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23 Sep 2014, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: mbaMission Exclusive Interview with Christopher Storer, Executive Director of Graduate Programs and Admissions at the George Washington University School of Business |
Having joined George Washington University approximately two years ago, Christopher Storer oversees all the school’s MBA programs, working with students from when they are prospectives through the day they graduate. Chris took some time to speak with mbaMission at length about the university’s full-time MBA program and offer details about some of its standout features, including the following:
mbaMission: Thanks for joining us, Chris. Christopher Storer: Not a problem. My pleasure! mbaMission: We generally like to start by asking this key question: what do you think your program should be known for? What would you say are the strengths of the George Washington (GW) MBA program? CS: I would say by and large, the program is known for its global focus, particularly the full-time program. The full-time program is called the Global MBA, and through it we have some distinct features, including international business course work that’s in the core, which is a bit different from many MBA programs out there, to the international consulting abroad project, which is definitely a strong feature of the program. And then all the opportunities in addition to those requirements that are part of the core—there’s a ton of optional activities where students can go even more global. Some of those optional activities include short-term study abroad projects. Last year, we ran more than 20 different short-term study abroad programs, where students go overseas and complete course work. One example is “Marketing in the Arab World,” a course that we offer in Dubai over two weeks. We’ve run [courses on] sustainability in the Amazon in Brazil, public-private partnerships in London. This wide variety of short-term, intensive courses that are done over either winter break or spring break are great options to round out your international experience a bit more and get some hands-on experience. mbaMission: Is there a limit to the number of classes like that someone can take? Could a student take one at Christmas and one at spring break both years and do four classes that way? Is that possible? CS: There isn’t a limit. In the new tuition structure, the tuition itself would be included, but there’s also additional travel costs associated with these options. But is it feasible? Yes. There are definitely students that do at least two in addition to CAP [consulting abroad program]. So if you choose to do something really international, you can certainly round it out. There’s a sports management program as well, and those students went to Sochi for the Olympics this past winter. Some students were just at the World Cup in Brazil, meeting with FIFA executives there, and there are students that went on both of those. And they don’t necessarily even want careers in sports—it’s just a really unique opportunity. It’s a cool international experience they can get. There’s also semester-length exchanges. We have nearly 20 partnerships with leading business schools around the world where people can spend a semester abroad in locations such as Paris, Taipei, or Singapore. So, the global aspect is definitely key. And one final global aspect I would mention is the opportunity for electives or dual degrees with the Elliott School [of International Affairs], which is a very highly regarded international affairs school housed here at GW. mbaMission: Right. Does GW intend to always stay a comparatively small program? Do you have any plans to expand, or do you feel like there are advantages to being small? CS: I think there are definitely advantages. It was a strategic decision when I came here two years ago to focus on making sure we were bringing in the highest caliber students we could, from the perspective of quality of student life experience and academic experience, but also with respect to career placement and outcomes. So, we were at about 115 and consciously decreased the size of the program to focus on those issues. And we’ve seen some good results from doing that, anecdotally from feedback from faculty and current students as well as what we’re seeing in terms of internship placements and the outcome of many of our graduates. I have a feeling we will grow, but right now, we’re focused on maintaining that quality. So it depends—if we can grow the pipeline, which is our goal, we certainly will take some more, but it will be incremental. It’s not going to be all of a sudden, we’re at 200 students like some of our peers. Our focus in terms of growth actually has been in the specialized master’s area. We’ve launched a new government contracts specialized master’s. There’s a new specialized master’s in business analytics that we’ve launched. We launched our online MBA. So those other programs are filling market demand and are extremely popular at the moment in management education. mbaMission: Got it. And yet you’re still able to keep a pretty robust number of concentrations going—something like 12 concentrations. That works out to roughly one concentration for every eight people. That’s pretty impressive. CS: It doesn’t actually work that way. The first year is a core cohort experience, where they’re studying in the full-time program. And then once they get into their second year, after they finish their internships, they have a lot more flexibility. So, we end up crossing populations with our other programs. That includes the full-time MBA but also all our part-time MBAs—our Self-Paced, Cohort, and Online populations. And then I mentioned all the specialized master’s degrees—we have all those folks, too. For example, we have a specialized master’s in accounting, so someone that wants to do an MBA concentration in accounting ends up taking some of their course work overlapping with all of those various MBA populations concentrating in accounting, plus the students that are doing a specialized master’s in accounting. Seven of our concentrations are built off of specialized master’s. So those are courses we’re going to deliver for people doing those dedicated degree programs, and then there are five MBA-specific concentrations, which are supported by the MBA students. mbaMission: That’s interesting. What a distinct model. CS: It allows us to do a lot with the resources we have on hand, and this has all come out of a curriculum revision that the class that started a few weeks ago is experiencing. So, this is a new thing. mbaMission: You mentioned the international influence in the program. I saw on your Web site that nearly 50% of your students are international. That’s pretty strong, among the strongest that I’ve seen. Is that by design? How are you driving such strong international numbers? CS: It’s partially the market and partially by design. Most top-tier schools would tell you we have had a huge influx [in international applications]. If you look at GMAT test-taker data, the increase in applications from international students versus domestic students just continues to separate more and more. GMAC is actually having