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":g8ez0inu] https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Episode-506-banner-.png https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Episode-506-banner--1024x576.png Please enjoy this encore edition of one of Admission Straight Talk’s most popular episodes of 2023: “The Cornell Johnson EMBA Program: Four Options for the Largest EMBA Program in the United States.” This encore was chosen not only due to the episode’s popularity, but also because it’s a fascinating exploration of a well-established, large EMBA program with four distinct components. If you are even considering an Executive MBA, this episode is a must-listen. Alternatively, If you are debating whether to go down the MBA or EMBA path, Dean Mark Johson and Dr. Manoj Thomas provide unique insight with indispensable advice obtained from their years of experience. To learn more about EMBA admissions, download Accepted’s free guide, Ace the EMBA . Did you know that Cornell Johnson has the largest Executive MBA program in the United States with four distinct flavors? I didn’t, but let’s learn together about Johnson’s EMBA program, its unique distributed classroom, and how to get in from its dean and director. Welcome to the 506th episode of Admission Straight Talk , Accepted’s podcast. Thanks for tuning in. 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, differentiate yourself from your competition in a positive way and present yourself effectively as a future business leader, who will bring credit to any program that accepts you. It gives me great pleasure to have for the first time on Admissions Straight Talk, Dean Mark Nelson, the Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean and Professor of Accounting at Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Dr. Manoj Thomas, Senior Director of EMBA and MSBA programs, and the Nakashimato Professor of Marketing, also at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. Dr. Nelson and Dr. Thomas, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for having us. Thank you, Linda, delighted to be here. Dean Nelson, what makes a Cornell Executive MBA program different from other EMBA programs? That’s a great question, Linda. I mean, first off is the fact that we have these four different flavors of a Cornell MBA. And that’s very intentional, it’s been developed over time. We started initially with our Metro EMBA program, which is based in New York City, and which is focused on a general management EMBA, providing that jurisdiction, that market. Second, then we have our Americas EMBA program, and that’s a really unique program where we’re reaching out to executives throughout the Americas using our own unique approach to distributed learning. And then third, we created an FMBA program, a collaboration with Tsinghua University, a finance-focused EMBA, and that’s bilingual and offered in Beijing. And then fourth, we have our MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership program, which is providing both an EMBA and also an MS in healthcare from two great institutions, the Johnson School and the Weill Cornell Medicine. And so I go through that because the unique combination here is that we’ve got a general interest EMBA in New York, we’ve got something focused in the healthcare sector, we’ve got something that’s a unique and leading program in China, and then this Americas program serving the Americas. And I see that as a pretty special and unique roster of great EMBA programs. Now, when you think about what’s the spine that relates all these together, there’s a couple things that I’d shout out, and then I’d maybe ask my colleague, Manoj, if there’s anything he wants to add in. One is that in all of these programs, we have a team-based learning approach that we think is really, really important. And by that I mean that we have students that, of course they’re performing individually, but they’re also on small teams, they’re coached, they’re assessed, they’re given feedback. So we think of business as a team sport, and the ability of these executives to deliver exceptionally well in that context, we think it’s really important and so we’re very intentional about how we go about that approach. It is the case that in all of these programs, the students are working on problems that they’re addressing at work right now, so they’re able to put it into practice, and we think that team-based approach is really key. And I guess the other thing that is unique, not only about the EMBA programs but about Cornell is that we have our Cornell Tech campus in New York City. So we are based in Ithaca, New York, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that we won the opportunity from then Mayor Bloomberg to create a new tech-based campus in the heart of New York City and have done so. And so we have two of our programs, Metro and Healthcare Leadership, based at the Cornell Tech campus and all of our programs end up having residential sessions there. So to be able to offer programming at a campus that’s been built from scratch in the last 10 years, that’s very, very forward-focused and future-focused on the digital economy, that’s pretty unique and special, and we’re very proud of that. https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/general-free-consultation-button.png That’s great. Dr. Thomas, do you want to add something? I think Mark covered it very well, I’ll just reiterate what he said. I think what really makes our suite of MBA programs, EMBA programs, unique is first that I cannot think of any other popular university offering so many distinctive options for students depending on their specific needs. So that’s one thing that really makes it unique. And the other thing is that we have realized quite early on that MBAs in general, but Executive MBAs in particular, they need not just to learn the skills, but they need the transformation of behaviors. They want to evolve as individuals, as people, and we’ve created a pedagogy that does both. How? So, as Mark talked about that, we are an Ivy League institution, you come to our program and we’ll teach you microeconomics and macroeconomics and we’ll teach you regressions, we’ll teach you accounting and we’ll teach you finance and marketing. And unless you know all of these things pretty well, you’ll not be able to graduate from our program. So that’s how you develop the skills. The behavioral transformation comes from our team-based learning. So over time, they start learning that they not only have to do well individually in these courses, but there are lots of team assignments, and they’re intentional, they’re designed, keeping in mind that there will be behavioral learning here where they’ll get feedback from team members about their biases, about their preconceptions and how they can be more effective team players. And all of that is a part of our curriculum. So that’s how we blend both of these goals and meet both of these goals. And I think that’s one of the things that makes us different from other programs, as far as I know. Can I jump in real quick? Sure, of course, anytime. I just wanted to add that the process by which this happens is very carefully thought out. So we have a leadership framework that we created at Cornell. We call it the four Cs, where we’ve got competence and character and compassion and courage. And we talk about what each of those means and what those skills are. But when we’re talking about people operating in a group, the real key is, you give some instruction, but then they apply it and then they get very specific feedback, and rinse and repeat. You keep doing that and working on each person’s individual weaknesses and helping them be stronger. This relates to diversity and inclusion, this relates to harnessing the power of the group and being able to identify the complementarities that make a group stronger. So we’ve got people who are absolute specialists in this that are team coaches and team advisors, and that’s a spine that runs through the program. That’s very specific, not just general teamwork. They’re getting feedback on the nature of their participation? Yeah, I think it’s true, because oftentimes people will throw folks into teams and then they’ll throw them in another team and then they’ll throw them in another team, and that’s actually not teaching them, that’s having them work in teams and so… And having them fall on their face and learn from falling on their face. Exactly. When you’re talking about working in teams, you’re talking about people who also have usually full-time or almost full-time responsibilities. How do they navigate that? That’s a great question. I’m happy to take that question. I teach in the program, and I didn’t really have an appreciation of how much our students have to go through until I started tracking them very closely. And to your point, Linda, I realized that the behavioral transformation happens because, as you said, they have very busy lives; they have their careers, they have their families, some of them have small kids, some of them have parents at home. And then they’re ambitious, and they sign up for this rigorous MBA program. And what really makes them committed to the pedagogical goals is the fact that they’re learning as a team. And let me kind of illustrate with an anecdote, and I kind of encountered this quite frequently. Sometimes we have student assignments and we have team assignments in all our courses, individual assignments and team assignments. Sometimes the students, when they have to choose between doing extremely well on a team assignment versus an individual assignment, guess which one they focus more on? Team? A team assignment, because they feel they have this obligation to make sure the team performs well. And even if they have to make a trade-off there, they focus on a team assignment. And I think the team structure kind of helps us enable the students to navigate all the conflicting demands in their lives, enables them to grow in the program. Cornell’s EMBA program is the largest in the US. What advantage does that create? I have to begin by saying that we don’t know the exact number of enrollments in all schools, right? The only source that we can rely on our third-party industry service. So the most reliable source for us is EMBAC, which is an independent body that surveys all EMBA programs. And in the latest survey, they surveyed 125 schools, and we looked at the number of schools that have big programs and there are seven such schools when I looked at that. They are Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Sloan, UCLA, and Wharton. And then we looked at the total, the number of students enrolled, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we are the top in terms of students, whether or not we include our students in Beijing, even if we include our students just in the US, we have the largest cohort of students in coming in any year, at least in the year 2021 to our EMBA programs. Now your second question is, how does that help us? I think the most concrete is that we learn from our mistakes, and we share those learnings as we start new programs or other programs. So each program doesn’t have to commit its own mistakes to improve; it can learn from the mistakes that other people are committing, our other programs are committing, and we learn from our strengths and we learn from our observations. So going back to the team-based learning, we started our team-based learning with our Cornell Americas program, which uses this distributed classroom, and I can talk about that later. But we had to create team-based learning because the classrooms are distributed, they are not in Ithaca or in New York, they are spread all over the North Americas. And once we learned that, and once we realized the power of that pedagogical approach, we said, “Well, we have to roll that out to our EMBA Metro and our EMBA MS/Healthcare.” And our program directors wanted to, were very keen to embrace those because they saw the power of this pedagogical innovation. So I think the most important advantage is that we learn, we have these internal learning process, so as an organization we are improving because we have all these programs. The second one is more obvious and more straightforward; we have a pretty large network, which means that Cornell EMBA alumni, that they’re in Chicago or in Toronto or in Peru, and they’ll have lots of other Cornell alumni that they can connect with. Dean Nelson, do you want to add to that? I really do. I agree wholeheartedly with what Manoj said. There’s another thing that’s maybe less apparent, but I think is really important. And that is, you’ll look and there may be some schools where the EMBA program is sort of a one-off and they have a focus on something else, but they also have an EMBA program. And it’s really critical to highlight, and Manoj alluded to this, but it takes a special skillset to teach EMBA students well. You’re dealing with more experienced people. , You’re dealing with people who are dealing with the strategic issues you might be covering on a daily basis. And while, Linda, you’re dead on that they’re very busy people, the other thing is that on a Saturday, they’re bringing into the classroom what happened at work on Friday, and they’re looking to apply it on Monday. And learning as a faculty member to draw on the incredible experience in that class and on the immediacy of them putting their education to work. You’re sort of a conductor of a symphony more than you are playing your own instrument. It’s always that case, I think, when you’re dealing with graduate students, it’s even more so for EMBA students. So if we have four programs with somewhat different clientele and modalities, but they’re all focused on EMBAs, what that means is that we have a deeper bench of faculty, we have deeper expertise of faculty that we can bring to bear on this really important but somewhat distinctive student population. What is a distributed classroom and how does it contribute to the Cornell EMBA options? I would ask Manoj because Manoj is teaching actively using this approach and he can describe what it’s like as a faculty member as well as more conceptually. Happy to. I think we are quite proud of this. And I have to admit that we started off this concept in 2005. We did not realize that this is going to become so big and powerful. We did not anticipate a pandemic 15 years down the line and everybody going hybrid and online. But we started off 2005 in a partnership, our partnership with Queen’s University, and actually they are the ones who were the pioneers who had this idea. And so we started our EMBA program in New York City and we were looking to take this, what we believe is a pretty strong EMBA program, to the rest of the country, and so were Queen’s, and we thought that we should partner with them. And we created a program spanning all of Americas, North and South America, in 20 locations. And the problem that we faced was the following; it’s not like teaching engineering or a math class or a chemistry class where you can look at the glass slides, take notes, or read books and learn. In a business class, it’s very important to interact, it’s very important for people to debate and thrash out ideas and question and challenge. How do we create that environment? And this is more so for Executive MBA because there’s a wealth of experience, Linda, in each classroom. So how do we create that? So people, our colleagues, who were running this program at that time, had this very powerful idea of creating classrooms, physical classrooms, in each location. So we have 20 such small physical classrooms, each can accommodate 10, 15 students. Students physically go into those classrooms every weekend. They spend eight hours there starting at 8:00 AM in their respective time zones, and the faculty either go to a studio in Cornell or a partner institution. And we have a studio which is pretty much like a television studio. If you’ve ever happened to be in Ithaca, I’d be happy to give you a tour of their studio. We go in there and we have colleagues helping us beam our content, and we see all the students on a big, large, huge wall in front of us. And I can then say, “Ron in Toronto, what do you think of what Lisa just said in Dallas?” And then I can turn to someone in Seattle and say, “Okay, who do you think is correct?” And they can all interact with each other. So what we’ve done is we created this structure where we can recreate an MBA classroom by recreating in peer-to-peer interactions, and at the same time we can distribute it across multiple locations. This is very different from what many other institutions currently… the way they currently think of online education. They think of a Zoom room, putting people in Zoom rooms, et cetera. We also have those kinds of approaches but I think that the foundation of the Americas program, this concept of distributed classrooms, I think it’s a marvelous pedagogical innovation that has helped us roll out her MBA to many far different places. So it’s almost a combination of small groups and online. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you can tell I’m excited about this too. There are a couple things to add to this. Manoj gave a wonderful explanation. The first might only… this metaphor might only work for people of a certain generation, but there used to be a sitcom called Frasier. And Frasier was a psychologist on the radio and he had someone in the control room named Roz. And Roz would sort of orchestrate what was happening while Frasier was sort of the talent on the line. And one of the things that is really powerful about this approach is that there is a Roz; in addition to the faculty member, there’s a control room. So what Manoj didn’t say was when he called on Ron in Toronto, the person in the control room pops up a record of what Ron’s doing, what’s his background, how does he tie in. There are opportunities for that controller to collaborate with faculty member in terms of how they’re offering ways that students in this distributed format can be providing polls and votes and input in a variety of ways. So before I saw this, I sort of thought of a distributed environment as being, “How close to a real face-to-face classroom can you get?” And what I didn’t realize is that in some ways you have an augmented capability, unique capability. And that’s really interesting. And once again, it takes work to know how to harness that well. It takes the infrastructure and the talent and the team, but from a faculty member perspective, you have to learn to do that extraordinarily well. And that’s part of the investment that we’ve made in the structure. Yeah, I just want to echo what Mark said. It is wonderful. Yeah, my colleagues, Todd and Steve, who are always behind the scene and in fact many times I’ve turned to them and asked them, “Which boardroom do you think I should ask this question to?” And they’ll tell me which boardroom is kind of just poised to answer that question. Yeah. It kind of augments our teaching skills being in that structure. Do the students who, let’s say, attend in Dallas versus the students who attend in Chicago or Boston or wherever they are, or Florida, do they have group projects? Do they get together socially? Do they become a cohort? Yes, and they get very tight. So they’ll do group projects together and they’ll be socializing together. But they’re also, as Manoj was saying, they’re relying on each other and so they become extremely close. The other thing that’s interesting… I guess two other things about this format that I just find so intriguing. One is that we’ll allow students to do a weekend in another town. And so there are some people who just have this bucket list of saying, “I’m going to go to every one of these boardrooms at one point or another and I’m going to join their…” Because they all know each other. They see each other and they’re interacting, both online and also when we do residential sessions. So the idea of someone from Mexico City popping up to Seattle and being hosted, they really enjoy that. I assume there’s also forums for interaction midweek . Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. But another thing that’s interesting and that maybe isn’t immediately apparent is that, I mean you really, really benefit from each other in an Executive MBA classroom. Certainly do in a residential MBA classroom, but even more so from an Executive because they’ve got so much to share. And what’s better yet is imagine that you’re doing a case and you’re asking people’s perspectives, and one person’s in Santiago, Chile and another’s in Monterey, Mexico and another’s in New York City and another is in the Bay Area. And they’re not only from a different place. I mean, in our residential program we have 43 countries represented. Not only from a different place, they’re in a different place and they can talk about how right now that cultural challenge might be addressed in their particular settings. And so to have that simultaneity of diversity of background, it’s just really unique, and I think it’s an unsung learning advantage of this approach. Does any individual cohort ever get together with the rest of its cohorts? And do the cohorts ever meet altogether? Yeah, we have residential sessions where they’ll come to the Ithaca campus, they’ll come to our Cornell Tech campus, our partner university, Queen’s. And, I mean, it’s like a huge family reunion when this happens because everyone knows each other and they not only interact during the day in the classroom, but I think the bar scene in Ithaca benefits from their presence. I mean, they get out and they socialize a lot with each other and they’re excited to do so. I’ll just add to what Mark said. I talked to somebody who was in our first class, 2005, who graduated from the first class and I asked them, “What is it that you really take away, remember, even now from the program that you attended in 2005?” And he said, “My classmates, my board roommates,” and he said, “We’re still in touch, we still meet.” So part of it is, as you, I think, quite astutely pointed out the beginning, it’s a very rigorous program because they have conflicting demands and now they’re put in a team, they’re accountable for the team because many a time they’re leading their team project and they kind of rotate in their roles and they get to know each other very well, extremely well. They get to know each other’s family problems so they can help each other around all of that. Now they’re seeing other teams online and now they’re curious to meet the team in Toronto or to meet the team in Calgary or meet the team in Boston. And like Mark said, then there are these residential sessions that happens twice a year, and they come to Ithaca or they go to a Cornell Tech campus and they’re like, “Oh yeah, so finally we get to meet the people in Boston and we finally get to meet people in Monterey,” and they bond there. So I think it’s a wonderful structure. What do most people not realize about Cornell’s EMBA programs, or options I should say, that you would like them to know? And are there any misconceptions that you would like to dispel? I’ll say a couple and then invite Manoj to jump in. So first off, there’s some things that I think they just automatically expect. They know Cornell University and the Ivy League School and they anticipate that it’s going to be high quality and rigorous, and it definitely is. I think the team approach that we were describing is something that people probably don’t realize to the extent that they could. The amazing diversity of students in these classes, both in, depending on the particular program, geographic location, functional orientation. In our Healthcare Leadership program, half of the program consists of clinicians, but the other half are people from the healthcare sector really broadly defined. So they’re healthcare implement manufacturers and consultants and pharmaceutical, biotech. So that diversity of functional discipline and orientation, it takes them only a little while to realize just how much they have to draw upon and to learn from. So all of that I think is true. What people maybe don’t know, I don’t know if I’m dissuading or informing at this point, but sometimes people have the image of an institution of Cornell’s standing, as full of a bunch of stuffy people who aren’t approachable and aren’t warm and aren’t caring and aren’t supportive. And it’s very, very much the opposite. So you go back to the motto of Cornell, “Any person, any study,” the idea of being welcoming and embracing and supportive. Everyone’s ambitious, everyone’s driven, but it’s not cutthroat. It’s exactly the opposite. And that then leads to the power of the Cornell network after they graduated. And it’s sort of like the rings of an onion or whatever, where you start maybe with your team and then your cohort and your class and your program, your year. But it doesn’t take long before you’re talking about the Cornell University network of well over 250,000 people and they’re all, we talk about, bleeding Cornell Red, huh? And they’re sort of part of your network. There’s this line about Cornell that we’re elite but not elitist. And I think that’s really important for people to understand. They’re joining a family and it’s an accomplished family, but it’s a very supportive and close family. And that makes the process fun and affirming and special. Can I add, Linda? And in terms of the more… I agree with all that Mark said, I want to touch on a couple of concrete things. I was talking to somebody on the West Coast and this person was telling me that this person is working in a good company, technology company, and saying, “I want to do an EMBA, but from a place like Cornell, but I can’t travel, I don’t have time to travel.” And that’s the first myth I’d like to bust. If anybody is listening to the program, I want you to know that you don’t have to travel to Ithaca or New York to get a Cornell EMBA. You can be in Seattle, you can be in San Jose, you can be in Los Angeles, and you can stay there, and without quitting your job, you can get an Ivy League Cornell EMBA. That’s the first thing. And when I told this person this, they said, “Oh, that’s interesting. That’s really interesting. I probably would like to enroll.” And then he thought about this and said, “But I’ll have to take a GMAT.” I said, “Nope. The GMAT usually was required for your regular MBAs, but if you’re applying for an Executive MBA program, we look at your profile. We need certain experience, we need 15 years experience, we need you to have some management experience, leadership experience.” “But if you have those, and we need you to have an undergraduate degree that enables you to attend and respond to rigorous courses. But if you meet those benchmarks, we know that you are very busy, working executives, so we are not going to ask you to take a bunch of time preparing for tests. We don’t need to do that because we have enough information from your credential to evaluate your preparedness for a program.” So those are the two things I’d like all prospective applicants to know. Even if you are in Canada or anywhere in any part of the US, you have access to a Cornell EMBA program. And we made it easy for you to complete your EMBA without quitting your jobs and without having to take too many leave, et cetera. And the bonus that you get is that you’ll get some lifelong friends. Sorry, one more thing that just… Manoj sparked something in my mind. Something I want to make sure people don’t do. Don’t psych yourself out. Don’t think you can’t do this. One of the things we have, we have a pre-assessment process where we ask people to just reach out to our admissions folks and talk to them. Applying to an EMBA program is very different than what people have in mind maybe when they applied for undergrad, where they filled out this common app and mailed it and sat there nervously for four months, wondering whether anything’s going to happen. With an EMBA program it’s a lot more almost like executive placement. I mean, you’re talking with busy people, with accomplished people that… they don’t want to waste their time, we don’t want to waste their time. So early on in the process, we’ll talk about what our programs are like. We’ll help people understand which program is best for them. We’ll walk them through the process. And if there was some reason why we didn’t think someone was a fit for any of these programs, we tell them. So we’re not wanting to waste their time. Instead, we’re wanting to help them through this process, just as we’ll help them through their EMBA. Sometimes I’ll talk to people and they’ll say, “Oh, I never applied. I could never get in.” It’s like, “Well, how do you know if you don’t talk to us?” We promise we won’t lead you on, we won’t waste your time, but give yourself the opportunity to be considered because it could be a life-changing opportunity. Dr. Thomas, what are the cities where the distributed classrooms are located? On the East Coast we have Ithaca, New York, Boston, and DC. Then we have Seattle, LA, San Jose, and Francisco. We have Dallas and Houston. And then we have 10 other cities in Canada. And we have Monterey and Lima- Santiago, Mexico City. I’ll jump in. Is that for all the EMBAs? For EMBA Americas. We have our Metro EMBA program, which is based in New York City. So if you are from the Northeast and if you really are passionate about being a part of the business community in New York City or in the tri-state area, then we would say that you should go to the Metro MBA program, which operates at the Cornell Tech through our state-of-the-art campus for business school. And I think I should… I don’t know if it’s the right time or not, I also want to talk about the other program, which is our EMBA/MS program that’s also based in New York City. And that’s a very unique program of its kind. I don’t know whether it’s the right time or you want me to… As you might know, Linda, one of the sectors that is booming a lot in the US and for the rest of the world is healthcare. There is a lot of need for people who are trained in management skills in the healthcare sector. And so many of the business schools have been creating specialized tracks for healthcare MBA. What we’ve created I think is truly unique. So it’s not just a healthcare track. We come up with a dual-degree program where students get an MBA and they get an MS from a reputed medical school, which is Weill, and they’re co-taught. Half the courses are taught by business school professionals, our Ivy League professors teaching MBA programs, and half of them are taught by faculty who are clinicians or professors from the medical school. This is a program that is completely unique and it’s only five years old. And I’m optimistic in 10 years from now when we have brilliant physicians and healthcare professionals all over the country looking for the best healthcare program in the country, I’m optimistic, I’m hopeful that they’ll turn to us. Can you tell us a little bit more about the pre-assessment? There’s a bit of form as well as a conversation that people will have. Really quickly in the process the idea is to just get… it’s just the starting bare-bones amount of information for us to be able to help someone to triage. And then from there, we’re moving on to walk them through the process itself. When you’re submitting a pre-assessment, we could pop that up to something too. It’s before you’re entering the formal application process, it’s before you have to have any kind of an application fee. It’s just designed to get you started. And it’s a very small amount of information before you’re having a conversation with an admissions expert that’s there to answer any question that you might have. And just add to that a couple of… As Mark said, it’s very, very short. And we have basically two goals in this. One is we want to tell them, as Mark said earlier, if the students are not appropriate or suitable for an EMBA program, we want to tell you early on that, “Okay, this is probably not the best program for you.” And we’ll guide them to other programs or give them that feedback. That’s the first step. So it’s very easy, just fill in your name and give them your LinkedIn profile and then you basically have a conversation. Someone tells you that, “Well, you are the right kind of person who should apply,” or, “You should not apply.” Now if you are the kind of person who should apply, then our admissions officers will work with them to help them complete the application process and guide them through the application process. So the pre-assessment serves those two kind of goals, which are I think very important. Who should take the GMAT, GRE or EA? Do you have any preference among those tests? I’m not quite sure why. If you really want to see where you rank amongst all the other students, and if you have that need, I think you should take the test. I think typically people take the GMAT. I took the GMAT long, long time ago, and I suspect most of the business school students were applying to do MBA program, they take the GMAT. If it’s not used at all, then there’s no point in it. There’s absolutely no point in it. I’d say they don’t need to be submitting a test score. If they’ve done it and it’s a wonderful score, then go ahead and submit it because why not show something wonderful? But it’s not a barrier. And I want to go back to something that Manoj was saying earlier, which is when you’re dealing with someone who’s 35, 40 years old and they think they’ve already got a record of accomplishment, it’s a little silly to try to judge them based on a standardized test score or based on their undergraduate grade point. It’s what have you done for the last 10, 15 years? And that’s the real track record. And so it makes sense that the less experienced the target audience of a program is, the more things like tests and undergraduate performance and stuff matter because you’ve got less else to go on. But at this point, we’re looking to bring in people who are already successful and already leaders, and to just accelerate their trajectory, make them that much stronger and able to go that much farther. What if somebody has, for whatever reason, they blew off undergraduate, they had a tough time, they have a really poor GPA, they have a 2.5 GPA, but they have excellent work experience, they’ve really accomplished a lot once they got out of school. Do they have a chance? I’m very glad that you asked that question because I think all the applicants should get the correct picture here. So our program is quite rigorous. So they had to do quantitative analysis, they had to do strategic analysis, they have to have soft skills and hard skills. So we do require a certain level of competence on the part of applicants as they’re applying. And the only point is, “How do we assess that?” As Mark said, for us, it’s not an entrance exam that helps us assess it. It’s the performance, past-academic performance, and their track record in the industry. And when I talk to my colleagues in admissions, “What do you look for?” And they’ve said that many times they’ve said, “No, this person looks really good on paper. And in fact this person also has very good academic track record, but I don’t think this person will be able to contribute to the team in a team discussion, so I don’t think this person is a good fit.” So that’s the approach that we take. Your question is more specific and probably best answered by one of my colleagues in the admissions office, but my suspicion is their answer will be something like this. They’ll say that if a person has got really weak undergraduate track record, then they most likely would be guided to take some courses or show some evidence for some kind of… the ability to take… perform right in a classroom. I’ve actually run into this situation before, and people grow and change. I don’t know about how you think about when you were an undergraduate, but I personally am grateful that I’ve grown and changed since those days. Thank goodness. My husband likes to say,”I’ve never met anybody who feels they were smarter five years ago than today.” And some people have more to grow when they’re 18 than others or at a different point in time. And so it’s just really, really important to know where they’re at at the time that they’re applying. And so part of what happens with pre-assessment is that, let’s just say that someone has nothing in their background or their education to suggest that they would be comfortable dealing with the more quantitative aspects of the program. They will recommend some training materials to help the person be prepared. Because the last thing we want to do is to have someone admitted and not be able to do the work and not have a great experience. So think of it as almost a diagnostic process in this admissions process. And we’ll look to see if there’s a weakness in someone’s background that they should address just to make sure they get the most out of the program length. But again, don’t start off by saying, “Well, I got a two five in undergrad, so there’s no way Cornell would accept me.” Let’s have the conversation, because it might be quite possible that they’d be a tremendous person based on the trajectory of their career since they were an undergraduate. If you were a potential applicant thinking ahead to an EMBA application and program, what is the one thing you would do to prepare yourself to apply? That’s a very good question. Dean Mark Nelson: This is going to sound incredibly selfish because I am an accounting professor, okay? But one of the things, if someone has never ever… and I’m looking really past the application process, if someone’s never seen any kind of financial statements, financial information, anything of that nature, there are all of these different short courses or overviews or whatever. Just getting a little bit of the bare bones of accounting I think is useful because then when you jump into an accounting class, you’ve got some of that language, some of that syntax. But again, I can’t say that I’m not being self-serving in that because I am an accounting professor and I love this stuff. Dr. Thomas recommends a basic course in marketing? So I just wanted to make sure, Linda, well, I would definitely recommend a basic course in marketing clearly, but I just wanted to clarify, did you say that after they get admitted or before they apply? Potential applicant. A potential applicant? So if somebody is thinking of applying for an EMBA program, my recommendation would be get in touch with other EMBA students. Understand the experience, understand whether this is for them. It’s not for everybody. And the challenges. Yeah. It’s time consuming for people to go through… I mean, once you enroll in an EMBA program, I’ve heard people say that, “We kept our social life on the side for two years, because all we do is work and study.” And so you are giving up a lot for two years and you have to make sure that you are in it because it’s going to be valuable for you. That’s going to be my advice. No, that’s great. And I’d also add, if you’re in a committed relationship, sit your partner down and say, “Okay, are we in this together?” Because at graduation, I always make sure to thank the partners and to say, “Congratulations to the both of you for getting your EMBA because it was a team effort at home as well as in the classroom.” By the way, I was laughing when you were suggesting taking an accounting class because I was an undergrad, I have an MBA, but it was a full-time MBA and not an Executive MBA, and I was a political science major. I took the minimum amount of math in college that I possibly could get away with. So when I was thinking of getting the MBA, and at the time you only needed one year of work experience, I took a math class to prepare myself and one accounting class because I felt I needed to know something about the language of business before I committed to this. And were you glad you did that? Yes, I was. I was very glad I did that. There you go. Proof positive, absolutely. So I’m sorry, Dr. Thomas, I did not take marketing at that point. That’s okay. No, you did your marketing in your MBA program then. Is there anything you would’ve liked me to ask you that I haven’t asked? I don’t think so. I think if there’s one thing I’d emphasize is something that Manoj said right towards the end, a really, really good way to understand what a program is about once you’ve talked to people in admissions, is to say, “Who are some students who are some alumni that I could speak with?” And there you’re talking to somebody who’s been a customer and they’ve been part of the whole experience, and they will give their own perspective. And certainly we would be happy and proud for people to speak with any of our current students or any of our alumni because we’re looking for that alignment and that excitement about being part of our community, and we think they’ll convey that very well. Dr. Thomas, what would you have liked me to ask you? I think you’ve asked all the great questions, Linda. I just wanted to emphasize the behavioral transformation part of the EMBA program along with the skilled learning, and the fact that there is an EMBA program which is specifically designed for people from different industries, different backgrounds. I think you’ve covered all of that, and those are the things I would’ve liked to emphasize in this conversation. I want to thank both of you, Dean Nelson and Dr. Thomas. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been delightful. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Cornell Johnson’s EMBA programs? Johnson.cornell.edu\programs\EMBA. And a final reminder, download your free copy of Ace the EMBA, Expert Advice for the Rising Executive . Listener, thank you too for joining Dean Mark Nelson and Dr. Manoj Thomas and me for our 506th episode. Thanks again for coming. ] https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AST-Listen-Now-Button-1024x256.png Related Links: Executive MBA Programs | EMBAs from Cornell Johnson Cornell EMBA Application Essay Tips & Deadlines Ace the EMBA: Expert Advice for the Rising Executive, a free download Relevant shows: How to Get Accepted to Cornell Johnson MBA Applying to Wharton Lauder? Do Your Research! Ace the Executive Assessment Why Is This Successful Leader Investing In an Oxford Said Executive MBA? Subscribe: https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/admissions-straight-talk-stitcher.png https://assets.blubrry.com/soa/BadgeLarge.png Podcast Feed The post Encore: Cornell Johnson EMBA Program: Four Options for the Largest EMBA Program in the United States appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog .

https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Three-Donts-When-Asking-for-Letters-of-Recommendation.png https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Three-Donts-When-Asking-for-Letters-of-Recommendation.png The individuals who agree to write your letters of recommendation (LORs) are doing you a favor, so the least you can do is make their job easier by following proper LOR etiquette . Breaking the rules we outline in this post could result in your recommenders deciding not to write a favorable recommendation letter for you or maybe even not to write one at all. Stay on your recommenders’ good side, help them be organized, and most importantly, make sure you do not commit any of these LOR mistakes. https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/general-free-consultation-button.png 1. Do not give them short notice. Your recommenders have full-time jobs, personal lives, and potentially other recommendations to write. If you ask for their recommendation too close to the deadline, you might end up without one. A good rule to keep in mind is to give your recommenders at least one month of advance notice. If you do, they should have plenty of time to schedule and write the letter. 2. Do not give them an incomplete package of materials. There are several documents that you must submit to your recommender if you want the greatest chance of (1) receiving a good recommendation and (2) having that good recommendation submitted on time. While being thorough, you still want to keep your emails to your recommenders as short and clear as possible. What do they need from you to be able to write you a great letter and submit it correctly and on time? Here are some materials your recommender will likely require: A copy of your resume/CV Information about the school/program to which you’re applying (at least the name of the program/school and info on what track or area of interest you plan to pursue) A short summary of your interests and goals related to the degree you’re pursuing, plus reminders about experiences you’ve shared with the recommender that highlight positive characteristics of yours that you would like them to mention in their LOR. This might include reminding them of a class you took with them, a project they helped you with, or some interesting conversations you had with them about their field of study. A link with instructions on what they need to do for/include in their LOR A clear deadline (this could be a few days before the final deadline, which would give you time to troubleshoot any technical difficulties) 3. Do not give them attitude. Writing LORs takes time, which is an irreplaceable and highly valuable commodity. Be polite and gracious when asking for a recommendation. Provide all the necessary materials in an organized, labeled fashion so that your recommenders can easily review them and get started writing, without needing to sort through a jumble of messy papers or unclear links or instructions. The better you present yourself and your materials, the easier you’ll make their job, the more impressed with you they’ll be, and – if all goes well – the better your LOR will turn out. It’s also a good idea – not to mention simple good manners – to send your recommender a thank-you note. While an email is very nice, a handwritten note is the old-fashioned touch that will help them to remember you positively and might even lead to them agreeing to write another letter for you down the line! https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Vanessa_Febo_admissions-expert-headshot.jpg Vanessa Febo has ten years of experience teaching academic and professional writing at UCLA, with a special certification in teaching writing techniques. She has drawn on this expertise to guide clients to placements at top institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, and USC. Before joining Accepted, Vanessa coached UCLA students through the application process for graduate programs, major grants, fellowships, and scholarships, including the Fulbright, Stanford Knight-Hennessey, and the Ford Foundation Fellowship. Additionally, Vanessa has extensive experience successfully guiding clients through applications for a diverse range of programs, including those in business, humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields. Want Vanessa to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: The Best Medical School Letter of Recommendation Advice for 2023 Five Tips for Requesting an AACOMAS Letter of Recommendation (Evaluation) Applying to Graduate Engineering Programs: Everything You Need to Know , a free guide The post Three Don’ts When Asking for Letters of Recommendation appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog .

https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Episode-548-Kevin-Shulman.png https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Episode-548-Kevin-Shulman.png Show Summary In this podcast episode, Linda Abraham interviews Dr. Kevin Schulman, the director of Stanford’s Master of Science and Clinical Informatics Management Program. They discuss the opportunities available at the intersection of medicine, business, and technology, and the problems that you can solve by combining these interests in your career. The program at Stanford combines business courses, technology courses, and ethics to train leaders who can transform healthcare delivery. The program is designed for working professionals and is a one-year, part-time cohort program. Graduates of the program can pursue careers as Chief Medical Information Officers, start their own companies, work in tech or industry, or advance in clinical leadership roles. Finally, the interview concludes with a discussion on the potential risks and benefits of technology in healthcare, and the importance of personalizing healthcare through technology. Show Notes What are the opportunities for you, if you’re interested in the intersection of medicine, business, and technology? What problems can you solve if you combine those interests in your career? What education would you require? We’re going to find out in this interview with the director of Stanford’s Master’s program and Clinical Informatics Management. Welcome to the 540th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Whether you are applying to a niche, innovative graduate program or more traditional one, the challenge at the heart of admissions is showing that you both fit in at your target schools and are a standout in the applicant pool. Accepted’s free download, Fitting In and Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions will show you how to do both. Master this paradox and you are well on your way to acceptance. https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/general-free-consultation-button.png Dr. Kevin Schulman, director of Stanford’s Master of Science and Clinical Informatics Management Program is also Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and Professor of Operations Information and Technology at Stanford GSB. He is our guest today, and those are just three of his titles. He has several more, along with over 500 publications. His research focuses on organizational innovation and healthcare, healthcare policy and health economics, which leads us directly to Stanford’s Master’s in Clinical Informatics management or the MCIM. Dr. Schulman, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. Oh, thanks so much for having me, Linda. My pleasure. I’m really delighted to be speaking with you. I saw an ad for the program online and it just felt like such a fascinating program that I looked into it and I thought, gee, it’d be great to have you on. So let’s start with a couple of really basic questions. I am not a techie and I’m not a healthcare professional. I do have an MBA. What is clinical informatics management? That’s a great question. As you think about healthcare compared to other services that you receive on a daily basis, we’re just lagging so far behind in terms of how we provide digital services to our patients, to consumers, how we do follow-up, how we provide education. So we wanted to build a program to help create leaders that will transform the delivery of healthcare in this country and around the world. To do that, we combine business courses and technology courses and ethics in a year long program for working professionals where we meet every other weekend. So my next question was going to be, can you give us an overview of the MCIM program, and you kind of just did that, but can you go into a little bit more detail about how it is structured and what is actually taught in the program? I mean, again, it just sounds absolutely fascinating to me. So at a high level, when I first started a program like this after the HITECH Act in 2009. Oh wow, it was back that far? I was at Duke at the time, it wasn’t here, but our CIO said, look, we need more people to help me implement technology. And he saw that actually as a business issue. How do we get cost and quality improvements from using technology? So our curriculum really has evolved from that, but follows, so we need business skills. How do we understand the language of business, how to talk to business leaders at a health system or elsewhere in a language where we make a conversation that they understand. So we do finance, accounting, strategy and management. Two of the courses I really like that are slightly different, one is marketing. So when we go from analog seeing your physician in their office to digital, we actually go from a one-to-one conversation to a one-to-many. And so we’re using marketing tools and strategies all around us to influence behavior. Most of the time it’s to get you to buy products and services, but imagine if we could use those same strategies to help you take your medicines. To remind you to get certain tests. So that’s marketing. And the final business course is service operations. We do from a machine learning perspective, how do we use this technology to improve productivity at the grassroots level? And then the technology courses are really interesting. So we’re not a programming core, we don’t teach you how to program, we teach you how to work with people who understand these technologies. So of course this is Stanford. So we’re going to start with data science and machine learning. And we have one of the great strengths of Stanford is something called the design school. So IDEO came out of there. Our Biodesign program built a special course for us, Biodesign for Digital Health that looks at needs finding and building solutions that can be scalable and actionable. We also have a data architecture class. How do we understand standards? I teach a course called Health IT and Strategy, which is interesting, which basically again, my background’s health service research, health economics. And so my question is how have other industries used technologies to improve productivity and improve efficiency? And what are those economic models and how can we apply them to healthcare? And then there’s a stats class we call Quality and Safety in Healthcare because at the end of the day with all this data, we have to understand statistics, but we also have to understand the reports we get as managers and where those data come from. And then there’s two final pieces. One’s a required practicum project, which is a piece of work that will help you kind of hone in on one of your interests, either to build an interest, to write a business plan, exclude an interest. That has four tracks. You could create a case study, you could do a research project, you could do an experiential project working with leaders at Stanford or beyond. And the final one is writing a business plan. A lot of students do these days. And then the ethics program is a year-long ethics program. I noticed that. I was very intrigued by the fact that you have an ethical component. So first of all, the program is a one-year program. Let’s just start with that. It’s a one-year program. Yeah, it’s a full Stanford Master’s program. We just hold the classes every other Friday, Saturday. So it’s also a part-time program. Well, it’s scheduled for working professionals, but it’s- That’s what I mean. Yes, better way to put it. Yeah, the class hours are the same as if you took a full-time master’s program here. And it’s a cohort program, right? So everyone starts together and finishes together. There’s 25 people in the program and they become very close friends very quickly. We also rotate, everyone’s on an assigned team and we rotate the teams throughout the year. So you get to meet the other people in your cohort, but you’re all here together in class. Then obviously you have assignments in between classes. We have guest speakers either on the weekends, you’re here, in between depending on the time of the year. You mentioned that the program in your head started in 2009, but when did it actually start? Here at Stanford, this is our third year. And Stanford brings a lot to a program like this from the design perspective. Everything at Stanford is AI and ML. Entrepreneurship and innovation is a huge piece of the Stanford ecosystem, but we also have a great ethics program. How do we think about ethical aspects of AI? How do we think about developing technologies? How do we think about deploying them and data privacy? Not only are we dealing with technologies where society’s got lots of questions about the ethics of the technology in the first place, but then we’re applying them to healthcare. Could you give an example? So how do we think about building models from a dataset? Is there adequate representation of different patient populations in that dataset before we use it? That’s a core basic question a lot of people on campus are asking. And then Dave Magnus, who heads our ethics program, as things come up during the year, they’ll get distracted by whatever the topic du jour is, if it’s vaccines, if it’s data breaches, personal health records, whatever the – he kind of has some core ethical principles to really topical kind of assignments. I just had an experience today my elderly mother has a video appointment with her doctor and it required my sister or me to go to her apartment to participate in the video appointment because it was not set up so that you could log on from different places. I assume that’s for privacy concerns, but there’s also very definite usability limitations as a result. Absolutely. And fortunately she had you available, fortunately you all spoke English. That’s true. But I’m going to guess that that would be a reflection of conflicting priorities, usability versus privacy and security or no? Yeah, no, I think it also reflects the question of who are we providing services for and what’s that definition? So the doctor got paid to provide a service to your mother, but your mother needed a service for her and her care team, and that was not in the concept of how we build a CPT code. And so we really had a very limited vision of how we would provide that service under current billing services. One of the things we’re working on right now is just intellectually, what else should you have gotten? So you had your video visit. Did you get a copy of the visit? No. Did you get any materials like emailed to you about? I’m fairly certain that there is an after visit summary. My sister actually was at this thing. She physically went to my mother’s and was on the appointment. My mother’s at an age, and this was of a seriousness where we felt somebody else had to be there. No, absolutely. But it was not, I don’t, to my knowledge, there’s no recording of it. If there is a recording of it, I don’t know about it. And my mother doesn’t know about it, my sister doesn’t know about it. And there probably is a written after visit summary. Now my mother’s vision is fairly good, but there’s another elderly relative who can’t see. So every after visit summary that she gets is an utter waste of time and an act of frustration for her. And you still have to log into the system to even get that. Sure. She can’t do that at all. And it’s assuming that after visit summary is written in English and at an inappropriate reading level. Right. There’s no video. There’s no pictures. So one of the things, actually, this is a long time ago, but we built a personal health record. I was at Duke before Stanford in our portal, and one of the things we linked was pictures of your pills. So your mother’s on X number of pills and if she mixes up the pill bottles, how do you know which one is the blue pill and- They actually do have pictures of the pills. That I’ve seen. You’re in a good position then. But those are some of the things just again, personally that I’m dealing with now that have very much to do with information, clinical medicine and yes, management. But let’s go back to the program. I could go on like this for a long time and I don’t want to take up too much of your time. In the videos for the MCIM program, there was a strong emphasis on the entrepreneurial opportunities presented via the program. And you’ve touched on it a little bit. Could you go into that? Could you maybe give me an example? Yeah, so one of the things that we ask, we are here for the students who come here, and Stanford attracts a lot of people who are interested in innovation in entrepreneurship. So they have projects for several of the different classes which can end up being the nucleus for a new business plan. We have this required practicum project that several people last year submitted business plans for. Students either in MCIM or in my other classes on campus are doing work on discharge planning tools, research for rare disease platforms. I was just on a call about a new technology to use voice to help your mom take her meds. So lots of different ideas there, but there are also some ideas that are kind of buried. Can we do better jobs building databases for AI, ML research? That was a big interest of one of the students from last year. And who is the program intended for? Is it intended for computer science people, for people in business, for healthcare providers? Any of the above? All the above. Well, actually all the above. Is it more defined by goal? All the students are, I guess the common denominator is they all see that healthcare is an opportunity to make a change. It’s a field, it’s a four and a half trillion dollar healthcare economy, but it’s not an efficient delivery system. And again, not using technology anywhere near the way we should be using it. So all of them are motivated by the opportunity to really make a difference and make a contribution. I try to mix people in the class. We have about 40% with a clinical background, and then the rest are going to either have a business background, a technology background or a finance background. And they’re all going to be on teams, cross functional teams where they have to be able to talk to each other across disciplines. We also do something unique where we’ll take some students right out of college all the way up to people, the oldest person program right now I think is either close to 60 or at 60. Wow. And so each generation has different ways in which they think about technology, use technology. And so not only do we have to communicate across disciplines, but we have to communicate across generations of technology users. And so that leads to lots of really interesting insights. Especially in healthcare where you’re typically the older and the elderly use healthcare more than younger people, typically as a group, they are horribly challenged by technology, depending on where in the age span they are. Yeah, that’s a design failure. We should be developing technology that is much easier for them to use. I mean, if my kids make fun of me for how I use technology, so can we make it easier? Can we make it seamless? Can we do some kind of authentication? So I don’t have to remember 6 million passwords. My mother-in-law has got a notebook of all the passwords that she’s forgotten. So she has the passwords, but she doesn’t know what they connect to in terms of the databases. So I think by 2030 we’re going to have 10 million people in this country age 85 and above. If we’re going to have 72 million people in Medicare, we need a healthcare system that provides access to those people. And so the technology’s going to be a lot more useful. What kind of careers do you anticipate the graduates of the program will go into? So again, I think our idea is these are leadership skills. We’re training you to be leaders to move forward. We’ve gotten some great traction already with things like Chief Medical Information Officers, but other people, a couple have started up companies, smaller, larger tech companies, other people are out in industry. Some of the clinical people are back to their clinical position and moving up in leadership roles there. So it’s a really nice diversity of where they’re going. Also, because it’s a one-year program and it’s pretty intense for working professionals, frankly, I tell people, you’re going to build these skills and then we’ll use it in a career. It doesn’t have to be in this year. It could be in the next year, the following year. And so we’ve seen some of that as well. I can imagine they can also apply what they’re learning as they’re working since they don’t leave the workforce. Absolutely. Every single day, they come back for the next class weekend. That concept you brought up, we use that. I have another person who’s actually from our first cohort, I was talking to this week and she was opening up her notebooks from class. Literally she just took a new job and she went back and reread all of her stuff. So you can use it, but definitely the business skills and the business concept that you get are things that are going to carry you forward. What is the application process like? For the MCIM? We really focus, it’s especially after the Supreme Court decision, it’s a holistic review trying to understand where you’re at, what your goals are, what your accomplishments have been and your success have been to date, whether that’s in academia or in the workforce, especially in tech. We have a lot of people in non-traditional career paths to say the least. There’s a guy who has a little company here in Menlo Park who dropped out of college after Harvard. So we have to be flexible. And then we have essays where you really do have to think about letting us know why this is an important program for you, why you’re going to be successful in the program, why you’re going to be a good collaborator in the classroom and with your teammates. And then we’ll do a one-way video interview, and then if people get selected, they’ll have interviewed with two of our admissions committee members. That’s it. But on our side, the challenge is to really think about a cohort that’s going to work well together in the classroom. It’s going to be a very intense experience. Again, because it’s so focused. Yeah, it’s going to be a very intimate experience because working, you’re sitting next to each other all day for a year, but we also need to have different backgrounds. It can’t be a physician MBA program that there’s no one to learn from all the same set of background. So we need a cohort that can really blend these things together. Because we’re Stanford, we want to make sure we also are building leaders that represent what our country looks like in terms of who’s going to lead us forward and the kind of backgrounds that people have. You mentioned that the class has 25 members. Is there any interest in growing that number? Yeah, it depends. It’s up to the provost here, and it’s Stanford, so they’ll take their time making the decision, evaluating it, but it’s a permanent program. We’ll always be here. I think we’ve had really good interest in the program and our graduates are doing really well. They’re very happy with the program and the experience, so I’m very optimistic about that going forward. I noticed in preparing for the call that the application process does not include a test requirement. You give permission or you say that people can share their scores if they have them. Who should share their scores? I think part of this ends up being some people, like our physician applicants, took their MCATs or whatever test years and years ago. So for mid-career professionals, the test didn’t make a lot of sense. So I think if you’re closer to, if you have scores, if you’re on the junior end of the curriculum, that’s helpful. I should say within I think seven years of graduating college, our program participates in a really unique program here at Stanford, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, which has a different application process, but that provides pretty generous financial support. So those people, I think if they don’t have a lot of experience, those scores will be helpful. But for people who’ve been out in the workforce five or 10 years, I think their letters of recommendation and their essays are going to be much more useful. And I would assume the importance of the GPA also varies depending upon the time that you’ve been out of school. Is that true? Yeah, we need evidence that you can– it’s a rigorous program when your master’s program is, so we want to make sure you can perform well in the classroom. But you can show that in lots of different ways as far as I’m concerned. We’re pretty cognizant of different backgrounds, different trajectories people have had, and we’re looking for evidence of success out there in the workforce. Now there are three required essays for the MCIM. One is a statement of purpose, which is very common in almost all master’s programs. Another one is a statement I guess, saying how you could enrich the learning community in the MCIM. And the third one is the program time management statement, which given the intensity of the program makes a lot of sense to me. How should those three essays provide you with the information that you’re seeking from applicants? I mean, they have different foci, and what advice can you give applicants on those essays? Well, I think that first and foremost is again, the thing that binds everyone together is this, is passion for change. They want to make a difference in the world. A master’s degree, especially for working professionals, is a big investment of time and effort, and we want to make sure that you’ve really considered that and that it really is going to be valuable to you. So I think that’s really helpful to us. And then letting us know how you think that’s going to help you. Either I’m going to go start a company or I’m going to get a promotion or I’m going to move into a different role intellectually. Say you have a tech background and you want to move into project management or leadership or move out of marketing into healthcare, but let us know about that. In terms of we’re very serious that you’re going to learn, most programs probably say this, but half of what you learn is going to be from your faculty and half is going to be from your colleagues in the classroom. And so we take that very seriously. We want people that could work well with each other as we build the cohort. With 25 people, that is even more important than if it was a bigger program and since we’re in person, it’s even more important than if we were a distance program. So we are not perfect at that, but that’s a big piece of what we do. We’re very happy Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 that finished our programs really kind of love each other. The saddest day of the whole program was graduation when they weren’t going to be together every other weekend for the next year. And then time management is, again, a chance for them to let us know if they’re working professionals, that they’ve got the schedule down pat, that they’ve anticipated what the requirements are going to be. If they have support from work, that’s also really important. Some of the people have had real challenges. Either your boss is really supportive when you apply in February and something’s happened in the company by June or the managers rotate. It puts a lot of challenge on you. You’ve committed to this program and all of a sudden it’s a real challenge. Well, thank you for that. We’ve talked a lot about machine learning and AI and all that. What do you think of applicants using ChatGPT to help them with their essays? We’ve written a paper on hallucinations from ChatGPT. That is one of the better responses I’ve got to this question. My kids text all the time. They’re really good at texting. When they have to do longer form essays they get kind of nervous. But this is your chance to communicate with us and communicate that your level of skill and ability to perform in the classroom, and if you think that’s your level of skill and ability that says something. Hopefully you could do a little better than that. Is there any kind of career support offered through the program? Through the MCIM? Yeah, actually we’re in the school of medicine, and we have something called the BioSci Careers program, and so they support us in things like resume workshops and networking workshops and job postings, so that those resources are all available. People come to Stanford looking at recruiting all the time, but we also, we’re going to end up with 25 people, 25 different kind of ideas of where they want to go in their career. Though you will have a lot of support, but there’s also a lot of individual networking and responsibility moving forward. Again, you don’t have to change your career just because you come into the program and then obviously you have access to all those resources as an alumni as well. Do the MCIM students interact with let’s say med students or engineering students or GSB students? Yeah, some of them do. Some of them are just here for the class Friday, Saturday and don’t have any other time. This year we actually have people commuting from the East Coast. Wow. To come here, so there’s a limited amount that they could take advantage of in terms of Stanford. Some of our international students are here on campus seven days a week doing all kinds of things. The students in the MCIM program have built actually a network of people interested in healthcare here at Stanford in the MCIM program and beyond, and then actually it’s gone national. I think they have a thousand people in their network right now, so there’s lots of opportunities in that direction. Some of our outside speakers, the MCIM students get much better access to them than I also teach at the GSB, so some of the MCIM students get a lot better access than our GSB students even. Now this episode should air November 7th. Your first deadline is November 10th, so it’s kind of a little tight there, but the final deadline for the cohort entering in June is January 12th. What advice do you have for potential applicants aiming for the January 12th due date? In other words, they will have about two months from the time the show airs to when they submit their application. To me, being on this side of the evaluations, letters or recommendations are so important. We haven’t touched on them at all. And when you have a lot of people that are really, really extremely talented applying to a program, it’s only letters that can really differentiate you. How do I know about you as an individual in terms of your strengths on a team or leadership capabilities? So if you have the luxury of time, I would think about those letters and who you’re going to ask to write a letter, what part of your background or experience that you want to emphasize through those letters. That’s really helpful. Great advice. Thank you. Now, let’s say somebody’s listening to this podcast and says, “I’m not ready for this year, but this seems really intriguing and I’d like to plan for it for the following year.” What advice would you have for that applicant, potential applicant planning ahead to apply next year or later? Yeah, like I said, this is a permanent degree. We’re not going anywhere, and so especially for thinking about how am I going to take a year working over the weekend, I’ve talked to people. “I just took a new role. I was really interested in this program. I just took a new role. I can’t go to my boss right now, but I want to do it next year”, and I think that’s perfectly fine. We have information sessions that will start over the summer. I think if you’re ready, you apply during round one in the November deadline. If you’re potentially a candidate for Knight-Hennessy, that’s due in the fall as well. Yeah, I would use this time to just get ready and get the application in. The advantage of round one, especially for people with clinical backgrounds, my clinical schedule is set a year in advance, so we wanted round one’s there partially so that clinical people could know by December if they’re in the program or not, so they could adjust their schedules if they need to. Lots of advantages to applying then. But between now and then, I think really just trying to think about why do you want to do the program, what other information can you get, I really advise people to reach out to the students in the program. All the students are telling me that lots of people are reaching out to them, but I could tell you from the head of the program perspective what I think we’re delivering, but they could tell you how it’s having an impact on their careers. It’s everything we’re talking about and more, and they can give you a real flavor for that. Like I said, this is a big decision. You don’t need a master’s degree to get ahead in your career. Like we started with, again, there’s a really famous dropout here in town that’s done pretty well. A masters degree could help some of the rough edges, but you don’t need it. I was talking earlier today about some of the challenges of single moms taking care of their kids, how would they ever get access to a program like this? Well, it may not be the best. It may not be totally accessible, so I don’t want people to feel bad they can’t take the time off or it’s not the right time of their lives to do something like this. There are short courses, there’s other ways to get some of this material, but I’m really proud of our program and what people are getting out of it. I think you have a lot of reasons to be proud. Again, it seemed fascinating when I first heard about it, and it seems more fascinating now. As we’re coming to the end of this interview. What would you have liked me to ask you? Oh, that’s a great question. I think you’ve done a really good job of tackling through this. I mean, I think as we look forward, again, we’re trying to tackle this big problem of how do we improve productivity in healthcare? How do we change the healthcare market and why technology? There’s all kinds of other ways you could think about it, and at the end of the day, technology’s, for better or for worse, one of the least regulated spaces in healthcare. And because of that, if you believe in Clay Christensen and disruptive innovation, disruptive innovation only comes in unregulated markets, and so technology’s the only unregulated market in healthcare or the least regulated, and so it’s the one opportunity we have to really make significant change, and I think that’s the reason why we put this program together. That’s why technology is such an emphasis, not only because technology is a great solution to a lot of problems, but technology’s really a way to really dramatically rethink how do we deliver care, make it more affordable, make it more accessible? Do you think that there’s maybe a risk in depersonalizing healthcare? You go into the doctor and the doctor’s staring at the screen the whole time and not looking at you and that kind of thing? Not exactly the Norman Rockwell image. Yeah. It’s not the Norman Rockwell. I would put it back the other way. I think we’re on the approach of actually being able to personalize your healthcare, because imagine right now while I’m staring at the screen and saying, “Here are the three things that are recommended.” Then we’ll make sure you get scheduled and the amount of time. How do I customize the experience for you? How do I build tools that’ll help you with your personal health goals? Like whatever your exercise plan is, help you take your medicines, help you do your cancer screening. You are paying huge amounts of money for healthcare, and you get no assistance whatsoever in any of those things. It just makes no sense. And at the other end of the spectrum for people with multiple chronic conditions, the healthcare system gets more complex and more difficult to navigate. We need tools to help us do that. Especially with the elderly. Yeah, so I think it’s actually going to get more personal. That sounds great to me, and that’s a wonderful note I think to end on also. Increased personalization and improvement in the healthcare system, positive change, and it sounds to me like that’s what the MCIM is all about, right? Absolutely. Okay, great. Dr. Schulman, I think we’re just about out of time. You’ve been very generous. This has been an absolutely fascinating conversation. https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AST-Listen-Now-Button-1024x256.png Relevant Links: Master of Science in Clinical Informatics Management | Clinical Informatics Management (MCiM) | Stanford Medicine Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions – a free guide Related Shows: Transitioning from the Military to an MBA at Stanford GSB – podcast Episode 471 What These Seasoned Startup Founders Have Done Since Earning Their Stanford MBAs – podcast Episode 382 Combining a Stanford MBA with a Tech Startup Career – podcast Episode 369 Mike Hochleutner on Stanford’s MSx Program for Experienced Leaders – podcast Episode Subscribe: https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/admissions-straight-talk-stitcher.png https://assets.blubrry.com/soa/BadgeLarge.png Podcast Feed The post Stanford’s MCiM Combines Technology, Healthcare, and Business appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog .

