closeEvents & Promotions
| Last visit was: 28 Apr 2024, 14:20 |
It is currently 28 Apr 2024, 14:20 |
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
08:00 AM EDT
-09:00 AM EDT
08:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
12:00 PM EDT
-11:59 PM EDT
08:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
10:00 AM PDT
-12:00 PM PDT
10:00 AM EDT
-10:30 AM EDT
12:00 PM EDT
-01:00 PM EDT
09 May 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Avoid Mentioning Rankings |
|
In MBA application essays and admissions interviews, candidates should thoroughly explain their interest in a specific program by developing and presenting arguments that center on the school’s academic and environmental attributes (e.g., research institutes, professors, experiential learning opportunities, classes, pedagogies). However, applicants should definitely not refer to the school’s position in the various MBA rankings as a reason for applying. Although applicants, administrators, students, and alumni all pay attention to rankings, within a candidate’s application, the topic is entirely taboo. Why is this? Rankings are a measure of a school’s reputation and fluctuate from year to year. By citing rankings, you indicate that you could (or would) be dissatisfied by a drop in your target program’s prestige as conveyed by such rankings—a drop that would be out of the school’s control and that, from the institution’s perspective, could ostensibly put your relationship as a future student (and later as an alumnus/alumna) at risk. Further, MBA programs want to be sure that you are attracted to their various academic offerings and that you have profound professional needs that they can satisfy. Rankings, however, are superficial, and referencing them in your application materials undermines the profundity of your research and motives. The post Monday Morning Essay Tip: Avoid Mentioning Rankings appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
10 May 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: The MBA Resume, Part 1 |
|
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. In your MBA resume, make sure that you are showcasing your accomplishments, not merely stating the responsibilities of your position. When your responsibilities are presented with no accompanying results, the reader has no understanding of whether you were effective in the role you are highlighting. For example, consider the following entry, in which only responsibilities are offered: 2012–Present Household Products Group, Flocter & Gramble Cincinnati, Ohio Brand Manager 
2012–Present Flocter & Gramble Cincinnati, Ohio Brand Manager
The post Mission Admission: The MBA Resume, Part 1 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
10 May 2016, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Kairos Founder and CEO Brian Brackeen Shares His Entrepreneurial Story |
 Brian Brackeen, CEO of Kairos Today, many aspiring MBAs and MBA graduates want to join start-ups or launch such companies themselves. Is entrepreneurship as exciting as it seems? Is it really for you? mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald has teamed up with Venture for America and CBS Interactive to launch Smart People Should Build Things: The Venture for America Podcast. Each week, Shinewald interviews another entrepreneur so you can hear the gritty stories of their ups and downs on the road to success. Brian Brackeen founded human analytics company Kairos in 2011, after an extensive career working at such firms as Apple and IBM. He built Kairos with algorithms created for facial recognition software—the results of which are now accessed by thousands of customers. Tune in to the podcast episode to hear these fascinating details and many more:
Subscribe to the podcast series to catch every entrepreneurial story! The post Kairos Founder and CEO Brian Brackeen Shares His Entrepreneurial Story appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
11 May 2016, 07:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Sharon Oster, Yale School of Management |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school. However, the educational experience you will have 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 Sharon Oster from the Yale School of Management. A second-year student we interviewed at the Yale School of Management (SOM) remarked that Sharon Oster “loves teaching almost more than [she loved] being dean!” Oster, who served as the dean from 2008 to 2011, is the Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and has taught “Basics of Economics,” part of the first-year core, for several years. Oster’s expertise lies in economics and nonprofit management. She is the author of several widely used business school textbooks, including Modern Competitive Analysis, and has co-authored introductory economics texts such as Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Economics (both with Karl E. Case and Ray C. Fair). In addition, Oster is an expert in nonprofit management. Her text Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations: Theory and Cases is used in the SOM course “Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organizations,” which Oster teaches. For more information about the Yale SOM and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Professor Profiles: Sharon Oster, Yale School of Management appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
12 May 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Celebrate the End of the Semester with CBS Follies |
|