difficulty generating growth in the domestic GMAT test-taking market, and yes, we’ve expanded to take the GRE to help expand the pool of prospective students. But this is a shift that I’ve heard about when talking with colleagues recruiting on the road in the past two, three weeks—that their classes all have higher international percentages coming in this year than in past years. What my focus has been since being here is if we’re going to have this high international percentage, to make sure it’s diversified as much as possible. So the class that’s entering the institute [orientation] this month, they’re coming from 22 different nationalities. You end up having 45 to 50 international students, but they’re very diverse in terms of where they’re coming from. It creates a much more diverse experience in the classroom in terms of working on teams and the perspectives you get. So that’s really what we’ve been trying to do on that front and further strengthen our globally focused program. mbaMission: That’s really interesting. Is there any particular demographic that you’re trying to attract now, or are you just focused on getting the best applicants you can, in a broader sense? Do you have targets for a particular gender or nationality, anything like that? CS: Honestly, we’re just seeking the best students from anywhere in the world. One of the things I would say is that we have certainly enhanced our outreach efforts and international travel since I arrived. We’ve expanded extensively in the Middle East and Latin America in terms of our recruitment trips. I was just in Tel Aviv about a month ago for an EducationUSA event. We were in Dubai two months ago. We regularly are in the Middle East but also in South America. We do recruit in Europe, and of course, everyone has to have Central and South Asia and India on their radar. So I would say outside of Asia, it’s focusing on diversity, so rounding out those perspectives in the classroom. And of course, finding the best students from those countries, but then in Asia, there’s such a huge pool of candidates, it really is about finding the best of those candidates by being there on the ground. And does DC play a role? Of course. I mean, DC itself is a global destination and is at the heart of where so many policy decisions are made. In terms of the MBA world, studying in a place where you get so much influence to policy and how it impacts business, you can’t really get that many places other than DC. mbaMission: Right. I know firsthand that DC is spectacular and offers so much. So do you feel that there’s a DC advantage? Are you getting adjunct professors or speakers that you couldn’t get elsewhere? What exactly is the school’s relationship with DC? CS: We’re truly embedded in this remarkable city. Whenever I’m talking with prospective students, I tell them we’re literally six blocks from the White House. And I continue and say that the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the U.S. State Department literally border our campus. So you’re walking by the World Bank when you’re going to lunch. I just try to give them perspective about how close to and “in it” you are. As a result, we get amazing speakers on campus. Ben Bernanke actually taught a course here last year during his lunch break. The Clinton Global Initiative was on campus. Last year when I was in France, it was funny, Christine Lagarde [managing director of the IMF] was here in DC. When Congress was in its stalemate, and she was hammering away at the U.S. government in her talks, that discussion was happening from GW’s campus, which was truly amazing. Joe Biden, he was here recently. Obama gave a major economic address in the past two years with our MBA students in the audience. Sonia Sotomayor sat down with some of our Slim Scholars—the Carlos Slim Foundation sponsors some Mexican students to study here with full scholarships, and she sat down with them. Yes, they had lunch with a sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice! So in terms of the revolving door of amazing speakers on campus, it’s just crazy. mbaMission: I noted that there are a few atypical hiring firms in your career report. Is this the result of off-grounds searches, or are people looking for these types of organizations coming in? Are these sponsored students? I’m just curious about how some of these firms are showing up in the report. CS: I wouldn’t say that those are our pipeline organizations, but I would say that our faculty, alumni, and career center have strong connections and relationships, whether they’re personal or professional relationships, with a lot of these types of organizations, both in DC and overseas. So those doors can be opened up to students that want to be in those types of organizations. And one of the things that we hammer home in terms of the career center and taking advantage of their education even prior to them landing on campus is the whole networking aspect. So, those types of organizations fit well with who we are, and when you see them in our career report, it’s those relationships playing out. mbaMission: Right. So 36% of your class goes into consulting. Can you give us a little bit of background on the CAP [consulting abroad program] and whether that program is a catalyst for that career choice? The CAP strikes me as a fairly interesting and unique program to GW. CS: Sure. The CAP, the consulting abroad program, happens during the second semester of the first year, so it’s part of the core curriculum. Basically, you have about 100 students in a class, and 20 go to each of five destinations. And then those 20 are broken into teams of five. So, you have four teams working per country. And over the course of the spring semester, they’re working under the advisement of a faculty member—a lot of times one from that region of the world—and working with their overseas client. And it culminates with them traveling abroad and spending about ten days on the ground working with their clients in country, making recommendations and doing presentations and things like that. It’s definitely different from programs where schools will just send people abroad for two weeks to do site visits. This is much more applied in its approach and thoughtful in terms of giving you hands-on academic consulting experience. The other aspect about it that’s unique is the destinations. We go to Rwanda and work on microfinance, international development, and social entrepreneurship. This past year, we were in Turkey, and that was more related to marketing with a major retailer, and then the one that we ran in Argentina actually piggybacked off of one we’ve run for the past three or four years in Sweden. Sweden obviously is known for cleantech and renewable energy, and so some of those clients that we’ve been working with were doing some work and projects down in Argentina and asked us to take our group of students down there this year. Some really cool, unique experiences come out of that. Another consulting-related aspect in our curriculum is that there are case competitions built in. So our students arrive on Friday for institute, and within two weeks of being here, they have an intensive strategy course that they do that is equivalent to one and a half credits. It’s