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: ENCORE: Cornell Johnson EMBA Program: 4 Options for the Largest EMBA Program in the U.S. [Episode 543]

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Episode-506-banner-.png[/img]
[url=https://www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/543_Mark-Nelson_Manoj-Thomas_Encore_2023.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Episode-506-banner--1024x576.png[/img][/url]

Please enjoy this encore edition of one of Admission Straight Talk’s most popular episodes of 2023: “The Cornell Johnson EMBA Program: Four Options for the Largest EMBA Program in the United States.”

This encore was chosen not only due to the episode’s popularity, but also because it’s a fascinating exploration of a well-established, large EMBA program with four distinct components. If you are even considering an Executive MBA, this episode is a must-listen. Alternatively, If you are debating whether to go down the MBA or EMBA path, Dean Mark Johson and Dr. Manoj Thomas provide unique insight with indispensable advice obtained from their years of experience.

To learn more about EMBA admissions, download Accepted’s free guide, [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/ace-the-emba]Ace the EMBA[/url].

Did you know that Cornell Johnson has the largest Executive MBA program in the United States with four distinct flavors? I didn’t, but let’s learn together about Johnson’s EMBA program, its unique distributed classroom, and how to get in from its dean and director. [SHOW SUMMARY]

Welcome to the 506th episode of [url=https://blog.accepted.com/listen/]Admission Straight Talk[/url], Accepted’s podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Before I dive into today’s interview, I want to invite you to download [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/ace-the-emba]Ace the EMBA[/url], 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, differentiate yourself from your competition in a positive way and present yourself effectively as a future business leader, who will bring credit to any program that accepts you. It gives me great pleasure to have for the first time on Admissions Straight Talk, Dean Mark Nelson, the Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean and Professor of Accounting at Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Dr. Manoj Thomas, Senior Director of EMBA and MSBA programs, and the Nakashimato Professor of Marketing, also at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. Dr. Nelson and Dr. Thomas, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk.

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Thanks for having us.

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

Thank you, Linda, delighted to be here.

Dean Nelson, what makes a Cornell Executive MBA program different from other EMBA programs? [1:55]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

That’s a great question, Linda. I mean, first off is the fact that we have these four different flavors of a Cornell MBA. And that’s very intentional, it’s been developed over time. We started initially with our Metro EMBA program, which is based in New York City, and which is focused on a general management EMBA, providing that jurisdiction, that market.

Second, then we have our Americas EMBA program, and that’s a really unique program where we’re reaching out to executives throughout the Americas using our own unique approach to distributed learning. And then third, we created an FMBA program, a collaboration with Tsinghua University, a finance-focused EMBA, and that’s bilingual and offered in Beijing. And then fourth, we have our MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership program, which is providing both an EMBA and also an MS in healthcare from two great institutions, the Johnson School and the Weill Cornell Medicine.

And so I go through that because the unique combination here is that we’ve got a general interest EMBA in New York, we’ve got something focused in the healthcare sector, we’ve got something that’s a unique and leading program in China, and then this Americas program serving the Americas. And I see that as a pretty special and unique roster of great EMBA programs.

Now, when you think about what’s the spine that relates all these together, there’s a couple things that I’d shout out, and then I’d maybe ask my colleague, Manoj, if there’s anything he wants to add in. One is that in all of these programs, we have a team-based learning approach that we think is really, really important. And by that I mean that we have students that, of course they’re performing individually, but they’re also on small teams, they’re coached, they’re assessed, they’re given feedback.

So we think of business as a team sport, and the ability of these executives to deliver exceptionally well in that context, we think it’s really important and so we’re very intentional about how we go about that approach. It is the case that in all of these programs, the students are working on problems that they’re addressing at work right now, so they’re able to put it into practice, and we think that team-based approach is really key.

And I guess the other thing that is unique, not only about the EMBA programs but about Cornell is that we have our Cornell Tech campus in New York City. So we are based in Ithaca, New York, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that we won the opportunity from then Mayor Bloomberg to create a new tech-based campus in the heart of New York City and have done so.

And so we have two of our programs, Metro and Healthcare Leadership, based at the Cornell Tech campus and all of our programs end up having residential sessions there. So to be able to offer programming at a campus that’s been built from scratch in the last 10 years, that’s very, very forward-focused and future-focused on the digital economy, that’s pretty unique and special, and we’re very proud of that.

[url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/free-admissions-consultation][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/general-free-consultation-button.png[/img][/url]

That’s great. Dr. Thomas, do you want to add something? [5:28]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

I think Mark covered it very well, I’ll just reiterate what he said. I think what really makes our suite of MBA programs, EMBA programs, unique is first that I cannot think of any other popular university offering so many distinctive options for students depending on their specific needs. So that’s one thing that really makes it unique.

And the other thing is that we have realized quite early on that MBAs in general, but Executive MBAs in particular, they need not just to learn the skills, but they need the transformation of behaviors. They want to evolve as individuals, as people, and we’ve created a pedagogy that does both.

How? [6:09]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

So, as Mark talked about that, we are an Ivy League institution, you come to our program and we’ll teach you microeconomics and macroeconomics and we’ll teach you regressions, we’ll teach you accounting and we’ll teach you finance and marketing. And unless you know all of these things pretty well, you’ll not be able to graduate from our program. So that’s how you develop the skills.

The behavioral transformation comes from our team-based learning. So over time, they start learning that they not only have to do well individually in these courses, but there are lots of team assignments, and they’re intentional, they’re designed, keeping in mind that there will be behavioral learning here where they’ll get feedback from team members about their biases, about their preconceptions and how they can be more effective team players.

And all of that is a part of our curriculum. So that’s how we blend both of these goals and meet both of these goals. And I think that’s one of the things that makes us different from other programs, as far as I know.

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Can I jump in real quick?

Sure, of course, anytime. [7:13]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

I just wanted to add that the process by which this happens is very carefully thought out. So we have a leadership framework that we created at Cornell. We call it the four Cs, where we’ve got competence and character and compassion and courage. And we talk about what each of those means and what those skills are. But when we’re talking about people operating in a group, the real key is, you give some instruction, but then they apply it and then they get very specific feedback, and rinse and repeat.

You keep doing that and working on each person’s individual weaknesses and helping them be stronger. This relates to diversity and inclusion, this relates to harnessing the power of the group and being able to identify the complementarities that make a group stronger. So we’ve got people who are absolute specialists in this that are team coaches and team advisors, and that’s a spine that runs through the program.

That’s very specific, not just general teamwork. They’re getting feedback on the nature of their participation? [8:20]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Yeah, I think it’s true, because oftentimes people will throw folks into teams and then they’ll throw them in another team and then they’ll throw them in another team, and that’s actually not teaching them, that’s having them work in teams and so…

And having them fall on their face and learn from falling on their face. [8:33]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Exactly.

When you’re talking about working in teams, you’re talking about people who also have usually full-time or almost full-time responsibilities. How do they navigate that? [8:55]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

That’s a great question. I’m happy to take that question. I teach in the program, and I didn’t really have an appreciation of how much our students have to go through until I started tracking them very closely. And to your point, Linda, I realized that the behavioral transformation happens because, as you said, they have very busy lives; they have their careers, they have their families, some of them have small kids, some of them have parents at home. And then they’re ambitious, and they sign up for this rigorous MBA program.

And what really makes them committed to the pedagogical goals is the fact that they’re learning as a team. And let me kind of illustrate with an anecdote, and I kind of encountered this quite frequently. Sometimes we have student assignments and we have team assignments in all our courses, individual assignments and team assignments. Sometimes the students, when they have to choose between doing extremely well on a team assignment versus an individual assignment, guess which one they focus more on?

Team? [10:02]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

A team assignment, because they feel they have this obligation to make sure the team performs well. And even if they have to make a trade-off there, they focus on a team assignment. And I think the team structure kind of helps us enable the students to navigate all the conflicting demands in their lives, enables them to grow in the program.

Cornell’s EMBA program is the largest in the US. What advantage does that create? [10:42]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

I have to begin by saying that we don’t know the exact number of enrollments in all schools, right? The only source that we can rely on our third-party industry service. So the most reliable source for us is EMBAC, which is an independent body that surveys all EMBA programs. And in the latest survey, they surveyed 125 schools, and we looked at the number of schools that have big programs and there are seven such schools when I looked at that. They are Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Sloan, UCLA, and Wharton.

And then we looked at the total, the number of students enrolled, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we are the top in terms of students, whether or not we include our students in Beijing, even if we include our students just in the US, we have the largest cohort of students in coming in any year, at least in the year 2021 to our EMBA programs. Now your second question is, how does that help us?

I think the most concrete is that we learn from our mistakes, and we share those learnings as we start new programs or other programs. So each program doesn’t have to commit its own mistakes to improve; it can learn from the mistakes that other people are committing, our other programs are committing, and we learn from our strengths and we learn from our observations.

So going back to the team-based learning, we started our team-based learning with our Cornell Americas program, which uses this distributed classroom, and I can talk about that later. But we had to create team-based learning because the classrooms are distributed, they are not in Ithaca or in New York, they are spread all over the North Americas. And once we learned that, and once we realized the power of that pedagogical approach, we said, “Well, we have to roll that out to our EMBA Metro and our EMBA MS/Healthcare.”

And our program directors wanted to, were very keen to embrace those because they saw the power of this pedagogical innovation. So I think the most important advantage is that we learn, we have these internal learning process, so as an organization we are improving because we have all these programs. The second one is more obvious and more straightforward; we have a pretty large network, which means that Cornell EMBA alumni, that they’re in Chicago or in Toronto or in Peru, and they’ll have lots of other Cornell alumni that they can connect with.

Dean Nelson, do you want to add to that? [13.17]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

I really do. I agree wholeheartedly with what Manoj said. There’s another thing that’s maybe less apparent, but I think is really important. And that is, you’ll look and there may be some schools where the EMBA program is sort of a one-off and they have a focus on something else, but they also have an EMBA program. And it’s really critical to highlight, and Manoj alluded to this, but it takes a special skillset to teach EMBA students well.

You’re dealing with more experienced people. , You’re dealing with people who are dealing with the strategic issues you might be covering on a daily basis. And while, Linda, you’re dead on that they’re very busy people, the other thing is that on a Saturday, they’re bringing into the classroom what happened at work on Friday, and they’re looking to apply it on Monday. And learning as a faculty member to draw on the incredible experience in that class and on the immediacy of them putting their education to work.

You’re sort of a conductor of a symphony more than you are playing your own instrument. It’s always that case, I think, when you’re dealing with graduate students, it’s even more so for EMBA students. So if we have four programs with somewhat different clientele and modalities, but they’re all focused on EMBAs, what that means is that we have a deeper bench of faculty, we have deeper expertise of faculty that we can bring to bear on this really important but somewhat distinctive student population.

What is a distributed classroom and how does it contribute to the Cornell EMBA options? [15:07]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

I would ask Manoj because Manoj is teaching actively using this approach and he can describe what it’s like as a faculty member as well as more conceptually.

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

Happy to. I think we are quite proud of this. And I have to admit that we started off this concept in 2005. We did not realize that this is going to become so big and powerful. We did not anticipate a pandemic 15 years down the line and everybody going hybrid and online. But we started off 2005 in a partnership, our partnership with Queen’s University, and actually they are the ones who were the pioneers who had this idea.

And so we started our EMBA program in New York City and we were looking to take this, what we believe is a pretty strong EMBA program, to the rest of the country, and so were Queen’s, and we thought that we should partner with them. And we created a program spanning all of Americas, North and South America, in 20 locations.

And the problem that we faced was the following; it’s not like teaching engineering or a math class or a chemistry class where you can look at the glass slides, take notes, or read books and learn. In a business class, it’s very important to interact, it’s very important for people to debate and thrash out ideas and question and challenge. How do we create that environment? And this is more so for Executive MBA because there’s a wealth of experience, Linda, in each classroom. So how do we create that?

So people, our colleagues, who were running this program at that time, had this very powerful idea of creating classrooms, physical classrooms, in each location. So we have 20 such small physical classrooms, each can accommodate 10, 15 students. Students physically go into those classrooms every weekend. They spend eight hours there starting at 8:00 AM in their respective time zones, and the faculty either go to a studio in Cornell or a partner institution.

And we have a studio which is pretty much like a television studio. If you’ve ever happened to be in Ithaca, I’d be happy to give you a tour of their studio. We go in there and we have colleagues helping us beam our content, and we see all the students on a big, large, huge wall in front of us. And I can then say, “Ron in Toronto, what do you think of what Lisa just said in Dallas?” And then I can turn to someone in Seattle and say, “Okay, who do you think is correct?” And they can all interact with each other.

So what we’ve done is we created this structure where we can recreate an MBA classroom by recreating in peer-to-peer interactions, and at the same time we can distribute it across multiple locations. This is very different from what many other institutions currently… the way they currently think of online education. They think of a Zoom room, putting people in Zoom rooms, et cetera.

We also have those kinds of approaches but I think that the foundation of the Americas program, this concept of distributed classrooms, I think it’s a marvelous pedagogical innovation that has helped us roll out her MBA to many far different places.

So it’s almost a combination of small groups and online. [18:33]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you can tell I’m excited about this too. There are a couple things to add to this. Manoj gave a wonderful explanation. The first might only… this metaphor might only work for people of a certain generation, but there used to be a sitcom called Frasier. And Frasier was a psychologist on the radio and he had someone in the control room named Roz. And Roz would sort of orchestrate what was happening while Frasier was sort of the talent on the line.

And one of the things that is really powerful about this approach is that there is a Roz; in addition to the faculty member, there’s a control room. So what Manoj didn’t say was when he called on Ron in Toronto, the person in the control room pops up a record of what Ron’s doing, what’s his background, how does he tie in. There are opportunities for that controller to collaborate with faculty member in terms of how they’re offering ways that students in this distributed format can be providing polls and votes and input in a variety of ways.

So before I saw this, I sort of thought of a distributed environment as being, “How close to a real face-to-face classroom can you get?” And what I didn’t realize is that in some ways you have an augmented capability, unique capability. And that’s really interesting. And once again, it takes work to know how to harness that well. It takes the infrastructure and the talent and the team, but from a faculty member perspective, you have to learn to do that extraordinarily well. And that’s part of the investment that we’ve made in the structure.

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

Yeah, I just want to echo what Mark said. It is wonderful. Yeah, my colleagues, Todd and Steve, who are always behind the scene and in fact many times I’ve turned to them and asked them, “Which boardroom do you think I should ask this question to?” And they’ll tell me which boardroom is kind of just poised to answer that question. Yeah. It kind of augments our teaching skills being in that structure.

Do the students who, let’s say, attend in Dallas versus the students who attend in Chicago or Boston or wherever they are, or Florida, do they have group projects? Do they get together socially? Do they become a cohort? [21:08]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Yes, and they get very tight. So they’ll do group projects together and they’ll be socializing together. But they’re also, as Manoj was saying, they’re relying on each other and so they become extremely close. The other thing that’s interesting… I guess two other things about this format that I just find so intriguing. One is that we’ll allow students to do a weekend in another town.

And so there are some people who just have this bucket list of saying, “I’m going to go to every one of these boardrooms at one point or another and I’m going to join their…” Because they all know each other. They see each other and they’re interacting, both online and also when we do residential sessions. So the idea of someone from Mexico City popping up to Seattle and being hosted, they really enjoy that.

I assume there’s also forums for interaction midweek .[22:21]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. But another thing that’s interesting and that maybe isn’t immediately apparent is that, I mean you really, really benefit from each other in an Executive MBA classroom. Certainly do in a residential MBA classroom, but even more so from an Executive because they’ve got so much to share. And what’s better yet is imagine that you’re doing a case and you’re asking people’s perspectives, and one person’s in Santiago, Chile and another’s in Monterey, Mexico and another’s in New York City and another is in the Bay Area.

And they’re not only from a different place. I mean, in our residential program we have 43 countries represented. Not only from a different place, they’re in a different place and they can talk about how right now that cultural challenge might be addressed in their particular settings. And so to have that simultaneity of diversity of background, it’s just really unique, and I think it’s an unsung learning advantage of this approach.

Does any individual cohort ever get together with the rest of its cohorts? And do the cohorts ever meet altogether? [23:36]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Yeah, we have residential sessions where they’ll come to the Ithaca campus, they’ll come to our Cornell Tech campus, our partner university, Queen’s. And, I mean, it’s like a huge family reunion when this happens because everyone knows each other and they not only interact during the day in the classroom, but I think the bar scene in Ithaca benefits from their presence. I mean, they get out and they socialize a lot with each other and they’re excited to do so.

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

I’ll just add to what Mark said. I talked to somebody who was in our first class, 2005, who graduated from the first class and I asked them, “What is it that you really take away, remember, even now from the program that you attended in 2005?” And he said, “My classmates, my board roommates,” and he said, “We’re still in touch, we still meet.”

So part of it is, as you, I think, quite astutely pointed out the beginning, it’s a very rigorous program because they have conflicting demands and now they’re put in a team, they’re accountable for the team because many a time they’re leading their team project and they kind of rotate in their roles and they get to know each other very well, extremely well. They get to know each other’s family problems so they can help each other around all of that.

Now they’re seeing other teams online and now they’re curious to meet the team in Toronto or to meet the team in Calgary or meet the team in Boston. And like Mark said, then there are these residential sessions that happens twice a year, and they come to Ithaca or they go to a Cornell Tech campus and they’re like, “Oh yeah, so finally we get to meet the people in Boston and we finally get to meet people in Monterey,” and they bond there. So I think it’s a wonderful structure.

What do most people not realize about Cornell’s EMBA programs, or options I should say, that you would like them to know? And are there any misconceptions that you would like to dispel? [25:31]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

I’ll say a couple and then invite Manoj to jump in. So first off, there’s some things that I think they just automatically expect. They know Cornell University and the Ivy League School and they anticipate that it’s going to be high quality and rigorous, and it definitely is. I think the team approach that we were describing is something that people probably don’t realize to the extent that they could.

The amazing diversity of students in these classes, both in, depending on the particular program, geographic location, functional orientation. In our Healthcare Leadership program, half of the program consists of clinicians, but the other half are people from the healthcare sector really broadly defined. So they’re healthcare implement manufacturers and consultants and pharmaceutical, biotech. So that diversity of functional discipline and orientation, it takes them only a little while to realize just how much they have to draw upon and to learn from.

So all of that I think is true. What people maybe don’t know, I don’t know if I’m dissuading or informing at this point, but sometimes people have the image of an institution of Cornell’s standing, as full of a bunch of stuffy people who aren’t approachable and aren’t warm and aren’t caring and aren’t supportive. And it’s very, very much the opposite. So you go back to the motto of Cornell, “Any person, any study,” the idea of being welcoming and embracing and supportive.

Everyone’s ambitious, everyone’s driven, but it’s not cutthroat. It’s exactly the opposite. And that then leads to the power of the Cornell network after they graduated. And it’s sort of like the rings of an onion or whatever, where you start maybe with your team and then your cohort and your class and your program, your year. But it doesn’t take long before you’re talking about the Cornell University network of well over 250,000 people and they’re all, we talk about, bleeding Cornell Red, huh?

And they’re sort of part of your network. There’s this line about Cornell that we’re elite but not elitist. And I think that’s really important for people to understand. They’re joining a family and it’s an accomplished family, but it’s a very supportive and close family. And that makes the process fun and affirming and special.

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

Can I add, Linda? And in terms of the more… I agree with all that Mark said, I want to touch on a couple of concrete things. I was talking to somebody on the West Coast and this person was telling me that this person is working in a good company, technology company, and saying, “I want to do an EMBA, but from a place like Cornell, but I can’t travel, I don’t have time to travel.” And that’s the first myth I’d like to bust.

If anybody is listening to the program, I want you to know that you don’t have to travel to Ithaca or New York to get a Cornell EMBA. You can be in Seattle, you can be in San Jose, you can be in Los Angeles, and you can stay there, and without quitting your job, you can get an Ivy League Cornell EMBA. That’s the first thing.

And when I told this person this, they said, “Oh, that’s interesting. That’s really interesting. I probably would like to enroll.” And then he thought about this and said, “But I’ll have to take a GMAT.” I said, “Nope. The GMAT usually was required for your regular MBAs, but if you’re applying for an Executive MBA program, we look at your profile. We need certain experience, we need 15 years experience, we need you to have some management experience, leadership experience.”

“But if you have those, and we need you to have an undergraduate degree that enables you to attend and respond to rigorous courses. But if you meet those benchmarks, we know that you are very busy, working executives, so we are not going to ask you to take a bunch of time preparing for tests. We don’t need to do that because we have enough information from your credential to evaluate your preparedness for a program.”

So those are the two things I’d like all prospective applicants to know. Even if you are in Canada or anywhere in any part of the US, you have access to a Cornell EMBA program. And we made it easy for you to complete your EMBA without quitting your jobs and without having to take too many leave, et cetera. And the bonus that you get is that you’ll get some lifelong friends.

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Sorry, one more thing that just… Manoj sparked something in my mind. Something I want to make sure people don’t do. Don’t psych yourself out. Don’t think you can’t do this. One of the things we have, we have a pre-assessment process where we ask people to just reach out to our admissions folks and talk to them. Applying to an EMBA program is very different than what people have in mind maybe when they applied for undergrad, where they filled out this common app and mailed it and sat there nervously for four months, wondering whether anything’s going to happen.

With an EMBA program it’s a lot more almost like executive placement. I mean, you’re talking with busy people, with accomplished people that… they don’t want to waste their time, we don’t want to waste their time. So early on in the process, we’ll talk about what our programs are like. We’ll help people understand which program is best for them. We’ll walk them through the process.

And if there was some reason why we didn’t think someone was a fit for any of these programs, we tell them. So we’re not wanting to waste their time. Instead, we’re wanting to help them through this process, just as we’ll help them through their EMBA. Sometimes I’ll talk to people and they’ll say, “Oh, I never applied. I could never get in.” It’s like, “Well, how do you know if you don’t talk to us?”

We promise we won’t lead you on, we won’t waste your time, but give yourself the opportunity to be considered because it could be a life-changing opportunity.

Dr. Thomas, what are the cities where the distributed classrooms are located? [32:08]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

On the East Coast we have Ithaca, New York, Boston, and DC. Then we have Seattle, LA, San Jose, and Francisco. We have Dallas and Houston. And then we have 10 other cities in Canada. And we have Monterey and Lima-

[Dean Mark Nelson]

Santiago, Mexico City. I’ll jump in.

Is that for all the EMBAs? [32:36]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

For EMBA Americas. We have our Metro EMBA program, which is based in New York City. So if you are from the Northeast and if you really are passionate about being a part of the business community in New York City or in the tri-state area, then we would say that you should go to the Metro MBA program, which operates at the Cornell Tech through our state-of-the-art campus for business school.

And I think I should… I don’t know if it’s the right time or not, I also want to talk about the other program, which is our EMBA/MS program that’s also based in New York City. And that’s a very unique program of its kind. I don’t know whether it’s the right time or you want me to…

As you might know, Linda, one of the sectors that is booming a lot in the US and for the rest of the world is healthcare.

There is a lot of need for people who are trained in management skills in the healthcare sector. And so many of the business schools have been creating specialized tracks for healthcare MBA. What we’ve created I think is truly unique. So it’s not just a healthcare track. We come up with a dual-degree program where students get an MBA and they get an MS from a reputed medical school, which is Weill, and they’re co-taught.

Half the courses are taught by business school professionals, our Ivy League professors teaching MBA programs, and half of them are taught by faculty who are clinicians or professors from the medical school. This is a program that is completely unique and it’s only five years old. And I’m optimistic in 10 years from now when we have brilliant physicians and healthcare professionals all over the country looking for the best healthcare program in the country, I’m optimistic, I’m hopeful that they’ll turn to us.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the pre-assessment? [34:51]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

There’s a bit of form as well as a conversation that people will have. Really quickly in the process the idea is to just get… it’s just the starting bare-bones amount of information for us to be able to help someone to triage. And then from there, we’re moving on to walk them through the process itself. When you’re submitting a pre-assessment, we could pop that up to something too.

It’s before you’re entering the formal application process, it’s before you have to have any kind of an application fee. It’s just designed to get you started. And it’s a very small amount of information before you’re having a conversation with an admissions expert that’s there to answer any question that you might have.

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

And just add to that a couple of… As Mark said, it’s very, very short. And we have basically two goals in this. One is we want to tell them, as Mark said earlier, if the students are not appropriate or suitable for an EMBA program, we want to tell you early on that, “Okay, this is probably not the best program for you.” And we’ll guide them to other programs or give them that feedback. That’s the first step.

So it’s very easy, just fill in your name and give them your LinkedIn profile and then you basically have a conversation. Someone tells you that, “Well, you are the right kind of person who should apply,” or, “You should not apply.” Now if you are the kind of person who should apply, then our admissions officers will work with them to help them complete the application process and guide them through the application process. So the pre-assessment serves those two kind of goals, which are I think very important.

Who should take the GMAT, GRE or EA? Do you have any preference among those tests? [36:49]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

I’m not quite sure why. If you really want to see where you rank amongst all the other students, and if you have that need, I think you should take the test. I think typically people take the GMAT. I took the GMAT long, long time ago, and I suspect most of the business school students were applying to do MBA program, they take the GMAT.

If it’s not used at all, then there’s no point in it. There’s absolutely no point in it. [37:21]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

I’d say they don’t need to be submitting a test score. If they’ve done it and it’s a wonderful score, then go ahead and submit it because why not show something wonderful? But it’s not a barrier. And I want to go back to something that Manoj was saying earlier, which is when you’re dealing with someone who’s 35, 40 years old and they think they’ve already got a record of accomplishment, it’s a little silly to try to judge them based on a standardized test score or based on their undergraduate grade point.

It’s what have you done for the last 10, 15 years? And that’s the real track record. And so it makes sense that the less experienced the target audience of a program is, the more things like tests and undergraduate performance and stuff matter because you’ve got less else to go on. But at this point, we’re looking to bring in people who are already successful and already leaders, and to just accelerate their trajectory, make them that much stronger and able to go that much farther.

What if somebody has, for whatever reason, they blew off undergraduate, they had a tough time, they have a really poor GPA, they have a 2.5 GPA, but they have excellent work experience, they’ve really accomplished a lot once they got out of school. Do they have a chance? [38:43]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

I’m very glad that you asked that question because I think all the applicants should get the correct picture here. So our program is quite rigorous. So they had to do quantitative analysis, they had to do strategic analysis, they have to have soft skills and hard skills. So we do require a certain level of competence on the part of applicants as they’re applying. And the only point is, “How do we assess that?”

As Mark said, for us, it’s not an entrance exam that helps us assess it. It’s the performance, past-academic performance, and their track record in the industry. And when I talk to my colleagues in admissions, “What do you look for?” And they’ve said that many times they’ve said, “No, this person looks really good on paper. And in fact this person also has very good academic track record, but I don’t think this person will be able to contribute to the team in a team discussion, so I don’t think this person is a good fit.”

So that’s the approach that we take. Your question is more specific and probably best answered by one of my colleagues in the admissions office, but my suspicion is their answer will be something like this. They’ll say that if a person has got really weak undergraduate track record, then they most likely would be guided to take some courses or show some evidence for some kind of… the ability to take… perform right in a classroom.

[Dean Mark Nelson]

I’ve actually run into this situation before, and people grow and change. I don’t know about how you think about when you were an undergraduate, but I personally am grateful that I’ve grown and changed since those days. Thank goodness.

My husband likes to say,”I’ve never met anybody who feels they were smarter five years ago than today.” [40:51]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

And some people have more to grow when they’re 18 than others or at a different point in time. And so it’s just really, really important to know where they’re at at the time that they’re applying. And so part of what happens with pre-assessment is that, let’s just say that someone has nothing in their background or their education to suggest that they would be comfortable dealing with the more quantitative aspects of the program.

They will recommend some training materials to help the person be prepared. Because the last thing we want to do is to have someone admitted and not be able to do the work and not have a great experience. So think of it as almost a diagnostic process in this admissions process. And we’ll look to see if there’s a weakness in someone’s background that they should address just to make sure they get the most out of the program length.

But again, don’t start off by saying, “Well, I got a two five in undergrad, so there’s no way Cornell would accept me.” Let’s have the conversation, because it might be quite possible that they’d be a tremendous person based on the trajectory of their career since they were an undergraduate.

If you were a potential applicant thinking ahead to an EMBA application and program, what is the one thing you would do to prepare yourself to apply? [42:08]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

That’s a very good question.

Dean Mark Nelson:

This is going to sound incredibly selfish because I am an accounting professor, okay? But one of the things, if someone has never ever… and I’m looking really past the application process, if someone’s never seen any kind of financial statements, financial information, anything of that nature, there are all of these different short courses or overviews or whatever. Just getting a little bit of the bare bones of accounting I think is useful because then when you jump into an accounting class, you’ve got some of that language, some of that syntax. But again, I can’t say that I’m not being self-serving in that because I am an accounting professor and I love this stuff.

Dr. Thomas recommends a basic course in marketing? [43:17]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

So I just wanted to make sure, Linda, well, I would definitely recommend a basic course in marketing clearly, but I just wanted to clarify, did you say that after they get admitted or before they apply?

Potential applicant. [43:32]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

A potential applicant? So if somebody is thinking of applying for an EMBA program, my recommendation would be get in touch with other EMBA students. Understand the experience, understand whether this is for them. It’s not for everybody.

And the challenges. [43:53]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

Yeah. It’s time consuming for people to go through… I mean, once you enroll in an EMBA program, I’ve heard people say that, “We kept our social life on the side for two years, because all we do is work and study.” And so you are giving up a lot for two years and you have to make sure that you are in it because it’s going to be valuable for you. That’s going to be my advice.

[Dean Mark Nelson]

No, that’s great. And I’d also add, if you’re in a committed relationship, sit your partner down and say, “Okay, are we in this together?” Because at graduation, I always make sure to thank the partners and to say, “Congratulations to the both of you for getting your EMBA because it was a team effort at home as well as in the classroom.”

By the way, I was laughing when you were suggesting taking an accounting class because I was an undergrad, I have an MBA, but it was a full-time MBA and not an Executive MBA, and I was a political science major. I took the minimum amount of math in college that I possibly could get away with. So when I was thinking of getting the MBA, and at the time you only needed one year of work experience, I took a math class to prepare myself and one accounting class because I felt I needed to know something about the language of business before I committed to this. [45:12]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

And were you glad you did that?

Yes, I was. I was very glad I did that. [45:15]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

There you go.

Proof positive, absolutely. So I’m sorry, Dr. Thomas, I did not take marketing at that point. [45:22]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

That’s okay. No, you did your marketing in your MBA program then.

Is there anything you would’ve liked me to ask you that I haven’t asked? [45:29]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

I don’t think so. I think if there’s one thing I’d emphasize is something that Manoj said right towards the end, a really, really good way to understand what a program is about once you’ve talked to people in admissions, is to say, “Who are some students who are some alumni that I could speak with?”

And there you’re talking to somebody who’s been a customer and they’ve been part of the whole experience, and they will give their own perspective. And certainly we would be happy and proud for people to speak with any of our current students or any of our alumni because we’re looking for that alignment and that excitement about being part of our community, and we think they’ll convey that very well.

Dr. Thomas, what would you have liked me to ask you? [46:33]

[Dr. Manoj Thomas]

I think you’ve asked all the great questions, Linda.

I just wanted to emphasize the behavioral transformation part of the EMBA program along with the skilled learning, and the fact that there is an EMBA program which is specifically designed for people from different industries, different backgrounds. I think you’ve covered all of that, and those are the things I would’ve liked to emphasize in this conversation.

I want to thank both of you, Dean Nelson and Dr. Thomas. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been delightful. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Cornell Johnson’s EMBA programs? [47:44]

[Dean Mark Nelson]

[url=https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/programs/emba./]Johnson.cornell.edu\programs\EMBA.[/url]

And a final reminder, download your free copy of [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/ace-the-emba]Ace the EMBA, Expert Advice for the Rising Executive[/url].
[b]
Listener, thank you too for joining Dean Mark Nelson and Dr. Manoj Thomas and me for our 506th episode. Thanks again for coming. [b] [48:24[/b]][/b]

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[b]Related Links:[/b]

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[*][url=https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/programs/emba/]Executive MBA Programs | EMBAs from Cornell Johnson[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/cornell-emba-application-essay-tips-deadlines/]Cornell EMBA Application Essay Tips & Deadlines [2022 – 2023][/url][/*]

[*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/ace-the-emba] Ace the EMBA: Expert Advice for the Rising Executive, a free download[/url][/*]
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[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-accepted-to-cornell-johnson-mba-episode-488/]How to Get Accepted to Cornell Johnson MBA [Episode 488][/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-to-wharton-lauder-do-your-research-episode-465/]Applying to Wharton Lauder? Do Your Research! [Episode 465][/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/ace-the-executive-assessment-episode-483/]Ace the Executive Assessment [Episode 483][/url][/*]

[*][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? [Episode 454][/url][/*]
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The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/cornell-johnson-emba-program-four-options-for-the-largest-emba-program-in-the-united-states-episode-506/]Encore: Cornell Johnson EMBA Program: Four Options for the Largest EMBA Program in the United States [Episode 543][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url].

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Twenty-Five Scholarships for Latino and Hispanic Students

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Twenty-Five-Scholarships-for-Latino-and-Hispanic-Students-.png[/img]
[url=https://www.accepted.com/free-admissions-consultation-all][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Twenty-Five-Scholarships-for-Latino-and-Hispanic-Students-.png[/img][/url]

The decision about whether to attend an undergraduate or graduate program is based on many personal factors, but one of the most important considerations is funding. Scholarships are one way to access programs without racking up massive debt. For minority groups underrepresented in higher education, including Latino and Hispanic candidates, the problem of debt and affordability is even more pressing. There are many different organizations, foundations, associations, and programs that offer scholarships specifically to help these applicants. These scholarships make it possible for minority students to not only successfully complete a degree and move into a professional field, but also encourage the next generation of hopeful students, which is the key to diversifying the workforce.

In this post, you will find information on many different types of scholarships for Latino/Latina/Latine/Hispanic students, including ones for different levels of study (e.g., undergraduate, graduate) and ones for different fields of study (e.g., medical school, MBA programs, law school). There is also overlap between the immigrant community and the Latino/Latina/Latine/Hispanic community, so many of the scholarships in this list are also meant to support students without U.S. citizenship, students who are first generation, and/or students who are the children of immigrants.

Ready for more information? Read on.

[list]
[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#tips]Scholarship tips[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#AICPA]AICPA Scholarship Award for Minority Accounting Students[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#alice]Alice Newell Joslyn Medical Scholarship [/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#AMS]AMS Scholarship for Underserved Communities[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#ascend]Ascend Educational Fund Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#bay]Bay Area Minority Law Student Scholarship Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#beca]BECA Foundation General Scholarship Fund[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#better]Better Together STEM Scholarship Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#juan]Dr. Juan Andrade Jr. Scholarship for Young Hispanic Leaders[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#gmis]GMiS STEM Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#hispanic]Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Scholarship Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#heritage]Hispanic Heritage Foundation Youth Awards[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#consortium]Hispanic Scholarship Consortium[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#scholarship]Hispanic Scholarship Fund[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#jose]José Martí Scholarship Challenge Grant Fund[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#legal]Legal Opportunity Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#lulac]LULAC National Scholarship Fund[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#mcdonald]McDonald’s HACER National Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#national]National Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#opportunity]Opportunity Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#pmahcc]PMAHCC Scholarship Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#point]Point Foundation Community Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#prospanica]Prospanica Scholarship Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#silicon]Silicon Valley Community Foundation Latinos in Technology Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#toyota]TOYOTA/TELACU Scholarship[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#virginia]Virginia Space Grant Consortium Scholarships and Fellowships[/url][/*]
[/list]

Before you check out the list, here are five quick tips for applying to scholarships!

Check the eligibility requirements carefully.

Most scholarships have a long list of eligibility requirements. Check these criteria carefully to make sure you do not waste time applying to scholarships that don’t match your profile. That said, even if the name of a scholarship makes it sound like it isn’t for you, if you meet all the requirements, you should definitely apply for it!

Give yourself time to work on scholarship applications.

Scholarships are rarely the most urgent priority in someone’s life, even if that person really needs funding support. Make sure to carve out time on a regular basis to work on these applications. If you take the time to consistently apply throughout the year, you will most likely win at least some awards.

Pay attention to the materials requested.

Does the application ask for a letter of recommendation? A personal statement? A research proposal? Before starting to work on an application, make a list of exactly what materials are needed from you, and estimate how long it will take you to write or request them. Doing this will help ensure that you don’t miss any deadlines.

Leave yourself plenty of time for editing!

Most scholarship applications require an essay, and many applicants underestimate how long writing that essay can take. Whether you work on your own, with a mentor or friend, or with a service like [url=https://www.accepted.com/]Accepted[/url], you need to allow yourself enough time to get through at least a few drafts before submitting.

Don’t stress; apply, and then forget about it!

Applying for scholarships can be very nerve-racking. The best way to handle the stress of the process is to apply for a scholarship and then do your best to forget about it and move on to the next one. Keeping the application process going will serve you much better than wondering whether you’ve won.

Scholarships

[url=https://www.thiswaytocpa.com/education/aicpa-legacy-scholarships/scholarship-minority-accounting-students/][b]AICPA Scholarship Award for Minority Accounting Students[/b][/url]

“This award provides financial assistance to outstanding minority students to encourage their pursuit of accounting as a major and their ultimate entry into the profession.”

Requirements: An ethnic minority in the accounting profession (e.g., Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander, Asian American) pursuing an undergraduate or graduate-level degree in an accounting or accounting-related major

Award: $3,000 to $10,000

[url=http://www.becafoundation.org/#/scholarships][b]Alice Newell Joslyn Medical Scholarship [/b][/url]

“Requires an applicant to be entering the Medical/Health Care profession i.e.; dental/medical assistant, nursing, physical therapist, or seeking their Bachelor of Science, Master’s or Doctorate in the health field.

“Applicants must be living or attending a high school or college in San Diego County at the time of application. Eligibility is contingent upon a student’s financial need, scholastic determination, and community/cultural awareness. Scholarship recipients may re-apply contingent on scholastic progress.”

Requirements: Medical students entering a health field

Award: $500 to $2,000

[url=https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/information-for/students/ams-scholarships-and-fellowships/ams-scholarship-for-underserved-communities-formerly-minority-scholarship/][b]AMS Scholarship for Underserved Communities[/b][/url]

“The AMS Scholarship for Underserved Communities will award funding to students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the sciences, especially Hispanic, Native American, and Black/African American students. Funding for the scholarships is provided through donations made to the AMS Annual Giving Program. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is committed to, and benefits from the full and equitable participation of a diverse community. AMS is committed to advancing core values of diversity, inclusion, and equity across all aspects of the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences.”

Requirements: Students who will be entering their freshman year of college in the fall of 2024 and planning to pursue careers in the atmospheric or related oceanic and hydrologic sciences (excluding marine biology)

Award: $6,000 over two years

[url=http://ascendfundny.org/scholarship/][b]Ascend Educational Fund Scholarship[/b][/url]

“Ascend Educational Fund awards scholarships ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 to immigrant students and children of immigrants who are graduating from a New York City high school to attend public or private colleges and universities, regardless of ethnicity, national origin, or immigration status.”