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. The end of each semester at Columbia Business School (CBS) is marked with CBS Follies—a completely student-run comedy and entertainment show that is performed for the school’s student body, which, we were informed, has been known to get rather rowdy during the presentation. CBS Follies made a particularly strong impact back in 2006 with the YouTube hit “Every Breath Bernanke Takes,” which lampooned Dean R. Glenn Hubbard’s position as runner-up to Ben Bernanke to become chairman of the Federal Reserve. More recently, a video from the fall 2014 Follies titled “*complain* in Business”—a parody of the hit song “All About That Bass” that celebrated the phenomenon of powerful women in the workplace—made quite an impression and had been viewed on YouTube more than 3.1 million times as of this post. Each edition of the Follies centers on a theme. In fall 2015, the theme was “Fast Times at Follies High,” and the spring 2016 event was themed “Uris by Uriswest”—a play on the South by Southwest festival and the school’s own Uris Hall. For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at CBS and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Beyond the MBA Classroom: Celebrate the End of the Semester with CBS Follies appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
12 May 2016, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Opportunities at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business |
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. In 2013, the University of Texas McCombs School of Business introduced several highlights to its MBA experience that would allow students to benefit from expanded opportunities for work experience (including with nonprofits), entrepreneurship, and leadership programming. For example, a pilot program for brand management experience with Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s Yoo-hoo brand was expanded. In what is now called the Marketing Labs program, teams of students learn marketing skills by working hands-on for major firms. Another addition, the Texas Venture Labs Scholarship, awards MBA scholarships to winners of a start-up pitch competition, in which both admitted and prospective students can compete. In the area of nonprofit work, McCombs hosts a chapter of the Net Impact program, which affords students the chance to work on socially and environmentally responsible projects aimed at solving major societal problems. In 2014, the McCombs chapter was chosen as the Net Impact Graduate Chapter of the Year. The post Diamonds in the Rough: Opportunities at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
13 May 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Launch a Business at Chicago Booth |
Chicago Booth is just a finance school, right? Wrong. In the past, we have discussed the strengths of the school’s marketing program, to the surprise of some. Likewise, we feel that not enough applicants are aware of Chicago Booth’s robust “hands-on” entrepreneurial offerings, available through its Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Where to begin? Chicago Booth’s practical academic programs extend into the field of entrepreneurship with the school’s “New Venture and Small Enterprise Lab.” Herein, students work within a host firm or take on a dedicated project in a class designed to train those who intend to ultimately join start-ups or provide consulting services to them. In addition, the Polsky Center sponsors the annual Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge, a business plan competition that in 2015 awarded capital in spaces as diverse as payment solutions, flexible solar panels, food preparation, and children’s toys. Further, entrepreneurially minded Chicago Booth students can apply for funding from the Hyde Park Angels (HPA), a group of former Chicago Booth Executive MBA students who make investments of between $250K and $3M in start-ups. Although the HPA is an arms-length organization and does not source investments exclusively from Chicago Booth, it maintains a connection to the Polsky Center, which supports the HPA’s mission. So, students hoping to get in front of the HPA’s investment committee will have a built-in networking advantage. Further, the HPA offers students the opportunity to intern as associates and gain venture capital experience while pursuing their MBA at Chicago Booth. Believe it or not, we are just scratching the surface here. Again, Chicago Booth is most definitely not “just a finance school.” For more information on Chicago Booth and 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Friday Factoid: Launch a Business at Chicago Booth appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
14 May 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: They Just Don’t Take the GRE Seriously! |
|