basically a half-semester course that’s intensified and done over the course of a week. Deloitte hosted our case competition this year and judged it as well, so the class culminates with Deloitte coming in and doing an overview of the case, and the students are broken into teams. They have about 24 hours to prep, and then they present to Deloitte and alumni judges. That’s the kickoff of the program. There’s another consulting project that we work on in the second year, in the third semester, that serves as a capstone to this and highlights to our students how far they’ve come during the program. There are a lot of these types of activities. A lot of students go into federal consulting or end up at PWC or Booz Allen. We have strong connections in that area. mbaMission: So is it an issue of the program satisfying that interest that already exists or the program actually generating that interest? CS: Not everyone coming in necessarily wants to go into consulting, but I think the opportunities present themselves by the students’ being here in DC, which goes along with the job market in DC, and the opportunities we present in the curriculum certainly open doors in that area that can be helpful for students that want to get into that. mbaMission: Sure. So in terms of finance jobs—I saw that 21% of your class went into finance—are those graduates going to Wall Street or more to organizations in and around DC, like the World Bank or the IMF or IFC that are all nearby? CS: Not usually Wall Street, but it is possible. This is a functional area, so mostly corporate finance jobs, I would say, or nonprofit finance. The World Bank and IMF certainly would fit that bill, depending on the functional area the students go into, but it’s generally not investment banking, and I try to be very transparent on that. Now we do have an MSF [Masters of Science in Finance] that is wonderful for students wanting to go into that area, but the MBA program and the curriculum and just the nature of the class makeup, it’s not really designed for people to go into investment banking. mbaMission: Right. Are there any professors with a distinct style or approach to teaching who you think might deserve a little highlighting? CS: Sure. I would say, for one, Scheherazade Rehman. She heads up our European Union Research Center and holds a joint appointment between the business school and the Elliott School of international affairs, tying in the policy side with business. Students also regularly see her on The Colbert Report. Donna Hoffman and Thomas Novak just joined the faculty this past year, and they are leading experts on social media, online consumer behavior, and digital marketing. They’re highly regarded and recognized in that area, and they’re a husband-and-wife team. Jennifer Griffin is known for her corporate social responsibility offerings. Christopher Leinberger, whose focus is on walkable urban real estate development. I sat in on one of his talks about the growth in the suburbs in the ’60s, whereas there’s a shift these days in terms of urban development. He’s done several reports that have gained good traction. And Annamaria Lusardi is another I would mention. Her focus is on global financial literacy, and she heads up the research center related to that. mbaMission: Great. Is there anything we haven’t touched on yet? Anything you feel someone interested in the GW program should know? CS: The one thing I would highlight that we didn’t talk about was from the concentration point of view. We talked about how we were able to do it, but I think one of the major reasons for having so many concentrations and delivering them that way is the focus on outcomes and the career-centric nature of the program. So what are you trying to accomplish with your degree? And then you can build the second portion of your degree after you get the core foundation through concentrations. You choose to tailor your experience to help set you up for the specific career path or job that you want. So whether it’s combining consulting with international development, global management with finance, or digital marketing and business analytics, consulting with finance, consulting with international business, those types of combinations, blending them really opens up different doors that weren’t available before. So I would really hit home on the concentrations and the career orientation and how it all works together. mbaMission: Interesting. Great. This was super informative, and we really appreciate your time. CS: Awesome. Thanks so much. |
23 Sep 2014, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Keep Your Online Presence in Check |
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Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. These days, with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube penetrating most of our lives, we need to take special care to keep our private lives just that—private! Our partners at Kaplan Test Prep found that 26% of college admissions officers check applicants’ Facebook profiles or other social networking pages to learn more about them—both the good and the bad. And although MBA admissions committees probably have better things to do than troll the Internet for your private information, you can never truly know whether an alumnus/alumna or a student interviewer has taken a few minutes to find out a little more about you online. Although your pages on these sites are likely innocuous, you must still ensure that access to those pages is limited so that you can control who sees them—and can thereby have more control over your interviewer’s perception of you. You do not want your interviewer’s first impression to be drawn from your vacation photos, but rather from your confident demeanor as you walk in the door and shake his/her hand. So take a moment and make sure that only those you invite to your pages can use them to learn about you and your life. |
23 Sep 2014, 17:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Career Advice: Assess Your Performance |
In the past we explained why failure is critical to your success. A good practice to adopt in your weekly career management regimen is an assessment of your performance. This is just a small pause that you take at the end of the work week to look back on the week that was. Ask yourself these three questions:
Once you have assessed the failures, be sure to reflect on what you have learned, what needs to change, what skills you want to develop, and what concrete steps you will take to do better next time. Record these and consciously focus on benefiting from these lessons in the coming week. But don’t just stop at focusing on the setbacks. Once you have honestly assessed them without judgment, it’s very important to celebrate your weekly successes as well. If you are like most people, this will be much easier once you have made peace with the failures. Record all the things you did well, the skills that you improved upon, the good choices you made, the times you coped well with the challenges and demands of your work, and the times you exceeded expectations, including your own. End with this. The point of examining failure isn’t to make you feel bad. Quite the opposite. It is to give you power over your own performance and set you free to take on new challenges and risks confidently. This tip is a way to experience independence and freedom from the failures of the past and look ahead to more success in the future!! |