Requirements: New York City high school students ready to attend university

Award: $2,500 to $20,000

[url=https://www.sfbar.org/jdc/diversity/scholarship-program/][b]Bay Area Minority Law Student Scholarship Program[/b][/url]

“Our scholarship program was established in 1998 in response to the passage of SP-1, the University of California Regents’ resolution to end affirmative action and race-based admissions at UC schools.”

Requirements: From a minority group underrepresented at specific law schools in California

Award: $10,000

[url=http://www.becafoundation.org/#/scholarships][b]BECA Foundation General Scholarship Fund[/b][/url]

“BECA believes that every San Diego County Latino high school graduate who has the desire to attend an institution of higher learning, be provided an opportunity. Education is often tied to finances. Through financial support and mentoring, BECA encourages and empowers aspiring Latino students to pursue their goals. This enables the strengthening of students for lives of purpose, service and leadership in our communities, as well as, contribute to the prosperity of our Nation.”

Requirements: Latino high school student graduating from San Diego County high school

Award: $500 to $1,000

[url=https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/pge/][b]Better Together STEM Scholarship Program[/b][/url]

“For high school seniors or recent high school graduates; an individual who has earned a GED; a current college undergraduate; or a non-traditional student. Must reside in Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s service territory or be a dependent of a resident in PG&E service territory. The applicant must be pursuing a degree in one of the following STEM disciplines: Engineering (e.g., electrical, mechanical, industrial, environmental, power and/or energy), Computer Science/Information Systems, Cyber Security, Environmental Sciences.”

Requirements: See above

Award: $2,500 to $10,000

[url=https://www.ushli.org/dr-juan-andrade-scholarship-for-young-hispanic-leaders/][b]Dr. Juan Andrade Jr. Scholarship for Young Hispanic Leaders[/b][/url]

“USHLI [United States Hispanic Leadership Institute] has awarded over $1.6 million in scholarships and internships to students from disenfranchised communities from coast to coast. Most notably, the Dr. Juan Andrade Jr. Scholarship for Young Hispanic Leaders seeks to recognize students who share Dr. Andrade’s commitment to servant leadership.”

Requirements: Enrolled or accepted as a full-time student in an accredited four-year or two-year institution in the United States or U.S. territories; have at least one parent of Hispanic ancestry; full-time undergraduate students for the upcoming fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters.

Award: $500 to $1,000

[url=https://greatmindsinstem.org/gmis-scholarship-application/gmis-scholarships/gmis-scholarship-guidelines/][b]GMiS STEM Scholarship[/b][/url]

“Applicants must demonstrate merit through academic achievements, leadership and campus/community activities. Applicants must be pursuing a science, technology, engineering or math degree. Applicants must have an overall minimum GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for merit-based scholarships. Applicants may have a minimum 2.5 GPA for non-merit-based donor scholarships. Applicants must be of Hispanic descent and/or must demonstrate significant leadership or service within the underserved community. Applicants may be enrolled full-time or part-time at the time of application and the time of the scholarship award. Applicants must be enrolled in a STEM or health-related undergraduate or graduate program for the upcoming fall semester, at an accredited 2-yr or 4-yr college/university in the U.S. or its territories.”

Requirements: Be pursuing a science, technology, engineering, or math degree; of Hispanic descent and/or demonstrate significant leadership or service within the underserved community; undergraduate or graduate student

Award: $500 to $5,000

[url=http://www.hacu.net/hacu/Scholarships.asp][b]Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Scholarship Program[/b][/url]

“The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) is pleased to be the administrator of scholarship opportunities provided by our partners. These scholarships can help students cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and other expenses (varies by scholarship).”

Requirements: Currently enrolled at a HACU-member institution in the United States or Puerto Rico; have graduated from a high school (or have earned a high school equivalency diploma) in the United States or Puerto Rico; have completed first semester of college at a HACU-member institution; intend to enroll at a HACU-member institution in the fall of 2023 or spring of 2024

Award: $2,000 to $5,000

[url=https://hispanicheritage.org/programs/leadership/youth-awards/][b]Hispanic Heritage Foundation Youth Awards[/b][/url]

“The Youth Awards was founded in 1998 by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. Now entering its 25th year, the Youth Awards honors Latino high school seniors who excel in the classroom and community and for their excellence in various categories including: Community Service, Education, Engineering, Entrepreneurship & Business, Green Sustainability, Healthcare & Science, Media & Entertainment, Public Service & Social Justice, and Technology.”

Requirements: Be currently enrolled in high school and graduating in the spring of 2024; be of Hispanic heritage (includes Spain, Brazil, Philippines)

Award: Up to $4,000

[url=https://www.hispanicscholar.org/apply][b]Hispanic Scholarship Consortium[/b][/url]

“The Hispanic Scholarship Consortium seeks highly motivated student leaders with a clear vision for their future to apply for the HSC Scholars Program. The program goes beyond traditional services and offers empowerment through scholarship, mentorship, and leadership, and is open to graduating high school seniors, undergraduates, and graduate students.”

Requirements: Be of Hispanic/Latino heritage; plan to enroll on a full-time basis in a certificate or associate, bachelor, master, or doctoral degree program; reside in Texas; U.S. citizenship not required

Award: Varies

[url=https://www.hsf.net/][b]Hispanic Scholarship Fund[/b][/url]

“HSF empowers students and parents with the knowledge and resources to successfully complete a higher education, while providing support services and scholarships to as many exceptional students, HSF Scholars, and Alumni as possible.”

Requirements: Be of Hispanic heritage; U.S. citizen, permanent legal resident, or DACA; plan to enroll full-time in an accredited, public or not-for-profit, four-year university, or graduate school, in the United States

Award: $500 to $5,000

[url=https://www.nova.edu/financialaid/undergraduate/grants/jose-marti-scholarship-challenge-grant-fund.html][b]José Martí Scholarship Challenge Grant Fund[/b][/url]

“Available to eligible students of Hispanic origin. Applicants must apply during their senior year of high school.”

Requirements: Be a Florida resident and a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen; be of Spanish culture, born in or having a natural parent who was born in either Mexico, or a Hispanic country of the Caribbean, Central, or South America, regardless of race

Award: Up to $2,000

[url=https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/diversity_pipeline/projects_initiatives/legal_opportunity_scholarship/][b]Legal Opportunity Scholarship[/b][/url]

“The American Bar Association (ABA) awards an annual Legal Opportunity Scholarship to first-year law students. The mission of the program is to encourage racial and ethnic minority students to apply to law school and to provide financial assistance to attend and complete law school. The ABA Legal Opportunity Scholarship grants 10-20 incoming diverse law students with $15,000 of financial aid over their three years in law school. Since its inception, more than 400 students from across the country have received the ABA Legal Opportunity Scholarship.”

Requirements: Entering law student; member of an underrepresented racial and/or ethnic minority (e.g., Black/African-American, Native American, Hispanic American, Asian/Pacific Islander); not an international student

Award: $15,000 over three years

[url=https://www.lnesc.org/scholarships/lulac/][b]LULAC National Scholarship Fund[/b][/url]

“Established in 1975, LNESC and LULAC created the LULAC National Scholarship Fund (LNSF) to help youth in underserved communities make the dream of college enrollment a reality. LNSF is a unique partnership between grassroots advocates and corporations that fund educational opportunities for deserving youth across the U.S. Every dollar raised by local LULAC Councils is matched by corporate partners secured by LNESC, increasing the amount given in both the council and corporate names. This model results in a true grassroots/corporate partnership for the empowerment of the Latino community. Former recipients of LNSF scholarships are now leaders in fields of business, science, government, and education. A rigorous selection process assures the expectation that future recipients will demonstrate the same level of excellence.”

Requirements: Applied to or enrolled as a full-time student in a college or university, including two-year colleges, or vocational schools that lead to an associate’s degree; graduate students must have applied to or be enrolled as a part-time student in a college or university

Award: $250 to $2,000

[url=https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/community/hacer.html][b]McDonald’s HACER National Scholarship[/b][/url]

“The McDonald’s HACER® National Scholarship Program offers scholarships to up to 30 outstanding Hispanic students from all over the country. Funds are aimed to help recipients finance their college tuition, and there are three tiers. Tier 1 recipients are awarded up to $100,000. Tier 2 recipients receive $20,000 or $10,000 and Tier 3 recipients receive $5,000. Recipients are selected based on their academic achievement, community involvement, personal statement and financial need. To date, more than $33 million in McDonald’s HACER® National Scholarships have been awarded to Hispanic students across the country.”

Requirements: High school seniors who have at least one parent of Hispanic heritage and are planning to enroll in college the following year

Award: Up to $100,000

[url=https://www.thedream.us/scholarships/national-scholarship/][b]National Scholarship[/b][/url]

“Applications are open to undocumented immigrant students with or without DACA or TPS who came to the U.S. before the age of 16 and before Nov. 1, 2017. The National Scholarship Award will cover your tuition and fees at one of our Partner Colleges up to a maximum of $33,000 for a bachelor’s degree.

“Some Scholars may receive an additional stipend for books, supplies, and transportation for up to $6,000. While we consider your GPA, we place great emphasis on your dedication to community service and your commitment to academic and career success despite the barriers and challenges that undocumented students face daily.”

Requirements: Undocumented immigrant students with or without DACA or TPS who came to the United States before the age of 16 and before Nov. 1, 2017

Award: Up to $33,000

[url=https://www.thedream.us/scholarships/opportunity-scholarship/][b]Opportunity Scholarship[/b][/url]

“We created our Opportunity Scholarship for undocumented students who live in states where they effectively have no access to college – either because they face paying out-of-state tuition or because their state will simply not admit them into its universities. We call these locked-out states.”

Requirements: Undocumented students who live in “locked-out” states

Award: Up to $80,000

[url=https://www.pmahcc.org/Scholarship-Program][b]PMAHCC Scholarship Program[/b][/url]

“The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (PMAHCC) realizes the substantial rewards of giving a way into educational opportunities to eager Hispanic students. PMAHCC supports scholarship funds of the Hispanic community in Pittsburgh and continues to give time and effort in the accumulation and security of their resources to benefit the continuous rise of the number of outstanding students.”

Requirements: Attend, enrolled in, or accepted into an accredited post-high school educational institution, including two- or four-year college or university or vocational, technical, or trade school in the United States or its territories; reside or have established plans to reside in one of the following counties: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Westmoreland, or Washington County; have at least one parent of Hispanic ancestry (at least one of applicant’s grandparents must be Hispanic)

Award: $1,000 to $2,500

[b][url=https://pointfoundation.org/point-apply/community-college/]Point Foundation Community Scholarship[/url][/b]

“The Point Community College Scholarship empowers LGBTQ community college students to fulfill their ambitions in college. Whether you are eager to earn an associate degree and join the workforce or you intend to transfer to a four-year college or university, Point can provide financial aid and mentoring to help you achieve your educational goals.”

Requirements: Enrolled or intending to enroll at an accredited community college in the United States; be “out” as a person who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community

Award: $2,400 per semester or $4,800 per academic year

[url=https://members.prospanica.org/page/Scholarships][b]Prospanica Scholarship Program[/b][/url]

“The Prospanica Foundation’s scholarships are designed for undergraduate and graduate students who want to achieve their full educational potential and make meaningful contributions to society. We’re looking for entrepreneurial thinkers who know that true accomplishment is much more than individual success, it uplifts the entire Hispanic community.”

Requirements: Be a United States citizen, legal permanent resident, or DACA recipient of Hispanic/Latino heritage; enrolled or planning to enroll in a postgraduate (master’s or PhD) or undergraduate program in an accredited university business school (in the United States or Puerto Rico); for the undergraduate awards, must be a sophomore or higher

Award: Up to $5,000

[url=https://siliconvalleycf.org/scholarships/latinos-in-technology-scholarship][b]Silicon Valley Community Foundation Latinos in Technology Scholarship[/b][/url]

“The Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley (HFSV) is dedicated to empowering the lives and futures of Latinos in Silicon Valley through community philanthropy, investment in educational excellence, leadership development, and the convening and engaging of the region’s dynamic Hispanic community. The Latinos in Technology Scholarship was established by the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, a public foundation dedicated to inspiring community philanthropy and engaging people to invest in the educational achievement and leadership development of a thriving Hispanic community in Silicon Valley.”

Requirements: Be of Latino or Hispanic origin; have a declared major in and been accepted into a STEM program; be from specific northern California counties

Award: up to $30,000

[url=https://telacu.com/telacu-education-foundation/college-success-program/toyotatelacu-scholarship/][b]TOYOTA/TELACU Scholarship[/b][/url]

“For undergraduate students pursuing degrees in Business or STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Despite the growing need for professionals in these fields, recent studies show that a disproportionately low number of Latinos—our nation’s largest and fastest-growing demographic—are pursuing degrees in these rigorous disciplines. Our partnership with TOYOTA directly addresses this need by providing our Scholars with vital financial resources and equipping them with the tools and skills they need to become the well-educated and skilled professionals who will ensure that entrepreneurship and innovation remain hallmarks of America.”

Requirements: College junior or senior pursuing a degree in business or engineering

Award: Up to $5,000

[url=https://vsgc.odu.edu/scholarships-fellowships/#:~:text=The%20VSGC%20Undergraduate%20STEM%20Research,has%20NASA%20or%20aerospace%20relevance][b]Virginia Space Grant Consortium Scholarships and Fellowships[/b][/url]

“Virginia Space Grant Consortium offers a variety of scholarship programs including the Graduate Research STEM Fellowship program, VSGC Undergraduate STEM Research Scholarship Program, Community College STEM Scholarship Program, and the STEM Bridge Scholarship Program.”

Requirements: Undergraduate or graduate student in STEM

Award: $1,000 to $8,500

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Vanessa_Febo_admissions-expert-headshot.jpg[/img]

Vanessa Febo has ten years of experience teaching academic and professional writing at UCLA, with a special certification in teaching writing techniques. She has drawn on this expertise to guide clients to placements at top institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, and USC. Before joining Accepted, Vanessa coached UCLA students through the application process for graduate programs, major grants, fellowships, and scholarships, including the Fulbright, Stanford Knight-Hennessey, and the Ford Foundation Fellowship. Additionally, Vanessa has extensive experience successfully guiding clients through applications for a diverse range of programs, including those in business, humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields. [url=https://www.accepted.com/experts/vanessa-febo?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_vanessa&utm_source=blog#open-form]Want Vanessa to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/url]

[b]Related Resources:[/b]

[list]
[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/are-scholarship-databases-a-good-way-to-find-scholarships/]Are Scholarship Databases a Good Way to Find Scholarships?[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/five-tips-for-applying-to-graduate-fellowships-and-scholarships/]Five Tips for Applying to Graduate Fellowships and Scholarships[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/its-all-about-authenticity-and-community-in-graduate-admissions-episode-518/]It’s All About Authenticity and Community in Graduate Admissions[/url], podcast Episode 518[/*]
[/list]
The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/twenty-five-scholarships-for-latino-and-hispanic-students/]Twenty-Five Scholarships for Latino and Hispanic Students [/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url].

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Three Don’ts When Asking for Letters of Recommendation

The individuals who agree to write your letters of recommendation (LORs) are doing you a favor, so the least you can do is make their job easier by following proper LOR etiquette. Breaking the rules we outline in this post could result in your recommenders deciding not to write a favorable recommendation letter for you or maybe even not to write one at all. Stay on your recommenders’ good side, help them be organized, and most importantly, make sure you do not commit any of these LOR mistakes.

1. Do not give them short notice.

Your recommenders have full-time jobs, personal lives, and potentially other recommendations to write. If you ask for their recommendation too close to the deadline, you might end up without one. A good rule to keep in mind is to give your recommenders at least one month of advance notice. If you do, they should have plenty of time to schedule and write the letter.

2. Do not give them an incomplete package of materials.

There are several documents that you must submit to your recommender if you want the greatest chance of (1) receiving a good recommendation and (2) having that good recommendation submitted on time. While being thorough, you still want to keep your emails to your recommenders as short and clear as possible. What do they need from you to be able to write you a great letter and submit it correctly and on time? Here are some materials your recommender will likely require:

A copy of your resume/CV

Information about the school/program to which you’re applying (at least the name of the program/school and info on what track or area of interest you plan to pursue)

A short summary of your interests and goals related to the degree you’re pursuing, plus reminders about experiences you’ve shared with the recommender that highlight positive characteristics of yours that you would like them to mention in their LOR. This might include reminding them of a class you took with them, a project they helped you with, or some interesting conversations you had with them about their field of study.

A link with instructions on what they need to do for/include in their LOR

A clear deadline (this could be a few days before the final deadline, which would give you time to troubleshoot any technical difficulties)

3. Do not give them attitude.

Writing LORs takes time, which is an irreplaceable and highly valuable commodity. Be polite and gracious when asking for a recommendation.

Provide all the necessary materials in an organized, labeled fashion so that your recommenders can easily review them and get started writing, without needing to sort through a jumble of messy papers or unclear links or instructions. The better you present yourself and your materials, the easier you’ll make their job, the more impressed with you they’ll be, and – if all goes well – the better your LOR will turn out.

It’s also a good idea – not to mention simple good manners – to send your recommender a thank-you note. While an email is very nice, a handwritten note is the old-fashioned touch that will help them to remember you positively and might even lead to them agreeing to write another letter for you down the line!

Vanessa Febo has ten years of experience teaching academic and professional writing at UCLA, with a special certification in teaching writing techniques. She has drawn on this expertise to guide clients to placements at top institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, and USC. Before joining Accepted, Vanessa coached UCLA students through the application process for graduate programs, major grants, fellowships, and scholarships, including the Fulbright, Stanford Knight-Hennessey, and the Ford Foundation Fellowship. Additionally, Vanessa has extensive experience successfully guiding clients through applications for a diverse range of programs, including those in business, humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields. Want Vanessa to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

The Best Medical School Letter of Recommendation Advice for 2023

Five Tips for Requesting an AACOMAS Letter of Recommendation (Evaluation)

Applying to Graduate Engineering Programs: Everything You Need to Know, a free guide

The post Three Don’ts When Asking for Letters of Recommendation appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: How to Get Accepted to UC Berkeley Haas Full-time MBA Program

While the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, has made it very clear that applicants need outstanding academics to get in, the program will not compromise its values to maintain it high stats. Haas’s four Defining Leadership Principles are taken very seriously by the school’s administration and admissions team. You will need to show that you share and live by those principles if you are to receive serious consideration as an candidate. The four principles are as follows:

Question the Status Quo

Confidence Without Attitude

Students Always

Beyond Yourself

Keep those principles very much at the forefront of your mind as you prepare your Haas application.

Ready to get to work on your Haas application? Read on.

Haas application essay tips

Haas application deadlines

Haas class profile

Don’t miss our Admissions Straight Talk podcast interview with Eric Askins, Executive Director of Full-time MBA admissions at UC Berkeley Haas. He reveals why prospective applicants in their applications are encouraged to focus on their overall story and narrative, and how they can demonstrate their ability to handle the academic rigor of the program. Eric Askins also encourages applicants to engage with current students and alumni to learn more about the program and its opportunities. Listen below or click the image to read the full transcript.

Haas application essay tips

Haas Essay #1

What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words maximum)

Just reading this question excites me because it conjures up memories of my first SCUBA dive, playing tag with my stepsons when they were children, singing songs with my dad when he was ill, laughing until I cried at my husband’s jokes, and getting legislation passed that helps cancer patients live better lives. These are just some of the things that give my life meaning and purpose.

So sit back and relax before you start writing this essay. Take some time to really consider the things that put a smile on your face. Is it spending time in nature? Being in nature helps us not only de-stress but also appreciate the beauty of the world around us. Is creating something new what makes you feel alive? Writing a poem, playing the guitar, painting a picture (or a house), building furniture, gardening – these can all be enriching experiences. Creating something from nothing allows us to express ourselves and share our talents. Does helping others make you happy? Making a difference helps us feel good about ourselves, enables us to connect, and builds strong relationships.

Whatever your “it” is, it can be as common as a morning run or as unique as walking a tightrope – or as tasty as making barbeque sauce (for Ted Lasso fans). Regardless, it’s an activity you repeat because you just can get enough of it. It fills you with energy, love, and a need for “it” in your life. So, don’t try to guess what you THINK the adcom wants to read and write about that. The truth is that they want to read about your authentic self. Be descriptive so they can be in the moment or activity with you. And remember to write about why your “it” makes you feel alive, because the “why” is more important than the “it.”

Haas Essay #2

How will an MBA help you achieve your short-term and long-term career goals? (300 words max)

To write this essay well, you must first understand and share Haas’s four Defining Leadership Principles (as presented on the Haas website):

Question the Status Quo: We thrive at the epicenter of innovation. We make progress by speaking our minds even when it challenges convention. We lead by championing bold ideas and taking intelligent risks.

Confidence Without Attitude: We make decisions based on evidence and analysis, giving us the confidence to act with humility. We foster collaboration by building a foundation of empathy, inclusion, and trust.

Students Always: We are a community designed to support curiosity. We actively seek out diverse perspectives as part of our lifelong pursuit of personal and intellectual growth. There is always more to learn.

Beyond Yourself: We shape our world by leading ethically and responsibly. As stewards of our enterprises, we take the longer view in our decisions and actions. This often means putting the collective good above our own interests.

I recommend one of two approaches:

1. Start by describing your long-term goal, and then explain how your short-term goal, combined with a Berkeley MBA education, with help you achieve it.

2. Start by describing your short-term goal and build toward your long-term goal, explaining how a Berkeley education would be the catalyst to achieve both goals.

With respect to your short-term goal, be realistic. As for your long-term goal, consider the big problems you want to solve using business tools.

Regardless of how you start your essay, be sure to address how Haas’s four principles align with your goals. Since they only give you room for 300 words and you need to discuss how Haas’s resources will enable you to become a better leader, you can focus on one or two principles on which to elaborate. You will have an opportunity later in Haas’s video essay to elaborate on another principle.

Discuss how Berkeley Haas’s curriculum and resources can help you achieve your goals. For example, you could discuss how the program’s strong focus on entrepreneurship can help you launch your own business, or how its commitment to social impact can help your future company solve some of the world’s most challenging problems.

Also, explain how Berkeley Haas’s unique culture can help you develop into a better leader. For example, you could discuss how Haas’s emphasis on collaboration and teamwork can help you build stronger relationships with your colleagues, or how its commitment to diversity and inclusion can help you become a more inclusive leader.

Finally, summarize why Haas excites you most and how you will grow personally and professionally by earning a Berkeley MBA.

Haas Essay #3 (Video)

The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles. Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which leadership principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life. (Not to exceed 2 minutes.)

Berkeley Haas has joined other MBA programs in asking applicants to submit a personal video. With a video, Haas accomplishes several things:

The admissions committee is able to see and hear the applicant in action. They get to assess the individual’s communications skills, personality, energy, and overall fit before they request an interview. Videos cut down on the resources the school needs to conduct interviews.

Each member of the admissions committee can review the video, and the team can then discuss it, whereas they must rely on just one person’s opinion and notes with an interview. The video makes the process more comprehensive and universal.

The committee can evaluate the applicant’s creativity and originality.

It can make the process more personal for the committee.

The committee can analyze how the applicant shares their chosen defining leadership principle.

As for how to approach the video, you’ll need to start by identifying which principle you want to address. Review the school’s list, and keep in mind any that you have already discussed in your written essays for the school.

When the time comes to record your video, briefly introduce yourself to the committee in 30 seconds or less. Remember, you have only two minutes for the entire video! Explain why you are interested in attending Haas. The adcom wants to get to know you, so include a little color in your background, and don’t mention things they can learn from your resume or other parts of your application.

Then, note the leadership principle that resonates most with you, and explain why it is meaningful to you. The entire defining principle section should take 45-60 seconds.

Next, describe how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life. Use the STAR format to do this:

S = situation (the background)

T = task (the goal)

A = Action (how you solved the problem or enhance an issue)

R = Result (what the quantifiable outcome was)

Do not exceed two minutes!

Here are some other tips to keep in mind:

Be yourself: The admissions committee wants to get to know the real you, so be yourself in your video. Don’t try to present yourself as someone you’re not.

Be natural: Don’t try to memorize your lines or read from a script. Just act and speak naturally.

Be positive: The admissions committee wants to see that you’re excited about attending their school. So be upbeat and enthusiastic.

Be concise: Keep your video short and to the point – no more than two minutes.

Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse over and over again for your video before you submit it. Practicing will help you feel more comfortable and confident in front of the camera. Most of my clients do 10-30 takes.

Invest time: Take the time to make a well-crafted video that showcases your best qualities.

Use good lighting: Light the room well. Consider using a circle light if you have one.

Reduce distractions: Make sure there’s not a lot of outside or background noise.

Haas Essay #4 (Short Answer)

Can you please describe any experience or exposure you have in the area of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging whether through community organizations, personal, or in the workplace? (150 words max)

To craft your response to this prompt, we suggest beginning by discussing the importance of inclusion. Then, provide evidence to support your claim by using the STAR format (explained in our guidance for Haas’s video [Essay #3]). Regardless of your answer, make sure to explain how inclusion can help create a sense of belonging for everyone and how diversity helps make both teams and organizations stronger.

Haas Optional Essays

The admissions team takes a holistic approach to application review and seeks to understand all aspects of a candidate’s character, qualifications, and experiences. We will consider achievements in the context of the opportunities available to a candidate. Some applicants may have faced hardships or unusual life circumstances, and we will consider the maturity, perseverance, and thoughtfulness with which they have responded to and/or overcome them.

Optional Information #1

We invite you to help us better understand the context of your opportunities and achievements.

Berkeley Haas is committed to diversity and inclusion, fairness and equity, leadership and innovation, and of course, social impact. The adcom wants to understand the challenges you have faced, the obstacles you have overcome, and the injustices you have defeated to get to where you are today.

For example, were you raised in a single-parent household? If so, how did that impact your decisions later in life? Are you an immigrant or an international student whose parents arranged your marriage when you were just 2 years old? Have you had to work to help your family thrive since you were 10 years old? Are you a first-generation college student, and if so, what does it mean for your family to see you go to graduate school? While these situations might have affected your grades or test scores, the key to this essay is demonstrating that despite your circumstances, you have beat the odds.

If you have not faced obstacles in your life, describe your commitment to working toward a more just and equitable society. How did this kind of thinking develop in you? Did you discuss social issues at the dinner table? Did you march against (or for) Dobbs? Have you composted and recycled your garbage since the age of 7 in hopes of leaving a better climate for your future children and your children’s children? Did you foster animals during the pandemic (yes, animals deserve fairness, too)? Do you advocate for legislation that will help the elderly or infirm? Have you started or are active in an NGO that educates children who can’t afford a proper education?

As you answer this essay question, consider the following:

Your involvement in community organizations that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging

Your efforts in the workplace to create a more inclusive environment

Your belief that everyone deserves to feel welcome and respected, regardless of their background or identity

Optional Information #2

This section should only be used to convey relevant information not addressed elsewhere in your application. This may include explanation of employment gaps, academic aberrations, supplemental coursework, etc. You are encouraged to use bullet points where appropriate.

Haas’s optional essay #2 allows you to ensure that the admissions committee does not have to guess the reasons behind any of the following situations (or a similar one):

You had terrible grades in your first year at university (Perhaps your parent became ill, and you flew back and forth to care for them, or you worked 30 hours/week to make ends meet.)

You received a subpar GMAT or GRE score (Maybe you are not a great test-taker and can prove it with your inadequate ACT or SAT score and 4.0 GPA. Or perhaps you were initially premed and realized after volunteering at a hospital that medicine is not your thing.)

You did not ask an immediate supervisor to recommend you (Maybe you have been with the company for only a short time, and they do not know you well. Or perhaps doing so could lead to you losing your job.)

If you have multiple excuses, take care to not sound whiney. Instead, discuss how you have rebounded from poor grades or can demonstrate how you will perform well in grad school courses because you have taken additional coursework and received As.

For expert guidance with your Berkeley Haas MBA application, check out Accepted’s MBA Application Packages, which include comprehensive guidance from an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to Berkeley Haas’s MBA program and look forward to helping you, too!

Haas application deadlines

Application DeadlineDecision NotificationRound 1September 14, 2023December 7, 2023Round 2January 4, 2024March 21, 2024Round 3March 28, 2024May 2, 2024

Source: The deadline chart can be viewed inside Berkeley Haas’ online MBA application.

Haas class profile

Here is a look at the UC Berkeley Haas MBA Class of 2024 (data taken from the Haas website).

Class size: 247

U.S. minority: 45%

Underrepresented minority: 17%

Female: 46%

LGBTQ+: 16%

Veterans: 4%

Average years of work experience: 5.6

Middle 80% range of years of work experience: 3.2-8.2

International: 41%

Countries represented: 45

Average undergrad GPA: 3.64

Middle 80% range undergrad GPA: 3.4-3.92

Undergraduate majors:

Engineering: 23%

Economics: 15%

Social Sciences: 15%

Business/Commerce: 13%

Other: 11%

Finance: 6%

Natural Sciences: 5%

Arts/Humanities: 4%

Math/Physical Sciences: 4%

Computer Science 3%

Average GMAT score: 729

Median GMAT score: 730

Middle 80% range GMAT score: 700-760

Average GRE Verbal score: 161

Median GRE Verbal score: 162

Middle 80% range GRE Verbal score: 153-167

Average GRE Quant score: 163

Median GRE Quant score: 163

Middle 80% range GRE Quant score: 155-169

Pre-MBA industries:

Consulting: 23%

Financial Services: 18%

Other: 15%

High Technology/Electronics: 13%

Health/Pharma/Biotech: 9%

Not-for-Profit: 6%

Energy: 5%

Consumer Products/Retail: 4%

Real Estate: 4%

Military: 3%

Which MBA program is right for you? Want to know which schools to target for your best chance of admission? Check out these resources to help you make your decision:

Top STEM MBA Programs: A Comprehensive List and Overview of STEM-OPT Eligible B-Schools

Which MBA Program Is Right for Me? The Ultimate Guide to Choosing an MBA Program

Getting into Haas, or any other top-tier MBA program, is a very competitive process. Our MBA Application Packages include all the resources and support you need to get you there. We’ll match you with an experienced admissions consultant who will work with you one-on-one to create an outstanding application and prepare you to ace your interview. So give yourself an edge, and get ACCEPTED!

By Natalie Grinblatt, a former admissions dean/director at three top business schools. Natalie has reviewed more than 70,000 applications, interviewed more than 2,500 candidates, and trained nearly 700 admissions directors and alumni volunteers to select outstanding candidates for admission. Her clients gain admission to top programs, including those at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Cornell, Columbia, Berkeley, Chicago, Northwestern, and NYU. Natalie holds an MBA from Michigan Ross. Want Natalie to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

Leadership in Admissions, a free guide

Four Tips for Displaying Teamwork in Your Application Essays

Admissions Straight Talk Podcast for MBA Applicants

How to Get Accepted to UC Berkeley Haas Full-time MBA Program [Episode 547]

UC Berkeley is number four on Accepted’s MBA Selectivity Index. It’s matriculating students post a stellar GMAT and GPA. They enjoy proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, not to mention the California weather. It sounds like a dream, but how do you get in? Well, let’s ask Berkeley Haas’ Executive Director of Full-time MBA Admissions.

Welcome to the 547th episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Accepted’s podcast. Before we join our wonderful guest, I have to mention something. You’ve seen the stats that most people have a great return on their MBA investment, but what about you? Are you going to see that return? We’ve created a free toolthat will help you assess where the MBA is likely to be a good investment for you individually. You’ll not only get an assessment, but the opportunity to calculate different scenarios. Again, it’s all free.

It gives me great pleasure to have back on Admissions Straight Talk Eric Askins, executive director of full-time MBA admissions at UC Berkeley Haas. Eric has a lot of experience in higher ed and admissions. He became the senior associate director of admissions at Haas in 2018 and assumed the role of executive director in 2020. Prior to coming to the left coast, he served in admissions at Fordham’s law and business schools and at The New School.

Eric, welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk. [2:06]

Linda, thanks so much for having me back. Great to be here.

My pleasure, and great to have you. Now, I’d like to start with some general questions about the Haas program and then move into more admissions-related questions. To start, can you give an overview of the Haas full-time MBA program, focusing on the more distinctive elements for those listeners who are probably not that familiar with it? [2:12]

Sure. I’d be happy to. Here at the Haas School of Business, let’s start at the very top, we’re located in beautiful Berkeley, California, just across the bay from San Francisco, a couple short minutes away from Silicon Valley, and really what we often say is that we’re at the heart of what’s next, and what that means is that we’re at the heart of innovation culture. If you were to take the region that we’re located in and put it in the context of global economies, we are in the fifth largest economy in the world. Hopefully, I don’t offend any of you German listeners, but we are on track to overtake Germany to be the fourth largest economy in the world just in terms of all the activity that’s happening.

That’s one of the things that makes Haas unique. Oftentimes, we’re seen from the lens of this is a school nestled in Berkeley, which is this amazing campus. There’s a community of Nobel Prize winners here, the inventions that come from here, but more than that, the focus is on how do people achieve their success while also making an impact on the world? I think one of those things that we captured, this would be the identity of the schools, it’s a little bit of what you asked, was our defining leadership principles. I mean, this has been the core of how we talk about the school over the last, I think it was codified maybe 11, 12 years ago now.

I was just thinking that. [3:44]

Yeah. Yeah, so over a decade, we’ve been talking about the school from the framework of these defining leadership principles, so what are they? They’re a core philosophy that we have about what makes great leaders great leaders. One of the things that makes you a Berkeley leader, one of these great leaders, is that you are pushing boundaries. You’re questioning the status quo. You are developing a sense of confidence, but you’re doing so without pushing others to the side. You’re focused on always learning, always being a student and, beyond all things, you’re thinking beyond just yourself, and that’s really captured in the community here.

I remember talking to your predecessor when those principals were codified, and I was amazed at how well they really captured the ethos of UC Berkeley Haas. They were so succinct and meaningful. I mean, over the years, I’ve seen various branding changes at different schools, and sometimes I think they’re very meaningful and sometimes I think they’re window dressing. I was very impressed, and I have continued to be impressed with the four defining principles at Haas. [4:20]

Linda, one of the things that’s really spoken to us, that it isn’t simply a marketing window dressing or anything along those lines, so when we made a big announcement about them and then, at the 10-year mark where I was already here, we made a sort of a, “It’s been a decade since we’ve launched these.” We had some wonderful feedback, including from a Haas alum, I want to say a 1960s Haas alum, who said, “These aren’t new. We’ve been talking about these in some sense or another since way back when I was at the school.” We’ve got a lot of feedback from our alumni. I think we spoke maybe more succinctly, but the concepts were always here. It’s one of the reasons that the school has lasted. I don’t know if you know this, we’re in our 125th year-

No, I didn’t know that. That’s really impressive. [5:41]

Yeah. We celebrated our anniversary on September 13th. This is a school founded by Cora Jane Flood, one of the only business schools founded by a woman, especially 125 years ago. We’ve just been very proud of all that we’ve accomplished in those last little bit, and we’re looking towards the next 125.

Well, congratulations. Happy birthday. We’ve talked about Berkeley’s past. What’s new? [6:03]

Oh, well, that’s always a great question to answer. What’s new? Now, if we were talking about what’s new in the world today, I think you’re going to find there’s a connection to what’s new at Berkeley Haas. What’s new in the world today? What’s new in the world today? Generative AI. They’re probably the number one topic here especially when we talk about schools that have a touch to the technology sector. Anybody who’s been doing this long enough understands the technology sector has ebbs and flows. It peaks in one, it valleys in another period of time, but the next growth peak appears to be around Generative AI. It’s one of the things that we’ve been working on for years.

Actually, October 8th, I believe, just coming up, we have an AI summit. It’s not our first AI summit. We’ve been doing this for a good long time, but what I love is that we are so connected that we’ve got the folks from IBM Watson, we’ve got the folks from Google, we’ve got the folks who are coming through to talk about what is happening in the world of AI today. The coursework has been there. The coursework will continue to be there, but that coursework has a Berkeley flavor, ethics and AI. It’s one of the biggest courses that we have in this space right now. We need to be talking about that, and we have been. In fact, I won’t plug too many things here because I don’t want people googling and all that stuff, but if you get a chance, our Center for Equity, Gender and Leadershipbuilt a playbook maybe 2019, 2020 around ethics and AI. Right now, it’s one of the most downloaded things on our website.

One of the things about being on the cutting edge is sometimes you’re talking about something before people are ready to hear it. That’s AI, but what else are we talking about? We’re also talking about sustainability in business. Now, we have been, again, for several years. Dean Anna Harrison joined us in 2018. She came with three key initiatives. It was innovation, it was inclusion, and it was sustainability. I think that we’ve continued to hit on all those three topics along with all the other things that we do, but within the sustainability, I don’t think there’s another business school that’s doing five topic areas within sustainability, including energy, including agriculture, including corporate accountability, real estate and finance. Oftentimes, when people think about sustainability, it’s hard for them to “What box do I put this?”

What does finance have to do with it? [8:22]

Sustainability and impact finance is one of the courses that people are most interested within the sustainability sector here at Haas, exploring exactly what it means to invest in sustainable business and how to see that grow. At the end of the day, the most powerful sustainability person in any organization are their leaders. It’s the CEO. It’s the CFO. We want to make sure that anybody who comes through our program is getting that level of exposure so that they can be tackling what is probably one of the greatest challenges in the world in front of us, which is climate change, which is how do we grow and continue to thrive without harming the environment around us and actually to go back and maybe fix some of the damage that we’ve already done.

One of the things I noticed in preparing for our call today was something called the Applied Innovation course requirement at Haas. I don’t remember that from the last time we spoke. Can you touch on that a little bit and tell us what it is? [9:06]

Sure. Absolutely. Applied Innovation is the language that we use to describe experiential learning. We launched Applied Innovation coursework. It might be two decades old now. We weren’t one of the first.

Experiential learning I know it’s been there for a long time. You just changed the name. [9:34]

Well, what we did is we focused a little bit on what it is that we actually want to come away with, right? You want to apply what you’re learning, and you want to apply it towards growth and change. Within Applied Innovation, that’s over 20 courses within that subset. You’re required to take at least one, but I know students who’ve taken more than one, have taken two, some have taken three. This is a great place for you to test the hypothesis.

A lot of the learning happens in the ivory tower separated from business, and that’s not what we’re looking for here. We want to make sure that our students have the opportunity to go in market and test these ideas, and so you’ll see that there’s a variety of different courses within Applied Innovation. They include courses like international business development where you have an opportunity to take a consulting project at a global scale, and that includes going in-country to deliver your results. Whether that means implementation, whether that means presentations to leadership, that’s part of that course. It’s probably one of the most popular of our Applied Innovation courses, but then, depending on where you’re looking for, if you’re in a niche market, you may find an Applied Innovation opportunity exists there for you as well.

We’ve got clean tech to market that’s focused on bringing sustainable ideas into the marketplace with a technology focus, social sector solutions, strategic and sustainable business solutions. You’ll find a number of these across the gamut, and what they are is your opportunity to go do work within the context of the actual business space with the guidance of faculty and your group projects and your group work.

What don’t people know about Berkeley Haas that you would like them to know, perhaps a common misconception that you’d like to dispel? [11:09]

Sure. I know that many people find the school’s using a ranking index, something along those lines, and in the rankings, one of the things that actually makes us stand out as unique is that we’re among the smallest business programs in our tier. Top 10, top 20 schools, I think we might actually be the smallest, and sometimes there’s a little ebb and flow with some of the other schools. I don’t always know, and that’s on purpose because we want to build a really strong community with individuals who are connecting with one another. If all you know about us is this, you think, “Well, this is a small bespoke program,” and ultimately, if you dig up just that one surface level deeper, we are located in the heart of one of the major research institutions in the globe.

Our students have the opportunity to take advantage of that, including courses outside of the business school at the School of Public Health even if you’re not doing a joint degree, at the engineering school, arguably the top engineering school in the world, at the high school, at the law school, at the School of Public Policy. If you want to take courses with Robert Reich, you can do so. This is all in the field of opportunity for our students, and that I think is this incredible information exchange. It’s also incredible that you’re connecting into that network.

The joke here is once you’re Berkeley, you’re Berkeley for life, right? Like the Mafia, you can’t get out. This is part of your history forever, but it isn’t just Berkeley Haas and the 50,000 alumni that are connected in that community. It’s Berkeley writ large and the half a million alum in that community. That’s your network, and that oftentimes gets lost because we talk about our corner of campus, but it’s the whole campus that our students have access to.

You have the intimacy of the small business school, but backed by this major research. It is the largest UC campus, I believe, isn’t it? [12:57]

It is the largest UC campus. It is oftentimes-

It’s 30,000 total. [13:09]

Yeah, and it’s oftentimes ranked the number one public institution in the globe.

In preparing for the call, I was reviewing the required core curriculum at Berkeley Haas, and I was struck by the number of classes devoted to both analytics, quantitative side and communications so you’re developing and working and exercising both sides of the brain, I guess. Indeed, business requires quant jocks and leadership, which involves communication, listening, teamwork skills, all that. Is that intentional? Can you elaborate on that a little bit? [13:14]

Absolutely. One of the things that I think we pride ourselves on is that we are educating for the pace of change. The job that you came in to potentially pursue two years ago may not even be here two years from now. That’s the pace at which the world is changing. What’s important for us is to make sure that every student coming through our program has the core and foundational skills to be a leader and to be a successful leader in any industry vertical, in any job function. For that to happen, we need to make sure that that core foundation exists.

I know that there are other schools who choose different models. Some have a more of a choose-your-own-adventure model where you can really narrow in into one specific area. We do give you that opportunity to take advantage of the elective coursework here, but not before we establish a strong foundation which I think puts our students in the exact best position to be able to pivot and adjust to a world that is constantly changing.

Speaking of constant change, one of the things that is changing dramatically is testing admissions. You have the GMAT, the GMAT Focus, the GRE, which now has a shorter GRE. They’re required at this time by Haas. Is there any thought to expand the number of tests that you’ll accept, allow for test waivers, or go test optional? There is a comment -the writing sample component is required, but the GMAT Focus doesn’t have a writing requirement. How are you dealing with all this change, this kind of change that’s right in your basket? [14:43]

Yeah. It’s a great question to ask. Now, I’ll start, Linda, by saying I actually am in support of the changes to the GMAT, the GMAT focus and the changes to the GRE. I think the testing agencies have heard that they need to be more applicant focused. They need to be leaning into what the applicants need in order to succeed. We don’t want the testing agencies to become gatekeepers of great talent that doesn’t reach us in the business school universe.

At the same time, we have to understand that there’s a significant amount of academic rigor in our core coursework, and we need to make sure that the students who come through are going to be successful, so we do need measuring sticks. We do need benchmarks, so where do we land with this world of ever-changing testing landscape and the need for a level of consistency? The way our team operates is we don’t actually evaluate individual application components and then weight them because how do you weight the GMAT versus the GMAT focus versus the new GRE versus the old GRE? Certain schools are taking the EA or any number of other testing-

GMAT, DAT, LSAT. It’s a whole alphabet soup of possibilities. [16:25]

At some point, you have to ask yourselves if you are taking a test that doesn’t cover the material, what is the value to the school? I don’t want to go too deep into that section. What instead I will talk about is what we’re doing. What we are doing is we have a set of competencies that we’re looking for within our evaluative process. One of those competencies includes demonstrated ability to handle the academic rigor of our core. That demonstrated ability, that can show up in your testing, but it can also show up in your undergraduate performance. It could also show up in your professional journey. Because we’re taking that lens, it allows us to then think about these pieces from their actual value components.

I’m not interested in the fact that a GMAT score on the old GMAT is 720 and the concordance tables tell you that in the GMAT focus it’s a 655, and what does a 655 mean versus a 720? It is meaningless. These numbers are in the air. What I am interested in is what is your percentile score on the specific quantitative piece of that? Does that suggest that you will be able to handle the rigor of our core? If that’s not on the GMAT, I’m also going to look at the GRE. Maybe it exists there. If it doesn’t exist there, maybe it exists within your undergraduate performance, maybe the last three years you’ve been working as a data analyst, and that’s where I’m going to see the strength of your skill and ability is. I’m not going to say that one carries more weight than the other. I’m looking for evidence.

This is the dad joke, corny bit of my story. We’re the admissions office. The goal is to admit. We’re not the deny office. We say that’s the financial aid office. That’s the joke. Our focus is on finding evidence in your application that allows us to admit you, and it can exist in a lot of different places. To summarize, I’m in support of any testing agency that’s going to be applicant focused, that’s going to be delivering content that’s useful to the applicants in order for them to succeed, shorter tests. It sounds like a great way to stop them from being the gatekeepers that potentially they have been in the past. For us to receive the most number of qualified applicants or interested applicants that allow us to engage with them meaningfully in all the aspects of their application, any obstacles we can reduce I’m in favor of, but I do think that we still need points of evidence to understand the student’s journey.

Now, going back to one question I had in the last question, there is a comment in that the writing sample component is required, but the GMAT Focus doesn’t have a writing requirement. Will applicants be asked to provide some other writing sample or is it just going to be their essays? How is that? Are you going to remove that comment from the site? I mean, what’s going to happen with that? [18:47]

Sure. We’ve explored that a little bit. The writing section, the AWA section of the GMAT I believe is provided in sort of a raw score format for us as well as an opportunity for us to understand a little bit more about their background. We have writing components within our application. We have the ability to look for those strength areas. That piece of the puzzle, once that disappears from the overall submission, we will backfill because, again, it’s not based on application elements, it’s based on competencies. Within those competency structures, we’re going to look for the pieces that we do have.

Makes sense. [19:48]

One thing I’m actually really excited for, Linda, hopefully I’m not preempting your question, is some of the new things that we’ve brought into this ecosystem, including our video essay. Is that okay for me to talk a little bit about that?

Please go ahead. [19:57]

One of the things that we looked at was what are the challenges to people submitting an application? What are we learning from these pieces of the application, and what could we shift and move around? One of the things is, and I think a lot of schools have this, they have two or three bespoke essays. It’s unique enough and clever enough that you can’t cut and paste the other school’s essay into our essay. We really want you to think about us, and is that a benefit to the evaluative process or is that simply another hurdle or obstacle to the applicant?

We took a close look at what we were doing, but we turned one of our essays into a career goal statement. The career goal statement is it does not need to be unique to Berkeley. It can be. It does not need to be. Theoretically, what you’re looking to do isn’t going to change dramatically by the schools, that you’re going to fit the schools to your journey, not the other way around. That’s probably a best fit for candidates, to fit the schools to their journey and not the other way around. That piece will stay static. We have our “alive” essay. We love our “alive” essay. This is an essay that gives us an understanding of who the student is.

That is custom to Haas. [20:56]

That’s our personal statement. That’s our way to get to know who are you as an applicant. We want to know you. We want to understand how you’re going to show up as a student. We’re going to imagine you in our ecosystem. We love that piece of the puzzle, and then we understood that there was this question that we often got asked. Where do I tell you about Berkeley? Where do I tell you that I love Berkeley? What we didn’t want to see was shoehorning in of a list of courses. Somewhere in the application, I’m going to put a list of courses to show you that I read your website, so we thought what was valuable to us? Linda, you brought it up at the start of this podcast. What was valuable to us is our defining leadership principles? What does it mean to be a leader? How do you think about leadership? How do you engage with these principles?

We thought we’d give a place for students to do that, prospective students to do that, but a place where they didn’t have to sit down and write a whole long thing and try and cut and paste the mission statement from our website and adjust it, ChatGPT it and all the rest of the things that people could do. We wanted an honest engagement with the topic. What we did is we stood up a video. We’re calling it a video introduction. It’s 90 seconds to two minutes. We’re not asking for a prepared speech. Tell us in a sentence about you and then pick a defining leadership principle that’s meaningful to you and engage with it a little bit.

Now, I don’t want to have people be nervous about this, so I’ll be very honest, with the rubric on the other end is we’re judging your understanding of our culture, one of our culture forward pieces, our defining leadership principle. We’re also paying attention to your business communications skills. That’s it. That is the one, two-piece of that whole puzzle. It doesn’t matter. We’re not interested in language skills in this regard. We’re not interested in how you present. You don’t need to be in a suit and tie for this. This is simply an understanding of who you are as an individual, one to two sentences. Here’s this thing about us. We want to know that you know who we are as an institution. Tell us in a sentence or two about it.

I know a lot of the video essays, I’m talking about other schools now, they are assessing the applicant’s presence and poise, but you just said that’s not what this is about. [22:58]

One of the things that’s really important to us is that we don’t use simple disqualifiers, but a simple disqualifier would be, “Oh, well that room is messy,” or, “Well, they didn’t think to put on a tie,” or, “We’ve got normative understandings of what presentation should be.” Those are disqualifiers that are not based in your ability to succeed in the program.