One of the main themes throughout our MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed series has been that applicants should not assume that admissions officers are trying to trick them. Many applicants worry that admissions officers say one thing but really mean another. As a result, many candidates assume that their interviews are worthless—that they essentially “don’t count”—unless they are conducted by someone from the admissions office, or that they need to know a highly placed alumnus/alumna from their target school to be admitted, or that they need to pander to a school’s stereotypes to get in. These days, an emerging myth—which assumes that admissions officers are up to their old (and candidates’ entirely imagined) tricks—asserts that the GMAT is taken far more seriously than the GRE, and thus that the GRE is of dubious value to applicants. We think that we can destroy this myth with a few simple rhetorical/logical questions: Why would an admissions office encourage you to take a test that it would not value? Why would an admissions committee disenfranchise applicants who take the GRE, when one of the main purposes of permitting the GRE is to expand the applicant pool? Why would admissions officers waste precious time devising such a devious scheme in the first place? “The exam itself is less important than your performance on that exam relative to your peers,” says Dan Gonzalez, president of Manhattan Prep. “Think less about which exam schools want you to take and more about which exam will give you the best shot at showing off your skills. The GMAT and the GRE are quite different—take some time to learn about these differences before making your decision.” So if you are considering taking the GRE—because you want to keep your options open for grad school or just because you think the test plays to your strengths—then you should first check to see if your target schools accept the test. Next, if they do, you should study hard and… take the GRE! The post MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: They Just Don’t Take the GRE Seriously! appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
15 May 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: Developing Your GMAT Study Plan |
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. Help! I need to get ready for the GMAT—where do I even start? You need to make a few major decisions at the beginning, starting with this one: do you want to study on your own, take a class, or work with a private tutor? Each path has its advantages and disadvantages; this article can help you decide. Next, if you take a class or work with a tutor, then your teacher will give you a study plan, at least for the length of time that you are working together. If not, you will have to devise your own study plan. This will take some effort, but it is not rocket science—if you are thoughtful and thorough, you can put together a very good study plan. I want to point out a couple of highlights from the study plan article. First, you need to know your goal and your starting point; if you do not know what level you are at right now or what score you are trying to achieve, then putting together a good study plan is impossible. Second, you are going to need study materials that fall into three broad categories: (1) test content and methodology (what to study and how to study), (2) practice questions (best source: Official Guide and other official practice question materials), and (3) practice tests. Finally, make sure that you know how to study/learn in an efficient and effective manner. Hint: doing 2,000 practice problems does NOT equal “efficient and effective.” Nor does taking a practice test every three days, or even every week. Read the article for more! The post GMAT Impact: Developing Your GMAT Study Plan appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
16 May 2016, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Use Humor with Discretion |
 Although we often offer a “how to” and a “how not to” example as part of our Monday Morning Essay Tips, we cannot present a simple illustration of our advice this week. This is because our focus this time is on humor, which is nuanced and can be deemed appropriate only with a full understanding of the context in which it is presented. Therefore, we offer merely a strong suggestion: be very careful when using humor in your essays. The line between being funny and coming across as immature, inappropriate, or even careless is a very fine one. In our view, the writers who use humor best are those who possess the skill to appear clever or witty and are not striving to portray themselves as stand-up comics. Your essays are not the proper venue in which to showcase your latest routine, though a mildly self-deprecating anecdote with humorous undertones could help reveal your personality if well executed. Keep in mind that humor itself is not the goal of your essay but part of a broader story and message to your reader. If you have a strong voice and can use humor with subtlety, then proceed—but even then, do so with caution and ensure that you get an honest, solid critique before you submit your final draft. The post Monday Morning Essay Tip: Use Humor with Discretion appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
16 May 2016, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Learn How Dia&Co.’s Nadia Boujarwah Succeeded by Delivering Fashion to the Underserved Plus-Sized Market |
 Nadia Boujarwah, CEO of Dia&Co Today, many aspiring MBAs and MBA graduates want to join start-ups or launch such companies themselves. Is entrepreneurship as exciting as it seems? Is it really for you? mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald has teamed up with Venture for America and CBS Interactive to launch Smart People Should Build Things: The Venture for America Podcast. Each week, Shinewald interviews another entrepreneur so you can hear the gritty stories of their ups and downs on the road to success. Nadia Boujarwah realized her dream of becoming an entrepreneur by founding Dia&Co., a personal-shopping service focused on plus-sized clothing for women, after graduating from Harvard Business School. The company surveys clients and delivers them a curated box of clothing based on their responses. Download or stream the podcast episode to hear Boujarwah share these details of her success story and more:
Subscribe to the podcast series to stay on top of recent innovations from successful entrepreneurs! The post Learn How Dia&Co.’s Nadia Boujarwah Succeeded by Delivering Fashion to the Underserved Plus-Sized Market appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
17 May 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: The MBA Resume, Part 2 |
|
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. Presenting quantifiable results in your resume is preferred, because such results clearly convey your success in the actions you undertook. However, in some instances, you simply cannot quantify your success. In such cases, you can instead demonstrate nonquantifiable or even potential results. Consider the following examples:
The post Mission Admission: The MBA Resume, Part 2 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
17 May 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 |
 After just one year, Harvard Business School (HBS) has done away with its “introduce yourself” essay prompt, which gave applicants a lot of leeway to share their story on their terms, and has returned to an even broader prompt—one that at first may seem as though it has no parameters at all. This year’s question is almost exactly the same as the one the school used in 2013–2014, when it asked, “What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?” This year, the question is “What more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?” (italics ours). We presume that after seeing the essays candidates submitted in response to its “introduce yourself” prompt, the HBS admissions committee simply determined that the previous essay question generated “better” essays that proved more valuable in their decision-making process. Regardless of the reason behind the change, you will need to find the best way to approach this year’s prompt, which we will now analyze in more detail… “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?” (no word limit) Take special note of the word “more” in this straightforward question. With it, the admissions committee is subtly acknowledging that it already has a lot of information about you that it can and will use to get to know you better, including your resume, extracurricular activities, recommendations, short-answer question responses, academic transcripts, and GMAT/GRE score. You should therefore think first about what these portions of your application convey about who you are as an individual and candidate, so you can determine which parts of your profile still need presenting or could benefit from more detail. Now, some applicants may fret that this means they absolutely cannot touch on anything mentioned elsewhere in their application, for fear that the admissions committee will grow furious and disqualify them. However, HBS is not asking only for fresh information—it is asking for more, and specifically, whatever “more” you believe the committee needs to evaluate you thoroughly and fairly. So, even though a bullet on your resume may inform the school of a certain fact, if a profoundly important story lurks behind that fact that you feel effectively expresses a key part of your personality or skill set, you should not feel hesitant to share that story. That said, we are not advocating for you to explore your resume in depth, just trying to convey that “more” here does not mean strictly “thus far unmentioned.” Register for our FREE event on June 22, 2016: Writing A Standout HBS Application Essay presented by mbaMission (Live Online Classroom) Before we discuss a few approaches you might take in framing this essay, we must note that your goal in writing it is sincerity. The admissions committee is not staffed by robots, seeking to detect a certain “type” of applicant. These are human beings who are trying to get to know you and really want to end up liking you! With this essay, you essentially want to forge a meaningful connection with a complete stranger, and if you try to present yourself as something or someone you are not, you will fail. You, like many other applicants, may worry that your sincere stories will sound clichéd. For example, if you want to write about making a difference, you may wince simply thinking those words: “making a difference.” But the power of your story does not lie in the theme you choose (if you choose to write thematically, that is), but in the manner in which you reveal your actions. If you have truly made a significant difference in the lives of others and can own that angle by offering powerful anecdotes and demonstrating a deep emotional connection to others and profound purpose in your acts, you can write on this topic. Although more than a few candidates will undoubtedly submit clichéd pieces on making a difference, if you can capture your admissions reader’s attention fully and make a strong enough impression, the cliché aspect will disappear, and he or she will be impressed by your actions and character. So, what approach might you take to this essay? The prompt is so open-ended that we cannot possibly capture all possible options, but here are a few:
Finally, let us talk about word limits! HBS has not stipulated any particular parameters, but keep in mind that with each word, you are making a claim on someone else’s time—so you better make sure that what you have written is worth that additional time and effort. We expect that most of our clients will use between 750 and 1,000 words, with some using as few as 600 and a small minority using as many as 1,250. We have difficulty imagining a scenario in which an applicant would truly need more than 1,250, but we certainly know of candidates who were accepted with essays that exceeded that high target. In short, take the space you need to tell your story properly and showcase your personality and experience, and then work to reduce your essay to its lowest possible word count, without sacrificing any impact or effectiveness. Have the Last Word: The Post-Interview Reflection (conditional on being interviewed) From the admissions committee: “Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process.” For the fourth consecutive year, HBS ask candidates who are granted an interview to complete one more written task. Within 24 hours of interviewing, you must submit some final words of reflection, addressing the question “How well did we get to know you?” As with the application essay, this post-interview reflection is open-ended; you can structure it however you wish and write about whatever you want to tell the committee. HBS urges interviewed applicants not to approach this reflection as a formal essay but instead “as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor after a meeting.” Some candidates may find this additional submission intimidating, but we encourage you to view it as an opportunity to reveal new aspects of your profile to the admissions committee. Because your HBS interviewer will have read your entire application before your meeting, you will likely discuss information from your resume, essays, recommendations, etc., during your interview. This post-interview reflection, then, could provide an opening for you to integrate new and different elements of your profile, thereby adding depth to your candidacy. For example, if you could not find a way to include the story of a key life experience of yours into your essays, but your interviewer touches on a similar story or something connected with this experience in your meeting, you would now have license to share that anecdote. As soon as your interview is over, jot down all the topics covered and stories you discussed. If you interview on campus, note also any observations about your time there. For example, sitting in on a class might have reminded you of a compelling past experience, or participating in the case method may have provided insight into an approach you could use in some way in the future. Maybe the people you met or a building you saw made a meaningful impression on you. Whatever these elements are, tie them to aspects of your background and profile while adding some new thoughts and information about yourself. This last part is key—simply describing your visit will not teach the admissions committee anything about you, and a flat statement like “I loved the case method” will not make you stand out. Similarly, offering a summary of everything the admissions committee already knows about you will not advance your candidacy and would constitute a lost opportunity to keep the committee learning about who you are. HBS offers some additional advice on the post-interview reflection that we strongly urge you to take seriously and follow:
For a thorough exploration of HBS’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School. (Note: As a complement to our essay analysis, be sure to read Jeremy Shinewald’sPoets & Quants article “Before You Write That HBS Essay,” in which he offers his top five dos and don’ts for this essay question.) The Next Step—Mastering Your HBS Interview: Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. And, on your way to this high level of preparation, we offer our free Interview Primers to spur you along! Download your free copy of the Harvard Business School Interview Primer today—and be sure to check out our one-of-a-kind service: HBS Mock Interview and Post-Interview Reflection Support. The post Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
17 May 2016, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 |
|
After just one year, Harvard Business School (HBS) has done away with its “introduce yourself” essay prompt, which gave applicants a lot of leeway to share their story on their terms, and has returned to an even broader prompt—one that at first may seem as though it has no parameters at all. This year’s question is almost exactly the same as the one the school used in 2013–2014, when it asked, “What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?” This year, the question is “What more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?” (italics ours). We presume that after seeing the essays candidates submitted in response to its “introduce yourself” prompt, the HBS admissions committee simply determined that the previous essay question generated “better” essays that proved more valuable in their decision-making process. Regardless of the reason behind the change, you will need to find the best way to approach this year’s prompt, which we will now analyze in more detail… Register for our FREE webinar on June 22, 2016: Writing A Standout HBS Application Essay “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?” (no word limit) Take special note of the word “more” in this straightforward question. With it, the admissions committee is subtly acknowledging that it already has a lot of information about you that it can and will use to get to know you better, including your resume, extracurricular activities, recommendations, short-answer question