24 Sep 2014, 10:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Videos, Personal Expression Essays Change the Admissions Landscape |
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Your application materials provide B-school admissions offices with their initial impression of you as a potential student, professional, alumnus/alumna, and leader. Given the quality of the applicant pool at programs such as the Yale School of Management (SOM), stellar GMAT scores and flawless undergrad GPAs are simply not enough to set candidates apart. Program leaders want future MBAs who will serve as successful, impressive, and interesting representatives of their schools. To get a better feel for applicants as distinct individuals, many schools are implementing new and innovative submission requirements. Video Essay Questions The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management was the first program to introduce video essay questions—with Yale SOM and Kellogg quickly following suit. Rotman’s director of MBA recruitment stated the following in an admissions blog post: “We are hoping to take a big leap away from the essay writing contest that has become the norm in the MBA admissions world.” Personal Expression Essays NYU’s Stern School of Business offers prospective students the opportunity to showcase their individuality through a personal expression essay. Rather than writing a certain number of words on a specific topic, applicants can use virtually any medium to display their skills, background, and potential. Accepted students have submitted illustrations, videos, paintings, audio files, and even cook books. Wherever you apply, representing yourself as both a captivating individual and a talented professional is key. To learn more about how to position yourself for acceptance, check out our mbaMission Interview Guides. |
24 Sep 2014, 15:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Bruce Greenwald, Columbia Business School |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose which business school to attend, but the educational experience itself is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we focus on Bruce Greenwald from Columbia Business School. Bruce Greenwald has been a fixture at Columbia Business School (CBS) since the early 1990s and up until recent years taught the highly demanded “Economics of Strategic Behavior” course in the full-time MBA program (he continues to teach this course in the EMBA program). Students in the school’s Value Investing Program are primarily the ones who get to enjoy his classes, and those with whom mbaMission spoke espoused enthusiasm for Greenwald’s intense depth of knowledge and his connections to top-notch guest speakers, which he brings to campus to address his students. On the CBS Peer Course Review site, a former student of Greenwald’s sums up the instructor’s popularity by stating, “Greenwald has the ability to make something complex seem simple and easy to understand.” |
25 Sep 2014, 11:02
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: MIT Sloan Student Senate |
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When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment but are also making a commitment to a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school. Student activities at MIT Sloan are loosely overseen by the Sloan Student Senate, an elected group of approximately 48 students (24 per class year) that works with Sloan administration to improve the program and the school, in addition to organizing much of the activity on campus. The group is divided into formal subcommittees: Academic, Activities, Admissions, Alumni Relations, Communication, Facilities, and Information Technology. Informal committees usually form within the Sloan Student Senate each year on topics from professional standards to career development, depending on student interest. For more information on MIT Sloan or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
25 Sep 2014, 17:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Core Values at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management |
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MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15. First years at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management begin their MBA experience within a cohort of just 100 students, enjoying a close-knit classroom environment in which they gain exposure to broad management skills, with a particular emphasis on business ethics. Both the curriculum and the student community at the school engender a set of core values: “honesty and integrity,” “mutual respect,” “pursuit of excellence,” and “personal accountability.” In addition to completing a first-year project on corporate social responsibility, a hands-on consulting project, and a second-year team business plan project, students at the Carroll School must complete at least 20 hours of community service, which the school requires to help instill an appreciation for and spirit of community service in its MBAs. These values are also reflected in the school’s core Management Practice course sequence—taken throughout the first year and into the first semester of the second year—in which students learn to think critically about the challenges involved in business leadership. As one recent graduate commented in Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2012 profile of the Carroll School, “In the background of your core classes, and many electives, is a strong consideration on the moral and ethical dilemmas that often arise in the business world. I never felt that ‘morality’ was being pushed on us, but the consequences of each decision we make were always placed in front of us and we were left to make up our own mind.” |
26 Sep 2014, 13:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Stanford GSB’s LEED Certified Facilities |
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Thanks in part to a $105M gift from Nike founder and chairman Phil Knight (MBA ’62), the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) has constructed a new $350M campus in recent years. The 360,000 square foot campus of the Knight Management Center, which opened in April 2011, expanded the school’s existing campus footprint by 100,000 square feet. The extended campus is intended to allow the use of a wider variety of teaching methods and to increase interaction among students and faculty, including those from other Stanford University schools. Forty-two small classrooms, 7 large classrooms, 276 seats in the auditorium and 60 faculty offices were added. The Knight Center is a green, environmentally friendly building, boasting state-of-the-art technology. Each classroom has three screens and dormant cameras for computer presentations, as well as plenty of natural light (in contrast to many of the previous lecture halls, which were windowless). With an eye toward preserving green space, the 870-space parking lot was built underground. The school is employing sustainable practices with respect to site development and the conservative use of water and energy, and in early 2012 was awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification—the highest level of LEED certification granted by the U.S. Green Building Council—in recognition of the campus’s minimal environmental impact. To learn more about the Knight Center and the official launch, check out these slideshows and videos. For more information on the Stanford GSB or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