They can also be taught. [23:37]

Now, the student’s communication skills are. Can you articulate a point clearly? That will matter to us. I think, presence, it’s a bit of a gray area, and we don’t ever want to be in the disqualifying business.

Again, it’s an admissions office, not a declining office. Right? [23:52]

Yeah. Exactly. It’s corny, but it’s true.

I think it’s a perspective. On some level, you say you don’t want the test to be gatekeepers, on some level you are a gatekeeper. While I know you want to be in the admissions business, in the end, you have many more applicants than you can admit. [23:59]

Which is true.

I get the focus. I understand what you’re saying, but there is a numerical component to this. [24:18]

I can see the point. It’s true.

Now, you’ve talked and emphasized and we’ve discussed Haas’ four principles as exemplifying, epitomizing the culture and values of Berkeley Haas. Obviously, the video essay asks people to discuss one of those principles that really resonates with them. Do you want to see evidence of all four values in the application or are you willing to admit people who are open to perhaps considering the values and having them inculcated? I’m sure you want some identification, but is it important that all four be present? [24:27]

I don’t see the four as truly being independent ideas ultimately. Questioning the status quo is about a mindset of curiosity. Confidence with that attitude has a lot to do with curiosity of others, wanting to hear what they have to say and making space for them. It’s also a curiosity frame and, going beyond yourself, there’s a curiosity of what matters to others. There’s lots of different through lines and themes within these. These are not four independent ideas.

Humility? [25:39]

Humility is very much a part of all of those pieces as well, right?

Yes. [25:44]

The ability to understand that maybe somebody else has something else to bring, the fact that you recognize that you have more to learn, all of these, they’re ultimately through lines that give us an understanding of the core characteristics of the student. I don’t need you to itemize. Don’t give me a list of the seven ways in which you X in which you are different or beyond.

Show X, right? Show principle one. Show principle two. Right. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. No. That’ll come out a little forced anyways.

What’s the most common mistake you see applicants making in their applications? [26:07]

Generally speaking, and this is going to be one of those answers that I don’t think is satisfying to a lot of folks, I think there’s a moment in time when students decide that they want to pursue business education at this level when they have an idea in their head, and that idea tends to be their most authentic version of what they want to explore. Then they go ahead and they attend an information session and they get a piece of advice, and then they talk to somebody else and they get a piece of additional advice, and then someone says use this format or use this structure or use these other pieces, and the finished product, if it looks markedly different from the initial idea, I think there’s a loss there.

How do you solve for that, because you do have to refine your work and you do have to bring your best work forward? This is the one that’s always difficult because all of us admissions folks say, “They should be authentic.” Be authentic to that moment. How can you be authentic while also being polished, while also being these things? I think really the piece of advice I would give is to be mindful of that. It’s to be mindful of that original idea because that’s the reason to reinvest in yourself, to take two years out of the workforce if you’re pursuing a full-time program to not only not earn money for two years, but also spend money during those two years because it puts your finances in a deficit in most cases, potentially taking on loans. It’s a risk, and you chose to pursue this journey because something, some moment, whether it can be pointed to as a pivotal inflection point in life or whether it was a slow accumulation of ideas, there’s came a point in time where it tilted and you said, “Yes, I’m going to pursue this.”

That there, that’s to me the most powerful thing that you can deliver to an admissions office. Those get massaged and they get formatted and they get layered, and someone says, “Well, I know that you want to change the world, but if you just wrote that you wanted to be a consultant, you’ll get in.” They get modified away. For those people who hold onto that little nugget, that’s gold in an admissions office because we can see it. It resonates because then it carries through. There’s echoes throughout the application in the journey if it has a meaning.

Also in the interview. [28:34]

I know I’m up here in the little woo woo space, but it’s-

No. It’s much easier to be enthusiastic about something you genuinely believe in, and that comes through in your writing. It comes through in your interview to be sure. It might come through probably in the video if you’re genuinely enthusiastic about something as opposed to just making something up. It can’t be faked. [28:38]

Totally agree, and I will tell you, Linda, that this is not advice that ends at the application stage.

Of course. [29:01]

This becomes the story of how you network with the students that you share the space with. This becomes the story that when you attend a speaker series and you wait afterwards to chat up the speaker that, if you’ve got something powerful and exciting to talk about, they’re going to remember you. If you’re into the workforce and you’re starting, you’re trying to secure that summer internship, it’s going to be the thing that’s passionate and exciting when you’re at the other end and you’re looking to settle in that first job and when you realize that that first job isn’t going to get you where you want to go because the real value of the MBA is lifetime, right? It really doesn’t show up till four or five years when you end up in the C-suite. This kernel is going to carry you through the whole way or the enthusiasm behind it.

Now, you started out, you didn’t start out, but you certainly mentioned very early on in the interview artificial intelligence and ChatGPT and, obviously, Berkeley is a leader in that. What about applicants using it? [29:46]

Good question. I think I’ve gone on the journey that a lot of my peers have gone on. The first piece of this journey was, well, I hope our fraud software can catch it. I think a lot of the world has gone on this journey with us where you stop and then you say, “Well, this is a tool. This is a tool like the calculator is a tool.” I think that’s probably the common thread I’ve heard. I’ve already had typing in an email and I’m getting suggested next three sentences. This is where we are. The tool exists.

I am still going to suggest that there’s no tool that’s going to tell me your career goals. Now, that tool might help you articulate those career goals a little bit better, but those goals will have to be yours. There’s no tool that’s going to tell me the moment that made you feel alive or why it gave meaning to you. It may be that that tool helps you frame your thoughts, put those pieces together in a way that’s cohesive. If English is not your first language and you’re trying to organize your thoughts in a way that would give you the tools to succeed, it could very well be that this is a really useful tool to organize, but those core thoughts have to be yours.

I think that’s key here, and I don’t think that we’re going to move on that concept, but those core thoughts and ideas have to be yours, and then if you’re going to use the tool, I hope that you use it well. Maybe the thing you’re demonstrating to me is your expertise in the use of the tool because I will, and we have seen already, poorly framed and poorly worded things that don’t really seem to capture the individual. This is probably the first year that we’re starting to see that.

That makes sense that this is the first year you’re seeing it. I’ve played with it a little bit. I’ve said this before on the podcast. If you use it blindly, you’re going to produce drivel, very generic and not very meaningful. If you use it either to edit your work, perhaps to generate some ideas or to help you structure an essay, but the ideas are your own, perhaps it has value, but you’re still going to spend a significant amount of time on it. [31:39]

Well, you should. Yeah.

Yeah, or you say, “I might as well just write the thing.” [32:09]

I’m one of those folks that believes the magic happens in the editing. I know other people think it happens in the writing, so the idea generation. I think it’s the moment where you come back and say, “Oh, well, now I see how those pieces should fit together.” With that in mind, I understand that the tool may be used.

We have a statement at the bottom of our application. We haven’t changed it. We’ve had it for a while. It says, “The work product seen here is mine and mine alone.” I think folks should be able to answer that honestly. The work product here is mine and mine alone. Now, if that means that they used the tool to take their ideas and put it on paper and then they reorganized it to reflect the story that they wanted to tell and they feel that that is theirs, they were the producer of the ideas, they were the producer of the finished product, they use an intermediary tool the same way you might use a spellchecker or a grammar checker, I’m going to have to just accept that that’s the world that we’re in today. I don’t think there’s any magical tool that solves that one yet. Generative AI is probably the best tool to catch generative AI, but I’m going to focus on the content. As long as the content is strong, I think that that’s going to be in the candidate’s best interest.

Switching gears again, can you touch for a minute on the Accelerated Access admissions program at Berkeley Haas? Who is it for? How can one get in? It was brand new when we last spoke. Have has any of the earlier deferred admits matriculated yet at Berkeley Haas? [33:20]

Yes, they have. Okay, so let’s go-

A lot of questions, I know. [33:39]

… through all those pieces. What is the Accelerated Access program? The Accelerated Access program is a deferred enrollment program here at Berkeley Haas. It is geared for people in their graduating year of undergraduate or graduate school if they did not have more than one full year of work experience in between. This is a pre-experience application focused on folks who are completing their academic journeys and who are committed to going to professional life for two to five years– that’s typically the window of time – for them to gain experience in the world, but to want to get that application admission early, right? This is the time when they’re the best test takers usually because they’re still in their academic space. Oftentimes, this is where they can lock in a future opportunity. Maybe that safety net allows them to take the other job.

I was going to take the two-year consulting stint, but I’ve locked in an admission to a top business school. I’m going to join the robotics startup. That’s not a random example. That’s an example of somebody who did in fact do that. That’s who this is for. It’s for somebody who is certain that business school is in their future, who is going to be strong academically.

I’ll put that out there in front. We have fewer application components, so we’re going to have to look for our competencies across the limited amount of things that you have to offer, so probably a heavier weight on undergraduate performance, standardized testing, internships, extracurricular activity within your experiences there. Those are going to be the pieces of the puzzle that are useful for us.

We are traveling the globe with a member of my team, Verse Gabrielle, who’s out there talking about accelerated access. We’ve gotten into a little consortium with a couple of other business schools so that we can make the most value in the delivery of this content so that we are in front of folks with a sampling, and they can pick which schools.

Of all the deferred programs? [35:35]

Yeah. It just started this year. I’m really excited to actually see what campus recruitment looks like for the MBA in this context. In terms of the other part of your question, what does it look like for those students who matriculated? We matriculated seven in this incoming class.

So that’s the first one. [35:52]

The first set coming through.

That makes sense just judging by, again, time that’s elapsed. [35:56]

Yeah. Two of them ended up in some profiles that we put out into the world so you can actually see some of the journeys for these students. We thought it would be really valuable, as we shared profiles with other media outlets, that we included people who had this type of journey, to see how it looked a little bit different and how they navigated the experience. I think that they complete and total fit with the program. They’re not outliers. They don’t sit outside the experience. In some cases, because they’ve been engaged with the admissions office and the school for three-plus years before they got to campus, they were fully onboarded by the time they got here. They were the best student ambassadors on day one.

It’s been a wonderful experience to be able to actually reach people at this different point in time in their lives. To be fair to those people who’ve been in the professional life, you’ve had a chance to test a couple of hypotheses, figure out what works, what doesn’t. These students, they kind of read as all potential. They blue sky a lot. I can do anything. I can do all these things. We watched them crystallize the idea over the two, three-year time before they get to campus. What a great journey for us in the admissions office to be able to watch them grow into the MBA candidate and then go from there.

How many students are you admitting every year through the accelerated MBA program? [37:14]

It’s going to vary based on application volume. Primarily, we want to be sure that we are giving an equal probability each year to candidates who apply and also being mindful of how we want to balance the class coming on the other end. It’s been somewhere around 20 in that window of space. Again, we’re a small program and we don’t want to overwhelm when students come through. They have different entry points.

You don’t really know what year they’re going to enter. [37:47]

Yeah, between two and five years, so there’s different entry points for those students depending on when they’re ready. We have a student who’s most certainly going to go to full five because they’re in the midst of building something really unique and then they’ll come join us. We get somebody who was ready after two and they really were ready after two. They had done what they needed to do to put themselves in the best position to succeed. In this particular case, it was in the food and agriculture sustainability side. It’s going to be unique to the individual.

Now, you’ve given tons of advice in the course of this interview, but what advice would you give to someone thinking about applying now? They want to matriculate in 2024. They’re probably in the middle of the process. They probably didn’t submit round one. They’re aiming for round two. What should they be doing? What should they be thinking about now as they listen to this podcast? [38:16]

Sure. I’ll put two things out there. The first is that they don’t over-invest in application elements and they focus on the whole story. This has been my message to the whole podcast, but I really do believe that if you hyper-focus on the tests or you hyper-focus on some other aspect of the application, you miss the opportunity to share a bit more about your whole journey. What’s the narrative? What are you hoping to accomplish? What community do you want to serve? What problem do you want to solve? These are the bigger questions that I really want to understand about the candidate.

The other thing is there’s members, myself, my admissions team, we’re all here to answer these questions. We’re here to support people in this journey, and we have a really robust community of student support, so not just for our program, but for any program. Reach out and see if you can connect with the students. I think that’s one of the most valuable things. It has two pieces. The first is they successfully navigated our application process, so they may have interesting things to say about what should be in a strong application.

The second is they’re actually experiencing the experience that you’re looking for. What does the student experience look like? What does on-campus life look like? Are faculty approachable? Are the things that you’re learning valuable for you? What type of speakers come to campus? How often are you getting to connect with industry outside of your campus community? All of those questions are questions that could be answered and, in particular, are set up with our student ambassadors is that they are the go-betweens. They are available if you want to ask them a question. If you want to ask something very specific like, “I’m really interested in understanding about how climate and finance interact, and I’m looking to talk to somebody specifically who understands that context in a certain part of the world,” we may have that pathway for you.

You can speak to somebody like Arno, one of our second year students who actually just spoke to a Belgian newspaper about his climate finance journey. These really unique pieces, they seem niche, but there may actually be somebody doing that, and so ask it. We may be able to put you in touch with exactly that right person.

Now let’s look a little bit further ahead. What advice would you give someone thinking ahead to a fall 2024 or fall 2025 application? They’re not part of the accelerated access program, but they do know that they want to go for an MBA and they’re thinking seriously about pursuing that MBA at Berkeley Haas. [40:47]

I think the first thing to do is to really crystallize why you want an MBA. Before you’re thinking about, “What do I need to do to get into an MBA program,” you’re going to want to have a really strong narrative for, “What I want to do when I come out of an MBA program.” What do I want to accomplish?

I know I’m repeating myself, but what do you want to see beyond that? It’s not just at grad, right? I will tell you that every stinking ranking and survey out there is going to focus on what does it look like at grad or three months past graduation. That’s not where the value of an MBA kicks in, right? I’m not going to throw rankings out there because I’ve been digging on them all day, but if you think about what are the frameworks for some of the strongest rankings, they’re around what does it look like four or five years out, not just compensation.

What is your position within the organization? What are you able to actually change about the world based on your level? That happens four or five years out. That’s the part of the story that we want to work back from, and then understand, okay, now I know what I want to achieve or I know what I want to engage with. I think I have a sense of what that journey’s going to look like post MBA. What do I need during the MBA to get there and then what do I need to get into an MBA program? What are the pieces there? If that’s a clear narrative all the way through, it just carries so much more weight. It has a lot more value. It has the value of being true and authentic to what the student wants to accomplish. Yes, there’s going to be a lot of work in putting together an application, but if you know your story, then it’s just about putting the pieces together.

Two comments, I frequently advise applicants that that post-MBA goal, and I’m usually talking about the immediate post-MBA goal, but I do agree completely that there should be a longer vision because the cost is high and the payoff has to justify it. I refer to that as the North Star. It should just guide you. It should guide you in the school you choose, the program you choose. Maybe it’s not an MBA. Maybe it’s a different program. The schools you choose to apply to, the schools you ultimately choose to attend, the courses you take, the things you get involved in. Yes, it can evolve. Of course, it can evolve. My goodness, at 25, you don’t have to feel locked into a profession. That’d be true at 28, whatever, 30 even. You don’t have to be locked in.

That’s one point just in support of yours. The other point is I got my MBA and, for a variety of reasons, I don’t really think I started using it and really getting value out of it until 14, 15 years later. It’s just how my life worked. Now, I did not pursue the typical, the traditional MBA path, well, certainly not at that time, but I’m glad I got it. It just took a while for it to pay off for me. Anyway, just a couple of points there.

What about reapplicants? Do you have any pearls of wisdom for reapplicants? [45:52]

Well, I’ll start with the fact that the data that we have suggests that reapplicants have a higher rate of admission than candidates who are applying in the first round out. Why is that? I think part of the reason is you’ve had a chance to really think about what are the strengths and where are my areas of growth and how I might focus on my areas of growth.

Now, because of the volume of applications we receive, we’re not able to give direct feedback to candidates who don’t get in in the first pass. What we are always able to do is engage with people who are applying this year, whether they can sign up to Q&A session. Most of this is available both in-person and virtually so that there’s an opportunity to connect with us no matter where you are within the globe. You can ask questions about the forward piece. You have the benefit of actually having a foundation that you can build on. Right?

Again, back to the idea that the magic happens in the editing. Like, okay, I’ve done it once. I know where I can tweak, where I can adjust, where I can change. The biggest miss is when reapplicants don’t tell us what they’ve been doing since the last application. You’ve got another year around the sun. What have you accomplished? Have you leveled up within your professional journey? I mean, sometimes the updated resume will tell us a little bit about that. Have you refined your goals? Have you explored more and different opportunities to test some hypotheses and rethink some of your journey?

These are all really valuable to us, and then of course, we should speak plainly. We’re also looking for evidence of your ability to do well in the program. If you think that that was the area of growth, the first submission, then other evidence. Now, you can’t go and change an undergraduate journey that’s typically fully baked by the time you apply, but you can take graded short courses. You can demonstrate other places where you’ve shown that you can succeed when it comes to the academic component of the application process.

Great advice. I think the saddest thing is when the reapplicant comes to me and says, “I know it was my GMAT score, so I retook the GMAT. I got a much higher score. My essays were great. I’m not going to change them at all.” That makes me sad. [46:13]

Yeah. There’s so much opportunity there.

Exactly, and like you said, I’m not joking, that does happen. I’m sure you sometimes see those applications. You’re showing little initiative. Yes, you studied before and you got your higher GMAT. Okay. Great. You’re not showing what you did in the past year. You’re not showing any growth whatsoever, and you are demonstrating a certain laziness and lack of commitment to the process, so don’t do it is the bottom line. [46:31]

I’m going to both agree with you and slightly disagree, Linda.

Okay. Go ahead. [47:01]

I will agree with you. I would love to see folks who are making those levels of commitment. I don’t always call it laziness. I think sometimes folks don’t have a full understanding of the process. I think folks who engage with you, they’re getting the benefit of their knowledge. Those who engage with us get the benefit of ours. Those who are operating out there independently, they may not know that they’re missing a great opportunity. Hopefully, those listening on this line, if you know somebody else who’s applying and doesn’t know this, share this message along.

Sounds good. I’ll be kinder next time.

Okay. What would you have liked me to ask you? [47:30]

Sure. I think one of the challenges that we face here at Berkeley is that we’ve done really well in some spaces and, in some corners of the market we’re known for these one or two things. “Well, Berkeley is really great in the tech sector because, look at their access, a third of their students go into tech,” or, “Berkeley is really great in the entrepreneurial sector. According to PitchBook, there’s only three programs at the top, and it’s Stanford, Harvard and Berkeley,” or, “Berkeley’s really great in the sustainability space. No other school is doing five different sustainability topics,” but we’re also the second most placed students into consulting, the third most place students into finance. When it comes to our finance students, the number of students who end up in internships on the West Coast, we top all other schools in that space. We are a great school for a lot of different things.

When I was looking back and thinking about what are we going to talk about with 125 years worth of history here, the technology sector doesn’t go back 125 years. What’s been sustaining the school this entire time, what’s the common thread really is that we’ve been educating for the pace of change. The world keeps changing, and we want to make sure that people are prepared for that. That hits in all sectors, and so we would love for people to know that about the program, not to put us in a little corner, but if you’re interested in a topic and you didn’t think Berkeley was that, come find out. Maybe it is.

Eric, I want to thank you so much for joining me today. This has been delightful and highly informative. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Haas’ full-time MBA program? [48:59]

Absolutely. The easiest thing to do is visit the Haas MBA website.. Come check us out. Once you land on that page, there’s a lot of resources that’ll put you in a lot of different places. I would encourage you to go to the events section because you’ll get an opportunity to see all the different places that we are in the globe as well as all the different things that we do virtually. No matter where you are in the world, you can get a connection to our community.

More great advice. Thank you. [49:37]

Relevant Links:

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From the Military to Haas MBA – podcast Episode 223

University of Michigan’s Ross MBA Program: Everything You Need to Know – podcast Episode 479

UCLA Anderson MBA Admissions According to Dean Alex Lawrence – podcast Episode 215

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Stanford’s MCiM Combines Technology, Healthcare, and Business

Show Summary

In this podcast episode, Linda Abraham interviews Dr. Kevin Schulman, the director of Stanford’s Master of Science and Clinical Informatics Management Program. They discuss the opportunities available at the intersection of medicine, business, and technology, and the problems that you can solve by combining these interests in your career. The program at Stanford combines business courses, technology courses, and ethics to train leaders who can transform healthcare delivery. The program is designed for working professionals and is a one-year, part-time cohort program. Graduates of the program can pursue careers as Chief Medical Information Officers, start their own companies, work in tech or industry, or advance in clinical leadership roles. Finally, the interview concludes with a discussion on the potential risks and benefits of technology in healthcare, and the importance of personalizing healthcare through technology.

Show Notes

What are the opportunities for you, if you’re interested in the intersection of medicine, business, and technology? What problems can you solve if you combine those interests in your career? What education would you require? We’re going to find out in this interview with the director of Stanford’s Master’s program and Clinical Informatics Management.

Welcome to the 540th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Whether you are applying to a niche, innovative graduate program or more traditional one, the challenge at the heart of admissions is showing that you both fit in at your target schools and are a standout in the applicant pool. Accepted’s free download,Fitting In and Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions will show you how to do both. Master this paradox and you are well on your way to acceptance.

Dr. Kevin Schulman, director of Stanford’s Master of Science and Clinical Informatics Management Program is also Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and Professor of Operations Information and Technology at Stanford GSB. He is our guest today, and those are just three of his titles. He has several more, along with over 500 publications. His research focuses on organizational innovation and healthcare, healthcare policy and health economics, which leads us directly to Stanford’s Master’s in Clinical Informatics management or the MCIM.

Dr. Schulman, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [2:00]

Oh, thanks so much for having me, Linda.

My pleasure. I’m really delighted to be speaking with you. I saw an ad for the program online and it just felt like such a fascinating program that I looked into it and I thought, gee, it’d be great to have you on. So let’s start with a couple of really basic questions. I am not a techie and I’m not a healthcare professional. I do have an MBA. What is clinical informatics management? [2:05]

That’s a great question. As you think about healthcare compared to other services that you receive on a daily basis, we’re just lagging so far behind in terms of how we provide digital services to our patients, to consumers, how we do follow-up, how we provide education. So we wanted to build a program to help create leaders that will transform the delivery of healthcare in this country and around the world. To do that, we combine business courses and technology courses and ethics in a year long program for working professionals where we meet every other weekend.

So my next question was going to be, can you give us an overview of the MCIM program, and you kind of just did that, but can you go into a little bit more detail about how it is structured and what is actually taught in the program? I mean, again, it just sounds absolutely fascinating to me. [3:06]

So at a high level, when I first started a program like this after the HITECH Act in 2009.

Oh wow, it was back that far? [3:27]

I was at Duke at the time, it wasn’t here, but our CIO said, look, we need more people to help me implement technology. And he saw that actually as a business issue. How do we get cost and quality improvements from using technology? So our curriculum really has evolved from that, but follows, so we need business skills. How do we understand the language of business, how to talk to business leaders at a health system or elsewhere in a language where we make a conversation that they understand. So we do finance, accounting, strategy and management. Two of the courses I really like that are slightly different, one is marketing. So when we go from analog seeing your physician in their office to digital, we actually go from a one-to-one conversation to a one-to-many. And so we’re using marketing tools and strategies all around us to influence behavior. Most of the time it’s to get you to buy products and services, but imagine if we could use those same strategies to help you take your medicines.

To remind you to get certain tests. [4:26]

So that’s marketing. And the final business course is service operations. We do from a machine learning perspective, how do we use this technology to improve productivity at the grassroots level? And then the technology courses are really interesting. So we’re not a programming core, we don’t teach you how to program, we teach you how to work with people who understand these technologies. So of course this is Stanford. So we’re going to start with data science and machine learning. And we have one of the great strengths of Stanford is something called the design school. So IDEO came out of there. Our Biodesign program built a special course for us, Biodesign for Digital Health that looks at needs finding and building solutions that can be scalable and actionable. We also have a data architecture class. How do we understand standards? I teach a course called Health IT and Strategy, which is interesting, which basically again, my background’s health service research, health economics. And so my question is how have other industries used technologies to improve productivity and improve efficiency? And what are those economic models and how can we apply them to healthcare?

And then there’s a stats class we call Quality and Safety in Healthcare because at the end of the day with all this data, we have to understand statistics, but we also have to understand the reports we get as managers and where those data come from.

And then there’s two final pieces. One’s a required practicum project, which is a piece of work that will help you kind of hone in on one of your interests, either to build an interest, to write a business plan, exclude an interest. That has four tracks. You could create a case study, you could do a research project, you could do an experiential project working with leaders at Stanford or beyond. And the final one is writing a business plan. A lot of students do these days. And then the ethics program is a year-long ethics program.

I noticed that. I was very intrigued by the fact that you have an ethical component. So first of all, the program is a one-year program. Let’s just start with that. [6:24]

It’s a one-year program. Yeah, it’s a full Stanford Master’s program. We just hold the classes every other Friday, Saturday.

So it’s also a part-time program. [6:38]

Well, it’s scheduled for working professionals, but it’s-

That’s what I mean. Yes, better way to put it. [6:44]

Yeah, the class hours are the same as if you took a full-time master’s program here.

And it’s a cohort program, right? [6:52]

So everyone starts together and finishes together. There’s 25 people in the program and they become very close friends very quickly. We also rotate, everyone’s on an assigned team and we rotate the teams throughout the year. So you get to meet the other people in your cohort, but you’re all here together in class.

Then obviously you have assignments in between classes. We have guest speakers either on the weekends, you’re here, in between depending on the time of the year.

You mentioned that the program in your head started in 2009, but when did it actually start? [7:20]

Here at Stanford, this is our third year. And Stanford brings a lot to a program like this from the design perspective. Everything at Stanford is AI and ML. Entrepreneurship and innovation is a huge piece of the Stanford ecosystem, but we also have a great ethics program. How do we think about ethical aspects of AI? How do we think about developing technologies? How do we think about deploying them and data privacy? Not only are we dealing with technologies where society’s got lots of questions about the ethics of the technology in the first place, but then we’re applying them to healthcare.

Could you give an example? [8:02]

So how do we think about building models from a dataset? Is there adequate representation of different patient populations in that dataset before we use it? That’s a core basic question a lot of people on campus are asking. And then Dave Magnus, who heads our ethics program, as things come up during the year, they’ll get distracted by whatever the topic du jour is, if it’s vaccines, if it’s data breaches, personal health records, whatever the – he kind of has some core ethical principles to really topical kind of assignments.

I just had an experience today my elderly mother has a video appointment with her doctor and it required my sister or me to go to her apartment to participate in the video appointment because it was not set up so that you could log on from different places. I assume that’s for privacy concerns, but there’s also very definite usability limitations as a result. [8:39]

Absolutely. And fortunately she had you available, fortunately you all spoke English.

That’s true. But I’m going to guess that that would be a reflection of conflicting priorities, usability versus privacy and security or no? [9:10]

Yeah, no, I think it also reflects the question of who are we providing services for and what’s that definition? So the doctor got paid to provide a service to your mother, but your mother needed a service for her and her care team, and that was not in the concept of how we build a CPT code. And so we really had a very limited vision of how we would provide that service under current billing services. One of the things we’re working on right now is just intellectually, what else should you have gotten? So you had your video visit. Did you get a copy of the visit?

No. [10:00]

Did you get any materials like emailed to you about?

I’m fairly certain that there is an after visit summary. My sister actually was at this thing. She physically went to my mother’s and was on the appointment. My mother’s at an age, and this was of a seriousness where we felt somebody else had to be there. [10:07]

No, absolutely.

But it was not, I don’t, to my knowledge, there’s no recording of it. If there is a recording of it, I don’t know about it. And my mother doesn’t know about it, my sister doesn’t know about it. And there probably is a written after visit summary. Now my mother’s vision is fairly good, but there’s another elderly relative who can’t see. So every after visit summary that she gets is an utter waste of time and an act of frustration for her. [10:25]

And you still have to log into the system to even get that.

Sure. She can’t do that at all. [10:52]

And it’s assuming that after visit summary is written in English and at an inappropriate reading level.

Right. [10:59]

There’s no video. There’s no pictures. So one of the things, actually, this is a long time ago, but we built a personal health record. I was at Duke before Stanford in our portal, and one of the things we linked was pictures of your pills. So your mother’s on X number of pills and if she mixes up the pill bottles, how do you know which one is the blue pill and-

They actually do have pictures of the pills. That I’ve seen. [11:21]

You’re in a good position then.

But those are some of the things just again, personally that I’m dealing with now that have very much to do with information, clinical medicine and yes, management.

But let’s go back to the program. I could go on like this for a long time and I don’t want to take up too much of your time. In the videos for the MCIM program, there was a strong emphasis on the entrepreneurial opportunities presented via the program. And you’ve touched on it a little bit. Could you go into that? Could you maybe give me an example? [11:29]

Yeah, so one of the things that we ask, we are here for the students who come here, and Stanford attracts a lot of people who are interested in innovation in entrepreneurship. So they have projects for several of the different classes which can end up being the nucleus for a new business plan. We have this required practicum project that several people last year submitted business plans for. Students either in MCIM or in my other classes on campus are doing work on discharge planning tools, research for rare disease platforms. I was just on a call about a new technology to use voice to help your mom take her meds. So lots of different ideas there, but there are also some ideas that are kind of buried. Can we do better jobs building databases for AI, ML research? That was a big interest of one of the students from last year.

And who is the program intended for? Is it intended for computer science people, for people in business, for healthcare providers? Any of the above? All the above. [12:57]

Well, actually all the above.

Is it more defined by goal? [13:08]

All the students are, I guess the common denominator is they all see that healthcare is an opportunity to make a change. It’s a field, it’s a four and a half trillion dollar healthcare economy, but it’s not an efficient delivery system. And again, not using technology anywhere near the way we should be using it. So all of them are motivated by the opportunity to really make a difference and make a contribution. I try to mix people in the class. We have about 40% with a clinical background, and then the rest are going to either have a business background, a technology background or a finance background. And they’re all going to be on teams, cross functional teams where they have to be able to talk to each other across disciplines. We also do something unique where we’ll take some students right out of college all the way up to people, the oldest person program right now I think is either close to 60 or at 60.

Wow. [14:05]

And so each generation has different ways in which they think about technology, use technology. And so not only do we have to communicate across disciplines, but we have to communicate across generations of technology users. And so that leads to lots of really interesting insights.

Especially in healthcare where you’re typically the older and the elderly use healthcare more than younger people, typically as a group, they are horribly challenged by technology, depending on where in the age span they are. [14:25]

Yeah, that’s a design failure. We should be developing technology that is much easier for them to use. I mean, if my kids make fun of me for how I use technology, so can we make it easier? Can we make it seamless? Can we do some kind of authentication? So I don’t have to remember 6 million passwords. My mother-in-law has got a notebook of all the passwords that she’s forgotten. So she has the passwords, but she doesn’t know what they connect to in terms of the databases. So I think by 2030 we’re going to have 10 million people in this country age 85 and above. If we’re going to have 72 million people in Medicare, we need a healthcare system that provides access to those people. And so the technology’s going to be a lot more useful.

What kind of careers do you anticipate the graduates of the program will go into? [15:21]

So again, I think our idea is these are leadership skills. We’re training you to be leaders to move forward. We’ve gotten some great traction already with things like Chief Medical Information Officers, but other people, a couple have started up companies, smaller, larger tech companies, other people are out in industry. Some of the clinical people are back to their clinical position and moving up in leadership roles there. So it’s a really nice diversity of where they’re going. Also, because it’s a one-year program and it’s pretty intense for working professionals, frankly, I tell people, you’re going to build these skills and then we’ll use it in a career. It doesn’t have to be in this year. It could be in the next year, the following year. And so we’ve seen some of that as well.

I can imagine they can also apply what they’re learning as they’re working since they don’t leave the workforce. [16:12]

Absolutely. Every single day, they come back for the next class weekend. That concept you brought up, we use that. I have another person who’s actually from our first cohort, I was talking to this week and she was opening up her notebooks from class. Literally she just took a new job and she went back and reread all of her stuff. So you can use it, but definitely the business skills and the business concept that you get are things that are going to carry you forward.

What is the application process like? For the MCIM? [16:47]

We really focus, it’s especially after the Supreme Court decision, it’s a holistic review trying to understand where you’re at, what your goals are, what your accomplishments have been and your success have been to date, whether that’s in academia or in the workforce, especially in tech. We have a lot of people in non-traditional career paths to say the least. There’s a guy who has a little company here in Menlo Park who dropped out of college after Harvard. So we have to be flexible. And then we have essays where you really do have to think about letting us know why this is an important program for you, why you’re going to be successful in the program, why you’re going to be a good collaborator in the classroom and with your teammates. And then we’ll do a one-way video interview, and then if people get selected, they’ll have interviewed with two of our admissions committee members.

That’s it. But on our side, the challenge is to really think about a cohort that’s going to work well together in the classroom. It’s going to be a very intense experience. Again, because it’s so focused. Yeah, it’s going to be a very intimate experience because working, you’re sitting next to each other all day for a year, but we also need to have different backgrounds. It can’t be a physician MBA program that there’s no one to learn from all the same set of background. So we need a cohort that can really blend these things together. Because we’re Stanford, we want to make sure we also are building leaders that represent what our country looks like in terms of who’s going to lead us forward and the kind of backgrounds that people have.

You mentioned that the class has 25 members. Is there any interest in growing that number? [18:32]

Yeah, it depends. It’s up to the provost here, and it’s Stanford, so they’ll take their time making the decision, evaluating it, but it’s a permanent program. We’ll always be here. I think we’ve had really good interest in the program and our graduates are doing really well. They’re very happy with the program and the experience, so I’m very optimistic about that going forward.

I noticed in preparing for the call that the application process does not include a test requirement. You give permission or you say that people can share their scores if they have them. Who should share their scores? [19:05]

I think part of this ends up being some people, like our physician applicants, took their MCATs or whatever test years and years ago. So for mid-career professionals, the test didn’t make a lot of sense. So I think if you’re closer to, if you have scores, if you’re on the junior end of the curriculum, that’s helpful. I should say within I think seven years of graduating college, our program participates in a really unique program here at Stanford, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, which has a different application process, but that provides pretty generous financial support. So those people, I think if they don’t have a lot of experience, those scores will be helpful. But for people who’ve been out in the workforce five or 10 years, I think their letters of recommendation and their essays are going to be much more useful.

And I would assume the importance of the GPA also varies depending upon the time that you’ve been out of school. Is that true? [20:09]

Yeah, we need evidence that you can– it’s a rigorous program when your master’s program is, so we want to make sure you can perform well in the classroom. But you can show that in lots of different ways as far as I’m concerned. We’re pretty cognizant of different backgrounds, different trajectories people have had, and we’re looking for evidence of success out there in the workforce.

Now there are three required essays for the MCIM. One is a statement of purpose, which is very common in almost all master’s programs. Another one is a statement I guess, saying how you could enrich the learning community in the MCIM. And the third one is the program time management statement, which given the intensity of the program makes a lot of sense to me.

How should those three essays provide you with the information that you’re seeking from applicants? I mean, they have different foci, and what advice can you give applicants on those essays? [20:42]

Well, I think that first and foremost is again, the thing that binds everyone together is this, is passion for change. They want to make a difference in the world. A master’s degree, especially for working professionals, is a big investment of time and effort, and we want to make sure that you’ve really considered that and that it really is going to be valuable to you. So I think that’s really helpful to us. And then letting us know how you think that’s going to help you. Either I’m going to go start a company or I’m going to get a promotion or I’m going to move into a different role intellectually. Say you have a tech background and you want to move into project management or leadership or move out of marketing into healthcare, but let us know about that.

In terms of we’re very serious that you’re going to learn, most programs probably say this, but half of what you learn is going to be from your faculty and half is going to be from your colleagues in the classroom. And so we take that very seriously. We want people that could work well with each other as we build the cohort. With 25 people, that is even more important than if it was a bigger program and since we’re in person, it’s even more important than if we were a distance program. So we are not perfect at that, but that’s a big piece of what we do. We’re very happy Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 that finished our programs really kind of love each other. The saddest day of the whole program was graduation when they weren’t going to be together every other weekend for the next year.

And then time management is, again, a chance for them to let us know if they’re working professionals, that they’ve got the schedule down pat, that they’ve anticipated what the requirements are going to be. If they have support from work, that’s also really important. Some of the people have had real challenges. Either your boss is really supportive when you apply in February and something’s happened in the company by June or the managers rotate. It puts a lot of challenge on you. You’ve committed to this program and all of a sudden it’s a real challenge.

Well, thank you for that. We’ve talked a lot about machine learning and AI and all that. What do you think of applicants using ChatGPT to help them with their essays? [23:23]

We’ve written a paper on hallucinations from ChatGPT.

That is one of the better responses I’ve got to this question. [23:36]

My kids text all the time. They’re really good at texting. When they have to do longer form essays they get kind of nervous. But this is your chance to communicate with us and communicate that your level of skill and ability to perform in the classroom, and if you think that’s your level of skill and ability that says something. Hopefully you could do a little better than that.

Is there any kind of career support offered through the program? Through the MCIM? [24:10]

Yeah, actually we’re in the school of medicine, and we have something called the BioSci Careers program, and so they support us in things like resume workshops and networking workshops and job postings, so that those resources are all available. People come to Stanford looking at recruiting all the time, but we also, we’re going to end up with 25 people, 25 different kind of ideas of where they want to go in their career. Though you will have a lot of support, but there’s also a lot of individual networking and responsibility moving forward. Again, you don’t have to change your career just because you come into the program and then obviously you have access to all those resources as an alumni as well.

Do the MCIM students interact with let’s say med students or engineering students or GSB students? [25:00]

Yeah, some of them do. Some of them are just here for the class Friday, Saturday and don’t have any other time. This year we actually have people commuting from the East Coast.

Wow. [25:18]

To come here, so there’s a limited amount that they could take advantage of in terms of Stanford. Some of our international students are here on campus seven days a week doing all kinds of things. The students in the MCIM program have built actually a network of people interested in healthcare here at Stanford in the MCIM program and beyond, and then actually it’s gone national. I think they have a thousand people in their network right now, so there’s lots of opportunities in that direction. Some of our outside speakers, the MCIM students get much better access to them than I also teach at the GSB, so some of the MCIM students get a lot better access than our GSB students even.

Now this episode should air November 7th. Your first deadline is November 10th, so it’s kind of a little tight there, but the final deadline for the cohort entering in June is January 12th. What advice do you have for potential applicants aiming for the January 12th due date? In other words, they will have about two months from the time the show airs to when they submit their application. [25:57]

To me, being on this side of the evaluations, letters or recommendations are so important.

We haven’t touched on them at all. [26:31]

And when you have a lot of people that are really, really extremely talented applying to a program, it’s only letters that can really differentiate you. How do I know about you as an individual in terms of your strengths on a team or leadership capabilities? So if you have the luxury of time, I would think about those letters and who you’re going to ask to write a letter, what part of your background or experience that you want to emphasize through those letters. That’s really helpful.

Great advice. Thank you. Now, let’s say somebody’s listening to this podcast and says, “I’m not ready for this year, but this seems really intriguing and I’d like to plan for it for the following year.” What advice would you have for that applicant, potential applicant planning ahead to apply next year or later? [27:00]

Yeah, like I said, this is a permanent degree. We’re not going anywhere, and so especially for thinking about how am I going to take a year working over the weekend, I’ve talked to people. “I just took a new role. I was really interested in this program. I just took a new role. I can’t go to my boss right now, but I want to do it next year”, and I think that’s perfectly fine. We have information sessions that will start over the summer. I think if you’re ready, you apply during round one in the November deadline. If you’re potentially a candidate for Knight-Hennessy, that’s due in the fall as well. Yeah, I would use this time to just get ready and get the application in.

The advantage of round one, especially for people with clinical backgrounds, my clinical schedule is set a year in advance, so we wanted round one’s there partially so that clinical people could know by December if they’re in the program or not, so they could adjust their schedules if they need to. Lots of advantages to applying then. But between now and then, I think really just trying to think about why do you want to do the program, what other information can you get, I really advise people to reach out to the students in the program.

All the students are telling me that lots of people are reaching out to them, but I could tell you from the head of the program perspective what I think we’re delivering, but they could tell you how it’s having an impact on their careers. It’s everything we’re talking about and more, and they can give you a real flavor for that.

Like I said, this is a big decision. You don’t need a master’s degree to get ahead in your career. Like we started with, again, there’s a really famous dropout here in town that’s done pretty well. A masters degree could help some of the rough edges, but you don’t need it. I was talking earlier today about some of the challenges of single moms taking care of their kids, how would they ever get access to a program like this? Well, it may not be the best. It may not be totally accessible, so I don’t want people to feel bad they can’t take the time off or it’s not the right time of their lives to do something like this. There are short courses, there’s other ways to get some of this material, but I’m really proud of our program and what people are getting out of it.

I think you have a lot of reasons to be proud. Again, it seemed fascinating when I first heard about it, and it seems more fascinating now. As we’re coming to the end of this interview. What would you have liked me to ask you? [29:42]

Oh, that’s a great question. I think you’ve done a really good job of tackling through this. I mean, I think as we look forward, again, we’re trying to tackle this big problem of how do we improve productivity in healthcare? How do we change the healthcare market and why technology? There’s all kinds of other ways you could think about it, and at the end of the day, technology’s, for better or for worse, one of the least regulated spaces in healthcare. And because of that, if you believe in Clay Christensen and disruptive innovation, disruptive innovation only comes in unregulated markets, and so technology’s the only unregulated market in healthcare or the least regulated, and so it’s the one opportunity we have to really make significant change, and I think that’s the reason why we put this program together. That’s why technology is such an emphasis, not only because technology is a great solution to a lot of problems, but technology’s really a way to really dramatically rethink how do we deliver care, make it more affordable, make it more accessible?

Do you think that there’s maybe a risk in depersonalizing healthcare? You go into the doctor and the doctor’s staring at the screen the whole time and not looking at you and that kind of thing? Not exactly the Norman Rockwell image. [31:04]

Yeah. It’s not the Norman Rockwell. I would put it back the other way. I think we’re on the approach of actually being able to personalize your healthcare, because imagine right now while I’m staring at the screen and saying, “Here are the three things that are recommended.” Then we’ll make sure you get scheduled and the amount of time. How do I customize the experience for you? How do I build tools that’ll help you with your personal health goals? Like whatever your exercise plan is, help you take your medicines, help you do your cancer screening. You are paying huge amounts of money for healthcare, and you get no assistance whatsoever in any of those things. It just makes no sense. And at the other end of the spectrum for people with multiple chronic conditions, the healthcare system gets more complex and more difficult to navigate. We need tools to help us do that.

Especially with the elderly. [32:15]

Yeah, so I think it’s actually going to get more personal.

That sounds great to me, and that’s a wonderful note I think to end on also. Increased personalization and improvement in the healthcare system, positive change, and it sounds to me like that’s what the MCIM is all about, right? [32:20]

Absolutely.

Okay, great. Dr. Schulman, I think we’re just about out of time. You’ve been very generous. This has been an absolutely fascinating conversation. [32:36]

Relevant Links:

Master of Science in Clinical Informatics Management | Clinical Informatics Management (MCiM) | Stanford Medicine

Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions – a free guide

Related Shows:

Transitioning from the Military to an MBA at Stanford GSB – podcast Episode 471

What These Seasoned Startup Founders Have Done Since Earning Their Stanford MBAs – podcast Episode 382

Combining a Stanford MBA with a Tech Startup Career– podcast Episode 369

Mike Hochleutner on Stanford’s MSx Program for Experienced Leaders – podcast Episode

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: The Importance of Researching Your MBA Goals and Being Authentic

Too many times, as an admissions officer, I read applications from candidates who shared career goals that didn’t quite make sense. Whether there was no connection between their target position and what they had been doing or no explanation of how they would successfully pivot to their desired role, I was left wondering how much thought these candidates had put into their stated goals. I often concluded that their chosen goal was one they thought the admissions committee would want to hear. Those applications were at a disadvantage.

Be genuine when sharing your goals

A recent conversation with a candidate who has been working in the tech start-up space reinforced this concern. The applicant asked whether she should state that consulting was her post-MBA career goal since that is a path that many MBAs take. After a few minutes of conversation, I realized that the candidate thought she had a better chance of being admitted if she indicated an interest in consulting rather than sharing her actual goal of moving into a more senior role in tech. After all, at many top MBA programs, 30%-35% of students enter consulting roles following graduation, while fewer candidates land in the tech start-up space.

I get it. Applying to business school is a high-stakes endeavor, and candidates want to do all they can to be admitted. However, focusing on what you have in common with your competition is a flawed strategy. You’ll simply blend into the gray mass of applicants. You are better served by being authentic and telling your distinctive story in your business school application. Admissions committees seek to admit a diverse group of individuals who will benefit each other as members of their MBA class. Whether you are a “nontraditional” candidate or one with a more conventional background, highlight the unique perspective you can bring to the program to demonstrate how you will enrich your classmates’ MBA experience. Showcase your candidacy by authentically conveying your background, life experiences, and plans for your future.

Research and reflect to ensure authenticity

As you prepare to write the career goals essay, spend time reflecting on and assessing what motivates and inspires you and how both the MBA degree in general and this program in particular will help you achieve your goals. If you are making a career pivot, what transferable skills will you build on during the program? Especially if your goals are a bit outside the mainstream, it is vital that you convey the relevant expertise you have already developed as well as the skills and experiences you look to gain from the MBA that will make achieving your goal possible. Students at the school who have similar interests to yours can be a tremendous resource as you prepare your application. Connect with them; they will be happy to talk with you. What has been their experience in the program, both academically and in cocurricular activities? How might you take advantage of similar opportunities while you are in school? These answers can inform the story you present in your application and provide context.

Clearly explain goals that are a stretch

If your desired post-MBA role is a stretch for you, consider whether there is an interim step that would allow you to make progress toward this new career path. Additionally, if you have an established network you can tap into during your career search, share this information in your essay. Connect the dots for the admissions committee between what you have done professionally, what you want to do, and how you anticipate achieving your goals.

Offer multiple possibilities for authentic goals

Perhaps you see the possibility of following either of two alternative career paths. If so, you might want to share a two-pronged answer, such as the following:

“As I enter the MBA program, I aim to build on my experience at XYZ company and continue as a business development or sales manager in a tech start-up. I have also considered a path in technology consulting, which would allow me to use my academic background and provide me with a skill set that, even three to five years post-MBA, would be attractive to tech start-ups. Additionally, I know I will be exposed to many new things during the program, and I am excited to discover new possibilities.”

In addition to conveying two reasonable options for your post-MBA career goals, you will have demonstrated an openness to new opportunities.

Prepare now to be ready for fall recruiting

In early fall, which comes surprisingly quickly after you arrive on campus, the MBA recruiting process begins. Companies host information sessions to meet with students about internship opportunities. If you didn’t spent sufficient time during the application process truly considering the direction you want to take in your career, your job search could fall behind that of your classmates, given all the new things you must manage in your MBA program.

Here is another thing to remember: as you begin your MBA program, you will learn about career paths that might not have been on your radar. Your preparedness and flexibility will allow you to take advantage of new opportunities that could take you in a different direction than you had originally planned. The time you dedicate to researching and considering your career goals early in the application process is a valuable investment.

As the former executive director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and assistant dean of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School, Kelly Wilson has 23 years’ experience overseeing admissions committees and has reviewed more than 38,000 applications for the MBA and master’s programs in management of information systems, computational finance, business analytics, and product management. Want Kelly to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

When the MBA Optional Essay Is No Longer Optional

Four Ways to Show How You’ll Contribute in the Future

Admissions Directors Reveal the Most Common Mistakes Applicants Make, podcast Episode 538

The post The Importance of Researching Your MBA Goals and Being Authentic appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: NYU Abu Dhabi: The Only Top-Ranked, Full-Time MBA in the Middle East

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Episode-549-Robert-Salomon-1.png[/img]
[url=https://www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/549_Robert-Salomon_2023.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Episode-549-Robert-Salomon-1.png[/img][/url]

Show Summary

In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, host Linda Abraham interviews Dean Robert Salomon, the inaugural Dean of Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi. They discuss NYU Stern’s groundbreaking one-year MBA program in Abu Dhabi. The program is open to applicants from around the world, but it is particularly aimed at those interested in building a career in the Middle East. The program will offer the same core courses as NYU Stern’s MBA program in New York, and students will have the opportunity to study in both Abu Dhabi and New York City. The program also includes an experiential component, with students working on live projects for local companies. Dean Salomon emphasizes the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Abu Dhabi and the opportunities for students to engage with start-ups and gain hands-on experience. He also discusses the importance of diversity in the student body and the availability of merit-based scholarships. The episode concludes with Dean Salomon discussing the reasons behind choosing Abu Dhabi as the location for the program and the opportunities it offers for students to be part of the region’s transition to a knowledge-based economy.

