MBA program for you? Which of these options will help propel your business career forward? Check out our MBA consulting services and get matched with an advisor who will help you choose the best program for you and apply successfully.  By Natalie Grinblatt Epstein, former admissions dean/director at three top business schools. Natalie has reviewed over 70,000 applications, interviewed over 2,500 candidates, and has trained nearly 700 admissions directors and alumni volunteers to select outstanding candidates for admission. Her clients gain admission to top programs including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Cornell, Columbia, Berkeley, and NYU. Natalie holds an MBA from Michigan Ross. Want Natalie to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Cindy Tokumitsu has advised hundreds of successful applicants, helping them gain acceptance to top MBA and EMBA programs in her 20 years with Accepted. She would love to help you too. Want Cindy to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources:
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