29 Sep 2014, 14:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Will Taking Time Off Diminish Your Acceptance Chances? |
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According to Gerald Bradshaw—who attended Harvard Law School and spent more than 15 years screening Harvard College applicants as an alumnus admissions interviewer—taking time off between completing your undergraduate studies and applying to a graduate program might actually improve your B-school acceptance odds. In a recent article for the Chicago Sun-Times’ Post-Tribune, Bradshaw responds to a question from a worried college student who wanted to know if taking a break from undergraduate studies would negatively affect his/her odds of later being accepted to graduate school. Bradshaw states that taking time off in this way should pose no problem for those who wish to apply to top business or law schools at some point in the future. He goes on to explain that a hiatus can even work to the advantage of an MBA hopeful. Program leaders prefer applicants with measurable real-world and professional experience, and Bradshaw notes, “Most top law and MBA programs prefer students to have a few years of life experience behind them.” If you do take time off from your studies, be sure to highlight what you did during this time in your resume, essays, and/or other portions of your application. Experiences such as military service, on-the-job training, apprenticeships, charity work, and travel can help you present yourself as a well-rounded and captivating prospect. Bradshaw reminds readers that students who take time off are subject to the same acceptance criteria as candidates who apply immediately after graduating from their undergrad institution. An individual still needs a stellar GPA, strong test scores, and compelling application materials to compete with other top program applicants. |
30 Sep 2014, 10:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Our Favorite Advice from MBA Admissions Directors, Part 1 |
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At mbaMission, we constantly strive to learn more about what makes a successful application and what the leading schools want—and do not want—from prospective students. To accomplish this, we communicate regularly with admissions directors at the top MBA programs, and in this two-part blog series, we want to share with you some of our favorite advice we have collected from these experts over the past few application seasons. Kurt Ahlm, Associate Dean for Student Recruitment and Admissions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business “Take time to thoroughly think through your objectives for business school. Why do you want an MBA? What skills or experiences do you hope to gain? How do you prefer to learn? How do all of these things put you in a better position to accomplish your short- and long-term goals? These are just some of the questions I push people to consider as they begin their application preparation. The more focused and on point an applicant is, the more compelling their application will be and the more prepared they will be to successfully start an MBA program. A two-year MBA program moves quickly, regardless where you go, and if you have not fully vetted your reasons for being at that school, you can fall behind pretty quickly. The more thinking and planning you do on the front end, the greater overall success you will have throughout the entire MBA experience.” Amanda Carlson, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Columbia Business School “You should still prepare [for your admissions interview] as you would for a professional interview. Reread your application. The admissions committee is of course going to look for consistency in your story. It should not come as a surprise to anybody that if a person who’s interviewing says, ‘Well, I’d like to go into health care’ to the interviewer but said, ‘I want to go into real estate development’ in their application, that’s clearly going to be something that gets our minds percolating.” Dawna Clarke, Director of MBA Admissions at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth “A successful interview, I find …, is when people don’t just make broad sweeping statements, but they have some really good, tangible examples of things that they’ve done. So if they say they have strong leadership potential, then they tell a story to illustrate that, or if they identify themselves as being a strong team player, then they would tell us a story, an anecdote, or a vignette that illustrates that they are a team player. It’s very hard if you interview a lot of people, you’re not going to remember that so-and-so said that they were a strong team player, but I very well might remember a very compelling story that somebody told me. So I would tell people to really identify what are the three things that you’re most proud of that you think are relevant to business school, and how am I going to convey those in the interview, and what kind of specific examples do I have to tell that would be memorable and compelling?” Dustin Cornwell, Director of MBA Admissions at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University “What we like to see is applicants who are focused on why they’re pursuing an MBA. They have a career goal in mind, and they’ve done their research enough about our program to know that we’re able to help them in achieving that goal. Many candidates don’t know exactly what they want to do. They know they need to get an MBA to gain more experience, perhaps, or if they’re switching careers from marketing into finance or vice versa, for example, that’s a good reason to get an MBA. And I always encourage candidates, when I’m talking to them on the road and at recruiting events, to take that next step further. Okay, now you’ve identified why you need an MBA, what do you want to do with that? How are you going to make that transition? If you are making a rather dramatic career switch from one industry to another, think about the skill set that you have, be ready to talk to recruiters about how you can transfer what you’ve done to that new position…. There are all these different areas, and students may not have had exposure to all of them yet, so the MBA program certainly can open their eyes to opportunities. But I think you have to come in with some direction. You have to have some idea of where it is you want to go, because we can’t start from square one. You need to have at least walked down that path a little and meet us halfway so we can help you get where you’re going.” Isser Gallogly, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions at the Stern School of Business at New York University “When you look at the three areas—the academic, the professional, and the personal—you don’t want to give an admissions officer a reason to say no. You want them to look at everything and say, ‘Wow, this looks great across the board.’ … Obviously for undergraduate [GPA], there is only so much you can do, and it’s usually too late, but with the GMAT, we only look at someone’s best scores. So if your score is not reflective of your ability, then retake it. Retake it several times. Put yourself in the best position to demonstrate academic ability. In the application itself, when you’re talking about résumés and things like that, again, people should really try to highlight what they have achieved and quantify those results. Answer questions that may be out there, and if you have been unemployed, take the time to explain what happened and what you were doing in that time. Don’t just leave us guessing. … Help us understand.” Rodrigo Malta, Director of MBA Admissions at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin “Treat the interview professionally, no matter if it is done by a student, an admissions officer, or an alumnus of the program. I think it’s really important to prepare questions for the end, because after all, the interview is a two-way street. We’re getting to know the applicant a little bit better, but we also expect that this is an opportunity for the applicant to get to know us as well. So, I would advise them to prepare some good questions that can’t usually be found on the Web site.” Soojin Kwon, Director of Admissions at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan “We highly encourage prospective students to visit and sit in on a class, get a feel for the class dynamics—with the professor, with each other—walk around the campus and get a feel for the culture. Visits can help applicants make informed decisions about which school to apply to and ultimately attend, because they’ll get better sense of fit. Some schools are going to be a better fit based on someone’s personality and goals, and you can’t really make that determination based on view books or Web sites or rankings. You really need to experience it firsthand. That said, we understand that applicants’ budgets and schedules are tight, and it may be tough for prospective students to visit all the schools they’re considering. At a minimum, prospective students should talk to current students and alumni at each school.” Niki da Silva, Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management “If they do [not know what they want to do after graduating], they should not be investing a hundred thousand dollars in an MBA program until they figure it out a little bit. But … lots of people, even the ones who think 100%, ‘I know exactly what I want to do’ will come in, and they’ll have an experience that changes their mind. They’ll shift. So what we really look for is, do they have an understanding of what they’re great at, what they want to do, what they’re passionate about doing? Can they articulate that? Do they seem flexible? Are they coachable? Are they resilient? Because even if you know that you want to be a strategy consultant at McKinsey [& Company], … you might not land there for your first job out of the MBA program. And we want to ensure we’re admitting people who are still going to feel like they had a good experience and are open to coaching, to other options, to working really hard. If they don’t get that summer internship, are they going to come back and try again, or are they just going to kind of give up and feel like they’re entitled to a specific role …?” Sara Neher, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia “One of the mistakes people make is regurgitating the Web site back to us. You telling me that you want to take so-and-so’s class or the case method is important because of what we put on our Web site is just a waste of your word count. It shows me that you can read our Web site, but it doesn’t show me anything about who you are. Really spend that time with personal examples, incidents, specific stories that you think tell me something about yourself that would make you a fit for the case method. For example, something about presenting at a board meeting and the questions you were asked and how you had to manage that on your feet and what kind of preparation you had to do beforehand—that would completely tell me that you could accomplish the case method, right? But it doesn’t tell me exactly what I already know about the case method that I’ve told you on the Web site. Really personal examples from the workplace or from an activity, that’s how you can convey that the best. The best essays are always about a moment in time and not a laundry list or a chronology of everything you’ve ever done.” Bruce DelMonico, Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions at the Yale School of Management “We ask applicants to tell us what they want to do after they get their MBA, and a lot of times we get applicants who want to do something different than what they’re doing now, and that’s perfectly understandable. A lot of people use an MBA to make a career shift. But one thing, one red flag that will often raise, is if we see someone who wants to make a career shift to an area that they don’t really have any experience in or any exposure to. If you’re making a career shift, you’re necessarily not in that area now, so we don’t expect that someone will have work experience in a certain area—but they should at least have some exposure, whether it’s an activity or some volunteer work, to that area so that they can have some sense of what they’re getting into and have a bit of an idea to get from where they are now to where they want to go.” |
30 Sep 2014, 13:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Career Advice: Getting Personal, Part 1 |
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In this weekly series, our friends at MBA Career Coaches will be dispensing invaluable advice to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. For more information or to sign up for a free career consultation, visit www.mbacareercoaches.com. Some people worry that a personal section on their resume might seem silly or even unprofessional. Nothing could be further from the truth – unless of course you make your personal section silly and unprofessional. We strongly recommend that applicants seize the opportunity to add some personality to their resume and create a variety of opportunities to connect with their potential interviewers and employers in “softer” ways. One applicant who we spoke to recently had organized a bike ride across the United States. Our first question to him was, “Does anybody ever start an interview with anything but your bike ride?” He laughed and said that that is where they all begin. Why? Well, we could all probably agree that it is a fascinating experience that we’d like to hear more about. That may be the starting point, but beyond sheer curiosity, interviewers can learn a lot about our characters from the commitments we take on in our free time – in this applicant’s case: leadership abilities, mental strength, and persistence. This individual’s experience enables him to break the proverbial ice quickly and on a subject he loves to talk about. Now, you might not have ridden your bike across America. No one expects that you have. However, you do have interests. So, put a few of them on your resume and give someone an opportunity to connect with you – to like you – before you even enter the room. |