Show Notes

Are you interested in doing business in the Middle East but want an MBA from a top US business school? And would you prefer a one-year program? Today’s episode is all about NYU Stern’s groundbreaking one-year MBA program in the UAE’s Abu Dhabi.

Welcome to the 548th episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Accepted’s podcast.

Sometimes I’m asked, is the MBA worth it? And my answer is, it depends on your individual circumstances, but I’ve got good news. We’ve developed [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/roi-calculator]a tool, the MBA ROI calculator [/url]that will help you evaluate whether an MBA is worth it for you and your individual circumstances and by how much. And using the tool won’t set you back even one cent. Use of the tool is free.

[url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/free-admissions-consultation][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Schedule-Free-Consultation-Banner-Button.png[/img][/url]

It gives me great pleasure to have for the first time on Admissions Straight Talk, Dean Robert Salomon. Dean Salomon earned his bachelor’s from Michigan Ross and then moved to NYU Stern, which has been his home almost ever since. He earned his master’s in PhD in strategy and international business there and has been a professor of management at Stern since 2005. Dean Salomon will lead the NYU program in Abu Dhabi and will actually be the inaugural Dean of Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Dean Salomon, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:49]

Thanks for having me.

I’m so glad you can join me. As we were talking about before, it’s morning for me, night for you. It’s amazing that we can… I think you’re 12 hours ahead of me, right? [1:53]

11 this time of year. Once you change your clocks, I think it’ll be 12.

So we’re literally on other sides of the world and yet we can still have this delightful conversation. Let’s start with an overview of NYU’s Abu Dhabi MBA program. Can you please provide us with one? [2:07]

Sure. So we are opening here a full-time MBA program. It’s going to be a 12-month, accelerated MBA program that will run from January through December, and the first class will start in January of 2025.

So you’re really just getting going. You’re not going to have a class this year, you’re just getting going for the following year, really? [2:36]

We’ll start a year from January, although the website is now live, the application is available, it can be downloaded, people can start it, and we are accepting applications now. The first deadline comes up January 15th, but people can start applying now.

It takes a while to put together a good application, so that makes a lot of sense. [3:00]

Yeah.

Is this program for people in the Middle East who want a US MBA or is it for people anywhere in the world who want to focus on business in the Middle East? What’s the goal of the program? [3:06]

So the program is for anybody in the world, and what we would like however, is that people who are interested in the region, people who are interested in the potential of building a career in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, places like Dubai or the broader region. So we’re happy to consider applications from anybody anywhere, but we are hopefully going to be preparing people for careers in the region. Now that said, what people get in the classroom here isn’t going to be very different from what they get in the classroom in New York or in MBA programs elsewhere. They’re going to be prepared to be business leaders and business managers, so they’re going to get the same kinds of core courses that they get in New York. We are bringing the same robust MBA program that we offer in New York here to Abu Dhabi, and we hope that this program will be appealing to people the world over, not just in the region, but also beyond.

Will the professors be traveling from New York City to Abu Dhabi or will there be online courses? Part of the robustness of the NYU program is the faculty. [4:15]

Yeah, and this will be an in-person program, so at the moment we don’t have any plans for online content. And just as we have a top-notch faculty, world-class faculty in New York, we will be building a faculty here in Abu Dhabi as well. So we will be hiring to the standards that we have in New York, the kind of faculty that we have in New York. Now saying that, there is from time to time, every once in a while faculty might come over here and there to teach a specific course if they have a specific expertise and they will offer that course here in Abu Dhabi. In addition to that, we also have a module of the entire program. One module or about two and a half months of the program will take place in New York City. So students will be in New York during the summer months. I think it’s from the end of May to mid-August, they’ll be taking classes in New York and they will be taught by our faculty, our renowned faculty in New York City.

We’ll get to that part of the program in a minute too. Will the program focus at all on the business of energy since it’s going to be located in the Middle East and specifically in the Persian Gulf? [5:27]

That won’t be a specific focus of this program. We will have several specializations in this program. So the specializations we intend to offer at the beginning include finance, leadership and strategy, technology innovation and entrepreneurship, marketing, and potentially we’re also considering sustainability. So if anything, yeah, I mean, there might be sort of a slight energy focus, but on the next wave of energy is sort of how do we transition into the next energy regime away from fossil fuels, away from petroleum-based energy.

Thank you for that answer. It kind of fits with what I understand the Persian Gulf is trying to do, whether it’s Saudi Arabia or Abu Dhabi or any of them, the UAE, they’re all trying to prepare for a non-fossil fuel based world. [6:15]

Yeah, they’re preparing for future without oil, without fossil fuels, and they are diversifying their economy now in order so that once that day arrives when the last barrel of oil rolls off the assembly line or however we want to describe that analogy, that they have other industries that are here and vibrant that can sustain the economy.

I noticed that you mentioned just a minute ago that there’s going to be roughly three months or two modules of the program in New York City. Can I ask why? [6:54]

Well, we are-

What’s the purpose of it? [7:06]

We are an NYU program. We are NYU Stern as well, and one of the reasons that we want to bring students to New York City is so that they get to know and make connections to the home university. So that’s part of it. So they get to know New York, they get to know NYU, they get to know NYU Stern. The other piece of this is that this is a global degree program. This is a program that is preparing students to participate in the global economy, and what better way than to have them learn about the global economy than to be not just in one singular place, but to also have a global experience?

And for those in this program, that means not just being in Abu Dhabi, but also going somewhere else. And we just so happen to have a campus in New York with an outstanding faculty, a world-class faculty there. So why not bring the students there? And that’s part of, if you look at many of our other programs at NYU Stern, they also have global components, and those global components are meant to prepare people for the realities, the business realities of the world that they live in.

Also, New York City is one of the capitals of business in the world. [8:13]

Yeah, absolutely.

It may no longer be the capital, but it is certainly one of the capitals of business in the world. [8:19]

It’s funny, we’re fond of saying that NYU is in and of the city, in and of New York, and when I think about Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi is increasingly becoming a world capital as well. I mean, it is a world capital, but it’s increasingly becoming more and more connected to other world capitals with each passing day. And so now sort of with this program, we’re not only in and of New York and in and of the city, but we’re also now in and of Abu Dhabi and in and of the city because Abu Dhabi itself is a vibrant global city.

On one hand, NYU Abu Dhabi has the benefit of a one-year structure, which means lower opportunity cost, less time out of the workforce and the working world. On the other hand, applicants sometimes worry that a one-year program will limit the educational and networking opportunities or benefits of the MBA. Could it also hamper the possibility of getting an internship and possibly a career change? Could you address those concerns? [8:52]

Yeah, and there’s a lot in there in that question to unpack.

There is, I realize. [9:24]

Let me try and address a few of those issues and then I’ll come back. Keep me honest. If I don’t touch on some of the issues, questions that you ask, just remind me and I’ll come back to it.

So with respect to the one-year program, I mean, certainly it’s shorter than the standard traditional two-year program, and we often hear from our students, or at least people who are thinking about applying that two years now is a long time to be out of the workforce. So it’s not just, well, a one-year program costs less in actual terms. From a monetary standpoint, it’s less expensive than a two-year program. But also from an opportunity cost standpoint, it’s also you’re not out of the workforce for two years where you could be earning money. You’re only out of the workforce for one. Now, does that mean that they’ll have a lesser or a less than experience? I don’t think so, and we have experience with this format also in New York.

What we find is in our various one-year programs, because of the intensity of the program, that intensity creates connection. It creates networks, it creates opportunities for students to become closer and tighter knit with each other because they actually spend more time with each other, they spend more time with each other in a compressed period of time. So they do develop those relationships.

You asked about internships, and this program does not have a traditional internship in the two-year MBA sense where people go away in May when the program is finished after their first year, they work for the summer and then they come back in September. But it does have an internship that’s built into the program. It has a novel internship, it’s an experiential internship. It’s actually part of the curriculum. So students will be doing internships as they go through the program during that one-year. So they will be working on live projects for corporations operating in the area to perform those projects as they go through the program. And this provides several benefits. For the companies that sponsor the projects, and we’re already working with several companies that have agreed to sponsor those projects, but for the companies that are sponsoring those projects, they get to evaluate and see the talent that is in our MBA class.

And for the people who are in our MBA class, the students, they get to evaluate those companies and assess, is this the kind of company that I would want to work for? And in some sense, they get two opportunities to do that because they’ll have one of these variational learning courses from January to May in Abu Dhabi, and they’ll have another one, a second opportunity, so almost like a second internship from September to December. So we’ve designed the curriculum in a way so that they almost get two internship-like opportunities. And they could do a consulting-based internship, say in the January to May period, and they might decide, I didn’t really like the consulting one so much. Maybe next time I’ll try the finance one, or I’ll try one with a consumer packaged goods company, or I’ll try one with a government agency that’s aligned with the kind of work that I want to do after I graduate. So there will be different kinds of internship opportunities than what exists in the traditional MBA program.

I think you’ve addressed two of the three possible side effects, but the one part that I think you didn’t address fully was the career change aspect. A lot of one-year programs are quite clear, they say, don’t come to us if you want to change careers. [12:45]

We have no explicit policy in that respect. I’m sure there will be people who come to the program who are sponsored by their companies who say, “Hey, you can take a year off and then come back when you’re done and come back and plug right back into where you were, but now you have an MBA.” But there are those who will come to our program and will come and be a full-time MBA student. They will not be working for any company. They will not be sponsored by any company, and they might want a career change, and that’s perfectly okay too. They come in, they do the one-year MBA, and then they switch to a career that aligns more with their interests. We’re not making any warrants or representations about what students should or shouldn’t be doing before they come into the program and after they leave.

Will there be career support at NYUAD? [13:46]

Absolutely.

There’ll be much parallel to what’s offered at NYU in New York? [13:51]

Yeah, very high touch career services offering that we have here that will guide students through the job search process.

You’ve touched on, and this NYUAD site emphasizes experiential components of the NYUAD program. Can you go into it a little bit more? Is it going to be cases, is it going to be consulting projects, startups, and running a business or a fund? How do you see that part of the program playing out? [14:02]

So there are two principal components of the experiential piece. The first one I talked about a little bit before when I talked about those experiential internships that the students will be doing. So they will be attached to a particular project for a local company that is a live project that the companies want them to complete. So that is very hands-on. They’re going to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it outside the classroom on these projects with these companies. So that’s one element of the experiential component.

The other piece is when we are in New York City, there will be a course that is called Doing Business In or Doing Business in New York City that will engage local companies in New York City. Students will go on onsite visits to go visit local companies in New York. They will hear from managers at companies in New York that will come to their classroom to speak with them and engage them. And we will have cultural elements for them to engage with as well, because part of learning is not just about what happens inside the classroom, it’s about part of your experiences outside the classroom too. And we have a healthy, robust cultural program for the students as well.

And that actually leads to a question I meant to ask earlier and that is, are there any language requirements for NYUAD? Is Arabic something that’s encouraged or required? [15:32]

No. Look, I think languages are encouraged, all languages are encouraged. I think if you have the opportunity to learn another language, the answer should always be yes. I mean, that’s an amazing gift and an amazing thing to be able to speak multiple languages, but there is no requirement at Stern, at NYU Abu Dhabi for people to speak anything other than English and English is spoken widely here in the UAE. Just about everybody speaks English, all the signs are in English, and the classes will be in English as well.

I noticed that NYUAD, like NYU Stern in New York City, NYU Stern in Abu Dhabi accepts many tests and also offers a test waiver option. Who should seek a test waiver and who shouldn’t seek a test waiver in your opinion? I mean, you’re going to be processing applications very soon. [16:11]

Yeah, I mean, I personally won’t be processing applications and I have to-

I didn’t mean you personally. I meant the- [16:36]

I know what you meant, but I wanted to preface it this way because when it comes to sort of admissions, I’m not an expert. I come from the program side. So I’ve been a scholar, I’m a professor, I’m a researcher, that’s my background, and I’ve come from running programs. I’ve been running different kinds of MBA programs for Stern and master’s programs and executive programs for Stern for quite a while. So I’m really familiar with the programmatic side. I’m less knowledgeable when it comes to admissions kinds of things, but let me just try and answer the question as best I can with the caveat that I may not… I mean, generally I think the answer I’m going to give you is accurate, but I want to just caveat it with that I might be making some mistakes on the margins. So when it comes to test waivers, the kinds of folks who should be seeking test waivers, I would say are those who feel like they are well-equipped in the areas that are associated with an MBA degree, and what areas are those?

I would say if you have a STEM degree, if you already have a degree in engineering where you can demonstrate and you did very, very well in school in your engineering program, and you can demonstrate that you performed very well, especially in your math classes, that would be the kind of individual who might want to request a test waiver. If you went to an undergraduate business program and you’ve already demonstrated through your completion of that program that you can handle the rigors of an MBA program because you already have the qualifications and you did very, very well in your undergraduate business program, those are the kinds of folks that should or could potentially be requesting a test waiver or might be granted a test waiver. So basically, if you have a STEM-y background and your degree is from a widely respected accredited university, and you’ve performed very, very well in the classroom, especially in your math-based classes, those are the kinds of folks who typically qualify for test waivers.

You did a great job. [18:37]

Thanks. I might be slightly off a little bit, but that’s the general idea.

I think you’re right on. Obviously as a professor, you want people in class who can perform, and I think it’s the job of the admissions office to provide you with people who can perform. [18:43]

And one of the things I want to be clear about too, and this made me think about it, the question that you asked, is that not only are we building a world-class faculty here at Stern at NYUAD, and we have the benefits of tapping into the NYU Stern faculty in New York, but we also will be building a class that meets typical NYU Stern standards. So on the student side, our goal is to maintain the highest quality student body that is on par with the student body that we have at NYU Stern in New York.

How many people do you anticipate enrolling in the first class? [19:24]

The first class will be probably around 50 students.

And then do you want to grow it from there if possible? [19:31]

Yeah, depending on the reception, and we’re hoping for a solid reception, I don’t see why we couldn’t grow it. And in an ideal world, about 100 to 120 students per year, but it’ll probably take us a few years to build to that. [19:34]

You also mentioned a little bit earlier the entrepreneurial aspect of the program. Can you touch on that? I mean, the Persian Gulf is maybe incorrectly, but it’s not known for being an entrepreneurial hotbed. San Francisco is, Boston is, New York City is, Abu Dhabi is I think more known for financial and obviously the energy industry, but is there really an entrepreneurial ecosystem there? [19:52]

Believe it or not, this is becoming more and more of an entrepreneurial center.

That’s why I want to ask the question. [20:25]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a book written a few years ago called Startup Rising that talks about the ecosystem that is developing in this region and the kinds of companies that are coming out of that ecosystem. And so yes, there is a bit of it. There is still a need to grow it more. So it’s still early days, I would say, and we are hoping to be a part of that ecosystem. And the question is how? I guess what we hope to do there is an entrepreneurship center here at NYU Abu Dhabi. It’s called startAD, and we are hoping that our students will be able to tap into the resources offered by startAD.

And startAD, you could think about it as sort of like a kind of accelerator-ish program, but our long-term goal, what we’re hoping to do is in New York, at NYU Stern in New York, we have a program called the Endless Frontier Labs, and the Endless Frontier Labs, insofar as I’m concerned, is a best in class accelerator program that brings about 75 ventures into the lab every single year. And each one of those companies gets paired with a student group that provides consulting services to that venture, a VC mentor who’s attached to that program, and a subject matter expert, typically a faculty member who knows about the area that the venture or the science behind the venture itself. And so all of those create this fantastic ecosystem. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to replicate that here, but in the meantime, we have startAD, which is an accelerator located right here on campus.

What advice would you give to someone, again, you have a background as a professor, you have obviously program design and you’re now a dean. What advice would you give to someone aiming to send an application for the January, 2025 inaugural class? The first deadline, as you mentioned, is January 15th, and there are three more on March 11th, June 10th, and August 12th. I mean, maybe I should ask the question differently, who would you like to see in your classes that you might… Are you going to be teaching any classes or are you going to be strictly an administrative position? [22:09]

For now, I’m going to be an administrator. I’m hoping to get back into the classroom sometime soon, because I love teaching. I love being in the classroom, but even if I’m not teaching, the students will probably get sick of me after a while because I’ll be around and I’ll be around to bother them. So that’s-

Who would you like to be able to bother? [22:59]

The best and the brightest, that’s who I’d like to be able to bother and from all over the world. We really do want a mix of students from different nationalities from different places in the world. Now, I think you asked about recommendations for those who are applying, and the one thing that I would say is that we do have merit-based scholarships available, and so the one piece of advice that I would offer is, I would encourage people to apply early, because the earlier people apply, the more likely it is that they-

No money is available. [23:34]

The bigger pool we have available, once we start granting those merit-based scholarships, the pool gets a little bit smaller. So the earlier you apply at some level, the better.

This is a question I’m asking everybody. Are you at all concerned about the use or possible abuse of ChatGPT among applicants or students in your classes? [23:44]

The short answer is yes and no. As a teacher, it bothers me a little bit that students might rely on ChatGPT and not hand in their own original work, that they use it as a crutch. Especially those who sort of use it when they’re short for time; they’re being a little lazy. They were like, oh, well, I’ll just have this program do it. So that bothers me a little bit. But I think now the onus, again, as an educator, the onus then is on us to create assignments that maybe leverage the benefits of ChatGPT and bring it as a tool to help enhance learning. So we’re all still trying to figure it out together. In the meantime though, we can’t have students just using it to copy and paste to their assignments, and we have a policy against that.

On the applicant side, we do have a policy. One of the things that we ask our students is to verify that they have not received any outside support in preparing their essays and their application. And that students who are found to have gamed the system and to have used outside support, we can revoke their admissions. So we do have those policies, but again, the onus is on us to create prompts that make it difficult to use things like ChatGPT. On the admission side, we want to know who the students are, and we don’t want to know what ChatGPT thinks, we want to know what you think. And in the classroom, we want you to learn. We want you to push yourself, we want you to enhance your capabilities, and you can only do that if you really are putting in the effort and not relying on an outside tool to do it for you.

I think there’s also a difference between using an outside tool and relying on an outside tool. [25:41]

Yeah, I don’t mind them using outside tools. And I’ve been designing a little bit assignments that leverage ChatGPT in a way to help students learn versus-

Would you be willing to share an example? [26:01]

Yeah. One example could be you actually put the prompt in ChatGPT that you want students to answer, and then you ask them to critique the response from ChatGPT.

Clever. [26:18]

What did ChatGPT get right? What did ChatGPT get wrong and why? Another thing that I do in my classes is I have students work together in class and I go from group to group. We have discussions in small groups, and they have to think on their feet, so they’re not prompts. The discussions that we have are not prompts that ChatGPT would know how to answer. So those are the ways that I approach it. But yeah, I mean, you’re exactly right, we want students to use it as a tool. We don’t want students to rely on it to do their work for them.

A wonderful answer. Thank you. What would you have liked me to ask you? [26:52]

So I think one of the questions that I was thinking about in preparation for this is why here and why now?

Go for it. It’s a great question. [27:05]

Why Abu Dhabi and why-

Great question. Why didn’t I think of that one? [27:05]

I mean, I think part of it is that if you think about Abu Dhabi, and again, going back to something that I mentioned before, Abu Dhabi is increasingly becoming a world capital that’s connected to other world capitals and it’s connected to other world capitals more each and every day. It’s becoming more, as you mentioned, it’s becoming more of a finance capital. It’s becoming more of a sustainability capital. It’s becoming more of a business capital. It’s becoming more of a consumer products capital. It’s becoming a technology capital. It’s becoming a FinTech capital. All of these things that the UAE and Abu Dhabi in particular are investing in because they see the need to diversify their economy away from fossil fuels and towards a more knowledge-based, services-based economy. For us, when we were researching and thinking about this as a location, when you speak to companies and you talk to them and you say, what is it that you need in order to accomplish these goals that you have? We hear the same answers over and over and over again, which is, we need people who have managerial skills.

You talk to even private or public employers here in the region, they say there is a need for people with managerial skills to help us with that transition, to be a part of that, to help propel it. Ultimately, these are the folks who are going to become the leaders in this region, and they are going to be a part of that transition away from an energy fossil fuels based economy towards this new knowledge based services based economy. So when we were thinking about it, what better location than to do that right here? We already have a campus here. We’ve already built a stellar faculty here. We’ve been operating here for more than a decade. We know the market, and so we feel like now is the right time to be the first ones, the first top US business school to offer a full-time MBA in the region.

There’s tremendous talent here too. There’s a lot of young people who have an incredible desire to upskill too. So that was also part of it. So the employers are asking for it on the demand side for our graduates and on the supply side, the prospective applicants, the students really want it because they see the need to upskill as well.

Spoken like a true economist, supply and demand. Thank you again for the question and the answer. Thank you for the entire interview. It’s been wonderful. Thank you for joining me today, Dean Salomon. [29:29]

[url=https://www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/549_Robert-Salomon_2023.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AST-Listen-Now-Button-1024x256.png[/img][/url]

[b]Relevant Links:[/b]

[list]
[*][url=https://stern.nyuad.nyu.edu/]Stern at NYUAD One-year Full-time MBA[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/roi-calculator]MBA ROI Calculator[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/nyu-stern-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]NYU Essay Tips[/url][/*]
[/list]

[b]Relevant shows:[/b]

[list]
[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-accepted-to-nyu-stern-episode-525/]How to Get Accepted to NYU Stern, [/url]podcast Episode 525[/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/get-into-insead-the-business-school-for-the-world-episode-520/]Get Into INSEAD, the Business School for the World[/url], podcast Episode 520 [/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-an-mba-at-columbia-business-school-episode-528/]How to Get an MBA at Columbia Business School,[/url] podcast Episode 528[/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/empowering-international-students-with-the-financing-for-grad-ed-episode-475/]Empowering International Students with the Financing for Grad Ed[/url], podcast Episode 475[/*]
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The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/nyu-abu-dhabi-the-only-top-ranked-full-time-mba-in-the-middle-east-episode-549/]NYU Abu Dhabi: The Only Top-Ranked, Full-Time MBA in the Middle East [Episode 549][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url].

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi: A Full-Time MBA in the Middle East

Show Summary

In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, host Linda Abraham interviews Dean Robert Salomon, the inaugural Dean of Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi. They discuss NYU Stern’s groundbreaking one-year MBA program in Abu Dhabi. The program is open to applicants from around the world, but it is particularly aimed at those interested in building a career in the Middle East. The program will offer the same core courses as NYU Stern’s MBA program in New York, and students will have the opportunity to study in both Abu Dhabi and New York City. The program also includes an experiential component, with students working on live projects for local companies. Dean Salomon emphasizes the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Abu Dhabi and the opportunities for students to engage with start-ups and gain hands-on experience. He also discusses the importance of diversity in the student body and the availability of merit-based scholarships. The episode concludes with Dean Salomon discussing the reasons behind choosing Abu Dhabi as the location for the program and the opportunities it offers for students to be part of the region’s transition to a knowledge-based economy.

Show Notes

Are you interested in doing business in the Middle East but want an MBA from a top US business school? And would you prefer a one-year program? Today’s episode is all about NYU Stern’s groundbreaking one-year MBA program in the UAE’s Abu Dhabi.

Welcome to the 548th episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Accepted’s podcast.

Sometimes I’m asked, is the MBA worth it? And my answer is, it depends on your individual circumstances, but I’ve got good news. We’ve developed a tool, the MBA ROI calculatorthat will help you evaluate whether an MBA is worth it for you and your individual circumstances and by how much. And using the tool won’t set you back even one cent. Use of the tool is free.

It gives me great pleasure to have for the first time on Admissions Straight Talk, Dean Robert Salomon. Dean Salomon earned his bachelor’s from Michigan Ross and then moved to NYU Stern, which has been his home almost ever since. He earned his master’s in PhD in strategy and international business there and has been a professor of management at Stern since 2005. Dean Salomon will lead the NYU program in Abu Dhabi and will actually be the inaugural Dean of Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Dean Salomon, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:49]

Thanks for having me.

I’m so glad you can join me. As we were talking about before, it’s morning for me, night for you. It’s amazing that we can… I think you’re 12 hours ahead of me, right? [1:53]

11 this time of year. Once you change your clocks, I think it’ll be 12.

So we’re literally on other sides of the world and yet we can still have this delightful conversation. Let’s start with an overview of NYU’s Abu Dhabi MBA program. Can you please provide us with one? [2:07]

Sure. So we are opening here a full-time MBA program. It’s going to be a 12-month, accelerated MBA program that will run from January through December, and the first class will start in January of 2025.

So you’re really just getting going. You’re not going to have a class this year, you’re just getting going for the following year, really? [2:36]

We’ll start a year from January, although the website is now live, the application is available, it can be downloaded, people can start it, and we are accepting applications now. The first deadline comes up January 15th, but people can start applying now.

It takes a while to put together a good application, so that makes a lot of sense. [3:00]

Yeah.

Is this program for people in the Middle East who want a US MBA or is it for people anywhere in the world who want to focus on business in the Middle East? What’s the goal of the program? [3:06]

So the program is for anybody in the world, and what we would like however, is that people who are interested in the region, people who are interested in the potential of building a career in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, places like Dubai or the broader region. So we’re happy to consider applications from anybody anywhere, but we are hopefully going to be preparing people for careers in the region. Now that said, what people get in the classroom here isn’t going to be very different from what they get in the classroom in New York or in MBA programs elsewhere. They’re going to be prepared to be business leaders and business managers, so they’re going to get the same kinds of core courses that they get in New York. We are bringing the same robust MBA program that we offer in New York here to Abu Dhabi, and we hope that this program will be appealing to people the world over, not just in the region, but also beyond.

Will the professors be traveling from New York City to Abu Dhabi or will there be online courses? Part of the robustness of the NYU program is the faculty. [4:15]

Yeah, and this will be an in-person program, so at the moment we don’t have any plans for online content. And just as we have a top-notch faculty, world-class faculty in New York, we will be building a faculty here in Abu Dhabi as well. So we will be hiring to the standards that we have in New York, the kind of faculty that we have in New York. Now saying that, there is from time to time, every once in a while faculty might come over here and there to teach a specific course if they have a specific expertise and they will offer that course here in Abu Dhabi. In addition to that, we also have a module of the entire program. One module or about two and a half months of the program will take place in New York City. So students will be in New York during the summer months. I think it’s from the end of May to mid-August, they’ll be taking classes in New York and they will be taught by our faculty, our renowned faculty in New York City.

We’ll get to that part of the program in a minute too. Will the program focus at all on the business of energy since it’s going to be located in the Middle East and specifically in the Persian Gulf? [5:27]

That won’t be a specific focus of this program. We will have several specializations in this program. So the specializations we intend to offer at the beginning include finance, leadership and strategy, technology innovation and entrepreneurship, marketing, and potentially we’re also considering sustainability. So if anything, yeah, I mean, there might be sort of a slight energy focus, but on the next wave of energy is sort of how do we transition into the next energy regime away from fossil fuels, away from petroleum-based energy.

Thank you for that answer. It kind of fits with what I understand the Persian Gulf is trying to do, whether it’s Saudi Arabia or Abu Dhabi or any of them, the UAE, they’re all trying to prepare for a non-fossil fuel based world. [6:15]

Yeah, they’re preparing for future without oil, without fossil fuels, and they are diversifying their economy now in order so that once that day arrives when the last barrel of oil rolls off the assembly line or however we want to describe that analogy, that they have other industries that are here and vibrant that can sustain the economy.

I noticed that you mentioned just a minute ago that there’s going to be roughly three months or two modules of the program in New York City. Can I ask why? [6:54]

Well, we are-

What’s the purpose of it? [7:06]

We are an NYU program. We are NYU Stern as well, and one of the reasons that we want to bring students to New York City is so that they get to know and make connections to the home university. So that’s part of it. So they get to know New York, they get to know NYU, they get to know NYU Stern. The other piece of this is that this is a global degree program. This is a program that is preparing students to participate in the global economy, and what better way than to have them learn about the global economy than to be not just in one singular place, but to also have a global experience?

And for those in this program, that means not just being in Abu Dhabi, but also going somewhere else. And we just so happen to have a campus in New York with an outstanding faculty, a world-class faculty there. So why not bring the students there? And that’s part of, if you look at many of our other programs at NYU Stern, they also have global components, and those global components are meant to prepare people for the realities, the business realities of the world that they live in.

Also, New York City is one of the capitals of business in the world. [8:13]

Yeah, absolutely.

It may no longer be the capital, but it is certainly one of the capitals of business in the world. [8:19]

It’s funny, we’re fond of saying that NYU is in and of the city, in and of New York, and when I think about Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi is increasingly becoming a world capital as well. I mean, it is a world capital, but it’s increasingly becoming more and more connected to other world capitals with each passing day. And so now sort of with this program, we’re not only in and of New York and in and of the city, but we’re also now in and of Abu Dhabi and in and of the city because Abu Dhabi itself is a vibrant global city.

On one hand, NYU Abu Dhabi has the benefit of a one-year structure, which means lower opportunity cost, less time out of the workforce and the working world. On the other hand, applicants sometimes worry that a one-year program will limit the educational and networking opportunities or benefits of the MBA. Could it also hamper the possibility of getting an internship and possibly a career change? Could you address those concerns? [8:52]

Yeah, and there’s a lot in there in that question to unpack.

There is, I realize. [9:24]

Let me try and address a few of those issues and then I’ll come back. Keep me honest. If I don’t touch on some of the issues, questions that you ask, just remind me and I’ll come back to it.

So with respect to the one-year program, I mean, certainly it’s shorter than the standard traditional two-year program, and we often hear from our students, or at least people who are thinking about applying that two years now is a long time to be out of the workforce. So it’s not just, well, a one-year program costs less in actual terms. From a monetary standpoint, it’s less expensive than a two-year program. But also from an opportunity cost standpoint, it’s also you’re not out of the workforce for two years where you could be earning money. You’re only out of the workforce for one. Now, does that mean that they’ll have a lesser or a less than experience? I don’t think so, and we have experience with this format also in New York.

What we find is in our various one-year programs, because of the intensity of the program, that intensity creates connection. It creates networks, it creates opportunities for students to become closer and tighter knit with each other because they actually spend more time with each other, they spend more time with each other in a compressed period of time. So they do develop those relationships.

You asked about internships, and this program does not have a traditional internship in the two-year MBA sense where people go away in May when the program is finished after their first year, they work for the summer and then they come back in September. But it does have an internship that’s built into the program. It has a novel internship, it’s an experiential internship. It’s actually part of the curriculum. So students will be doing internships as they go through the program during that one-year. So they will be working on live projects for corporations operating in the area to perform those projects as they go through the program. And this provides several benefits. For the companies that sponsor the projects, and we’re already working with several companies that have agreed to sponsor those projects, but for the companies that are sponsoring those projects, they get to evaluate and see the talent that is in our MBA class.

And for the people who are in our MBA class, the students, they get to evaluate those companies and assess, is this the kind of company that I would want to work for? And in some sense, they get two opportunities to do that because they’ll have one of these variational learning courses from January to May in Abu Dhabi, and they’ll have another one, a second opportunity, so almost like a second internship from September to December. So we’ve designed the curriculum in a way so that they almost get two internship-like opportunities. And they could do a consulting-based internship, say in the January to May period, and they might decide, I didn’t really like the consulting one so much. Maybe next time I’ll try the finance one, or I’ll try one with a consumer packaged goods company, or I’ll try one with a government agency that’s aligned with the kind of work that I want to do after I graduate. So there will be different kinds of internship opportunities than what exists in the traditional MBA program.

I think you’ve addressed two of the three possible side effects, but the one part that I think you didn’t address fully was the career change aspect. A lot of one-year programs are quite clear, they say, don’t come to us if you want to change careers. [12:45]

We have no explicit policy in that respect. I’m sure there will be people who come to the program who are sponsored by their companies who say, “Hey, you can take a year off and then come back when you’re done and come back and plug right back into where you were, but now you have an MBA.” But there are those who will come to our program and will come and be a full-time MBA student. They will not be working for any company. They will not be sponsored by any company, and they might want a career change, and that’s perfectly okay too. They come in, they do the one-year MBA, and then they switch to a career that aligns more with their interests. We’re not making any warrants or representations about what students should or shouldn’t be doing before they come into the program and after they leave.

Will there be career support at NYUAD? [13:46]

Absolutely.

There’ll be much parallel to what’s offered at NYU in New York? [13:51]

Yeah, very high touch career services offering that we have here that will guide students through the job search process.

You’ve touched on, and this NYUAD site emphasizes experiential components of the NYUAD program. Can you go into it a little bit more? Is it going to be cases, is it going to be consulting projects, startups, and running a business or a fund? How do you see that part of the program playing out? [14:02]

So there are two principal components of the experiential piece. The first one I talked about a little bit before when I talked about those experiential internships that the students will be doing. So they will be attached to a particular project for a local company that is a live project that the companies want them to complete. So that is very hands-on. They’re going to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it outside the classroom on these projects with these companies. So that’s one element of the experiential component.

The other piece is when we are in New York City, there will be a course that is called Doing Business In or Doing Business in New York City that will engage local companies in New York City. Students will go on onsite visits to go visit local companies in New York. They will hear from managers at companies in New York that will come to their classroom to speak with them and engage them. And we will have cultural elements for them to engage with as well, because part of learning is not just about what happens inside the classroom, it’s about part of your experiences outside the classroom too. And we have a healthy, robust cultural program for the students as well.

And that actually leads to a question I meant to ask earlier and that is, are there any language requirements for NYUAD? Is Arabic something that’s encouraged or required? [15:32]

No. Look, I think languages are encouraged, all languages are encouraged. I think if you have the opportunity to learn another language, the answer should always be yes. I mean, that’s an amazing gift and an amazing thing to be able to speak multiple languages, but there is no requirement at Stern, at NYU Abu Dhabi for people to speak anything other than English and English is spoken widely here in the UAE. Just about everybody speaks English, all the signs are in English, and the classes will be in English as well.

I noticed that NYUAD, like NYU Stern in New York City, NYU Stern in Abu Dhabi accepts many tests and also offers a test waiver option. Who should seek a test waiver and who shouldn’t seek a test waiver in your opinion? I mean, you’re going to be processing applications very soon. [16:11]

Yeah, I mean, I personally won’t be processing applications and I have to-

I didn’t mean you personally. I meant the- [16:36]

I know what you meant, but I wanted to preface it this way because when it comes to sort of admissions, I’m not an expert. I come from the program side. So I’ve been a scholar, I’m a professor, I’m a researcher, that’s my background, and I’ve come from running programs. I’ve been running different kinds of MBA programs for Stern and master’s programs and executive programs for Stern for quite a while. So I’m really familiar with the programmatic side. I’m less knowledgeable when it comes to admissions kinds of things, but let me just try and answer the question as best I can with the caveat that I may not… I mean, generally I think the answer I’m going to give you is accurate, but I want to just caveat it with that I might be making some mistakes on the margins. So when it comes to test waivers, the kinds of folks who should be seeking test waivers, I would say are those who feel like they are well-equipped in the areas that are associated with an MBA degree, and what areas are those?

I would say if you have a STEM degree, if you already have a degree in engineering where you can demonstrate and you did very, very well in school in your engineering program, and you can demonstrate that you performed very well, especially in your math classes, that would be the kind of individual who might want to request a test waiver. If you went to an undergraduate business program and you’ve already demonstrated through your completion of that program that you can handle the rigors of an MBA program because you already have the qualifications and you did very, very well in your undergraduate business program, those are the kinds of folks that should or could potentially be requesting a test waiver or might be granted a test waiver. So basically, if you have a STEM-y background and your degree is from a widely respected accredited university, and you’ve performed very, very well in the classroom, especially in your math-based classes, those are the kinds of folks who typically qualify for test waivers.

You did a great job. [18:37]

Thanks. I might be slightly off a little bit, but that’s the general idea.

I think you’re right on. Obviously as a professor, you want people in class who can perform, and I think it’s the job of the admissions office to provide you with people who can perform. [18:43]

And one of the things I want to be clear about too, and this made me think about it, the question that you asked, is that not only are we building a world-class faculty here at Stern at NYUAD, and we have the benefits of tapping into the NYU Stern faculty in New York, but we also will be building a class that meets typical NYU Stern standards. So on the student side, our goal is to maintain the highest quality student body that is on par with the student body that we have at NYU Stern in New York.

How many people do you anticipate enrolling in the first class? [19:24]

The first class will be probably around 50 students.

And then do you want to grow it from there if possible? [19:31]

Yeah, depending on the reception, and we’re hoping for a solid reception, I don’t see why we couldn’t grow it. And in an ideal world, about 100 to 120 students per year, but it’ll probably take us a few years to build to that. [19:34]

You also mentioned a little bit earlier the entrepreneurial aspect of the program. Can you touch on that? I mean, the Persian Gulf is maybe incorrectly, but it’s not known for being an entrepreneurial hotbed. San Francisco is, Boston is, New York City is, Abu Dhabi is I think more known for financial and obviously the energy industry, but is there really an entrepreneurial ecosystem there? [19:52]

Believe it or not, this is becoming more and more of an entrepreneurial center.

That’s why I want to ask the question. [20:25]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a book written a few years ago called Startup Rising that talks about the ecosystem that is developing in this region and the kinds of companies that are coming out of that ecosystem. And so yes, there is a bit of it. There is still a need to grow it more. So it’s still early days, I would say, and we are hoping to be a part of that ecosystem. And the question is how? I guess what we hope to do there is an entrepreneurship center here at NYU Abu Dhabi. It’s called startAD, and we are hoping that our students will be able to tap into the resources offered by startAD.

And startAD, you could think about it as sort of like a kind of accelerator-ish program, but our long-term goal, what we’re hoping to do is in New York, at NYU Stern in New York, we have a program called the Endless Frontier Labs, and the Endless Frontier Labs, insofar as I’m concerned, is a best in class accelerator program that brings about 75 ventures into the lab every single year. And each one of those companies gets paired with a student group that provides consulting services to that venture, a VC mentor who’s attached to that program, and a subject matter expert, typically a faculty member who knows about the area that the venture or the science behind the venture itself. And so all of those create this fantastic ecosystem. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to replicate that here, but in the meantime, we have startAD, which is an accelerator located right here on campus.

What advice would you give to someone, again, you have a background as a professor, you have obviously program design and you’re now a dean. What advice would you give to someone aiming to send an application for the January, 2025 inaugural class? The first deadline, as you mentioned, is January 15th, and there are three more on March 11th, June 10th, and August 12th. I mean, maybe I should ask the question differently, who would you like to see in your classes that you might… Are you going to be teaching any classes or are you going to be strictly an administrative position? [22:09]

For now, I’m going to be an administrator. I’m hoping to get back into the classroom sometime soon, because I love teaching. I love being in the classroom, but even if I’m not teaching, the students will probably get sick of me after a while because I’ll be around and I’ll be around to bother them. So that’s-

Who would you like to be able to bother? [22:59]

The best and the brightest, that’s who I’d like to be able to bother and from all over the world. We really do want a mix of students from different nationalities from different places in the world. Now, I think you asked about recommendations for those who are applying, and the one thing that I would say is that we do have merit-based scholarships available, and so the one piece of advice that I would offer is, I would encourage people to apply early, because the earlier people apply, the more likely it is that they-

No money is available. [23:34]

The bigger pool we have available, once we start granting those merit-based scholarships, the pool gets a little bit smaller. So the earlier you apply at some level, the better.

This is a question I’m asking everybody. Are you at all concerned about the use or possible abuse of ChatGPT among applicants or students in your classes? [23:44]

The short answer is yes and no. As a teacher, it bothers me a little bit that students might rely on ChatGPT and not hand in their own original work, that they use it as a crutch. Especially those who sort of use it when they’re short for time; they’re being a little lazy. They were like, oh, well, I’ll just have this program do it. So that bothers me a little bit. But I think now the onus, again, as an educator, the onus then is on us to create assignments that maybe leverage the benefits of ChatGPT and bring it as a tool to help enhance learning. So we’re all still trying to figure it out together. In the meantime though, we can’t have students just using it to copy and paste to their assignments, and we have a policy against that.

On the applicant side, we do have a policy. One of the things that we ask our students is to verify that they have not received any outside support in preparing their essays and their application. And that students who are found to have gamed the system and to have used outside support, we can revoke their admissions. So we do have those policies, but again, the onus is on us to create prompts that make it difficult to use things like ChatGPT. On the admission side, we want to know who the students are, and we don’t want to know what ChatGPT thinks, we want to know what you think. And in the classroom, we want you to learn. We want you to push yourself, we want you to enhance your capabilities, and you can only do that if you really are putting in the effort and not relying on an outside tool to do it for you.

I think there’s also a difference between using an outside tool and relying on an outside tool. [25:41]

Yeah, I don’t mind them using outside tools. And I’ve been designing a little bit assignments that leverage ChatGPT in a way to help students learn versus-

Would you be willing to share an example? [26:01]

Yeah. One example could be you actually put the prompt in ChatGPT that you want students to answer, and then you ask them to critique the response from ChatGPT.

Clever. [26:18]

What did ChatGPT get right? What did ChatGPT get wrong and why? Another thing that I do in my classes is I have students work together in class and I go from group to group. We have discussions in small groups, and they have to think on their feet, so they’re not prompts. The discussions that we have are not prompts that ChatGPT would know how to answer. So those are the ways that I approach it. But yeah, I mean, you’re exactly right, we want students to use it as a tool. We don’t want students to rely on it to do their work for them.

A wonderful answer. Thank you. What would you have liked me to ask you? [26:52]

So I think one of the questions that I was thinking about in preparation for this is why here and why now?

Go for it. It’s a great question. [27:05]

Why Abu Dhabi and why-

Great question. Why didn’t I think of that one? [27:05]

I mean, I think part of it is that if you think about Abu Dhabi, and again, going back to something that I mentioned before, Abu Dhabi is increasingly becoming a world capital that’s connected to other world capitals and it’s connected to other world capitals more each and every day. It’s becoming more, as you mentioned, it’s becoming more of a finance capital. It’s becoming more of a sustainability capital. It’s becoming more of a business capital. It’s becoming more of a consumer products capital. It’s becoming a technology capital. It’s becoming a FinTech capital. All of these things that the UAE and Abu Dhabi in particular are investing in because they see the need to diversify their economy away from fossil fuels and towards a more knowledge-based, services-based economy. For us, when we were researching and thinking about this as a location, when you speak to companies and you talk to them and you say, what is it that you need in order to accomplish these goals that you have? We hear the same answers over and over and over again, which is, we need people who have managerial skills.

You talk to even private or public employers here in the region, they say there is a need for people with managerial skills to help us with that transition, to be a part of that, to help propel it. Ultimately, these are the folks who are going to become the leaders in this region, and they are going to be a part of that transition away from an energy fossil fuels based economy towards this new knowledge based services based economy. So when we were thinking about it, what better location than to do that right here? We already have a campus here. We’ve already built a stellar faculty here. We’ve been operating here for more than a decade. We know the market, and so we feel like now is the right time to be the first ones, the first top US business school to offer a full-time MBA in the region.

There’s tremendous talent here too. There’s a lot of young people who have an incredible desire to upskill too. So that was also part of it. So the employers are asking for it on the demand side for our graduates and on the supply side, the prospective applicants, the students really want it because they see the need to upskill as well.

Spoken like a true economist, supply and demand. Thank you again for the question and the answer. Thank you for the entire interview. It’s been wonderful. Thank you for joining me today, Dean Salomon. [29:29]

Relevant Links:

Stern at NYUAD One-year Full-time MBA

MBA ROI Calculator

NYU Essay Tips

Relevant shows:

How to Get Accepted to NYU Stern,podcast Episode 525

Get Into INSEAD, the Business School for the World, podcast Episode 520

How to Get an MBA at Columbia Business School, podcast Episode 528

Empowering International Students with the Financing for Grad Ed, podcast Episode 475

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi: A Full-Time MBA in the Middle East

Relevant Links:

Stern at NYUAD One-year Full-time MBA

MBA ROI Calculator

NYU Essay Tips

Relevant shows:

How to Get Accepted to NYU Stern,podcast Episode 525

Get Into INSEAD, the Business School for the World, podcast Episode 520

How to Get an MBA at Columbia Business School, podcast Episode 528

Empowering International Students with the Financing for Grad Ed, podcast Episode 475

Subscribe:

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The post Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi: A Full-Time MBA in the Middle East [Episode 549] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Seven Tips for MBA Applicants from a Family Business Background

You work for the family business and are applying for an MBA. Will this background be a net plus for you, or a minus? How can you make the most of this experience?

Whether you work for your family’s tiny startup with headquarters in your home’s basement, at one of the local grocery stores your family owns, or at your family’s multimillion-dollar enterprise with hundreds of employees, you definitely have numerous strengths that you can highlight in your essays.

Benefits of working for your family business

1. You’ve had an immersive experience in all the working parts of a business.

If you’ve grown up in the business, no matter its size, you have probably gained valuable knowledge in many areas, including sales, production, marketing, product research and innovation, customer recruitment and retention, customer service, basic finance, and perhaps even legal some issues (e.g., licensing, leasing). Particularly if you started working for the business on weekends as a teenager – and especially if the business is small – you will have the same advantages as other applicants who have worked at startups or small companies.

Most likely, you have learned how to be flexible, filling different roles as needed and gaining a holistic view of how the business operates. This immersive experience has given you a great deal of knowledge about and appreciation for how various business functions work together for a common goal.

2. You have an owner’s mind-set, not an employee’s mind-set.

As a family member, you have a vested interest in both the ongoing success of the business and its destiny. This is true whether you plan to return to it post-MBA or not. This personal incentive to see the business thrive and grow might have prompted you to work after hours on projects that you initiated. Additionally, with some level of built-in trust from management, you might have been given more leeway to innovate. The potential impact of your contributions will be that much greater, and the lessons learned that much more valuable.

3. You’ve developed communication skills that enable you to influence people who are senior to you.

You are most likely much younger than your relatives who own the company, and you might also be considerably younger than some employees who have management responsibilities. Therefore, you might have introduced tech-savvy innovations, a social media campaign, or another such idea to tap into a new market. Sharing how you have gotten “buy-in” from someone with an “old school” mentality is a way to demonstrate your communication skills and savvy.

4. You have a job when you graduate, if you want it.

The school won’t need to worry about your employment prospects if you want to return to the family business. Nevertheless, you will still need to prove that you’ve enjoyed the level of responsibility that you claim.

Challenges for family business MBA applicants

The adcom might be skeptical that your dad/mom/uncle/aunt really held your feet to the fire in meeting deadlines or proving yourself on the job. Also, the dynamics among relatives who work together can be tricky, and getting letters of recommendation might be a challenge.

Here are some ways you can address these issues:

1. Quantify your achievements, and offer as much anecdotal evidence as possible.

This is strategically important even if you don’t have a family business background, but it’s especially so if you do. Perhaps you successfully negotiated a new lease agreement for the company, saving it $X per month; found a better way to attract job applicants through UpWork, Fiverr, or other gig economy platforms; or brought in new customers through targeted social media ads or posts. If so, write about it. The classic rule of “show, don’t tell” is critical here.

Just as you would with any other company, if you began with a lower-level function but now have a higher-level title, list the different roles, along with your added responsibilities. This will show your professional growth.

2. Demonstrate your ability to navigate the pitfalls of working with family members.

There are often built-in conflicts between and among family members who all have a stake in a family business. One client of ours proved his management chops when he helped resolve a huge, ugly fight over succession. The family patriarch and founder of the business had passed away, and all the siblings were fighting over who was next in line for company control, which had been left unclear legally. Our client convinced everyone in the family to agree to work with a skilled mediator to help reach an understanding. The mediation succeeded, which arguably saved the business from being destroyed by lawsuits. It also preserved family relationships.

What if older family members resisted ideas that you were convinced were necessary, such as introducing new customer relationship management technology or other software program, or adding a new service or product line? What if you had conflicts with a long-term, highly valued employee? If you found ways to overcome these obstacles, you should have substantial and compelling stories to tell in your essays about thriving in this kind of business environment. For example, you might have been able to find research that convinced the business’s decision-makers that your ideas were excellent calculated risks. You might have sought advice from a business management consultant on how to smooth relations with the long-term, valued employee. Identifying creative ways to solve problems will emphasize your skills as a future business leader.