01 Oct 2014, 13:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: Which Part of the MBA Application Process Is Hardest? |
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Although quantifying a school’s profile certainly does not tell you everything, it can sometimes be helpful in simplifying the many differences between the various MBA programs. Each week, we bring you a chart to help you decide which of the schools’ strengths speak to you. We recently surveyed a number of visitors to our site to get a feel for the concerns, plans, and mind-sets of this season’s MBA applicants. Now the results are in, and for those who are curious about their fellow applicants’ views on business school, we will be sharing some of the collected data in our B-School Chart of the Week blog series. One question we posed this year was “Which do you think is/will be the hardest part of the MBA application process?” Not surprisingly to us here at mbaMission, “essays” was the most common response, with 41.0% of survey participants indicating that this written component of the application would be the most challenging. However, this percentage was significantly lower than the 59.0% we saw last season when we asked this same question. The GMAT again stood out as the second most difficult application element, according to our respondents, 35.9% of whom selected it as their primary concern. This percentage was notably higher than the 19.4% we saw last year for this response. The remainder of our applicant responders noted that they expected to encounter difficulty with their recommendations (10.2%), choosing which schools to target (5.0%), interviewing (5.0%), and the short-answer portion of the application (2.5%). 
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01 Oct 2014, 17:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: John Morgan, UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business |
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Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose which business school to attend, but the educational experience itself is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we focus on John Morgan from the UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business. John Morgan has been at UC-Berkeley Haas since 2002 and won the Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2006. In an admissions podcast (“Game Theory and Strategy”), Morgan discusses how he has grown his “Game Theory” course, which studies how nations and industries interact strategically with each other. Morgan recommends that all Haas MBA students take the course, which is designed to cover all functions and industries, in their last semester at the school so that they apply the “mind-set to think strategically” to what they have learned in the program. Resorting to the default name “Emily” for students who forget to bring their name card to class, Morgan expects the teams in his class to be ready to defend their strategies, but plenty of laughter is part of the course as well—as it reportedly is in all Morgan’s courses. An alumna even commented via Twitter in April 2012, “Loving John Morgan’s Disruptive Technologies seminar. Great comedic timing.” On Morgan’s personal Haas Web page, he includes a list of vocabulary words he calls “New Words for the New Millennium.”. |
02 Oct 2014, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Good Ole Darden Days |
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When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment but are also committing to becoming part of a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school. Typically held in May, Darden Days is a weekend of organized presentations and events on grounds and throughout Charlottesville for the school’s admitted students. The intensive weekend is meant to provide these candidates with an in-depth perspective on all aspects of Darden’s MBA program and community and with the basic information they will need if they decide to accept the school’s offer of admission. One second-year student we interviewed called Darden Days one of his “favorite events of the year” and described how for one event, prospective students, first years, and second years enjoyed a barbecue at a local vineyard with a bluegrass band, where they could all “hang out outside, mingle, and ask questions.” For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at UVA Darden and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
02 Oct 2014, 15:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Luxury Brand Marketing at the GCU British School of Fashion |
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In the fall of 2013, Scotland’s Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU)— known as a leader in fashion education since the 19th century—inaugurated a new fashion business school in London and soon after opened a satellite campus in New York City. Rather than focusing on the design aspect of fashion, however, the GCU British School of Fashion instead aims to offer a specialized business education with applications to the fashion industry, as the school’s director, Christopher Moore, explained in a Bloomberg Businessweek article at the time the new campuses were being revealed: “The remit of the School is clear: we are about the business of fashion. While there are other great international design schools, we are quite different. Our aim is to be a leading School for the business of fashion.” The British School of Fashion’s MBA in Luxury Brand Marketing program aims to impart industry tools and skills related to such topics as consumer behavior, globalization, and strategic management. The school also professes a commitment to social responsibility, sustainability, and fair trade as part of its core values. The MBA curriculum consists of five core modules. With support from a number of British fashion brands, including Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, AllSaints, and the Arcadia Group, the school’s faculty also features a team of honorary professors and fashion industry leaders. Moore told the BBC, “Over the past decade, there has been a significant professionalization of the fashion sector, and there is now a need for high-quality fashion business graduates.” |
03 Oct 2014, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: MIT Sloan’s Application Review Process |