3. Don’t ask relatives, especially those who share your last name, for letters of recommendation.

Even if the relative in question is your direct supervisor and knows your work and capabilities better than anyone, there is simply no way that a letter from a parent, cousin, grandparent, or other family member will seem objective enough to be credible. So, whom should you ask? Consider asking a supervisor from a previous job or from an organization with which you have been actively involved as a volunteer or member. Either one should be able to attest to your maturity, quantitative skills, initiative, and standout achievements.

Still, you need recommenders who can discuss your abilities in recent times – within the past two years. If you’ve worked only for the family business, perhaps someone affiliated with the company might be a suitable recommender — an accountant or attorney, or an important customer or supplier. Remember, your interactions with these individuals must be, or have been, frequent enough and substantial enough for them to be able to comment intelligently and with some specificity on your work and personal character traits.

All in all, working for a family business has probably provided you with extremely valuable experience. It has taught you to be nimble in your abilities to work across different departments and given you a front-row seat in watching your relatives deal with the ongoing challenges of running a business in rapidly changing times. This is not a bad set of experiences with which to apply to business school!

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: ROI and NYU's Part-time MBA [Episode 552]

Show Summary

In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Linda Abraham discusses MBA return on investment (ROI) and NYU Stern’s part-time MBA options with Isser Gallogly, Associate Dean of MBA Admissions at NYU Stern School of Business. They discuss how to calculate ROI, the ROI of NYU Stern’s part-time MBA program, and the benefits and flexibility of the program. Isser Gallogly also provides tips for applicants and encourages them to create options for themselves by applying to the program.

Show Notes

Are you concerned about possible lack of ROI if you go for an MBA? Are you considering part-time options? Then today’s episode is for you. We’re discussing MBA ROI and NYU Stern’s four part-time MBA options.

Welcome to the 552nd episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Sometimes I’m asked, “Is the MBA worth it?” And my answer always is, “It depends on your individual circumstances”, but I’ve got good news. We’ve developed a tool that will help you evaluate whether an MBA is worth it for you and your individual circumstances, and by how much. Use Accepted’s MBA ROI Calculator and check out how much you are likely to benefit or not from getting an MBA. And using it won’t send you back even one cent because it’s free.

We’re going to dive more into the topic of MBA ROI today with our special guest. It gives me great pleasure to have back on Admissions Straight Talk, Isser Gallogly, associate dean of MBA admissions at NYU Stern School of Business. Isser has been involved in MBA admissions at NYU Stern for the last 20 years, and I’ve probably known you for about 20 years since you started there. Today we’re going to talk about MBA, return on investment or ROI, and specifically the ROI provided by Stern’s part-time MBA program and then how to get into that program.

Isser, welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:53]

Great to be here. Thank you.

I’m delighted to speak with you today, as always. I want to start by discussing the topic of MBA ROI or return on investment. Since our listeners have not yet earned their MBA, maybe we should start by discussing how to calculate ROI. What is it? I mean, I’ve seen lots of definitions, not all of which I agree with.

Yeah, there are a lot of different ways that you could think about ROI, and I think ultimately it probably comes down to the person and their individual goals in pursuing the part-time MBA. I think for most people, just the notion that they’re going to gain useful information, skills, experiences that will help them advance their career, be more effective at their career, might be sufficient. But for some people, they want to do some type of financial calculation and oftentimes they want to look at things like how much does a program cost and then what might that do to my salary over my working life?

Right, and the one caution I would give people is every so often I see ROI and the expense part of it includes living expenses, food, and room and board. And I would argue that that should not be part of the calculation in terms of calculating the ROI of an MBA, not because I’m trying to reduce the expenses, but because those are expenses you’d have regardless of whether you did an MBA or not. So, if you’re going to calculate the return on investment or just the cost of the MBA degree, while you have to budget for living expenses, it’s not really part of the cost of the MBA because those are expenses you would have in any case, under any circumstances. That’s just my own thing, but okay, let’s go on.

What is the ROI of the NYU Stern part-time MBA program? [2:47]

Yeah, so we’ve been working on this for a few years now for the part-time program, to try to come up with a methodology that we feel is helpful for people who are interested in looking at that type of calculation. And what we did is we looked at data over the last four years of the class of the part-time students that were graduating, and then we compared to what they stated their entering salary was or their salary when they entered the program, so approximately three years earlier. So, we looked at basically exiting salary and then the entering salary of the group that came in three years prior. And we obviously don’t have data on everybody. We have a significant amount of data on both. And what we saw was that when we averaged this over the past four years, it was 52%. We usually just say over 50 at this point, but 52%, and we’ve actually provided a ROI table on our website in the Finance Your MBA section, that provides the ingoing salaries, the exiting salaries, so people could see that for each year and the average as well as a lot of details on the methodology, but when you think about it from the time that you submitted your application to the time that you graduate to increase your salary over 50% is a pretty impressive increase.

Do you have any idea if they hadn’t … they were just going along merrily how much they would just based on inflation, how much they would’ve increased their salary? [4:43]

We looked at that or tried to figure that out from a number of ways, but it’s a very specific population, so to look at generalized data probably wouldn’t be representative and it’s hard to know without trying to figure it out.

Regardless, 50% over four years is pretty impressive. [5:05]

Yeah, and when you think about it, that annualizes to about 17% increase per year in each of those three years. And I think most people would probably say, even if they were getting increases in salary or promotions, the odds of getting three 17% increases each year is probably fairly low for a lot of people, at that point in their career.

Let’s start with another basic question, since I seem to be into those today. Can you provide an overview of NYU Stern’s four part-time options? [5:27]

I can, let me also just say a couple other things on ROI if I can?

Sure, go ahead. Absolutely. We’ll go back. [5:40]

A couple other things that we really wanted to try and explain to people were some of the other benefits you have beyond the financial impact for your salary. Obviously most people think about the value of an alumni network, what that can do for them, the connections. There are a couple other things I think that are pretty unique to our part-time program or our MBA programs in general. One is that we provide career services for life and as we know, people change jobs multiple times. So the fact that there’s always a resource available for free for our alumni, either have their resume reviewed, practice interviews, job posts, connections of that sort, even recruiting things going on, that’s a huge benefit for people that I think really has a lot of value.

The other thing that we’ve offered more recently too is the ability to take courses for free after you graduate. They’re done virtually via video and stuff. People can take one or two courses a year. There’s a set of about 20 or so courses currently, it’ll vary by semester by semester. But when you think about the cost of an MBA course and the value to stay current over the course of your careers, that’s incredibly valuable. I mean, you could theoretically take the equivalent of a second MBA after you graduate, and so you could consider that to double your ROI potentially. If you think about-

Well, consider the rate of change now, my goodness. [7:00]

Yeah, I mean, it’s fantastic. I mean, you think about someone who was working in finance a few years ago before a lot of blockchain, cryptocurrency and now just being able to stay up to date on that would be incredibly helpful for them. I think we’ll see that with things like artificial intelligence and other things going forward. So, for us, you have the financial salary increase in the short term, then you also have the network and the value of that, the career services, plus the courses for life. So, there’s a lot of factors to think about in terms of what an MBA can do for you, not just immediately but over the duration of your professional career. So, that’s another factor to think about in the mix.

I’m so glad you added it. And obviously to my knowledge, I don’t think there are too many top MBA programs that are offering either career support for life, or I’m thinking of one that is, but or the ability to take courses. Not too many throughout your career. [7:37]

There are huge benefits. Another fun fact is we also have one of the largest alumni networks of any top MBA program because not only do we have a large part-time program, well established full-time program, executive programs, but we also have our undergraduate program in business. So, you actually join, I think it’s the largest of any top MBA program. And certainly, if you want to be in the northeast area, we’re incredibly well entrenched there. So, just a lot of factors to think about when considering the MBA investment.

Again, I’m really glad you added those things. Now can we go back to- [8:25]

Yeah, four options.

… the options, right. [8:30]

Yeah. So, we do have four options in the Part-time program. The first is our evening option, where people take classes at night. It’s typically about two days a week for about three hours an evening. The typical progression there is about three years to complete the MBA, that’s the most common.

We also have a version of the evening program that we call the accelerated two-year program because you can finish the program in two years. And in that case, some semesters you’ll be taking three courses a night versus two. We also have an option to do the program on Saturdays, where you could do the entire program on Saturdays. So, for some people that’s more convenient with their schedule. And most recently, we’ve introduced an online modular option, where people can do the majority of the program online. And just to be clear, when we say online, we’re talking about live online. So, it’s not prerecorded information that you watch whenever, which a lot of people talk about as asynchronous. For us live, or synchronous, means that you are in video class in the evenings, so you have the real interaction in real time with classmates and discussions.

In addition to that, we allow people to come and do some modules, they’re one-week immersions, so they can do a significant portion of credits pretty quickly. It’s four and a half credits for a module. So that allows them to come to New York, spend time on campus, but in a more manageable way. And with all that said, these are how people start the program. After a certain period of time in the program, people can switch between options. They can pick and choose some of the courses. So, if you’re in the online modular program, let’s say you’re in the greater New York area, but it’s just not convenient to come in person on evenings, but then there’s an elective that you really want to come in person for later on, you certainly can do that. Saturday people can take evening courses, people can take online courses. So again, once you get to the elective portion, the second half of the program, really there’s a tremendous amount of flexibility. You could either change your official option or you could just take … cherry pick things in different options. So a lot of choices.

Let’s say I start out in the part-time program and then I decide I really want to join the full-time. Is that possible? [10:35]

That is not possible. The full-time program is exceptionally lockstep, so it’s very more rigid in terms of the sequencing. And so, while people in the full-time program could move to something more flexible like a part-time program, it’s very hard for someone to jump out of a very flexible program into a very lockstep program. And the programs really, I would say, are pretty different in terms of how they’re structured.

Our programs are really structured based upon different people with different objectives should use different programs. So, the full-time program is a great program if you want to be immersed fully in the MBA experience and if you want to make a significant transition either in your career, whether it’s industry function or both, because that also has a designated portion for summer internships, which are critical for a lot of transitions people look to make. And it also has a much more regimented career services program basically lined up for those summer internship experiences.

Whereas the part-time program is terrific for people who are enjoying their industries and functions, want to advance their careers and are just really feeling like they need the educational experience in particular to make them more effective. So again, most of the time people really, one program fits their needs best and that’s really what they should do.

Experiential education, experiential learning is a hallmark of the full-time program at Stern. Do part-timers have those options also? And how does that work? I mean, you’re already working full-time. [11:53]

Yeah, they absolutely do. A lot of our experiential programs are set up as courses, so there’s an actual classroom component as well. So, they do have to have some flexibility if there are certain parts of the course that would need to happen during working hours. But we try to make things as available for part-time students as we can.

Other experiential things that are in place that they can do that sometimes surprise our part-time students are things like the short study immersion trips. So we have one week and two weeks study abroad trips. We call them Doing Business In or DBIs. And a lot of part-time students participate in that. Instead of taking a week of vacation, they choose to take a week in another location, but as part of their education. So, that’s something that a lot of people do.

If they go on these Doing Business In programs, are they doing a consulting project typically or are they taking classes? What does that look like? [12:49]

Yeah, they take classes at a university located elsewhere, one of our partner schools. And they also spend a certain amount of time learning about business in that country, government. There’s also social activities, so they would have to take the week off from work to do that because it’s an all day and even parts of the evening experience. But it’s just a really great way to get an incredibly immersive experience, global education, working with other people.

And those courses, interestingly, that a lot of our elective courses are mixed where we have full-time students and part-time students participating. So sometimes, part-time students want to know, “Oh, how do I meet more of the full-time students, expand my network?” And there’s nothing like taking a trip for a week or two weeks, which is mixed between part-time and full-time students, to really get to know a lot of people and form bonds. So that’s an incredibly popular option.

And are there other opportunities for the part-timers to meet with full-time students? [13:46]

Definitely. In addition to the elective courses, we also have a number of student organizations and clubs. So we have clubs that are more professionally-based, like a finance club, consulting club. We have ones that are more sports-based, like softball or volleyball, soccer. We have ones that are very social, like the Stern Wine Cellar Club is very social.

So, we have a number of different options and part-time students definitely get involved in that, as well as there’s a number of activities done by the student government, whether they’re social events and things like that. And for the part-time students, we wind up having a networking happy hour pretty much every day that there’s class. So, those are also very well attended. And I guess what I would say is our part-time students I think are always surprised by how much social activity and networking is possible, and it just comes down to how much time they have or want to invest in that. For some, they get incredibly involved, they take positions in student government or clubs. For others, the experience is more educationally focused, based upon their priorities. And the nice thing is they have all these options available to them and they can adjust and change over time as they want. So, it’s all there and it’s just a question of how much they want or how much they want to leverage.

What about career services? The website is very clear and you’ve been very clear that the part-time program is not really ideal for career changers. Does that mean that part-time MBA students while in the program have only partial access to the career center? I know they have that tremendous benefit that you described earlier after they leave, but what about while they’re in the program? [15:02]

Sure. Our career center. We have different professionals for the full-time students and different professionals for the working professionals. And so, they’re really focused on exactly what their needs might be at that time. So, while the part-time MBA students don’t have the summer internship recruiting type things, there are still things to help people in terms of networking, in terms of updating the resume, interviewing, there are job postings, there are listings for more experienced hires. So, a part-time person who’s working in finance who wants to transition to another finance organization might be able to do that pretty readily.

So they have access to the job boards? [15:59]

Yes, but they don’t have access to some of the specific on-campus recruiting pieces.

Got it. [16:08]

I mean, it really wouldn’t make a lot of sense for somebody in a part-time program to quit their job and pursue a summer internship. It just doesn’t make sense in terms of-

Doesn’t make sense at all. [16:15]

And their graduation dates wouldn’t line up. And so, when you’re thinking about industries or functions like management consulting and investment banking, those types of … and there’s others too, marketing organizations that have really, really structured recruiting programs with summer internships, and that’s how everything’s driven. For those fields and functions in particular, full-time programs are really the optimal way to get there. That said, in the part-time space, there are some fields and functions which might be equivalent.

So if you were working in … Let’s say you really were interested in the startup space, Startup firms often are looking for one or two hires and they usually have immediate need. So, a full-time student might have a lot more difficulty pursuing that because they’re doing a full-time program, whereas a part-time student might be able to switch functions immediately and not have any interruption in their MBA experience. So, for some fields and functions, the flexibility is better with part-time, they can keep working while they’re doing it. And some of these industries, organizations and firms aren’t looking to hire whole MBA classes, if you will. So, there are some of those types of things. But again, a lot of people when they’re looking to make that big transition into banking or consulting, full-time programs are really … that’s the engine and a lot of that is driven by the recruiters and their preference in terms of how they want to do things.

So, we really want to position people for success and their goals. And so, the full-time program’s really designed for those types of goals. And if people really want to have the best outcome, that’s the best program.

Do you ever review an application and think, “This person’s applying for the full-time program, but I think they’d be better off at the part-time program?” Or do you ever get an application for the part-time program and think they would be better off at the full-time program, but really like the applicant, do you ever suggest that they switch? [17:47]

We have a couple options in that case. So, if someone applies to the part-time program and we think full-time may make a lot more sense, we have the option to basically invite the person in for an interview. Or we set up a time to have a conversation with them just to better understand their goals and objectives and why they’ve elected with those objectives to pursue a part-time program.

In some cases, yeah, we might tell them that a full-time program might be better for those goals. We want people to be successful. So we do try and do that. If someone applies to the full-time program and we think part-time is better for them, and we do see that what we do is towards the end of the cycle or after the cycle, we do reach out to some people who apply to the full-time program, basically talk with them about part-time and what that opportunity might be and why we saw strengths and why we think it might be a good fit.

And in some cases, the people are delighted because they’re not really necessarily expecting that. But again, when you see good talented people and you feel like you’ve got an option for them that could really help them get to their dream, why wouldn’t we reach out and just give them the information and let them make a decision? So, we have seen that and we’ve been doing that a bit more over the last few years with a number of success cases. People who are actually like, “Wow, now that you’ve explained to me, actually part-time is probably a much better choice for me given what I’m doing and what I want to be doing. And I also can keep my income going while that’s happening, which puts me in a better financial position long term.” So, we’ve had a number of people who’ve actually been really thrilled at being contacted and being thought of that way.

I would assume it would be really appreciated that you took the time to reach out. Obviously, you reviewed the application in depth. You thought about it, not you individually, but NYU thought about it and it took the time to reach out, as opposed to just rejecting them or doing whatever they would do. They took the time and took the interest.

Moving on, what’s the difference between the part-time MBA and the Executive MBA program at NYU Stern? Because they’re both part-time? [19:29]

Right, and this is one of those ones where the industry is a bit blurred. You have these flex programs, working professional programs, zigzag programs, part-time programs. For us, we are a school that actually has both, not all schools have both. And our Executive program is really targeted for working professionals who have more work experience, who are further along in their careers.

Much? [20:22]

Yeah, significantly. You’re talking about people who probably have an average of about 15 years of work experience. Versus a part-time program, you’re talking about people who have three to seven years typically. And so what they do in the executive program is it’s a much smaller cohort. They have a much more lockstep program so that they can really bond and build a strong networking cohort. Because there’s so much work experience there, it’s very nice for them to be very tight.

The New York Executive MBA program is on Saturday, Sunday. Some people are traveling to that. Often they have very busy careers where an evening program would not be feasible, given their responsibilities. And we also handpick the professors in that program who have a lot of work experience, practical experience, and are very used to working with a cohort of students who have a tremendous amount of work experience. So, it’s really hand-chosen faculty to really optimize the education for someone at that point in their career.

So, you’re with students who are at that point in career, you’re with faculty who are really picked for that point in your career. The curriculum is again, modified slightly for people at that level. Because it really is very different when you’re at that point versus early in your career. So, that’s why we do it the way we do it rather than sort of mix everybody together.

That said, there are sometimes people with a lot of working experience, who do elect to pursue a part-time program who it does make sense for and that’s their choice. So, we don’t necessarily rule people out, it’s just more unusual.

I noticed that 44% of the class in the part-time program met test waiver requirements and were admitted without a test score. That’s almost half the class. Can you review the waiver requirements? [21:43]

Sure, we have a few. We have one for NYU undergrads and that’s more if they graduated NYU undergrad, they had a certain GPA. We obviously feel very strongly about the education we provide at NYU, so we feel pretty comfortable that they’ll be fine with the academics in the program.

The more common one is the undergraduate major test waiver. And what we did was we identified, and we did a lot of research on this, we looked at people’s past performance, who had certain majors and certain GPAs. And essentially if someone went to a US-based four-year program that’s on the 4.0 GPA scale, very typical. And they pursued a business degree, it could be finance, it could be economics, it could be business administration, we have a whole list of all the different majors. And they had a certain GPA 3.40 GPA or better, we feel confident that they’ll be okay academically.

So in those cases, we feel fine with them waiving the test. If they want to take a test in addition, that’s up to them, but it’s certainly not necessary. And again, we have a long track record of data points in history that indicate that that is a good predictor of future success. So, that’s really why we do the tests, is to just make sure that people will do well in the classroom. It’s a rigorous academic program, so if we have a different data point that provides the same information, why wouldn’t we use it? And it’s certainly appreciated by a lot of applicants. Tests are not always the highest thing on their list of things they want to go do and study for.

Is there any type of applicant you would recommend to take the test? [23:23]

If they could meet the waiver, I would say definitely do that, you know?

Sure. [23:29]

I can’t really think of a situation where the test would be necessary in that case.

Any tips for addressing the three questions on the part-time MBA application, which are a little different from the questions for the full-time? I have them there. They’re pretty straightforward.

Number one, what are your short and long-term goals? How will the part-time MBA help you achieve them, 350 words.

If you do not live in New York City, tell us about your plans to pursue the program, number two.

Person, place, thing. I’m going to let you actually describe that. Please share three images.

And then the optional essay. Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the admissions committee. [23:34]

Sure. Yeah, they are pretty straightforward. The first question is primarily why do you want to get an MBA. And in the part-time program, what we see primarily is, “I like my career, I like my job, want some additional skills to continue to perform better, advance.” And then the specifics are obviously related to their case, what’s related to that. So, it’s pretty straightforward and that’s usually what we hear.

We do ask a little bit if they are outside of New York, what their plan is. Do they plan to do the online modulars? Some people are planning to relocate, some people would like to do the Saturdays, but we just want to see that they have a thought process if they are a little further out of New York because coming to New York and doing some of the program in New York is a requirement no matter what. We’d like to just understand what their approach is going to be.

So that one’s very straightforward and there’s really … There’s no tricks, there’s no nothing real special about it. It’s just help us understand exactly how we fit into your plan.

The second essay, the person, place and thing is really a chance to get to know the person a bit more as an individual. So, they submit an image of a person, an image of a place, an image of a thing that’s important for us in terms of understanding them and a short description and caption about that. Most of the applicants really enjoy it. They enjoy a chance to tell us a bit more about who they are as a person. And a lot of times people are wondering like, “Well, how do I stand out in the application or how do I get across the unique aspects I bring to the school?” And this is a really great way for people to showcase that. So, it’s generally pretty enjoyable. It’s not incredibly arduous and most people have a million photos on their phones and otherwise, and so it’s pretty easy to select an image and we don’t require a lot of words, just enough to understand it.

The optional essay is used like most schools would use an optional essay: if there’s something that is important to their case that they really don’t feel like is covered elsewhere, something unique or something that’s going on. If someone plans to retake a test, they could tell us there. Things like that. So, it’s up to the judgment of the applicant. It’s certainly not required, it’s truly optional. And it’s really more just short descriptions if there’s unique aspects that they think are important for the committee to know.

Or maybe context for a blemish or something like that, right? [26:11]

Sure, yeah. If they had one poor year-

Bad semester. [26:18]

… academically in undergraduate for a specific reason, they could highlight that.

Do you see ChatGPT as a problem in the application process, specifically in connection with the essays? [26:23]

I don’t, and especially when you’re talking about part-time. Again, like I said, it’s a pretty straightforward case and a lot of it relates to your unique circumstance. So I mean, could you ask ChatGP to write me an application to “why I want to do part time?” I guess. But it’s probably going to say exactly what I just said, which is I like my career, I like my function, I want some skills.

Once we get the transcript up, it’ll say exactly what you just said. [26:49]

Yeah, I mean, that’s usually the basic thread for most people. It’s not overly complicated. I think for full-time, sometimes it does become more complicated, but with part-time, it’s usually more straightforward. It’s usually more straightforward. And the specifics, I mean, I don’t know how ChatGPT would fill all those in, but I don’t know if-

The specifics are what’s going to make it or break it. [27:08]

Yeah, write an essay as to why my mother’s important and you put a photo up of her, I don’t know. I guess you could, but it’s not really that arduous. And ultimately, we tell people that they should be writing their own material for this. So yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how things like that and AI continue to impact a lot of industries and functions and fields over time.

What makes an application and an applicant come alive for you when you’re reviewing applications? [27:33]

Mostly it comes down to, has the person really thought about … done the self-reflection, thought about themselves, thought about their goals, have a good plan in place? A lot of it’s just about the specifics to their unique situation. And so, the more that someone really has demonstrated their thought process and has really brought their specific case to life, that’s what really resonates with us is, “Oh, this person really has thought about it and they have really figured it out.” Sometimes people really talk about like, “Oh, I’m looking forward to taking this course or this professor, or this experience, and this is why I’m really excited about the flexibility of the part-time program or what it offers.” And it just shows that the person’s really done some really significant research.

This is a big investment, coming back to the ROI piece. And the more that people think about how they want to leverage this for their own unique case, the more return they’re going to get. And that comes back to things like what courses am I taking? What specializations? Am I going to participate in experiential learning? Am I going to be involved in clubs? How am I going to maximize the total experience for myself? And they can direct a lot of that. So, it’s nice to see that type of research and thought at the front end.

That’s a great answer, thank you. Is an interview part of the admissions process for the part-time MBA program at Stern? [28:43]

Typically it’s not, but we have the option to offer it. Again, I think one of the unique pieces of part-time versus full-time, for full-time, we have people applying from all over the world and they have very different backgrounds, very different career objectives. And so, it’s pretty important to really have a deep conversation about exactly where they’re coming from, where they want to go.

With the part-time program, again, the majority of people tend to be based in the New York region. They’re usually very successful professionals. We’re obviously in a business capital of the world, and so they’re usually extremely strong applicants. And again, their cases tend to be, again, fairly straightforward in terms of what they’re looking for and why. So, there’s just a lot less variability that you see in part-time versus full-time, in terms of the range of factors. That said there sometimes are, and when are, we always have that conversation, but for the most part there’s a lot less variables to have to isolate through an interview process.

Do you have many students who are not based in New York? And here, obviously for the online program, I assume that’s much more common, that would make sense. But for either the Saturday program … it would probably have to be the Saturday or Sunday program. [29:49]

For the Saturday option we historically have seen people up and down the East Coast, in that Boston and DC range, but even there, a significant portion of them tend to be actually much more local. And for online modular, it’s a mix between people who are closer and people who are further away. We have some people in Chicago or California, et cetera, pursuing it.

And again, that’s why we had that question. If you’re not in New York, how are you planning to do this? How does it fit into the plan? And most of the time they can explain it pretty clearly for us in those essays. And so, it’s not necessary to go as deep into the interview process. But again, where there are questions, we want to have the conversation and want to make sure that everything is really clear.

Now, this episode is supposed to air in early December, which considering that your first deadline for the fall 2024 matriculating class is February 15th, is fantastic timing. About two months in advance. What suggestions do you have for anyone wanting to matriculate in the next fall? In other words, starting their applications before that first round deadline. What tips would you have for them? They have time now, right? They can go for that first deadline, they can go for a later deadline. What would you advise them to do? [30:43]

Yeah, I mean there’s a few things. I mean, the first and foremost, it always comes back to make sure that an MBA is right for you and make sure that you’re choosing the right program for your objectives. I think sometimes we do have people who would really prefer or want a full-time program, but because they’re concerned about finances, they think a part-time program might be a better option. But given their goals, full-time program is really going to get them where they want to go in a better way.

So, you have to make hard choices in life and you have to choose the right thing for your goals and objectives. And sometimes that involves a bit more investment in terms of foregone income. So, that’s I think, the most important is do your homework, do your research, make sure you’re applying for what you want.

And then the second thing would be getting your materials together. So, if somebody needs to take a test, obviously study for the test, prepare for it and those types of things. Updating their resume is always key. People sometimes let that get a little bit out of date, so update the resume.

Or they keep it too technical? [32:14]

Yeah, sometimes. And also order your college transcripts if you don’t have them, make sure you get them in order. I would also say start having conversations with your manager about the fact that you want to pursue an MBA, how it’ll benefit the organization. So that way, when it comes time to do the recommendation, it’s a much easier conversation, much more straightforward.

I think most people are a little concerned about having the chat with their managers, but for a part-time program, I mean, you’re not leaving your job, you’re just going to become better at it. So, most of the time people are incredibly supportive that people want to continue to invest. I think those are some things.

I’d also note that for people preparing for the test, we do try to provide some free test prep webinars. So, we do have those available. People can sign up on our website and we try and do them typically between cycles. We know that for some people, it’s very difficult to spend additional money in the process to do test prep. So, that’s why we offer some free webinars and that. We want things to be as accessible as possible and as straightforward as possible. So, we try and do that as well.

And that’s the other thing I would say, is start participating in these events, join our mailing list, start getting information, reviewing the website, join our webinars, things like that. We also have a call counseling program, so anyone who wants can set up a one-on-one conversation with an admissions representative. Those are phone calls. They’re typically 20-25 in length and you can just really talk about your specific situation. You can talk about specific things in the admissions process. You can ask questions about specific items in the program. Again, we really want to try and provide good advice, good information, be as transparent as possible so people can make good decisions and have the best outcome.

Well, that’s exactly what you’ve been doing since we started this conversation, providing good advice. So, just continue with it. Okay, what question would you like to answer that I haven’t asked? [33:49]

I guess one of the things that is sort of like for someone who’s on the fence and thinking, “Should I apply, shouldn’t I apply?” That’s the question that I think is important. And so, the question is should they apply? And I would say yes. Why not? Even if you’re not entirely sure, why not create the option? See if you get in. And then once you get in, you have the choice as to whether you want to pursue that or not. But don’t take an option off the table before it’s an option. Create the option, then make the decision.

And some people are also worried about the timing. “Oh, I’m not sure if it’s now or … ” We have applications in fall and spring. There are some people who apply for one cycle and then for whatever reason, the next cycle may make more sense. They can always write into us and request, “Can I get early admission to the next cycle?” We look at those case by case. So, better to create the option early in case you decide the timing is better now than later. So, I think that’s the thing I would tell people, is don’t assume you don’t have the chance or don’t question it. Believe in yourself, take the chance, apply, create the options, and then make decisions as you have more information later. So, I would just be very encouraging people to create possibilities for themselves.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. [35:19]

Sure.

Isser, this has been wonderful. Thank you for joining me today. I’ve enjoyed chatting with you about NYU Stern’s part-time options and the return on investment question that we started with. [35:20]

Relevant Links:

NYU Stern Part-time MBA Admissions

MBA ROI Quiz

Related shows:

How to Get Accepted to NYU Stern, podcast Episode 525

What’s New at NYU Stern’s Online Masters of Science in Quantitative Management, podcast Episode 447

How to Get an MBA at Columbia Business School,podcast Episode 528

How to Get into Dartmouth Tuck, podcast Episode 514

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The post ROI and NYU’s Part-time MBA [Episode 552] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Three Ways Writing About Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Three-Ways-Writing-About-Obstacles-Strengthens-Your-Application-Essays.png[/img]

[url=https://www.accepted.com/free-admissions-consultation-all][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Three-Ways-Writing-About-Obstacles-Strengthens-Your-Application-Essays.png[/img][/url]

Applicants love to write about their accomplishments, whether in a personal statement for graduate school or in a b-school essay that asks about one’s greatest achievement, challenge, or the like. And they are not shy about sharing their accomplishments, such as driving innovations that led to revenue boosts for their firm, conducting original and meaningful research in their field of study, or leading a volunteer group on a community service initiative.

As genuine and significant as these accomplishments are, many initial essay drafts are often missing a key element: obstacles. In this blog post, we explain why you shouldn’t shy away from discussing obstacles in your essays and how doing so intelligently can help your candidacy.

Here are three ways that discussing obstacles enhances your application:

1. Sharing how you overcame an obstacle shows the adcom that you can navigate bumps in the road in a positive, proactive way.

All of us frequently encounter obstacles: the traffic detour, an incompetent customer service representative, a disagreement with your partner, the approval you expected on a project unexpectedly turning into a “No.” Every single person faces challenges, but people deal with them in wildly varying ways. Those who are more successful in life succeed because they understand that obstacles are to be expected. They learn how to navigate them with patience, creativity, and a problem-solving attitude, and by – to borrow a phrase – “keeping calm and carrying on.” But too often, when asked to discuss their accomplishments, applicants selectively and completely forget [url=https://blog.accepted.com/write-about-overcoming-challenges-without-sounding-like-a-whiner/]the things that got in their way[/url] en route to their achievement. When they experience this kind of amnesia, they are shortchanging themselves. Triumphing over the hurdles they encountered might well have been just as difficult as executing all the anticipated elements of their plans – and therefore worth sharing.

2. Details about how you overcame obstacles create an appealing image of you as a candidate with a can-do personality.

Look at the following examples and see if you don’t agree.

First we have the[b] “stop-putting-me-to-sleep” example[/b]:

As the leader of my product research group, I came up with a plan for a new widget that would save us 10% in costs. After I communicated my vision to the team, we worked hard for four weeks on a prototype, completing it by the deadline, to the delight of management. Today, my widget is still the standard for my company, saving us over $300K annually.

Okay, this sounds like a solid accomplishment, but it’s hardly memorable. How did the candidate communicate her vision? What specific example does she offer of the hard work that was done over four weeks on the prototype? We have absolutely no idea.

Now let’s look at a[b] “dazzle-is-in-the-details” example[/b]:[b]
[/b]
As the leader of my product research group, I came up with a plan for a new widget that would save us 10% in costs. But when I explained my vision to the team, two senior engineers immediately argued against it, saying that there were key flaws in the design. After revisiting my design and realizing that they were correct, I revised my plan and was able to eliminate the flaws. We worked on a prototype for two weeks before discovering that the cost of the material we had planned to use for it had increased by more than 30% in recent months. I worked many late nights that week researching alternative materials, before finding one that was both appropriate and cost-effective. By the skin of our teeth, we met our four-week deadline and presented the prototype to management, but the VP of Manufacturing argued that we would need to purchase major new equipment to produce the widget. I convinced the team to work overtime on a manufacturing proposal that proved we could craft the product with existing equipment. Today, my widget is still the standard for my company, saving us over $300K annually.

There’s no contest here, is there? The second example, loaded with specifics about what went wrong and what almost derailed the project, is mighty impressive. The details highlight the applicant’s creativity, thoroughness, tenacity, communication skills, and leadership potential. When spelled out this way, discussing an obstacle can make your essays shine with the drama of the story and can [url=https://blog.accepted.com/5-elements-telling-attention-grabbing-story/]associate you with lively elements and images[/url]. For example, in the second example, it’s easy to visualize the two dissenting engineers, the surprise of discovering the price hike for the materials, and the VP’s frown. In the first, there’s only the haziest impression of an employee smiling about a job well done.

3. Discussing obstacles makes you a more fully developed, more relatable applicant.

Can you see through these examples how including specific, key obstacles in your essays and explaining how you negotiated them [url=https://blog.accepted.com/resilience-in-admissions/]showcases your ability to overcome the unexpected[/url]? This will assure the adcoms that you can capably execute a well-defined plan – even when you face unexpected bumps in the road. Moreover, it shows the school how you spring into action when the chips are down. This adds to a fuller understanding of who you are as an individual – and as an applicant the school would like to have in its next class.

For more details about what the adcom actually wants to know about the challenges you’ve overcome, watch this short video, in which Linda Abraham shares the answer to this often-asked question:

Are you still wondering how to address obstacles you’ve overcome in your application essays? Leave a comment on the video on YouTube, and we’ll gladly offer some tips.

[b]There’s no substitute for one-on-one guidance when addressing your obstacles and writing essays that make you shine. Working with an experienced admissions consultant, you can apply with the confidence that you have presented yourself at your best and maximized your chances of getting accepted. [/b][url=https://www.accepted.com/free-admissions-consultation-all][b]Click here to learn more.[/b][/url]

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/accepted_logo_1.png[/img]

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide, including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? [url=https://www.accepted.com/free-admissions-consultation-all]Click here to get in touch![/url]

[b]Related Resources:[/b]

[list]
[*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/five-fatal-flaws-grad-school-statement-of-purpose]Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Application Essays[/url], a free guide[/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/showing-strengths-in-application-essays/]Four Tips for Highlighting Your Strengths in Your Application Essays[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/resilience-how-flaws-and-failures-can-strengthen-your-application/]Resilience: How Flaws and Failures Can Strengthen Your Application[/url][/*]
[/list]
The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/writing-about-overcoming-obstacles-in-your-application-essays/]Three Ways Writing About Obstacles Strengthens Your Application Essays[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url].

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: How to Get Into CMU Tepper’s NEW MS in Management Program [Episode 553]

Show Summary

Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business is welcoming a newly launched Masters of Science in Management (MSM) program. The one-year program is designed for early-career professionals with zero to two years of work experience who are looking for a career pivot or to gain business skills. If that sounds interesting to you, you don’t want to miss this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, where Linda Abraham sits down with Dr. Kevin Dietrick, director of the MS in Business Analytics and MS in Management Program to learn more about the program and how to get in.

Show Notes

Are you a college junior or senior with an interest in business and a non-business major? Or maybe you’ve graduated already and you feel like you need to boost your knowledge of business to propel your career and have a life of impact and consequence. Today’s show is with the director of Carnegie Mellon Tepper’s brand new Masters of Management. Let’s learn all about it, because it might just be the program for you.

Welcome to the 553rd episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Before we dive into today’s interview, I want to mention a resource at Accepted that can help you prepare your statement of purpose to a Master’s in Management program or other graduate programs. Download Five Fatal Flaws To Avoid In Your Grad School Statement of Purpose to learn how to avoid the five most common mistakes that we see in grad school statements of purpose, as well as tips on how to write a statement of purpose that makes your story memorable and highlights your qualifications for your target program.

Our guest today is Dr. Kevin Dietrick, Director of the MS in Business Analytics and MS in Management Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. Dr. Dietrick attended Allegheny College as an undergrad and earned his master’s in education and his PhD in Higher Education and Higher Education Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He has been working in higher ed for most of the last 12 years. He came to CMU Tepper in 2018 as senior associate director of student services and became the director of the MS in Business Analytics in August and the director of the MS in Management last month.

Dr. Dietrick, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk and congratulations on those positions. [2:12]

Thank you, Linda. Thanks for the introduction. Thanks for having me.

My pleasure. Now let’s start with a really basic question. What is the MS in Management at CMU Tepper and who is it for? [2:16]

That’s a really excellent question and I think a good place for us to start today. The new MS in Management – we just launched it a couple of months ago – is a new venture that we have here at Tepper that falls into what I think is a suite of master’s degree programs offered through Tepper. It is a one-year business degree, and to the question of who is it for, it is for folks who are early on in their career. So we talk a lot about pre-experience. That’s not necessarily exclusive. It doesn’t mean you have to have zero experience, but generally, zero to two years of work experience is the type of student that you’ll find in this program starting. Very exciting, the fall of 2024.

So what that person looks like, and I know we’re going to dig into a little bit of that today, but just to give you a little bit of a sense of what we’re anticipating and frankly what we’re searching for. I think this is a really neat opportunity for folks who maybe are looking for an early career pivot. And so, I think that looks and manifests in a couple of different ways. It might be simply that what I studied in college, I don’t actually want to do. Maybe I was a computer science major, maybe I was an engineering major, and maybe I’m just looking for a little bit of a pivot and determining, you know what, I don’t want to be a programmer. I don’t want to work as a software engineer.

Looking for those opportunities to either take your skillset and say, I have these skills and I want to pivot them into business, or it could just be a wholesale change. We’re accepting applications from students from every undergraduate, major and background. If you’re interested in the program, we absolutely want to talk to you, but to your point, English or history, this is an excellent opportunity for folks who are maybe looking for that new direction.

And the other pathway, again, very similar is maybe I worked for a year or two and I’m not quite to that age work experience, experience level where I can really quite start looking at a degree like an MBA, but I want to do a little bit of an early career pivot. I want to collect some business skills. And so this is a really neat opportunity for folks that fall into a couple of different buckets that I just described there.

It doesn’t sound like it would be appropriate for somebody who has an undergraduate business degree. Is that correct? [4:32]

Like I said before, we’re accepting applications from just about anyone. If you’re interested in the program, absolutely come talk to us. And that would include business.

Can you provide an overview or tell us a little bit about how the program is structured and what people will actually study? [4:47]

Absolutely. So the first thing I’ll say, and I try to be transparent with every candidate that we talk to, is it’s a busy program. It goes by in the blink of an eye. As we sit here today in the middle of November, I have a group of students in another program who just started a couple of months ago and they’re well on their way to being halfway done with their program that is similar, in that it’s a one-year program. So Masters of Science in Management, it’s a nine-month program. Students have coursework in fall and spring, and then they’re out the door in May. What they’re going to get here while they’re on campus is obviously, that’s what we’re here to talk about today. They’re going to get a couple of things. They’re going to get some foundation laying in business areas, introduction to business, introduction to business skills.

All of that’s going to be really core and important to them before they actually start and jump into the program. So we’ll go through, what we call here is the base camp. That’s the start of the journey, before you climb the mountain. They’ll start here at basecamp and go through things like that, do some leadership development. We’ll put them through some job search prep as well before we jump into the program. And then once we do the curriculum and the topics that they’re going to cover and something that we’re starting to talk to employers about as well in terms of the skill sets, they’re going to go through, I think what you would expect to see in a lot of business schools, but I think differentiated to the Tepper flavor, econ, finance, accounting, we take a very quantitative nature here. So PropStats is going to be an important class for folks to come in and take early on in their time here.

The first semester, and we break our semesters up into what we call minis here. First semester is going to be very, very required course heavy, some of the courses I just stated. And then in addition to that, operations, marketing, they’ll take a communications course. And then once you get to the second half of that first semester, that’s when actually students will have an opportunity to start diving into electives a little bit. And then onward into the second half of the program, that spring semester, much, much heavier opportunity for elective coursework. And so something that’s a part of this program is the opportunity to specialize. And so we’ve introduced in year one, initially three, but we just added two, in fact, pretty hot off the press, just added two new specializations, so students can come here and via their elective coursework specialize in areas like finance, marketing, operations. And then the two newest ones we just added are entrepreneurship and strategy as well.

Got it. It sounds like it’s a very dynamic situation for the program if it’s developing that quickly. [7:21]

Yeah. And I think that this hearkens to something that we were maybe speaking to before the call started here, and that is that in particular with these one-year programs, it’s very important for us to speak to what we’re hearing in the way of feedback and iterating the program to meet needs of both students and hiring market as well.

Right. Now, there was a fairly long Poets&Quants article about the MSM and on the Tepper website there’s a focus on management science, specifically management science and how Carnegie Mellon really epitomizes that approach to management. How does management science differ from plain management? There are many masters in management programs. [7:51]

That’s correct. And I appreciate the question. We talk about a couple of things here, I think pretty regularly at Tepper. We talk a lot about the intelligent future. We talk a lot about our methodology of teaching business education. And so, I appreciate the intro making me think back to my days when I started here a little over five years ago. And it struck me right away that there’s a core to this place and the way we teach business education that has been in existence for as long as the school has been around back to its days as the Graduate School of Industrial Administration. And that is using informed quantitative methods to make business decisions, to drive business decisions.

And so, your question hearkens to that core of who we are. It is a master’s of science program because of the quantitative core that students are going to get while they’re here. So a lot of the things that we mentioned here, there’s going to be necessary, and I think very helpful, quantitative and mathematical components to the education in the classroom. And I think that’s a big differentiator for us. And of course, as we mentioned, something we’re very proud of.

Thank you. That was a very good answer. How does the Tepper MSM differ from the Tepper’s Masters in Business Analytics? [9:34]

I’m hopefully the right person for that question, as you mentioned.

Exactly. I can’t imagine anybody being better, more qualified. [9:45]

I get the opportunity to oversee both programs. And frankly, the MS in Business Analytics is going to be so much more niche. And so what we’re asking those students to do in particular, once they go out, they leave us and they go out into the workforce. But even while they’re here, I mean, it’s going to be much heavier in programming, statistical methods and modeling, machine learning courses. That program is really geared towards preparing folks for a life immersed in data as a data scientist, analyst, business intelligence analyst. So that’s going to be a key distinction. I think what differentiates candidates when we talk to them is that they have that keen interest in going straight into that niche area.

And the master’s in management is a little bit more general, a little bit more flexible. [10:32]

That’s correct. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

What jobs do you anticipate graduates of the MSM program will go into or will get? I know you’re talking to employers. [10:38]

Yeah, excellent question. And so what we’ve tried to do is inform our processes here, and I think you see that manifest in the curriculum. There’s a little bit of we’re going to see, but there’s been a lot of data collected and a lot of what we’re anticipating. So what we anticipate, and I think what we’ll see is that graduates of this program can slot into a variety of functions across a number of different industries.

We mentioned pre-experience, early career, and so they’re going to slot into more at the entry level of jobs. But that’s okay. I mean, that’s what the program is designed for. And I think in terms of, just to hit on a couple of areas within that entry level, we’re trying to speak to needs, both internal and external, and strengths, internal and external as well. So just to give you an example, we spoke through some of our specializations, areas like operations, management and marketing. Those are areas where I anticipate that folks will find their way into. And then of course, the opportunities are going to span across different industries, healthcare and tech, consulting and the like I think will hopefully, a year from now when we get back together, we’ll be immersed in our first class and talking about where they’re going.

Right. Analyst positions, I assume. [11:58]

Yes, that’s correct.

You touched on this a little bit earlier in the interview, but what kind of academic background are you looking for, should they have? Even if that history, major political science major, which was my major way back in the day, what kind of quantitative background should they acquire maybe before they apply or certainly before they attend? Or will you admit people and then tell them, “Look, you’re admitted contingent upon you completing these courses” or whatever they are? [12:03]

That’s an excellent question, and I think I’ll highlight, as you mentioned, something I said before, and that is that we’re looking for a diversity within our student body. So we’re welcoming applications from a variety of backgrounds and hopeful that if candidates are interested, they’ll come and talk to us.

The other piece I’ll mention is that students, while they’re here on campus, we’ll get them what they need. And so there’s going to be a couple of components to supporting them academically, supporting them prior to their arrival. But what we’re looking for in the application, in addition to the variety of undergraduate majors, is we’ll ask that students have taken one college level mathematics course. That could be a calc, that could be a stats, but one college level mathematics course. And we will look at AP credit as well. So if students maybe got AP calc credit, we’ll look at that as well as a part of the application. So we hope students will submit that too.

And then to the latter part of your question, in the interest of making sure that students, again, they’re going to get what they need when they’re here on campus, do a little bit of math prep prior to their arrival, embedded during their orientation or perhaps just before, something that they can do asynchronously at their self-paced type of model. So that’s a little bit about what we’re looking for in terms of academic background.

Any writing or communications component that you’d like to see in terms of their academic preparation? Because you could get the computer science guy who’s just been in that computer science lab too, right? [13:51]

Yeah, that’s important as well. And what I’ll highlight, and I think this goes back to the quantitative piece, is we’re not looking for a finished product. We’re here to help you polish and refine, to land at a finished product. So yeah, absolutely, we’ll evaluate things. This gets into the application and the application cycle a little bit, but there’s an essay involved. There’s a video essay involved.

And so certainly, we’ll be evaluating those things like communication skills through the application and through the resume. We’ll be looking at things like, what have you done in your college career? What sort of leadership skills might you have started to develop? Again, not looking for a finished product, but what have you done? Because that is harder to exhibit when you’re an early career professional, you’re not going to have management experience. So we’re looking for those other avenues where candidates can show us, “Hey, I really do have this potential, and I had these really neat experiences as an undergraduate student or perhaps in my first year on my job that I’m going to bring with me. I’m going to bring those learnings and continue to refine and polish here.”

That leads to my next question, which is about the experience that you’re looking for now. It’s “pre-experience.” So when you talk about pre-experience, that really means pre full-time experience. But do you want to see people that maybe worked part-time or had internships or took leadership roles on campus even if they weren’t paid leadership roles? I mean, is that something that you’d like to see, since it is a pre-experience program? [15:06]

Yeah, absolutely. I’m a big believer in story and journey. And if you’ve had these experiences that have led you to a pivot or you’ve had these experiences that led you to feel you should go in this direction versus that one which you originally thought was the way for you, I still think there’s just such a tremendous amount of value in those experiences and speaking to those experiences.

So yes, absolutely. Internships, clubs and activities, leadership opportunities through those, all of those things are going to be things that I think bring a lot of value to the classroom experience here. And so I want to hear about them and I want to see them through the application process.

They also demonstrate certain personal qualities that can be valuable in business. I assume as a member of the class, whether it’s initiative, creativity, managerial, organizational skills, teamwork, all those things show up. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, pre-experience doesn’t mean no experience. [16:12]

Exactly right. Pre-experience does not mean no experience. I don’t think we often take the time to sit back and think about how the journey that we are on is bringing us experience. It’s taking us from point A to point B. And so, I really want to emphasize that part you just mentioned that pre-experience doesn’t mean no experience, but let’s highlight what you have there and let’s talk about it.

I’ll never forget one of my first clients. It was probably 25 years ago and she was a lovely, lovely young woman. She wanted to talk about traveling to a certain country. She was of that ethnicity. I said, “Oh, that’s fascinating. When did you visit this country?” She says, “I never visited that country.” I said, “How do you…” And I was just starting out. I was really shocked. Unfortunately, I’m not so easily shocked anymore. She says, “I’ve never visited that country.” I said, “Then how do you want to write about visiting it?” She says, “Oh, I know many people who visited it.” And I said, “Do you have a background in creative writing?” And she said, “No.” I said, “Well, neither do I. What have you done? Let’s talk about that.” In the end, she had really some fascinating stories. Her essay is still on the site as a sample essay.

And she got into the school she wanted to go to. She got into her first choice school. But I mean, it was just bizarre. And again, she was otherwise a lovely, lovely young woman. She just didn’t have confidence in herself. And she ended up writing an outstanding essay. Again, pre-experience does not mean no experience. And she had some fascinating experiences that spoke volumes about her personality and character. [16:58]

I’ll bring a very brief personal anecdote into the conversation. And perhaps I’m showing why I feel a particular way at the direction of these programs. I grew up doing a ton of traveling in my childhood. I was in a transitory family. We moved every three years. My father’s from the US, my mother’s from Central America. My name doesn’t lend to that sort of thinking, but I grew up in a biracial household, and so much of my formative experiences was spent in Central America, in Panama. And growing up in regular, consistent cadence in another country at times, that had a huge impact on me. That’s not work experience, that’s not internship experience, but it’s experience. It impacted who I’m, and I think that’s why I speak so passionately to that direction.

I think that’s a great point. Let’s turn to the application components. You touched on them a minute ago, let’s go a little bit deeper into them. The test requirement is the GRE, the GMAT or the EA. Do you have any preference? [19:24]

No preference. And I know we’ve been getting some questions about the GMAT focus, that’s also in play here, but no, we don’t have a preference. I’ll mention too, Linda, that we do offer a waiver for candidates. So that’s also an option. And in particular, that type of student that generally might be in conversation or in play for a waiver, it’s going to be someone with a little bit more of that Quant side of the background. So we’re looking at the transcript, looking at the resume, and we’re seeing what we feel comfortable foregoing the test and granting that waiver.

If a candidate applies for a waiver but is not granted that waiver, it’s not an outright no, it’s, let’s have a conversation. Here’s what we’re seeing. We’d like you to take the test, we’ll give you X amount of time to go take that test and then come back to us and have a conversation with the results. So it’s not an outright, no, I want to make sure I state that as well.

Okay, great. Thank you. Now, the essay question that you touched on a minute ago asks applicants to “provide an example of when you experienced or created an inclusive environment and how you’ll use that experience to help members of the community reach their full potential.” Could you provide some guidance on how to respond to that question or make the most of that question? [20:33]

Yeah, and there’s a couple components that I’ll use to contextualize as well. I think one is social impact is very important to Tepper in this day and age, and so that gets to the community portion. The other is that within the cohort of masters of science and management students that come to campus, this group of students will be spending a lot of time together. So community, again, another theme here is going to be very important.

So with respect to that question, we want to know a candidate’s viewpoint on community, on being a community member, on what that has meant for them, how it relates to their impact on the communities that they’ve been a part of, and what they’re going to bring to us here in terms of quality and experience, again, as a Tepper student.

It is almost more of a personal statement than traditional statement of purpose. And then the two-minute video, that seems to be more akin to a traditional statement of purpose in terms of the content and the question, which is, “Please describe your post MSM career goals.” And why have a video as opposed to a written essay for that one? [21:38]

Yeah, that’s a really good question. And I’ve got to tell you, Linda, I’m a big fan of the video essays that we’ve incorporated here at Tepper. And I’ll spin into some tips, if you will.

Oh, I’d love it. Sure. [22:08]

With respect to the video essay, that’s an opportunity for us to evaluate candidates in a finite period of time. I’m trying to see and evaluate how they take a question, which they could spend five, 10 minutes on and condense it down. So we’re getting into, eventually that will get them into preparing for their, “tell me about yourself and your elevator pitch.” You have this story, you got to get it down to this amount of time. So I think that’s one component that I like about it. It’s also an opportunity for us to evaluate communication skills outside of the writing space, the speaking space, which is very important, that verbal communication. It’s an opportunity for us to evaluate a candidate’s poise and gravitas and their ability to, how they’re presenting themselves. It’s an opportunity, we tell a lot of candidates here, every interaction, is you are presenting yourself to a company, to an alum, to a recruiter.

And so it’s an opportunity to see how candidates handle that opportunity with us. And I love having that opportunity to hear from candidates as well, that spoken, verbal, about what they’re interested in, why are they interested in us? Something I’d make sure to mention in response here as well is it’s easy to tell when folks are reading off the screen. I would say both of those are no-nos.

So it’s an opportunity for us to see how a candidate prepares. And there’s a difference between preparing and then delivering without reading, and then preparing and then just reading a statement. And I want to see how they prepare and then deliver that prepared statement or structure, that skeleton outline that they put together.

Thank you. That was very informative. What can an interviewee expect if lucky enough to be asked an interview and are all admitted students interviewed? Is that your intention? [23:58]

Yes. Yes to the question. At any point, if a candidate ends up on campus here, if they get admitted to the program, they’ll have been interviewed. And so what can they expect? So they’ll, during an interview, meet with myself or perhaps a member of our admissions team, and they’ll go through a series of questions that are geared towards informing us, informing the application, so it’s another input into the application file as well. And it’s an opportunity for us just to see how they would be in existence here as a Tepper Master’s of Science and Management student.

We’ll go through a series of behavioral questions, no gotcha questions, but certainly designed to make sure folks are thinking on their toes and see how they think on their toes. I like to think of them as, we’re not yes or no questions. There’s not right or wrong answers, it’s not a test, but we want to see how you’re thinking and how you process, and hear a little bit about your background and why you’re interested in the program as well. So it’s our face-to-face opportunity to dive in and see if we’re hearing a consistent story across the application, across the video essay into this interview. And another, I think, really good opportunity for us to evaluate how someone communicates, how they interact one-to-one, of course via Zoom, which is, it has its differences, but I think it’s still a good metric for us.

Okay, great. Thank you. That was a great answer. Now when this show airs, there will be three rounds available for this application cycle in the class entering in fall 2024. Round two has a January 21st deadline, Round three has a March 31st deadline, and round four has a May 19th deadline.

Is an applicant at a disadvantage if they apply round three or four, or is it too soon for you to even tell that it’s a brand new program? Would somebody be better off waiting until next year? What do you think, from the preliminary indications of interest? [25:32]

Yeah, there’s always that balance. I always like to tell students, just because you never know what could happen, the earlier you apply, or at least the earlier that you’re talking to us, the better you position yourself. But in a sense, the answer here is no. And that is because we’re going to be building. And I always talk about it, I’ve talked a little bit about profile and I’ve talked a little bit about diversity within a class. We’re going to be building a class for a year, and we do that very intentionally. I say a year, I should say a cycle of four rounds. But we do that very intentionally, Linda, and I think that’s because we have the community, we have the student experience so much in mind that it does take four rounds to really put a class together.

So for those folks who are listening who maybe you feel like you’re late in the game, first off, absolutely not. You have plenty of time before that round two deadline. And if you’re, maybe you’re catching this on the web a little bit later, maybe it’s February or March, there’s still absolutely plenty of time to have a conversation, put in an application. Our website, I love this, our website says you can put an application in, I think it says under 30 minutes or at around 30 minutes. And so, if you’re listening, let’s have a conversation about your interests and your desires, your career goals and outcomes that you’re looking for, and we’ll see what the right direction is for you.

Looks like you really welcome calls with questions from potential applicants. [27:31]

Linda, I love talking to prospective students. I am on LinkedIn, and I absolutely welcome these conversations. It’s one of the very rewarding parts of my day. I’ve talked a lot about journey and experience, and I want to hear from people and hear where they are, where they’ve been, and where they’re looking to go. I think it’s very important.

This show is supposed to air on December 12th, so it’s a little more than a month before the round two deadline. It’s enough time to put together a wonderful application. What would you advise anyone aiming to apply this cycle, whether it’s round two, three, or four, aiming to apply this cycle to the masters, the MSM, the Masters of Science in Management at Carnegie, Mellon? [27:57]

I’d advise maybe to go back to a couple of earlier portions of the program, rewind and re-listen, a couple of times.

You gave wonderful advice. That comment is very good. [28:31]

Aside from the joke though, I think there’s a couple of things that I really want to draw out from folks.

Come talk to us about your story. Tell us your story through your application. That’s really your opportunity to tell us who you are, why you’re a good fit for this program, why you’re a good candidate for MSM, and why you’ll be successful here. So tell us your story.

So I think another neat opportunity is to come visit campus. I’m trying to think of timeline here and when this is airing, but if you have the opportunity, come visit Pittsburgh too. If you’ve not been to Tepper, we live in this brand new beautiful building. We’ve been here since I started. Right at the heart of Carnegie Mellon’s campus, it’s this great central location. It’s a hub of activity and innovation, so it’s really nice to get here and see all of that going on. So come to campus, sit in, I don’t have any current MS and management classes currently ongoing, but come sit in on a class, see what it’s like in the classroom and start to see yourself here. I think that’s a really important part of the journey to land at a place like Tepper as well, is to make sure it’s the right fit too.

What about those planning ahead to apply next fall or later? How can they prepare to apply successfully? [29:43]

So there’s a couple of things that I’d call out. I think one is if let’s say for example, you’re in college and listening to this, maybe you’re a sophomore or junior, do you look at that math course? Make sure you have that college-level math course. And if you have the opportunity, maybe you’ve already taken it or maybe you took that AP calc course, it wouldn’t hurt to brush up. So look at that academic preparation component, making sure that you’re ready for that quantitative component of the program.

I think second is if you’re really thinking about this, you’re starting to prepare yourself, look ahead to your summer internship for this upcoming summer and find something that will be of benefit to you, be of benefit to you, your experience, your application as well. And make sure you’re using that summertime wisely, so look for an internship.

And then the last component I would say as well, I’m a big believer in conversation. I’m a big believer, I think a lot of times nowadays you hear of a personal advisory board, whether you’re that formal or whether you’re a little bit more informal, start networking, start hearing people’s journeys and their stories and asking, ‘how would you prepare or what would you do in this situation?’ And I know that’s personally guided me a lot in my life and career, and I think that other people have so much wisdom to share and they’re willing to share. So that’s something else I would highly recommend.

A couple of thoughts occurred as you were talking because it was again a wonderful answer. For those people applying ahead, let’s say you’re a college junior now and you have an opportunity to intern at a consulting company domestically. Or you have an opportunity to do some fantastic volunteer work supplying fresh water or something like that to a village in Africa. One is very directly business-related and the other is not, but it would be an incredible life experience. What would you advise that person to do? [31:15]

That’s a good question, Linda. I like how you’re thinking on your toes here.

What I would say is there’s frankly not going to be a right or wrong. I think what’s most important in this situation is that a candidate be able to justify, I did this because of this reason and here’s why it was important or why it is important to me. So more so than right or wrong, this is the answer to the test, for you to get into Tepper’s new Master’s of Science and Management program, I think you have to make it relevant. You have to be able to tell that story and make sure it’s relevant. I think there’s a ton of value to, we’ve talked a little bit about social impact and the sustainability component. I think there’s a tremendous amount of value. Likewise, there’s a lot of very practical value in going out and getting some consulting work experience.

As I think about the journey that students will be on here, they’ll fairly quickly come into the program and have to identify what type of specialization they’d like to jump in. So that’s where something like, Hey, I have experience in X. I can say checkbox, yes, I want to go in that direction. Or maybe I had a finance internship, but I want to go in the marketing direction or vice versa. So there’s that very practical component to the latter, but I think more so than yes, no, this one versus that, I think being able to justify and tell your story.

That’s a great answer. Thank you. One thing we haven’t discussed too much in terms of the video is the importance of direction and goal. We talked about a pivot, somebody who doesn’t like what they’re doing. How important is clarity in terms of the future? And again, I don’t mean that somebody needs to know the title they’re going to have or the address, the suite number. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about a sense of career direction. [33:33]

Yeah, you hit it right on the head. I think that the part that is most important for me there is I want to reemphasize that folks, when they get here, should not be a finished product necessarily. We’re not looking for them to be the best communicator and have the content knowledge of all of our classes that we have on the website. They’re going to develop while they’re here.

With that sort of way of thinking in mind, I would say a similar answer here. Direction, yes, finished product, no. You should have some idea. You should be starting to go in a particular direction. Doesn’t mean you can’t pivot. And it certainly doesn’t mean… We’re going to be here counseling them throughout the process. It’s going to be a very important part of the experience here, and that is career journey, career discovery. So some idea, looking for that direction, absolutely, yes. Does it need to be, as you said, I know I’m going to be in the corner office on the 37th floor of this building, not necessarily.

Let’s say I go to the MSM, I work for three or four years or whatever, and then I decide I want to go back for an MBA. Will I have to take the full two-year MBA program? [35:20]

No, you won’t. So this pairs very nicely with an MBA offering that we have here at Tepper that is an accelerated MBA. So a lot of the core that students will take here during MSM that we spoke to earlier in this conversation, they’ll have that core. They’re not going to need to repeat it. So if you’re someone who’s thinking about maybe an MBA down the line, this is actually a really nice pairing so that you don’t have to come back and do a full on two year MBA.

Okay, great. Thank you. What question would you have liked me to ask you? [36:03]

I made a note to highlight a couple of our additional specializations. I’ve already done that, but just to make sure I re-emphasize that.

We’ve added strategy and entrepreneurship, in addition to our finance, marketing and operations specialization. So these are going to be really key areas where students can start to differentiate themselves and also build those skill sets. So I want to say that that’s a really, really neat feature of the program that I would highlight.

I think that’s about it, Linda. I mean, I really appreciated the conversation here. Anything else that I didn’t talk about?

Yeah, I was just thinking there’s one thing, and that is there an experiential component to the program? [36:47]

That’s a good question. So because, this is in mind with returning back for an MBA down the road someday, which will consist of an experiential component, this MSM does not have sort of a while you’re in the program experiential component. The way we’re thinking about it is students come to get an MSM, complete the program, get their work experience, and then a few years down the line, then they can come back for that MBA. So that middle portion is how I’ve couched the experience in my mind. But no, there’s no experience component to the program.

Getting back to the specializations that you touched on a minute ago, about how many classes does one take if you’re focusing on one of those areas and does everybody have to concentrate? [37:27]

Everyone will complete a specialization while they’re here on campus. So the specialization will consist of five classes. Within a given specialization area, we’ve identified certain courses that are required as a part of the specialization, and that’s three per specialization. So if you want to get a specialization in finance, you would take three courses that we’ve identified as, ‘you need to take these,’ and then you have two elective options.

Then outside of that, you’ll also have additional elective space as well. So it’s condensed, it’s a fast-paced one-year program, but you also have ample opportunity to make sure that you’re taking courses that help differentiate your resume and also help you with developing your skills to help make sure you’re doing a great job once you leave here at Tepper.

Great. I want to thank you so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed learning about Carnegie Mellon’s new, brand new Masters of Science and Management. [38:24]

Relevant Links:

Tepper School of Business Master of Science in Management (MSM)

Five Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Grad School Statement of Purpose

Related shows:

CMU Tepper’s MS in Business Analytics: All You Need to Know, podcast Episode 510

How to Get Accepted to Berkeley Haas’ Master of Financial Engineering Program, podcast Episode 540

How to Get a CMU Tepper MBA,podcast Episode 425

What’s New at NYU Stern’s Online Masters of Science in Quantitative Management, podcast Episode 447

How to Get Accepted to Graduate Engineering Programs

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: What MBA Admission Officers Think of Applicants Using ChatGPT and AI [Episode 556]

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Episode_556_Blog_Banner.png[/img]
[url=https://www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/556_AI-Essays-Compilation_2023.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Episode_556_Blog_Banner.png[/img][/url]

Show Summary

In this podcast episode, Linda Abraham discusses the use of ChatGPT in MBA application essays with admissions directors at top MBA programs. The admissions directors generally view ChatGPT as a tool that can be used to enhance the application process, but they emphasize the importance of authenticity and personal reflection in the essays. They caution against relying too heavily on ChatGPT and stress the need for applicants to take ownership of their ideas and experiences. The admissions directors also discuss the potential benefits and limitations of using ChatGPT and suggest ways in which it can be used effectively as a tool. Overall, they encourage applicants to use ChatGPT thoughtfully and responsibly, while still putting in the necessary effort to create thoughtful and authentic applications

Show Notes

ChatGPT roared into our consciousness at the very end of last year, and I had the opportunity to ask several admissions directors what they thought about applicants using it. That’s what we’re going to discuss today.

Welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [0:46]

Welcome to the 556th episode of Admissions Straight Talk, thanks for tuning in. Before I turn to the subject of today’s show, I have a question for you. Are you ready to apply to your dream MBA programs? Are you competitive at your target schools? Accepted’s [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba-quiz]MBA admissions quiz[/url] can give you a quick reality check. Complete the quiz and you’ll not only get an assessment, but tips on how to improve your qualifications.

[url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/free-admissions-consultation][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/general-free-consultation-button.png[/img][/url]

Now, if you are a regular listener, you know that during most episodes of Admissions Straight Talk, I interview a guest, frequently an admissions director or dean. I also have many times asked these guests, “What do you think about applicants using ChatGPT or artificial intelligence when writing their application essays?” Today’s episode is a collection of their answers to that question with a little commentary from me, but mostly it’s admissions directors at top MBA programs, sharing what you need to know – the good, the bad, and the ugly – about using ChatGPT in writing your applications.

In this episode, you’re going to hear from:

[list]
[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#ClareNorton]Clare Norton, Columbia Business School Senior Associate Dean for Enrollment Management[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#ShariHubert]Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#BlairMannix]Blair Mannix, Executive Director of Graduate Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#EricAskins]Eric Askins, Executive Director of Full-Time MB admissions at UC Berkeley Haas[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#RobertSalomon]Dean Robert Salomon, the inaugural Dean at Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi.[/url][/*]
[/list]

I’ve asked this question of almost every admission director I’ve spoken to, so these responses represent a sample. And there is some difference, there’s more differences on this one than on some other questions, but in any case, I think you’ll see that there’s cautious acceptance of ChatGPT, with several caveats and warnings for applicants.

Clare Norton, Columbia Business School’s Senior Associate Dean for Enrollment Management. [2:43]

[CN] I think ChatGPT is a tool, and there are many, many tools that we have now that we did not once have. At some point in time we thought to ourselves, “If people use a calculator, will they understand math?” Yes, they do still understand math, and in fact, probably, probably higher level math than they understood before that was utilized broadly. And I suspect ChatGPT will be quite similar. We’ve made it very clear to students in our application process that it’s a tool that can be utilized, but generative AI is not something that can write the whole answer. It’s the kind of thing that could do some editing for you or provide you with some ideas to make sure that you’ve touched upon, but that the work must be your own. So from that perspective, I think we’re quite clear.

But also I think, actually back to what we were just talking about, the best applications are reflective, truly, of the individual.

And our essay questions in particular. We are really asking you to say, “For you personally, what is it about this that is going to connect, assist you, help your growth, engage you in new ways?” And generative AI is not capable of saying that in a way that is authentic.

So that’s really what we’ll be looking for. And so I think, again, it’s nice to have something, maybe check your grammar, right?

It’s there for those kinds of things, right? But it’s never going to give an answer that can tie together across the application.

I have a daughter who loves to bake. Packaged cookies just don’t taste as good as her fresh made cookies out of the oven or bread or whatever it is that she likes to bake. [4:29]

[CN] Yeah. There’s a little bit of her in that recipe that just can’t be replicated.

Same for this. So yeah, I think it’ll actually be exciting to see what it does. And we as a school are obviously, as I mentioned earlier, thinking about what kind of training do our students need and how do we engage with it as a tool and make sure that they know how to engage with it as a tool and think about what kind of management is required and what data is missing from the data sets that these kinds of tools are drawing upon? So there are lots of great and important questions for us to engage inin the classroom, so we’re certainly not shying away from it. It’s something we think is important. But I think it won’t be problematic from an admissions perspective, given again, the fact that A, we’re letting people know what our honor code is and how we expect them to utilize it, and that we also really are looking for personal insights in our essays

Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. [5:36]

[SH] First of all, let me just say I can only speak to our policy within admissions as it may vary across the university and then the Fuqua School in terms of classroom use. It’s really going to be up to the faculty to decide that. But within admissions, allowing the use of AI in their application, and we have decided to allow it. It felt like the way to be the most inclusive while still requiring that applicants authentically represent themselves. We see a difference between plagiarism and the use of AI, in that plagiarism is explicitly using material created by someone else. While we expect that the use of AI, at least in terms of how they might use it to answer our essay questions which are unique to Fuqua, the use of AI, it has to begin anyway with this level of personal reflection. I mean, to answer our essay questions, you need some level of personal reflection. You need your own kind of content and your own lived experiences to inform it.

But we know that AI could be useful in terms of helping people organize their thoughts or represent them better, differently, through the use of AI tools. We see, similar to how people use Grammarly, or they may have friends who are English majors and they ask them to review their essays, or they may use admissions consultants to say, “Hey, take a look,” provide some coaching and guidance around their essays. So again, we view this as a tool that enhances the process, but should not and does not replace the requirement for authenticity, and the use of your own material.

And so in our minds, and I like to say, “AI at Fuqua stands for authentic individuality.”

And we’re going to assume positive intent and that applicants are ethical and they’re good agents in this process. And so we do require that your application be a true and accurate reflection and representation of your lived experience and exclusively your own. And then we do, like you said, use plagiarism tools. So for us, all essays are scanned using plagiarism detection software, but again, we see a difference between plagiarism and the use of AI tools. So we have a long kind of disclaimer about how expressing your ideas by using verbiage that’s not sourced right, is improperly credited, is a violation of our honor code, and it is grounds for denying application.

Blair Mannix, Executive Director of Graduate Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. [8:03]

[BM] Faculty have done great work on the use of ChatGPT in passing Wharton exams. There’s a couple of fun articles about that too. But this is where the office of MBA’s admission stands, this is where I stand. My view, personally, is being fearful of ChatGPT and what it means for society is like being scared of email. It’s coming, it’s here, it’s an efficiency tool. People will be using it. I don’t believe it’s the right move to gatekeep using an efficiency tool, especially if we expound, if we say that we’re cutting edge business leaders. Cutting edge business leaders outside of our walls should be using ChatGPT to speed up their work. Now ChatGPT, as we all know, has limitations. There’s studies in law schools that they put fake legal precedents on some of the answers they do.

You have to check it. But I think it’s only going to get better and so I think it’s an efficiency tool. Behind the scenes we use it for our own work, faculty at Wharton use it for their own work. I think people should use it going forward. And so I have no reason to or no plans to put a disclaimer on our application saying, “Please don’t use ChatGPT,” because we all know it’s not good. You’re going to have to work with it. And I think that’s okay.

Eric Askins, executive director of full-time MBA admissions at UC Berkeley Haas. [9:26]

[EA] I think I’ve gone on the journey that a lot of my peers have gone on. And the first piece of this journey was, well, I hope our fraud software can catch it. And I think a lot of the world has gone on this journey with us where you stop and then you say, “Well, this is a tool. This is a tool like the calculator is a tool.” That’s probably the common thread I’ve heard. I’ve already had typing in an email and I’m getting suggested next three sentences. This is where we are. The tool exists.

Now I am still going to suggest that there’s no tool that’s going to tell me your career goals. Now, that tool might help you articulate those career goals a little bit better, but those goals still have to be yours. There’s no tool that’s going to tell me the moment that made you feel alive or why it gave meaning to you. It may be that that tool helps you frame your thoughts, put those pieces together in a way that’s cohesive. If English is not your first language, and you’re trying to organize your thoughts in a way that would give you the tools to succeed, it could very well be that this is a really useful tool to organize. But those core thoughts have to be yours. I think that’s key here, and I don’t think that we’re going to move on that concept. But those core thoughts and ideas have to be yours.

And then if you are going to use the tool, I hope that you use it well. I hope maybe the thing you’re demonstrating to me is your expertise in the use of the tool, because I will, and we have seen already, poorly framed and poorly worded things that don’t really seem to capture the individual.

This is probably the first year that we’re starting to see that.

That makes sense that this is the first year you’re seeing it. I’ve played with it a little bit. And I’ve said this before on the podcast, if you use it blindly, you’re going to produce drivel that’s very generic and not very meaningful. If you use it either to edit your work, perhaps to generate some ideas or to help you structure an essay, but the ideas are your own, perhaps it has value, but you’re still going to spend a significant amount of time on it. [11:08]

[EA] I’m one of those folks that believes the magic happens in the editing. I know other people think it happens in the writing, the idea generation. I think it’s the moment where you come back and say, “Oh, well, now I see how those pieces should fit together.” And so with that in mind, I understand that the tool may be used.

We have a statement at the bottom of our application. We haven’t changed it. We’ve had it for a while. It says, “The work product seen here is mine and mine alone.” I think folks should be able to answer that honestly.

The work product here is mine and mine alone. Now if that means that they used the tool to take their ideas and put it on paper, and then they reorganized it to reflect the story that they wanted to tell, and they feel that that is theirs, they were the producer of the ideas. They were the producer of the finished product. They used an intermediary tool the same way you might use a spellchecker or a grammar checker. I’m going to have to just accept that that’s the world that we’re in today. I don’t think there’s any magical tool that solves that one yet. Generative AI is probably the best tool to catch generative AI.

But I am going to focus on the content. And as long as the content’s strong, I think that that’s going to be in the candidate’s best interest.

Dean Robert Salomon, the inaugural Dean of Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi. [12:49]

[RS] As a teacher, it bothers me a little bit that students might rely on ChatGPT and not hand in their own original work, that they use it as a crutch, especially those people who use it when they’re short for time, they’re being a little lazy. They were like, “Oh, well, I’ll just have this program do it.” So that bothers me a little bit. But I think now the onus, again, as an educator, the onus then is on us to create assignments that maybe leverage the benefits of ChatGPT and bring it as a tool to help enhance learning.

So we’re all still trying to figure it out together. In the meantime though, we can’t have students just using it to copy and paste to their assignments. And we have a policy against that. On the applicant side, we do have a policy. One of the things that we ask our students is to verify that they have not received any outside support in preparing their essays in their application and that students who are found to have gamed the system and to have used outside to support, we can revoke their admissions.

So we do have those policies, but again, the onus is on us to create prompts that make it difficult to use things like ChatGPT. On the admission side, we want to know who the students are and we don’t want to know what ChatGPT thinks. We want to know what you think. And in the classroom, we want you to learn. We want you to push yourself. We want you to enhance your capabilities. And you can only do that if you really are putting in the effort and not relying on an outside tool to do it for you.

Right. I think there’s also a difference between using an outside tool and relying on an outside tool. [14:42]

[RS] Right. Yeah, I don’t mind them using outside tools. And I’ve been designing a little bit assignments that leverage ChatGPT in a way to help students learn.

Would you be willing to share an example? [15:05]

[RS] Yeah. One example could be you actually put the prompt in ChatGPT that you want students to answer and then you ask them to critique the response from ChatGPT.

What did ChatGPT get right, what did ChatGPT get wrong, and why? Another thing that I do in my classes is I have students work together in class and I go from group to group, we have discussions in small groups. And they have to think on their feet. So they’re not prompts. The discussions that we have are not prompts that ChatGPT would know how to answer. So those are the ways that I approach it. But yeah, I mean, you’re exactly right. We want students to use it as a tool. We don’t want students to rely on it to do their work for them.

The consensus is…[15:54]

If students can use ChatGPT, so can profs and the administration. After all, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. To summarize, most of the MBA admissions committee members viewed ChatGPT as a tool, Some with more trepidation than others. But in any case, like all tools, it can be used well, and it can be used very poorly. Relying on it blindly is a recipe for generic, vapid, empty, boring essays, probably a rejection. Providing ChatGPT with a lot of input and specifics coming from you can help. However, it may take as long as you just sitting down and writing your essays.

If you choose to use ChatGPT, first, really think about what you want the schools to know about you. ChatGPT can’t discern what you’re most proud of. It can’t know, unless you tell it with a fair amount of detail, when you assumed leadership responsibility or what are the life challenges that you have overcome? It can’t say, without you giving it lots of information, where you excelled or when you handled an interpersonal challenge with finesse. Recognize its limitations and first put in the necessary thought so that you can have an application that is thoughtful, authentic, and effective.

If you’d like help in presenting the best of the authentic you, please [url=http://acceptance.com/mba/services]contact Accepted[/url] for guidance of presenting your best self and polishing that gem of an application. Discover how Accepted’s experts can help you and take advantage of an initial free consultation.

[url=https://www.accepted.com/hubfs/Podcast_audio_files/Podcast/556_AI-Essays-Compilation_2023.mp3][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AST-Listen-Now-Button-1024x256.png[/img][/url]

[b]Related Resources:[/b]

[list]
[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-an-mba-at-columbia-business-school-episode-528/]How to Get an MBA at Columbia Business School[/url], podcast Episode 528[/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/duke-fuqua-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/#podcast]How to get into Duke Fuqua[/url], podcast Episode 536[/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/wharton-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/#podcast]What’s New at Penn’s The Wharton School. And How to Get In[/url], podcast Episode 545[/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/uc-berkeley-haas-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/#podcast]How to Get Accepted to UC Berkeley Haas Full-time MBA Program[/url], podcast Episode 547[/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/stern-at-nyu-abu-dhabi-a-full-time-mba-in-the-middle-east-episode-549/]Stern at NYU Abu Dhabi: A Full-Time MBA in the Middle East[/url], podcast Episode 549[/*]
[/list]

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The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/what-mba-admission-officers-think-of-applicants-using-chatgpt-and-ai-episode-556/]What MBA Admission Officers Think of Applicants Using ChatGPT and AI [Episode 556][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url].

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Michigan Ross MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2023 – 2024]

The Michigan Ross MBA program is thriving. Its graduates get jobs throughout the United States and around the world.

Here are a few key stats, drawn from the school’s 2023 Employment Report:

Of the school’s 2023 grads, 96% had at least one job offer within three months of graduation.

Forty-five percent of the Class of 2023 received offers from McKinsey & Company, Bain, and BCG. Deloitte and Amazon are also among the program’s top hiring companies.

On-campus recruiting facilitated 87% of offers.

As for the school’s incoming students in 2023, the latest Michigan Ross class profile offers the following data:

The average GMAT score was 719.

The average GPA was 3.43.

The average GRE
160 verbal
160 quantitative
4.5 writing

Acceptances rate was 28.1%

There’s opportunity in these numbers. The Michigan Ross MBA program is a fantastic option that is slightly easier to get into than other top programs, particularly if you want to join an MBB consulting firm!

Ready to get to work on your Michigan Ross application? Read on.

Michigan Ross application essay tips

Michigan Ross application deadlines

Michigan Ross class profile

Michigan Ross application essay tips

Ross likes its application essays short, sweet, and to the point. The bad news about this is that you don’t get much real estate in which to tell your story; the good news is that you can quickly crunch out two 100-word (or shorter) essays and one 150-word career goals essay in one night.

The school’s “short-answer questions” allow you to paint a unique, multidimensional picture of yourself and provide the Ross admissions committee with insight into “your values and what you would add to the Michigan Ross community.” Keep that goal in mind as you craft your submissions. Use your responses to provide context for events described elsewhere in your application, offer your perspective on your values, and convey your ability to contribute at Ross and beyond.

Remember, your application allows the admissions committee to meet and get to know you.

Michigan Ross Short-Answer Question 1

Select one prompt from each group of the two groups below. Respond to each selected prompt in 100 words or less (<100 words each; 200 words total).

For the Ross short answers, you must start by asking yourself which prompt speaks to you most.

Select the question in each group that is easiest for you to answer and allows you to present events and experiences that complement not only each other but also the information provided in other parts of your application. You want to minimize repetition and overlap.

Ross doesn’t label the groups thematically. Group 1 appears to be an opportunity for you to talk about something you’re proud of – your identity or a contribution you’ve made. Group 2 relates to handling a challenging experience or situation, and to your resilience.

Again, choose the individual questions that allow you to present yourself best and “stand out,” as Ross instructs at the top of its application requirements page. Both groups of prompts demand a behavioral response, in which you discuss one experience or situation and reflect on it. You don’t have room to address any more.

As you choose which questions to answer, consider what you want Ross to know about you. The prompt indicates what they want to know. Now, respond by telling the admissions committee what you want them to know.

Group 1:

I want people to know that I:

I made a difference when I:

I was aware that I was different when I:

Group 2:

I was out of my comfort zone when:

I was humbled when:

I was challenged when:

Given the 100-word limit for each response to these behavioral questions, you need to describe the incident or situation and succinctly analyze it within the context of the prompt. For example, why do you “want them to know” about X (Group 1, bullet 1) or the reason you were humbled or out of your comfort zone (Group 2, bullets 1-2)?

Michigan Ross Short-Answer Question 2

Career goal: What is your short-term goal, and why is it the right goal for you? (150 words)

The reasons for your short-term goal could include the following:

How the distinctive elements of your background shaped your goal

What you hope to accomplish in that position or how it will prepare you for a longer-term goal

What aspects of the role appeal to you and times you have enjoyed similar work

The values you will realize in that role

An achievement or challenge you faced and how it influenced your goals (Share the story of that experience and how it affected your short-term MBA goals.)

Those are just a few ideas. Although this is Ross’s most extensive essay, it’s still only 150 words. Make every word count.

Michigan Ross Optional Statement

Is there something in your resume or application that could use some explanation? It would be best to discuss completing supplemental coursework, employment gaps, academic issues, why you used your former supervisor for your recommendation rather than a current supervisor, etc. This is not an opportunity to take an essay you wrote for another school and plop it here. It provides context for extenuating circumstances. Feel free to use bullet points where appropriate.

Ross doesn’t provide a word limit for this essay, but you should keep your response short.

For expert guidance with your Michigan Ross MBA application, check out Accepted’s MBA Application Packages, which include comprehensive guidance from an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to top MBA programs and look forward to helping you, too!

Michigan Ross application deadlines

Application Deadline*Decisions ReleasedRound 1September 14, 2023December 8, 2023Round 2January 11, 2024March 15, 2024Round 3April 4, 2024May 3, 2024

Source: Michigan Ross website

***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with Michigan Ross directly to verify its essay questions, instructions, and deadlines.***

*All applications are due by 11:59 pm ET on the date listed. International students can apply in any round but are encouraged to apply in Round 1 or 2 to allow sufficient time for visa processing.

Michigan Ross class profile

Here is a look at the Michigan Ross MBA Class of 2025 (data taken from the Michigan Ross website).

Class size: 379

Female: 43%

LBGTQIA2S+: 10%

International: 43%

Countries represented: 39

Military: 8%

First-generation college: 17%

Pursuing a dual degree: 12%

Students of color (U.S. citizens and permanent residents): 43%

Underrepresented students of color (U.S. citizens and permanent residents): 19%

Race and ethnicity (U.S. citizens and permanent residents):

American Indian or Alaska Native
Federal guidelines: 0 (0%)
Multidimensional reporting: 1 (0%)

Asian American
Federal guidelines: 52 (24%)
Multidimensional reporting: 59 (27%)

Black or African American
Federal guidelines: 12 (6%)
Multidimensional reporting: 14 (6%)

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
Federal guidelines: 0 (0%)
Multidimensional reporting: 0 (0%)

Hispanic or Latinx
Federal guidelines: 16 (7%)
Multidimensional reporting: 16 (7%)

White
Federal guidelines: 117 (54%)
Multidimensional reporting: 128 (59%)

Not Indicated
Federal guidelines: 6 (3%)
Multidimensional reporting: 6 (3%)

Two or More Races
Federal guidelines: 13 (6%)
Multidimensional reporting: n/a

Average GPA: 3.43

Average GMAT score: 719

Middle 80% GMAT score: 670-760

Average GRE Verbal score: 160

Average GRE Quant score: 162

Average years of work experience: 5.8

Industry backgrounds:

Consulting: 18%

Finance: 17%

Tech: 16%

Health: 12%

Engineering/Manufacturing: 10%

Other: 8%

Military: 6%

Education/Nonprofit/Government: 6%

Media/Hospitality/Sports 4%

Energy/Sustainability 3%

Is Ross at the top of your wish list?

Get the competitive edge with Ross-specific advice and inside information:

Applying for Your MBA Through The Consortium: Best Deal in Town

What Prospective MBAs Should Know About Applying to Michigan Ross, podcast Episode 365

Short and Sweet: Tips for Writing “Mini” MBA Essays

Nine Tips for Team Interviews

GMAT, GPA, and MBA Acceptance Rates: The Selectivity Index

Applying for Your MBA Through The Consortium: Best Deal in Town

University of Michigan’s Ross MBA Program: Everything You Need to Know, podcast Episode 479

The post Michigan Ross MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2023 – 2024] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Advice for Applicants: Moving from 2023 to 2024 [Episode 557]

Show Summary

In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, host Linda Abraham looks back at her predictions for the 2023/2024 application cycle and offers advice for current and future applicants. She reflects on her previous predictions, such as the increase in test options and waivers and the continued use of rankings in admissions. She also makes new predictions for the upcoming year, including the increased use of video in applications and the continuation of questions about lived experiences and contributions to inclusive environments. Linda advises current applicants to pursue parallel tracks, prepare for interviews, and address weaknesses while also considering reapplication strategies. For future applicants, she emphasizes the importance of clarifying goals, researching programs, and preparing for tests. She encourages all applicants to start early and seek expert guidance to maximize their chances of acceptance.

Show Notes

What’s coming down the pike in 2024 for applicants? How right or wrong was Linda Abraham with her predictions for the 2023/2024 cycle? What should applicants be doing now? We’re diving into all that in this episode of Admissions Straight Talk.

The academic world is at an inflection point [0:49]

It’s the second week of January, and the academic world is at an inflection point. It’s not just the new year. Yes, 2024 just started. It’s that the 2023-2024 application cycle is starting to wind down. As decisions come out, some people are admitted and some people are rejected, but it’s also that a new crop of applicants is emerging for the 2024-2025 cycle. That cycle is starting to come into focus.

At this inflection point, I’d like to examine some of my predictions for the 2023-2024 application cycle. I’m going to brave it again, and I’m going to make some additional predictions for the 2024-2025 application cycle, and finish the episode with suggestions and advice for current as well as new applicants.

Now, if you feel that you are at a crossroads with your educational and professional journey and aren’t quite sure which is the correct path for you to pursue, take advantage of Accepted’s free consultation offer. You can have a free 30-minute call with one of Accepted’s experienced admissions consultants. Just go to Accepted.com and click on Get Your Free Consultation in the upper right to have your free consultation.

Were Linda’s predictions for the 2023-2024 cycle right?

Now, let’s start off today’s show by exploring where I was right and where I was wrong in my predictions for the 2023-2024 application cycle.

Prediction: More withdrawals from rankings [2:07]

One of the things I predicted was more withdrawals from the rankings, which started in fall 2022. Med schools joined the ranking withdrawals, which I did not predict, and I didn’t make any predictions about MBA programs, but I did say that US News will use publicly available data and continue to rank programs. That is exactly what has happened. Those rankings sell lots of magazines and online subscriptions. Rankings are not going to go away as long as they produce sales. That part of my prediction was 100% correct, and they won’t go away as long as applicants, alumni, and recruiters continue to buy them, use them, and cite them constantly.

Prediction: More experimentation with test options and waivers [2:57]

I anticipated more experimentation with test options and waivers. In that, I was 100% right. I predicted more test options and waivers, except for medical schools, and indeed, that’s exactly what’s happened. Many, if not most, law schools now accept the GRE. Some accept other tests also. Most MBA programs accept the GMAT or GRE, and many also accept the executive assessment, and there was a switch over from the traditional GRE and GMAT to new versions of it, which are shorter. As I predicted, there has been very little change in connection with the MCAT and medical school.

In addition to the new GRE and the new GMAT, the GMAT focus, which are both shorter than the old versions, there’s also something new coming down the pike called the JD-Next option, which will be accepted by 25% of law schools according to an article that I saw on law.com. JDNext is a course in reading and analytics that is supposed to provide the skills you need in law school. At the end of the course, you take a test, which law schools will increasingly accept in place of the LSAT or GRE. According to the test administrators, there are no score disparities in performance between over and underrepresented groups in law school with this exam. Again, I predicted more experimentation. This is one more example of more experimentation in the testing arena for graduate school.

Prediction: Application volume will increase [4:18]

One other prediction I made where I was wrong is I anticipated that application volume will increase the cycle, and that didn’t happen. I was wrong. I anticipated a recession in 2023, which would lead to increased application volume, and I therefore encouraged applicants to apply early in the 2023/’24 cycle to try and beat the rush that I anticipated. The recession didn’t happen, and there, according to the data we have so far, was no spike in application volume, and probably the contrary, either it was flat or declined. So I was wrong in application volume, right on experimentation in the testing arena and changes in testing, and partially right on withdrawal from rankings.

Linda’s predictions for the 2024-2025 cycle

I’m still going to go out on a limb and give you my predictions for the upcoming year. I’ll modify some of them. I’ll try and be a little bit more humble about economics. But what do I see for the upcoming year?

Prediction: More use of video in applications [5:00]

I think there’s going to be more and more use of video in applications in the upcoming year. I think that’s partially a reaction to the presence of Chat GPT and AI, the easy access to it, and the fact that applicants are using it more and more. I also think that videos give schools an opportunity to assess an applicant’s poise and presence very inexpensively. Much less expensive than with an interview, and that’s less expensive for both the applicant and the school.

I also think that applicants today, this generation, is much more comfortable with video as a medium of expression than applicants, let’s say, 10 or 15 years ago. So all those factors are leading to increased use of video in graduate school applications.

Prediction: Application volumes will not increase if employment remains high [6:01]

Application volume is where I was off last year. Here’s what I’m going to say: it depends on employment numbers. If employment remains high and unemployment low, application volume will not increase. It may even decline further. If unemployment goes up, so will application volume. While application volume is low, new applicants have a better opportunity to get into more prestigious programs and also to snag valuable scholarships. If application volume increases, so does competition, and your chances of acceptance and scholarships go down, particularly if you’re talking about more prestigious and competitive programs. Regardless, this is a good time to be applying, both at the end of this cycle and, in particular, even more so at the beginning of the next cycle. Will it change next year? Will the application volume go up? Again, I’m going to let the economists predict the economy. I’ll just say that you are better off starting early, which is what I’m going to get to in a minute, and applying early next cycle so that if the economy does tank, you will beat the crowds trying to escape a bad job market.

Prediction: More questions about lived experiences [7:07]

What do I anticipate in terms of changes to essays, which is probably the more time-consuming part of the application process once you get the test behind you, if you have to take the test? More schools, even this year, are going to be asking about lived experiences and applicant contributions to inclusive environments. The Supreme Court decision ending race-conscious admissions was rendered on June 29th, 2023, and many programs added questions to this cycle’s application, either in anticipation of that decision or in response to that decision, and the idea of these additional questions was that they will allow schools to continue to ensure diverse classes while abiding by the Supreme Court decision. They didn’t want to get sued.

I anticipate that this trend towards questions about lived experiences, focus on resilience, and contribution to inclusive environments will continue. I would encourage applicants to make sure that they have experiences that show they are dedicated to inclusive environments. That’s going to be critical for more and more arenas. It’s already been the case for many years in medicine. I think it will be more and more so in law school, business, and almost all graduate fields.

What should applicants applying this year be doing now? [8:20]

Okay, now, let’s get to applicants for this year’s cycle. What should you be doing? It’s January. You’re not planning to apply until June if you’re talking about medical school or until September or later if you’re talking about business school, law school, and other kinds of graduate schools. Well, let’s look at three different groups in the applicant pool for next cycle, or even for this cycle because we’re going to be looking at both groups, right?

Well, if you’re already accepted to the graduate school of your dreams, congratulations, best wishes for your future success. I’m probably going to be losing you as a listener, but I do wish you well.

Pursue parallel tracks [8:56]

What if you haven’t heard back yet, or you got accepted somewhere but not the school you really want? Then I would encourage you to pursue parallel tracks. Do whatever you can do to get in this cycle. That would include preparing for your interview, and you might want to consider professional interview prep because you don’t want to make mistakes that an interview coach, such as Accepted’s consultants could coach you through, before the real thing. Basically, have a dress rehearsal. You want to be using this time to address weaknesses.

Let’s say you’re a pre-med, and you realize that your clinical experience was a little bit on the short side. I hope you’ve been beefing that up so that if you’re invited to interview you can talk about the meaningful clinical exposure that you recently had in the last six months. The same could be true of community service, or it could be true of some classes that you’ve taken and done really well in, especially if you need to do a little bit of GPA repair.

In terms of other applicants, well, we’re going to get to what kind of experience is valuable, but it could be experience related to your goals, your post-degree goals. It could be something that you will enjoy and that will make you a more interesting applicant now, Or it could be something like community service that will show the schools you are going to contribute to your community while on campus and also after, and thereby add to the school’s reputation. That goes under addressing weaknesses.

Send in relevant updates [10:22]

Another thing you can do to enhance your chances of acceptance this cycle is if schools are open to updates, send in relevant substantive updates. I am not talking about telling them what they already know and what you’ve already told them. I’m talking about something new that can add to their insight into you and add to your chances of acceptance.

With that in mind, again, if the schools are open to updates and if you have something to say to them, don’t waste their time. That’s track one. Do everything you can do to get in this cycle.

Track two, parallel tracks, right? Prepare for possible reapplication. I know that’s not what you want to hear, it’s disappointing, but you will be much better situated to apply again if you prepare for the possibility ahead of time. Again, starting early. Okay?

Prepare for possible reapplication [11:15]

When I talk about preparing for possible reapplication, the number one thing to do is to assess, analyze, and address weaknesses. Basically, try and eliminate them. Again, that will help in terms of this year’s application if you’re wait-listed, and it will help in terms of next year’s application if you’re rejected and you need to reapply. Evaluate your application for weaknesses. That could be a weakness in school alignment. In other words, you didn’t apply to the right programs. Maybe you stretched too high. It could be in terms of the presentation of your qualifications in your application. It could be in terms of your straight-out competitiveness. However alignment was more in terms of school mission. Competitiveness is more in terms of stats and just whether you are competitive at a particular program.

I’m going to get more into a possible reapplication in a couple of minutes in this podcast and give you a few hints, but I did a whole podcast you can find here.

What about applicants who know they’ve been rejected this cycle? [12:19]

What if you already know you’re rejected at all the programs for this cycle? Obviously, the first track of my parallel tracks is fairly irrelevant. If you want to pursue the goal that motivated your application in this cycle, you need to assess what went wrong and what you will change in a reapplication effort. You may need to improve your qualifications, you may need to change something about your application strategy, such as applying earlier or to more programs, or you may need to change the programs you’re applying to so that you’re applying to programs where you are competitive. If you apply to programs where you’re not competitive, you either need to improve those qualifications or apply to different programs.

Okay, a suggestion in terms of how to proceed, and I already hinted at this. Accepted does have a service called Rejection Review, where we thoroughly go through your application and provide you feedback, but you can also just sign up for that free consultation. It will not include a review of your application, but you can at least talk to a consultant and get some feedback.

Now, you’ve spent a lot of money on this failed application effort. There was a test you took, if you were required to take a test, there were also the application fees, and obviously, the time you invested in the application effort. Unless you are absolutely positive about where you went wrong, it pays to consult with expert professionals before you spend a lot more money repeating errors you made on the previous application.

Let’s say you decide it was my test score, I’m going to retake the MCAT, GMAT, GRE, or whatever, or you didn’t take it previously, and now you think you’re going to take it. Well, that’s great. That’s probably a good move. But what if you made mistakes in presenting the other parts of your background? You’re much better off knowing about it now than getting rejected again. Whatever you do, don’t plan to do exactly what you did last time. Repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity. Please, please, please don’t do that.

What should first-time applicants be doing?

Let’s focus on those of you aiming to apply in 2024 who did not apply in 2023. In other words, you’re a first-time applicant, or you applied a few years ago. Here is what you should be doing now. Again, I don’t recommend waiting.

Clarify goals and direction [14:42]

Number one, clarify your goals and direction. Again, if you’re applying to medical school, you don’t need to know whether you want to go into optometry or cardiology or dermatology or whatever, and nobody expects you to know what residency you want to go into. You might want to have some indication of whether you want to go into a specialty or primary care or research-oriented program or not, something like that. That kind of direction is good, but you don’t have to have a specific residency.

In contrast, if you’re applying to MBA programs, you really should know what function you want after your degree program and the industry in which you want to provide it, and sometimes geography can play a role in that. That’s really important. In terms of law school, I think it’s important to know how you intend to use your JD degree. Not just that it’s a foundation for something, but that you want to use it either in business in a particular way or you want to use it to practice law. You can figure out, again, what specialty you want to go into later on, but perhaps knowing if you want to do transactional law, international law, domestic, some direction within the law based on experience or study would be a good idea to have. It doesn’t have to be cast in concrete. Nobody expects that. But goals and direction are great, and now is the time to do the research necessary, both in terms of informational interviews, online research, reading, whatever it is to clarify the direction you want to take and the path you want to pursue.