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How does MIT Sloan review applications? True to the rigorous analytic nature of its curriculum—in a rigorous analytic fashion! When the admissions office receives an application, the candidate’s information is loaded into a database and the application is printed. Rod Garcia, who has been MIT Sloan’s admissions director for the past decade, first reviews every application online, then distributes the applications randomly among the school’s admissions readers, all of whom are either internal admissions staff members or contract readers. After picking up a batch of applications, readers review, score, and then return them one week later. The scores are entered into the database, where Garcia reviews them to determine which candidates will be interviewed. After the selected candidates have been interviewed, their applications are scored again, and the committee then decides which individuals to admit. Application scoring is based on nine attributes, which Sloan divides into two major groups: demonstrated success (e.g., GPA, GMAT, work accomplishments) and leadership (e.g., high competency in creativity, relationship building, goal setting, influencing). Each attribute group is scored separately, and the two scores are added together. At mbaMission, we always tell candidates that MBA admissions is not a science—yet at MIT Sloan, a little science comes into play after all… For more information on MIT Sloan or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
04 Oct 2014, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Harvard Insider on Applying to B-School |
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As a frequent Forbes contributor, second-year Harvard Business School student Leslie Moser has authored countless articles related to B-school applications. In a recent one, she compiled what she called her “best advice” into an “ultimate guide” to graduate program admissions. As both we here at mbaMission and you already know, applying to business school is a difficult and time-consuming process, but Moser stresses that you can significantly improve your dream school acceptance chances by following the right plan. Moser’s full article provides more detail, but here is a summarized list of her recommended steps and techniques. 1. Take the GMAT The GMAT is required for acceptance to almost every major graduate program. Moser encourages you to pick a date on which to take the test and stick to it. 2. Select Your Schools Identify the schools to which you want to apply early, so you can study their admissions policies as thoroughly as possible before completing applications. You should also make sure the program you ultimately attend will help you attain the type of skills and career you desire. Consult the various schools’ employment reports for in-depth information on the kinds of career offers graduates have received. 3. Do Your Research Research your dream schools. Learn about their requirements. Subscribe to their social media channels. Investigate the backgrounds of candidates who have been accepted into their programs. The more information you have about your prospects, the better. 4. Devote Time to Your Essays Every business school requires applicants to complete some sort of essay. Moser advises MBA hopefuls to allocate plenty of time for this all-important step. 5. Prepare for Your Interview Once you submit your application, begin preparing as thoroughly as possible for your interview. 6. Weigh Your Options If you receive an acceptance offer from more than one school, take the time to fully consider the pros and cons of each program—especially as they pertain to your career and personal goals. 7. Get Ready for School Congratulations! Address and complete all the necessary paperwork and to-do’s before year one begins. |
05 Oct 2014, 14:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Business Insider Lists Top 25 Most Diverse B-Schools |
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Throughout your career, you will encounter and collaborate with people from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and locales. By attending a globally focused MBA program, you can gain valuable international sensitivity and communication skills. In an article released this week, Business Insider ranked the top 25 business schools in the world based on diversity. GraduatePrograms.com conducted the study by analyzing the reviews of more than 70,000 current and former graduate students. Respondents rated their programs on several factors, including student body diversity and network quality. See the full list here, or peruse the top ten below:
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06 Oct 2014, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Show That Your Long-Term Goals Are Attainable |
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Many MBA candidates struggle to define their long-term goals. Although your short-term goals should be relatively specific, your long-term goals can be broad and ambitious. Regardless of what your short- and long-term aspirations actually are, what is most important is presenting a clear “cause and effect” relationship between them. The MBA admissions committee will have difficulty buying into a long-term goal that lacks grounding. However, do not interpret this to mean that you must declare your interest in an industry and then assert that you will stay in it for your entire career. You can present any career path that excites you—again, as long as you also demonstrate a logical path to achieving your goals. For example, many candidates discuss having ambitions in the field of management consulting. Could an individual with such aspirations justify any of the following long-term goals? A) Climbing the ladder and becoming a partner in a consulting firm B) Launching a boutique consulting firm C) Leaving consulting to manage a nonprofit D) Leaving consulting to buy a failing manufacturing firm and forge a “turnaround” E) Entering the management ranks of a major corporation The answer is yes! This candidate could justify any of these long-term goals (along with many others), as long as he/she connects them to experiences gained via his/her career as a consultant. With regard to your goals, do not feel constrained—just be sure to emphasize and illustrate that your career objectives are logical, achievable and ambitious. |
06 Oct 2014, 13:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Beyoncé Case Study at Harvard |
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Beyoncé certainly qualifies as a successful, global brand—so we were hardly surprised to learn that Harvard Business School (HBS) students are now studying her. On December 13, 2013, Beyoncé changed the music world with the surprise iTunes release of a new self-titled album. Beyoncé—which contains 14 tracks and 17 videos—sold more than 600,000 copies in just the first three days. An album of this magnitude is incredibly time-consuming, requiring a large amount of planning and work, yet the singer and those close to her somehow managed to keep the huge undertaking a secret. Harvard Professor of Business Administration Anita Elberse teamed with HBS alumna Stacie Smith (MBA ’14) to develop a case study on the phenomenon. The 27-page report explores Beyoncé’s early career, the founding of her company (Parkwood Entertainment), her role as a CEO, and the path that led her to drop a metaphorical bomb on the album release process. Elberse will use the case study as part of her Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries course. To learn more about the research, read the full Billboard article—or see the pre-study press release in the Harvard Gazette. |
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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