Once you have that idea of the direction you want, research the programs that will help you achieve your goals and go in that direction so that you apply to the right programs for you and to programs where you are competitive. Again, it makes no sense to apply to programs unless you feel like giving donations in terms of application fees to programs you don’t have a chance of getting into.

Prepare to take the test [16:37]

The other thing I would strongly encourage you to do, if your schools require a test or strongly encourage a test, is prepare for and take the test, and realize that you might have some programs you apply to that require a test and some programs that don’t. Obviously you still have to take the test. So prepare for and take it.

Some of you may also be looking at your record and say, “My GPA dipped here, or I didn’t start off so strong, or maybe I had a bad semester or I didn’t do so well in some prerequisites.” Those things happen. It’s not uncommon. But don’t ignore it. Again, address it. The best way to address it is by showing that, today, now, you can perform in those classes where you did poorly previously. If you had a couple of bad grades in your freshman year and otherwise did great, I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about. But the more recent the grade problems occurred, more recently that they occurred, especially if they occurred in your junior and senior years, in upper division classes that are directly relevant to the graduate study you want to pursue, the more disconcerting they are, the more problematic they are, and the more I would encourage you to take some classes that show that today you can do well and you can apply yourself in a demanding academic environment. Pre-meds, pre-health care, you frequently have post-bac programs that are a little bit less common in other fields. They are excellent ways to do that GPA repair or to enhance your academics if necessary.

Get relevant experience [18:10]

I mentioned earlier in the podcast that graduate programs also look at your experience. Do you have experience that’s relevant to the course you want to pursue? Otherwise, how do you know that’s what you want to do? It’s a very relevant question, and relevant experience – I’m overusing the word a bit something that you want to have. So what does that mean? Well, for MBA applicants, it means full-time experience that you can somehow connect to what you want to do post-MBA. For law students, it could be research and writing as an undergraduate. It could be internships over the summer. It could be working in a legal office at some point, perhaps after you graduate. But something that tells the law school you know what you’re getting into and your decision is sound, logical, rational kind of thing, and not just I-want–to-extend-college. For pre-meds, again, clinical exposure is almost mandatory. That’s just the way it is. Don’t plan on getting into medical school without having clinical exposure.

For many fields, also, schools are increasingly looking for community service in your background. It could be on campus, it could be off campus. Many times MBA programs, law programs, and medical school programs are looking for leadership responsibility somewhere in your background. I don’t mean high school, I mean post-high school. Those kinds of experiences are also very much in demand in graduate school, and it practically doesn’t matter what graduate program you’re applying to. I would say probably the more research-oriented programs focus a little less on leadership, but the more professional programs definitely want to see that.

Pursue “irrelevant experience” [19:57]

Then there’s irrelevant experience. The irrelevant experience could be working as a bartender. It could be sports, arts, drama, or performance arts. It could be painting. It could be all kinds of different things. Could be teaching Sunday School for your church or whatever faith-based organization would be relevant. Those activities may not be directly relevant to your goal, though some could show leadership. It could be a combination of community service and leadership, but they make you a more well-rounded and interesting person.

Graduate schools, in general, don’t really want nerds. Again, this is particularly true of the professional programs. The academic programs are a little less fussy in this way. But they still like to see well-rounded people who will make interesting colleagues and members of their community. Don’t be so focused on your professional or academic goals that you neglect that part of your life and your personality.

Start as soon as possible [21:00]

Now, if this sounds like a lot to do before you start filling out applications, guess what? It is! So don’t delay. Your toughest competition consists of applicants who have been preparing to apply for years in some cases, or at least months. They will be the ones who have done the GPA repair or maybe never had to do it. They’ve prepared for the test and taken it. They’ve participated in professional and co-professional activities that will make them an attractive applicant. And yes, they’ve also made time for those kinds of fun activities that just nourish the soul and make an individual into a well-rounded human being.

The best applicants lay the foundation for successful application months and sometimes years in advance of their hitting submit. And frankly, you should too. And yes, you can do the whole application process on your own, but you may just get into better schools and/or snag a scholarship with a lot less work and stress if you access the expertise of one of Accepted’s outstanding consultants. Again, as I said earlier, the initial consultation is free, and then you can choose between comprehensive packages that include advising, editing, interview prep, or just a little bit of advising, editing, or interview prep, whatever you want and whatever works best for you.

Whether you sign up for the free consultation or not, whether you use Accepted services or not, and I can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to, at least get the consultation because that’s free, and do get started today. As soon as you turn off this podcast, do it. Lay out for yourself what you need to do to position yourself to maximize your chances of acceptance.

Related Resources:

Free Consultation with Accepted

Accepted’s Advising Services

Accepted’s Rejected Grad School Application Review Package

Related Shows:

Rejection and Reapplication to Target Schools, podcast Episode 523

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education and What the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision on Affirmative Action Means for Admissions, bonus podcast Episode

What You Need to Know to Ace the GMAT (and the new GMAT Focus!), podcast Episode 534

It’s All About Authenticity and Community in Graduate Admissions, podcast Episode 518

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Retaking the GMAT with a 700 – Should You Consider It?

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Retaking-the-GMAT-–-Should-You-Consider-It-1.png[/img]

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Retaking-the-GMAT-–-Should-You-Consider-It-1.png[/img]

You’ve taken the GMAT test, and you scored a 700. Is that good enough? Should you take it again and try for a higher score? I’ve actually had candidates who wanted to retake the GMAT to see whether they could get their 750 score up to a 780 or higher! Whenever my adcom colleagues and I saw that, we’d roll our eyes and sigh, “An overachiever – he should have spent more time firming up his career goals!” — or “doing research on our school” or “reaching out to students and alumni.” These are the candidates who are often “dinged” because they didn’t do research in other critical areas. Yes, your GMAT score is important, but it is not the only thing that will lead to your admission. And I fear for those overachievers if they take the new GMAT Focus and get only a 650 because the grading scale is different. If they can’t reach 700, will this cause them to have a nervous breakdown or completely give up on going to an MBA program? Let’s hope not. The GMAT is not the be-all or end-all of your future.

In most cases, 700 is a good score. The new GMAT Focus equivalent to a 700 GMAT will be 645-655, in the 89th percentile. But don’t be alarmed at this lower number – it is not comparable to a 650 on the GMAT. The new GMAT Focus is weighed more on the percentages in each section than on the total overall score. You can compare the GMAT and GMAT Focus scores here.

When should you retake the GMAT?

Here are a couple of instances when a higher score might help you — and others when it isn’t necessary.

You are a member of an overrepresented demographic in the MBA pool.

Demographics comprise your ethnicity, nationality, gender, industry, sexual orientation, and job function. Indian engineers and computer scientists with high GMAT scores are overrepresented in the applicant pool, as are white and Asian male investment bankers and management consultants. Therefore, a GMAT score in the lower 80% range and a 3.3 GPA could be a problem for someone in one of these groups if they’re applying to a top-ten school, whereas a female Peruvian corporate finance associate with a 650 GMAT score and 3.0 GPA from a top Peruvian university would be well positioned. If this Peruvian female had a 590 GMAT score and a 2.7 GPA, that might not be the case, because questions would arise about her ability to master the coursework. Part of the research you should be doing before you apply to any school is to understand your demographic profile in relation to the published class profile; look at the numbers to see where you fit realistically.

One way to stand out from others is by having an awe-inspiring GMAT score. But it isn’t the only way! See What Should You Do If You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group? for some tips.

You have a distinctive background or are from a less represented demographic group.

If you happen to be a Latin American brand manager or an African pharmaceutical salesperson – that is, if your demographic has very little representation in the business school applicant pool – then there is no reason to retake the exam. As long as you demonstrate proficiency on each section of the GMAT and present a total score of 690 or higher (or 655 or higher on the GMAT Focus) – meaning, your Quantitative and Verbal scores place you at or above the 80th percentile in each section – then your GMAT score really becomes a (nearly) nonissue. Retaking the test would be a waste of time that you could better spend elsewhere on your application.

You are applying to a top-ten MBA program.

Do you need a perfect score on the GMAT to gain acceptance to a top-tier business school? No. But you definitely need your score to be high enough that your application makes the cut for the adcom’s first read.

The top ten programs in the U.S. News & World Report ranking all report GMAT averages over 720 for the Class of 2024. Although several schools experienced a sharp drop in average GMAT scores for the Class of 2022, that development has largely reversed itself now. Currently, at most schools, the scores are more in line with – or above – pre-pandemic scores. This represents a return to the rising average GMAT score trend that we had seen for roughly twenty years. It might also reflect the fact that some schools waived the test requirement or gave applicants the option to request test waivers.

Some GMAT scores will be highly competitive at some programs and not even close to competitive at others. Do your research on your target schools to learn what their GMAT ranges are. Don’t just look at the average; the range will give you a better idea of how low the adcom will go before weeding out an application based on GMAT score alone.

The highest average score (737) is at Stanford (no surprise there), followed by Wharton (733) and NYU Stern (733; that is a surprise). To see where you fall, consult our Selectivity Index.

Your GPA is low and/or you have very little quant background.

If your GMAT Quant score is high, and you had solid grades in quant courses in college, that’s a plus. MBA adcoms need proof that you can handle the quantitative coursework. The adcom has to answer to the dean and faculty for the quality of the class, and they do not take that responsibility lightly. They want all their admitted students to do well, find a job, and graduate with their class. However, if your Quant score is low (below 75%), that will affect your overall score. Low Quant scores on both the GMAT and your transcript are a worst-case situation. You are not likely to be admitted to a solid MBA program with that pairing.

On the adcom, we’ve seen very messy, sad transcripts and been told by candidates in their optional essay that they were just too involved in extracurricular activities, which is why their grades suffered. Or we’re told that their first year was a turbulent period because it was their first time away from home and living independently – and so on, and so on. Whatever excuse you come up with for low grades, the adcom has heard it before. Unfortunately, your grades are what they are – you can’t change them. To show the adcom that you are a worthy candidate, you must prepare intensively for the GMAT and get a decent score; this will prove that you have the ability to do the work required in the program. Another good idea is to sign up at a local community college or online for calculus, statistics, economics, accounting, or other quant classes that you have either never taken before or did poorly in. This will show that you are aware of your shortcomings and are working to improve.

Your GPA is strong, but your GMAT score is low.

Having a decent GPA but a very low GMAT score is more common that you would think. Please – don’t just write in the optional essay, “My GMAT score is not a true measure of my ability” or “I have never been good at taking standardized tests” or “I was ill during the test, so I didn’t do well.” By writing this, you are acknowledging that your score is below the school’s average, but you just don’t have the time or inclination to try to improve it. If you want to be accepted, you’d best get busy studying for the GMAT and take it again. Adcoms don’t like whiners or quitters. You won’t get accepted just because you’re charming and really want to go to this school. You are one of several thousand applicants, and the top schools have the luxury of selecting candidates who demonstrate that they are willing to work hard to succeed.

However, more and more MBA programs have introduced test waivers or have gone entirely test-optional. If you are struggling to earn a good test score, it might make sense for you to focus on test-optional programs. On the other hand, if your GPA is low for your target schools, a high test score is one way to show that you have the intellectual ability to succeed in the MBA program. This is the one instance in which a high GMAT score will help you compensate for lower grades in undergrad.

Other Options

Perhaps you have already taken the GMAT three or four times, with only a slight improvement – or worse, a decrease – in your score. Maybe it is not the right test for you. Over the past ten years, the use of the GRE has grown substantially, and most MBA programs now accept this test. A few schools will also accept the Executive Assessment for the MBA program – but be sure to check whether you need to have a certain number of years of work experience to apply with this test. Some programs require eight to ten years of work experience, whereas others don’t care how long you’ve worked.

You should prepare for and take the test that you feel you will do best on, and most schools do not express any preference for one test over another. And by all means, if you’ve been studying on your own but not making progress on your score, spend the money on a test prep service!

The score you achieve on your MBA admissions exam – whether that’s the GMAT, the GRE, or the Executive Assessment – has traditionally been regarded as a predictor of how you will perform on your first year of MBA coursework. As a result, it, along with your undergraduate academic performance, plays a key role in the MBA admissions process. If your intention is to apply to a top MBA program, you will need to obtain your highest possible score. This is not the type of test for which you can prepare in a few days. In fact, most of my clients spend several months preparing for their chosen exam, and many of them take it more than once.

Your GMAT or GRE score is sometimes also used by prospective employers (consulting firms and investment banks mostly) in the prescreening process for interviews, as well as by several organizations that produce MBA rankings. And don’t forget – for schools that award merit-based scholarships, the GMAT falls under “academic merit.”

If you have a stellar GPA, well-crafted and interesting essays, amazing letters of recommendation, and a resume that shows that you’ve worked hard and served as a leader of impact and consequence, you’re on your way to overcoming a low GMAT score. You’re in a position to prove to the adcom that you’re a fantastic candidate and that the GMAT is just not your thing (though your score still needs to be good enough to get your application looked at).

Dr. Christie St-John has more than 25 years of higher ed and admissions experience, including ten years in admissions at Dartmouth Tuck. She was formerly the director of MBA recruiting and admissions, director of international relations, and an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt University. Having also served on the board of directors of the MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance and the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Management, Christie has a deep knowledge of MBA and other graduate admissions.Want Christie to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

What You Need to Know to Ace the GMAT (and the New GMAT Focus!)

The New, Shorter GMAT Focus: Your Questions Answered, podcast Episode 534

GMAT, GPA, and MBA Acceptance Rates: The Selectivity Index

The post Retaking the GMAT with a 700 – Should You Consider It? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Seven Important Tips for Your HBS Post-Interview Reflection

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Seven-Important-Tips-for-Your-HBS-Post-Interview-Reflection.png[/img]

[url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/free-admissions-consultation][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Seven-Important-Tips-for-Your-HBS-Post-Interview-Reflection.png[/img][/url]

Congratulations! You’ve just completed another step on the road to acceptance to Harvard Business School (HBS) – [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba-interview-prep]your interview[/url]. Now, you have 24 hours to send HBS your Post-Interview Reflection…so let’s get started!

When it comes to this part of the process, there’s really one major thing you need to do – reflect!

[b]How to reflect efficiently and effectively[/b]

As soon as possible after [url=https://reports.accepted.com/perfect-answers-to-mba-interview-questions]your interview[/url], sit down and think about everything that happened during your meeting. Try to complete the first three tips on the following list immediately after your interview.

1. Think about any of your responses that might not have been as clear as you wanted them to be.

Make note of any answers you gave in which you didn’t hit the nail on the head or your logic or story was a little fuzzy. Was the point you were trying to make relevant and important? If not, let it go. If it was, consider how you could clarify the point in your Reflection essay.

2. Analyze any responses you gave that you feel were incomplete.

Jot down any points you would have liked to have made if you’d thought of them during the interview. What should you have included?

3. Take note of the responses you feel you did a great job on.

Take a moment to appreciate the answers you gave that were on point — where your thought process was organized, you were articulate, and you conveyed your response clearly. Give yourself a pat on the back! But then move on – there’s no need to be redundant or circle back to these responses.

4. Choose the elements you want to focus on in your Reflection.

Most of the content of your Reflection should come from what you identified in the first two tips on this list. Focus on the points that relate to what you most want HBS to learn and remember about you.

Because you don’t want your Post-Interview Reflection to be only about clarifications and adding things you forgot to mention in your interview, make sure to also weave in and close with a reference to something in the interview you feel you aced – but do so in a way that is additive or enhances meaning, rather than being redundant.

Also, don’t shy away from reflecting on the interaction itself. Think about what you learned during or from the interview experience. For example, did the interviewer question you on a topic from a perspective you hadn’t considered before? Did you gain insight from being thoughtfully challenged on an answer? Showing that you are always learning and thinking – always open to reevaluating experiences and ideas – can only help your case.

5. In terms of tone, think of your Reflection as a one-on-one conversation with another person, or as HBS advises, “Think of it… as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor after a meeting.”

While the email metaphor connotes dialogue and conversation, it does not imply – or permit – a lack of professionalism. Write your Reflection as you would a business email: you can use the first (“I”) and second (“you”) person in your writing. Keep it cordial, and be sure that it is well written, grammatically correct, and professional.

6. Be succinct.

Don’t repeat any information that was conveyed in your application. The HBS adcom already has that on file and has reviewed it. And don’t repeat what you said in the interview. They’ve heard that information already, too.

7. Be sure to express your thanks for their time and continued consideration.

Your social IQ is on display. They’ve invested time in reviewing and considering your application and in meeting with you. Say, “Thank you.”

[b]Make your Reflection meaningful![/b]

Using the seven tips we just presented will make writing your Post-Interview Reflection a much easier and more meaningful experience. And the result will be a more effective, compelling statement that puts the final, lasting shine on your application.

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/cindy.jpg[/img]

After a successful career in business publishing, Cindy Tokumitsu worked with Accepted for more than 20 years. Although she no longer works directly with applicants, every year her clients were accepted to top MBA, law, and med programs. She is a pioneer in the niche area of EMBA application consulting. Want an admissions expert to help you get accepted? [url=https://www.accepted.com/free-admissions-consultation-all]Click here to get in touch![/url]

[b]Related Resources:[/b]

[list]
[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/harvard-business-school-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/rejected-by-hbs-now-what/]Rejected by HBS – Now What?[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/listen-mba/]Admissions Straight Talk Podcast for MBA Applicants[/url][/*]
[/list]
The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/7-tips-for-writing-harvards-mba-post-interview-reflections/]Seven Important Tips for Your HBS Post-Interview Reflection[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url].

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: Deferred MBA Programs and Other Options for MBA Hopefuls With No Work Experience

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deferred-MBA-Programs-and-Other-Options-for-MBA-Hopefuls-with-No-Work-Experience.png[/img]
[url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/free-admissions-consultation][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Deferred-MBA-Programs-and-Other-Options-for-MBA-Hopefuls-with-No-Work-Experience.png[/img][/url]

For many business degree hopefuls, the MBA remains the gold standard of graduate management education, and not without reason – an MBA can be the start of a new chapter in your life. Professionally, it can help you accelerate your career or make a career pivot. Academically, it can help fill gaps in hard and soft skills. Personally, it can help you discover more about yourself. For these reasons, many cite their MBA experience as being transformative.

An MBA is the goal for many people who aim to pursue a business career. But what about individuals who have the desire to pursue graduate management study and start making their mark in the business world but [url=https://blog.accepted.com/mba-admissions-younger-applicants/]don’t meet the work experience requirement[/url] of most MBA programs? Is gaining acceptance to business school without work experience possible? The short answer is yes, it is! The two most common paths for candidates in this situation are pre-experience master’s programs and deferred MBA program

[url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/free-admissions-consultation][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Schedule-Free-Consultation-Banner-Button.png[/img][/url]

Pre-experience/early career programs

The terms “pre-experience” and “early career” are used interchangeably, but they both refer to programs that cater to recent graduates (“recent” meaning fewer than three years out of undergraduate). While the first offering in this category was the general management MiM (master’s in management) degree, the portfolio of programs now includes masters in finance, innovation and entrepreneurship, and data analytics, to name but a few options you might find at business schools today. Business masters (BMs) in data science, accounting, finance, and health administration are generally the most commonly searched BM programs in the United States.

Applicants in this category are commonly referred to as pre-experience or early career candidates, and this market continues to be popular; according to [url=https://www.gmac.com/-/media/files/gmac/research/geographic-trends/gmat-geographic-trend-report-testing-year-2021.pdf]the GMAT™ Geographic Trend Report: Testing Year 2021[/url], while global GMAT scores are most often sent to MBA programs (63% of them are), the proportion of GMAT score reports sent to business master’s programs has remained steady at 33% between 2017 and 2021. Although pursuing an MiM or similar program doesn’t negate the need for an MBA down the road (indeed, you will find individuals with both an MiM and an MBA), these programs are excellent choices for recent graduates looking to explore their options in the business world.

Candidates who opt to pursue their business studies now, rather than waiting until they’ve earned a few years of work experience, might do so for a few reasons: they might want to specialize early on in a certain area, such as finance or marketing, to enter a specific function; they might want to “convert” their liberal arts or science degree into a business career; or they might come from a business undergraduate degree but want to better understand how theory is applied in the real world so they can hit the ground running in their post-graduate job. Whatever the candidate’s reason, these degrees provide an excellent foundation and help individuals build the skills, knowledge, career support, and network to get a head start in their careers.

Deferred MBA programs

Deferred MBA programs allow students in their final year of study (or just after, if they’re pursuing a master’s without full-time work experience) to secure a seat in the MBA classroom before gaining the generally required work experience. These programs tend to attract highflyers – students with excellent academic credentials and internships, who have demonstrated leadership potential, and who have already started formulating career goals. These candidates understand, and can articulate, how an MBA will help them achieve their goals. These programs are a great option, because they offer security (you don’t have to worry about studying for the GMAT and writing applications while juggling your busy work schedule!) and add some clout to your resume (“Wow, already accepted to an MBA program before you’ve even graduated? Impressive!”). Of course, as with anything, there are pros and cons, so it’s important to determine whether committing yourself to a deferred program makes sense with your career plans. If you decide that a deferred MBA program is the best option for you, bear in mind that they are incredibly competitive.

Here’s some information to help you better understand what deferred MBA programs are all about.

Business schools with deferred MBA programs*

[list]
[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#HBS]Harvard Business School 2+2 Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#NYUStern]New York University (NYU) Stern NYU x NYU/Stern program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#CBS]Columbia Business School (CBS) Deferred Enrollment Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Moelis]Wharton Moelis Advance Access Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Stanford]Stanford Graduate School of Business Deferred Enrollment Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Kellogg]Kellogg Future Leaders Deferred Enrollment Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://ysom]Yale School of Management Silver Scholars Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Booth]Chicago Booth Scholars Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Darden]UVA Darden Future Year Scholars Program [/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#MITSloan]MIT Sloan Early Admission[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Berkeley]Berkeley’s Accelerated Access Program [/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Tepper]Tepper Future Business Leaders Deferred MBA Admissions Program[/url][/*]

[*][url=http://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/feed#Georgetown]Georgetown McDonough MBA Advanced Access Program[/url][/*]
[/list]

[url=https://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/application-process/college-students-2-2/Pages/default.aspx]Harvard Business School 2+2 Program[/url]

Harvard’s 2+2 program is what the name implies – a minimum of two years (four, maximum) of work experience, followed by two years of MBA study. Harvard is looking for “innovative thinkers who have demonstrated leadership and analytical skills and want to develop their knowledge and passion to make a difference in the world.” And this difference doesn’t have to be in a “traditional” business area. In fact, the 2+2 shows some preference for candidates who are pursuing paths “that aren’t as well established”; this could include candidates who plan to work in an operating company, come from a lower socioeconomic background, aim to pursue a technically demanding role, or aspire to entrepreneurism. So, if you’re not focused on joining one of the “big three” strategy consulting firms, don’t let that stop you from applying. You might just be what the 2+2 is looking for.

[url=https://www.stern.nyu.edu/programs-admissions/full-time-mba/academics/nyuxnyu]New York University (NYU) Stern NYU x NYU/Stern program[/url]

Undergraduates from NYU’s College of Arts and Science, Tandon School of Engineering, Global Liberal Studies program, Stern School of Business, and Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development can opt to join the full-time, two-year MBA program at Stern (without needing to take the GMAT or GRE) two to five years after they graduate. Financial support is a big pull with this program – accepted students are granted an Early Advancement Award of $10,000, which covers part of their MBA tuition. These students are also eligible for other Stern scholarships, including the Berkley Early Advancement Fellowship, which covers all fees and tuition for the year in which they matriculate. Accepted students with an interest in technology or in the fashion and luxury industries, and who have relevant post-undergraduate experience, can enroll in the Andre Koo Technology and Entrepreneurship MBA program or the Fashion & Luxury MBA program, rather than the traditional two-year MBA program.

[url=https://academics.business.columbia.edu/mba/admissions/options-deadlines/deferred-enrollment-program]Columbia Business School (CBS) Deferred Enrollment Program[/url]

CBS’s deferred admissions option offers flexibility; admitted students can explore the professional world for two to five years before beginning their MBA studies at a time that works best for them. This is a great opportunity for individuals who are looking to explore their career options and develop a better understanding of their business interests and passions. The flexibility continues once students begin their studies; they can specify in a letter of intent whether they prefer the 16-month (January) program or the 20-month (August) program, the latter of which includes a summer internship. Admitted students are also able to apply for a dual degree program the year that they matriculate. Having spent time in industry or entrepreneurship during the deferment period can help students determine which MBA journey will offer the teaching and experience they need to achieve their desired professional and academic development.

[url=https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/deferred-admissions/moelis-advance-access-program/]Wharton Moelis Advance Access Program[/url]

Wharton’s deferred admissions program offers recent undergraduate or master’s degree students the chance to work for two to four years before joining the MBA program as a Moelis Fellow. The program is meant for “students who are ambitious, innovative, and prepared to use a sense of professional liberty to maximize their early career experiences.” In addition to seeking proactive, motivated students, Wharton encourages admits to take professional risks during the deferment period and take advantage of the opportunity to “pursue [their] early years with increased confidence and risk-tolerance.” If a Moelis Fellow is interested in any of Wharton’s 15 joint and dual degree programs, they may apply for it during the year immediately before the one in which they matriculate. Once on campus, Moelis Fellows have access to such Wharton resources as conferences, mentoring, and networking events, as well as select Wharton Interactive simulations.

[url=https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/programs/mba/admission/deferred-enrollment]Stanford Graduate School of Business Deferred Enrollment Program[/url]

Stanford’s program offers something that most do not – deferred MBA admits are able to take as little as one year (but no more than four) to gain experience before beginning their MBA studies. It is open to students in either the final year of their bachelor’s or joint bachelor/graduate program, and to those in a graduate program that they started immediately after their undergraduate study. We should note that Stanford uses the same evaluation criteria for deferred candidates as it does for applicants to its full-time MBA program, assessing how they think, lead, and see the world.

Stanford cites deferred enrollment as a good option for candidates who are unsure of their long-term professional path and feel they would benefit from gaining full-time work experience first. The school also indicates that some industries – such as private equity, biotech, and management consulting – recruit only MBA candidates who have either pre-MBA experience in that field or specialized knowledge. So, taking time out to gain that experience and knowledge can be valuable in ultimately achieving your post-MBA career goals.

Interested in a dual degree option? Some of Stanford’s programs allow you to wait until the first year of your MBA to apply for a dual degree; others prefer that you apply in the year immediately before you matriculate in the Deferred Enrollment Program.

Stanford expects admitted students to “pursue opportunities that enable [them] to build expertise, enhance [their] skills and knowledge, expand [their] perspective, and develop professional judgment and self-confidence” during the deferral period. So you will need to reflect on what activities will allow you to develop and how you should spend your pre-MBA time.

[url=https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/programs/full-time-mba/kfl-deferred-enrollment-program.aspx]Kellogg Future Leaders Deferred Enrollment Program[/url]

“Graduate with the confidence that incredible things are ahead.” Kellogg’s deferred enrollment program allows admitted students to work for two to five years before beginning their MBA journey. The admissions committee wants to get to know you and to understand your motivations and why Kellogg is a fit for you. Master’s and undergraduate students (excluding law, medical, and PhD students, who apply through the standard admissions process) can come from any study discipline and either graduated in the past year, are in their final year, or went straight into graduate study post-bachelor’s.

The usual admissions requirements apply – test scores, essays, letters of recommendation, interviews – for some candidates, but not all. Applicants who are already engaged in undergraduate studies at Northwestern are exempt from having to take either the GMAT or GRE, so that’s one application requirement that can be ticked off the list for candidates already wearing the purple N.

[url=https://som.yale.edu/programs/mba/admissions/silver-scholars]Yale School of Management Silver Scholars Program[/url]

Yale’s program works slightly differently from the other deferred admissions programs on this list. College seniors earn their MBA in a fast-tracked, three-year format immediately after they complete their undergraduate degree. The program structure is as follows: Year 1 covers the core curriculum, Year 2 involves a full-time internship, and Year 3 comprises electives. The opportunity to develop academic skills while simultaneously gaining professional experience is a unique one. In addition, Silver Scholars learn alongside students from Yale’s traditional MBA program. Access to knowledge and experience? Check!

Yale says, “Silver Scholars are chosen for their combination of intelligence and common sense, maturity and curiosity, passion and compassion. Each has made a difference and distinguished themselves in a particular field of interest.” You’ll need to ensure that you really stand out through the application process (which is largely the same as for the traditional MBA program). Remember, you’ll be studying alongside students with five years of professional experience. You’ll need to convince the adcom that you have what it takes to contribute to classroom discussion and debate.

[url=https://www.chicagobooth.edu/mba/early-career-programs/chicago-booth-scholars]Chicago Booth Scholars Program[/url]

In 2018, Booth opened admissions to its Scholars Program, which was originally available only to University of Chicago undergraduates, to students from any university. The program allows candidates to apply before they graduate from college, then defer and gain professional experience for two to five years before enrolling in one of the school’s MBA programs.

Booth cites flexibility as one of the major differentiators. Booth Scholars have the option of pursuing the Evening MBA or Weekend MBA, if one of those programs is a better fit with their career objectives.

Booth says candidates for the Scholars Program “demonstrate intellectual curiosity, personal maturity, competitive scores, and leadership” and that they “have a history of substantive internships or part-time jobs and/or an entrepreneurial spirit.” The application essays make clear that successful candidates need to be able to articulate their career goals and where the MBA fits in. The school wants intelligent, independent thinkers with a considered career map. Although one’s professional goals can change during the deferment period, of course, the adcom wants to see that candidates have taken the time to think through their career path and how attending Booth aligns with it.

[url=https://www.darden.virginia.edu/mba/future-year-scholars-program]UVA Darden Future Year Scholars Program[/url]

Darden’s program allows final-year undergraduates, or full-time master’s students without work experience, to work for two to five years before starting their MBA studies. Student backgrounds are diverse, because Darden aims to recruit individuals who bring to campus a range of abilities and professional and academic experience. Currently (early 2024), 74 Future Years Scholars are in the deferral period, busy enhancing their professional experience. This group comprises an internationally (32%) and academically (61% non-business degrees) diverse group of students hailing from ten countries and 43 undergraduate institutions. Applicants are evaluated in three areas: academics, extracurricular involvement, and personal characteristics. While the latter of these criteria is vague, the adcom does say that the school is looking for individuals who “aspire to be future ethical leaders and managers in a global world.” Putting thought into why you have the potential to be this kind of future leader, and whether your values align with Darden’s, would be time well spent.

[url=https://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/deferred-admission]MIT Sloan Early Admission[/url]

If you are an “ambitious and forward-thinking student,” Sloan’s deferred admissions option might suit you. It is open to final-year students who will not enroll in a PhD, MD, or JD program immediately after graduation and to those in graduate study (who started immediately after completing their bachelor’s) without work experience. Accepted students can work for two to five years before joining the MBA program.

The admissions process is slightly different for Early Admission candidates, and the application calendar differs for non-MIT undergrads. Candidates are required to submit a 300-word cover letter demonstrating their fit with the school. MIT is quite specific about who it’s looking for. The school wants “thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world…people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative… who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to pre-empt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas.” There is a lot to think about and squeeze into a one-page cover letter, so carefully consider how you fulfill the program’s stated criteria. Additionally, candidates must submit a resume and a 60-second video in which they introduce themselves to the class. The video is an excellent opportunity to show your personality and bring the person introduced in your cover letter to life.

Additionally, interested MIT students who have a cumulative GPA of 4.2 or higher are in luck, because they can waive the GMAT/GRE.

[url=https://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/admissions/accelerated-access#:~:text=Accelerated%20Access%20allows%20you%20to,deferment%20period%20for%20professional%20experience.]Berkeley’s Accelerated Access Program [/url]

Berkeley’s Accelerated Access Program is open to undergraduate and graduate students and encourages domestic and international candidates with diverse backgrounds and academic areas of study to apply. Admitted students not only have access to the full-time MBA program but are also eligible for consideration for dual degree programs.

Students are required to work for a minimum of two years before beginning their MBA studies but are allotted a maximum of five years in which to explore their career interests. Although Berkeley does not require its deferred students to follow particular career paths, it prods them to pursue “employment that enhances [their] leadership profile and prepares [them] to contribute to the mission-driven business community” at the school. To ensure that admitted students are meeting the required criteria, some admissions offers are conditional, and students are required to attend check-ins with a Haas advisor or career coach. Additionally, a review might be conducted prior to the intended enrollment date to ensure that the student has met the required terms.

[url=https://www.cmu.edu/tepper/programs/mba/admissions/apply/deferred-admission.html]Tepper Future Business Leaders Deferred MBA Admissions Program[/url]

In February 2021, Tepper joined the deferred admissions space with its Future Business Leaders program, which allows students to defer for up to four years while they gain professional experience. The program’s lead recruiter believes the format “will allow motivated seniors to have better insight and more control while mapping out their future career paths.” The program is open to college seniors who plan to graduate from a U.S. university in the current academic year and do not yet have full-time work experience. The school says that “competitive applicants will have a strong academic record, professional internships, and undergraduate leadership experience.” Tepper’s adcom also expects candidates to have put some thought into their career goals and why the program format is a good fit for them (essay alert!). The GMAT/GRE is waived for Carnegie Mellon students, and admits are eligible to apply for scholarships, with decisions to be made at the time of matriculation.

[url=https://msb.georgetown.edu/full-time-mba/admissions-tuition/mba-advanced-access-program/]Georgetown McDonough MBA Advanced Access Program [/url]

The most recent player on the MBA deferred admissions scene is Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, with its MBA Advanced Access Program (MAAP). The program allows candidates who are either in their final year of undergraduate studies or in graduate school – and have no full-time work experience – to apply for deferred enrollment. Accepted students can secure a place in the class two years out from when they apply, with the option of extending this time period to three or four years.

The application process is thorough. In addition to the standard written application essay (candidates have three question options to choose from) and video essay, MAAP candidates must complete program-specific essays. The prompts for these essays ask candidates not just about their career goals but also about where they stand in working to achieve them. Additionally, applicants are expected to describe their personal and professional development plans. So, you’ll want to take some time to reflect on how you can present yourself as a proactive, principled future leader who will contribute to the school’s community and make an impact in the business world.

*Information is accurate as of January 2024.

If these options sound interesting, but you’re still unsure whether you should study for a master’s now or wait to pursue an MBA, you might want to [url=https://www.thecrimson.com/sponsored/article/accepted-deferred-mba/]read more about the benefits of deferred admissions[/url]. The important thing to remember is that you can apply to an MBA program with no work experience. And Accepted can help! Explore our [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/consulting?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=No_work_experience_want_mba&utm_source=blog]MBA Admissions Consulting Services[/url], and work one-on-one with an experienced advisor who will help you create an application strategy that will get you accepted!

[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kelly_Wilson_admissions_expert_headshot.png[/img]

As the former executive director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and assistant dean of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School, Kelly Wilson has 23 years’ experience overseeing admissions committees and has reviewed more than 38,000 applications for the MBA and master’s programs in management of information systems, computational finance, business analytics, and product management. [url=https://www.accepted.com/experts/kelly-wilson]Want Kelly to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/url]

[b]Related Resources:[/b]

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[*][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/selectivity-index]MBA Acceptance Rates: The Selectivity Index[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/listen-mba]Admissions Straight Talk Podcast for MBA Applicants[/url][/*]

[*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/retake-the-gmat-with-700-score/]Retaking the GMAT with a 700 – Should You Consider It?[/url][/*]
[/list]
The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-for-an-mba-with-no-work-experience-what-you-need-to-know/]Deferred MBA Programs and Other Options for MBA Hopefuls With No Work Experience[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url].

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FROM Accepted.com Blog: M7 MBA Programs: Everything You Need to Know in 2024

Talk about diversity! The M7 business schools represent seven distinct, vivid cultures – each with its own history, values, characteristics, opportunities, and challenges.

Of course, there are many commonalities among the M7 schools, as well: all are highly competitive, offer robust academic resources, are supported by committed and involved alumni, and attract top-tier recruiters (even in down business cycles). Yet the most important commonality is their individual uniqueness! Their strong and distinctive personalities both reflect and drive their leadership in the MBA realm. They have risen to their prominent position because they are the leaders in their domain: graduate business education. So, they reasonably expect their students and applicants to have correspondingly high ambitions, whether their domain is finance, healthcare, energy, social entrepreneurship, or something else. Although the M7 programs all value diversity, together, they also represent diversity.

The M7 business schools

Harvard Business School

Stanford Graduate School of Business

MIT Sloan School of Management

The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management

University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business

Columbia Business School

What makes the M7s so great?

There are other elite MBA programs, of course, but the M7 schools have an ongoing, shared history – their deans connected with each other years ago and formed a group that meets regularly and shares information. Over time, these meetings have grown to also include others within their admissions offices, creating a consistent flow of information across multiple levels. The meetings address a range of issues, including best practices for components of the admissions process and responses to current events that directly affect MBA admissions.

A deeper look at the M7s

Harvard Business School

Immersion could be the keyword for the Harvard Business School (HBS) experience. The program’s cornerstone is the case-study approach, intertwined with experiential learning: students read a case and then intensively analyze it both before and in class. The aim is to train students in complex, real-world decision-making. Students then have numerous opportunities to sharpen this training through practical application. By continuously engaging with classmates from different functions, industries/sectors, and geographic regions in these case discussions, students radically expand their perspectives, thought processes, and knowledge. This immersive experience is enhanced by the smarts, passion, and ambition of HBS students. Outside of class, these high-achieving, high-energy students participate in many club and volunteer activities. The two years of the MBA program fly by, thanks to the nonstop immersion and engagement.

Median GMAT score: 730

Average GPA: 3.70

Acceptance Rate: 14.4%

What is HBS looking for in applicants?

Given its case method approach, HBS seeks students and future leaders who will carry their weight and contribute fully in the classroom – people who have something to say and the ability to communicate it. Further, students must be able to listen, respond thoughtfully, and adapt to new ideas as the dialogue progresses. Beyond the requisite high accomplishment, HBS seeks people who enthusiastically and capably engage.

More HBS Resources:

Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines

Entrepreneurship at HBS: How Stride Will Help You Fund Your Future, podcast Episode 341

Seven Important Tips for Your HBS Post-Interview Reflection

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Nothing less than transformation – that’s what the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) is about – both yours and the kind you bring to the organizations and communities you touch. Stanford’s Silicon Valley DNA, highly customizable program, and emphasis on innovation, change, and entrepreneurship shape its MBA experience. Its small, elite cohort goes on an exploratory journey together, and many students emerge in a different place than they expected to when they started out. This journey integrates the personal and the professional – in Stanford’s multifaceted pedagogical approach, building business and leadership skills is tied to understanding and defining one’s mission and vision. Beyond the MBA classroom, students learn from and engage with numerous guest speakers who represent the cutting edge in their fields, and students are encouraged to access Stanford’s various other top-notch programs, including law, medicine, engineering, humanities, and sciences. During the program, students form a robust, mutually supportive network for testing ideas, boundaries, and their own assumptions and inclinations.

Average GMAT score: 737

Average GPA: 3.76

Acceptance Rate: 8.6%

What is Stanford GSB looking for in applicants?

Stanford wants people who will be excellent “fellow travelers,” people who have – and will bring to the program – a unique point of view. The school values risk-takers and change agents. At the same time, these individuals deliberately remain a “work in progress” – always open to new information, ideas, and situations and willing to shift gears accordingly. They relish exploration and collaboration.

More Stanford GSB resources:

Stanford GSB MBA Application Essay Tips and Deadlines, Class Profile

What These Seasoned Startup Founders Have Done Since Earning Their Stanford MBAs, podcast Episode 382

A Stanford MBA Discusses Coffee Chats, podcast Episode 437

Stanford MBA Grows His Amazing Tech Startup, podcast Episode 369

Five Tips for Applying for Stanford’s Knight-Hennessy Scholarship

MIT Sloan School of Management

What’s special about the MIT Sloan MBA program is its zeal for tackling big, slippery, multifaceted problems. The school’s cohorts learn how to develop robust solutions that can weather uncertainty, ambiguity, and change – and students relish the challenge. The adcom appreciates people who lead organically by drawing others along the journey to solve complex problems. The MIT MBA roots its approach in two concepts that intertwine: invention, which entails creativity and agility, and data-driven analysis, which entails rigor and objectivity. These concepts align with those of MIT more broadly. Just as a robust process involves iteration, this program supports its pedagogy with ongoing experiential learning opportunities – in other words, practice – to reinforce and deepen the learning and ensure that students grasp topics and hone skills in a real-world context. In essence, Sloan MBA graduates are able to see around corners and make constructive use of whatever they encounter. They will lead others in the process, as a result of their passion and vision to tackle compelling problems.

Median GMAT score: 724

Median GPA: 3.59

Acceptance Rate: 14.8%

What is MIT Sloan looking for in applicants?

MIT Sloan seeks students who are open to following where the data lead, even if doing so contradicts their personal preferences or assumptions. The school also seeks people who possess both vision and practical skills, who are creative and analytical. That doesn’t mean an applicant must embody these qualities 50/50, but if, for example, a candidate is primarily creative and visionary, they also need to show a record of concrete impact and achievement. Needless to say, curiosity and a collaborative mind-set are also sought.

More MIT Sloan Resources:

MIT Sloan MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines, Class Profile

How to Get Accepted to MIT Sloan MBA, podcast Episode 498

The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

The Wharton MBA program is big, with almost 900 students per class, multiple opportunities for joint degrees and certificates (from law and veterinary medicine to the Lauder program and Harvard Kennedy School), 21 majors, innumerable electives (including courses across the many other campus schools), and clubs in several broad categories: professional, athletic, social and special interest, community service, geographic, and cultural. Yet Wharton does not sacrifice quality for quantity. Its many majors are deep and rigorous. Moreover, its structure – dividing each class into four clusters, each of which is further divided into cohorts of approximately 70 students, and then into diverse five- or six-person Learning Teams – ensures broad exposure and drives dynamism throughout the learning process. What students learn from their teammates and classmates will help them take full advantage of the program’s vast resources – and in turn, you can share thei your expertise, perspective, and learning with their peersm. A student’sYour “two cents” about a class, major, or club might open a magical door for a classmatesomeone who otherwise would not have encountered it among the plethora of opportunities. While bigness and abundance characterize this program, Wharton has devised a learning structure that personalizes and optimizes it for students.

Average GMAT score: 733

Average GPA: 3.6

Acceptance Rate: N/A

What is Wharton looking for in applicants?

Wharton wants applicants who, along with being high performers, are actively engaged in activities and/or interests that contribute somehow – this doesn’t necessarily have to be community service, but some clear and consistent engagement outside work that positively affects others. Finally, given Wharton’s extensive opportunities and resources, it is essential that applicants show that they are resourceful – Wharton does not want its abundance squandered.

More Wharton Resources:

Wharton MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines, Class Profile and Class Profile

Nine Tips for Team Interviews

What’s New at Penn’s The Wharton School. And How to Get In, podcast Episode 545

A Bain Consultant-Turned Wharton MBA Starts Her Own Business, podcast Episode 329

How This Wharton MBA Created Her Women’s Workwear Brand

Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management

Management has long been and remains the hallmark of the Kellogg MBA program – a comprehensive discipline standing on the pillars of leadership and global perspective. The premise is that given today’s rapid change and high volatility, strong management capabilities are needed more than ever. Moreover, they can be applied across industries and sectors. Kellogg’s renowned management resources include two management-focused majors, “Management Science” and “Managing Organizations,” along with numerous other traditional majors. To complement these pillars of business training, Kellogg offers innovative “pathways,” which are cross-functional sets of courses that address timely topics, including “Growth and Scaling,” “Data Analytics,” and “Social Impact.” Students can mix and match majors and pathways, benefiting from the accumulated wisdom of the scholars and experts who devise them. Kellogg has innovated in another area as well: it is one of the first top-tier U.S. MBA programs to offer a one-year option (for people with some academic business foundation). Not least, Kellogg is renowned for its abundant global opportunities, in which almost one-half of its students participate.

Average GMAT score: 730

Average GPA: 3.7

Acceptance Rate: 31.4%

What is Kellogg looking for in applicants?

Kellogg greatly values work experience that shows an applicant’s exemplary people skills – leadership, teamwork, collaboration, and communication – and presents a record of meaningful accomplishment. Because Kellogg’s student body is particularly strong in philanthropic activity, including this element in one’s application is a good way to show fit with the program.

More Kellogg Resources:

Kellogg MBA Essay Tips, Deadlines and Class Profile

From Biomedical Research to Kellogg MBA: A Non-Traditional Business School Journey

University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business

Academic and intellectual rigor combined with curricular flexibility – this intriguing balancing act is the offering of the Chicago Booth MBA program. Intellectual culture is paramount at Booth, reflecting the character of the broader university to which it belongs. In the Booth MBA program, ideas are important – having them, sharing them, challenging them, testing them, and acting on them when the time is right. Booth has unrivaled quantitative depth and analytic rigor among MBA programs. This is a fantastic asset both for students who want to refine their strengths in these areas and for students seeking a rock-solid foundation in them. The school’s flexibility means that students can tailor their learning program to their needs, which puts the onus on students to understand what they need. Although Booth students do not have to select a major, many do, and in fact, some students even pursue multiple majors. Booth offers a wide array of options that includes both standard choices, such as “Accounting” and “Marketing Strategy,” and less-common ones, such as “Behavioral Science” and “Econometrics and Statistics.”

Average GMAT score: 729

Average GPA: 3.56

Acceptance Rate: 30.1%

What is Booth looking for in applicants?

Booth looks for people who have the self-knowledge, critical thinking skills, and resourcefulness to make the most of its flexibility and strengths and to use them productively. And because Booth values ideas, it seeks applicants who will go beyond practical career training to explore new topics, areas, and disciplines and who will challenge themselves intellectually.

More Chicago Booth Resources:

Finding and Articulating Fit with the Booth MBA

Booth MBA Application Essay Tips and Deadlines

A Chicago Booth MBA Shares His Journey to B-School and Important Tips for Applicants

Columbia Business School

Integral to Columbia’s MBA program and identity is its New York City (NYC) home. The Columbia Business School (CBS) website refers to this location as a top asset of the program. To CBS, this location equals access. To complement the program’s renowned full-time faculty, CBS attracts adjunct professors and speakers who are thought leaders in many areas of business and beyond, because so many either reside in/near NYC or visit frequently. Within this vibrant setting, CBS builds the student community from the start by breaking each class down into diverse clusters of 60-75 students who take all first-year classes together. CBS’s depth in finance is unique, and the school offers special programs for private equity and value investing. Other highly acclaimed specializations are “Social Enterprise” and “Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management” – the latter strengthened by the plethora of major pharma companies within a couple hours’ drive of campus. The NYC location also reinforces and amplifies the program’s entrepreneurship resources, given the city’s strong tech and fintech ecosystem.

Average GMAT Score: 732

Average GPA: NA

Acceptance Rate: NA

What is CBS looking for in applicants?

Beyond strong professional and academic track records, Columbia wants people who have a plan for taking advantage of the school’s resources, for engaging with the surrounding city and its endless opportunities, and for pursuing their defined goals. Because it’s easy to fade into the background amid the immensity of NYC and the dynamism of Columbia University, CBS also wants students who can and will forge bonds with peers.

More CBS Resources:

Columbia Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines, Class Profile

How to Get an MBA at Columbia Business School, podcast Episode 528

An MBA’s Perspective on Columbia Business School, podcast Episode 373

A final word about the M7s

Given these seven schools’ distinctive personalities, deep and comprehensive resources, and continuous adaptation to rapid economic, social, and technological change, they continue to lead in the MBA space. As different as the programs are, many applicants can find their needs met by several, if not all, of them – each one provides a positive life-changing experience in its own unique way. Exploring these schools in depth is the perfect way to kick off your MBA process, because you will be inspired to create and deliver your absolute best application.

The Accepted team has guided hundreds of applicants to acceptance at the M7s. Getting into an M7 school takes a special combination of an outstanding application, an extraordinary essay, and an incredible interview. Sign up for a free 30-minute consultation to learn more about our services and to discuss your specific applicant profile. Schedule today!

*Acceptance rates source: U.S. News & World Report MBA rankings

After a successful career in business publishing, Cindy Tokumitsu has worked for more than 20 years with Accepted. Every year, Cindy’s clients have been accepted to top MBA, law, and med programs. She is a pioneer in the niche of EMBA application consulting. Want an admissions expert to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

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