responses, academic transcripts, and GMAT/GRE score. You should therefore think first about what these portions of your application convey about who you are as an individual and candidate, so you can determine which parts of your profile still need presenting or could benefit from more detail. Now, some applicants may fret that this means they absolutely cannot touch on anything mentioned elsewhere in their application, for fear that the admissions committee will grow furious and disqualify them. However, HBS is not asking only for fresh information—it is asking for more, and specifically, whatever “more” you believe the committee needs to evaluate you thoroughly and fairly. So, even though a bullet on your resume may inform the school of a certain fact, if a profoundly important story lurks behind that fact that you feel effectively expresses a key part of your personality or skill set, you should not feel hesitant to share that story. That said, we are not advocating for you to explore your resume in depth, just trying to convey that “more” here does not mean strictly “thus far unmentioned.” Before we discuss a few approaches you might take in framing this essay, we must note that your goal in writing it is sincerity. The admissions committee is not staffed by robots, seeking to detect a certain “type” of applicant. These are human beings who are trying to get to know you and really want to end up liking you! With this essay, you essentially want to forge a meaningful connection with a complete stranger, and if you try to present yourself as something or someone you are not, you will fail. You, like many other applicants, may worry that your sincere stories will sound clichéd. For example, if you want to write about making a difference, you may wince simply thinking those words: “making a difference.” But the power of your story does not lie in the theme you choose (if you choose to write thematically, that is), but in the manner in which you reveal your actions. If you have truly made a significant difference in the lives of others and can own that angle by offering powerful anecdotes and demonstrating a deep emotional connection to others and profound purpose in your acts, you can write on this topic. Although more than a few candidates will undoubtedly submit clichéd pieces on making a difference, if you can capture your admissions reader’s attention fully and make a strong enough impression, the cliché aspect will disappear, and he or she will be impressed by your actions and character. So, what approach might you take to this essay? The prompt is so open-ended that we cannot possibly capture all possible options, but here are a few:
Finally, let us talk about word limits! HBS has not stipulated any particular parameters, but keep in mind that with each word, you are making a claim on someone else’s time—so you better make sure that what you have written is worth that additional time and effort. We expect that most of our clients will use between 750 and 1,000 words, with some using as few as 600 and a small minority using as many as 1,250. We have difficulty imagining a scenario in which an applicant would truly need more than 1,250, but we certainly know of candidates who were accepted with essays that exceeded that high target. In short, take the space you need to tell your story properly and showcase your personality and experience, and then work to reduce your essay to its lowest possible word count, without sacrificing any impact or effectiveness. Have the Last Word: The Post-Interview Reflection (conditional on being interviewed) From the admissions committee: “Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process.” For the fourth consecutive year, HBS ask candidates who are granted an interview to complete one more written task. Within 24 hours of interviewing, you must submit some final words of reflection, addressing the question “How well did we get to know you?” As with the application essay, this post-interview reflection is open-ended; you can structure it however you wish and write about whatever you want to tell the committee. HBS urges interviewed applicants not to approach this reflection as a formal essay but instead “as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor after a meeting.” Some candidates may find this additional submission intimidating, but we encourage you to view it as an opportunity to reveal new aspects of your profile to the admissions committee. Because your HBS interviewer will have read your entire application before your meeting, you will likely discuss information from your resume, essays, recommendations, etc., during your interview. This post-interview reflection, then, could provide an opening for you to integrate new and different elements of your profile, thereby adding depth to your candidacy. For example, if you could not find a way to include the story of a key life experience of yours into your essays, but your interviewer touches on a similar story or something connected with this experience in your meeting, you would now have license to share that anecdote. As soon as your interview is over, jot down all the topics covered and stories you discussed. If you interview on campus, note also any observations about your time there. For example, sitting in on a class might have reminded you of a compelling past experience, or participating in the case method may have provided insight into an approach you could use in some way in the future. Maybe the people you met or a building you saw made a meaningful impression on you. Whatever these elements are, tie them to aspects of your background and profile while adding some new thoughts and information about yourself. This last part is key—simply describing your visit will not teach the admissions committee anything about you, and a flat statement like “I loved the case method” will not make you stand out. Similarly, offering a summary of everything the admissions committee already knows about you will not advance your candidacy and would constitute a lost opportunity to keep the committee learning about who you are. HBS offers some additional advice on the post-interview reflection that we strongly urge you to take seriously and follow:
For a thorough exploration of HBS’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School. (Note: As a complement to our essay analysis, be sure to read Jeremy Shinewald’sPoets & Quants article “Before You Write That HBS Essay,” in which he offers his top five dos and don’ts for this essay question.) The Next Step—Mastering Your HBS Interview: Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. And, on your way to this high level of preparation, we offer our free Interview Primers to spur you along! Download your free copy of the Harvard Business School Interview Primer today—and be sure to check out our one-of-a-kind service: HBS Mock Interview and Post-Interview Reflection Support. The post Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
17 May 2016, 10:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 |
|
After just one year, Harvard Business School (HBS) has done away with its “introduce yourself” essay prompt, which gave applicants a lot of leeway to share their story on their terms, and has returned to an even broader prompt—one that at first may seem as though it has no parameters at all. This year’s question is almost exactly the same as the one the school used in 2013–2014, when it asked, “What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?” This year, the question is “What more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?” (italics ours). We presume that after seeing the essays candidates submitted in response to its “introduce yourself” prompt, the HBS admissions committee simply determined that the previous essay question generated “better” essays that proved more valuable in their decision-making process. Regardless of the reason behind the change, you will need to find the best way to approach this year’s prompt, which we will now analyze in more detail… Register for our FREE webinar on June 22, 2016: Writing A Standout HBS Application Essay “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?” (no word limit) Take special note of the word “more” in this straightforward question. With it, the admissions committee is subtly acknowledging that it already has a lot of information about you that it can and will use to get to know you better, including your resume, extracurricular activities, recommendations, short-answer question responses, academic transcripts, and GMAT/GRE score. You should therefore think first about what these portions of your application convey about who you are as an individual and candidate, so you can determine which parts of your profile still need presenting or could benefit from more detail. Now, some applicants may fret that this means they absolutely cannot touch on anything mentioned elsewhere in their application, for fear that the admissions committee will grow furious and disqualify them. However, HBS is not asking only for fresh information—it is asking for more, and specifically, whatever “more” you believe the committee needs to evaluate you thoroughly and fairly. So, even though a bullet on your resume may inform the school of a certain fact, if a profoundly important story lurks behind that fact that you feel effectively expresses a key part of your personality or skill set, you should not feel hesitant to share that story. That said, we are not advocating for you to explore your resume in depth, just trying to convey that “more” here does not mean strictly “thus far unmentioned.” Before we discuss a few approaches you might take in framing this essay, we must note that your goal in writing it is sincerity. The admissions committee is not staffed by robots, seeking to detect a certain “type” of applicant. These are human beings who are trying to get to know you and really want to end up liking you! With this essay, you essentially want to forge a meaningful connection with a complete stranger, and if you try to present yourself as something or someone you are not, you will fail. You, like many other applicants, may worry that your sincere stories will sound clichéd. For example, if you want to write about making a difference, you may wince simply thinking those words: “making a difference.” But the power of your story does not lie in the theme you choose (if you choose to write thematically, that is), but in the manner in which you reveal your actions. If you have truly made a significant difference in the lives of others and can own that angle by offering powerful anecdotes and demonstrating a deep emotional connection to others and profound purpose in your acts, you can write on this topic. Although more than a few candidates will undoubtedly submit clichéd pieces on making a difference, if you can capture your admissions reader’s attention fully and make a strong enough impression, the cliché aspect will disappear, and he or she will be impressed by your actions and character. So, what approach might you take to this essay? The prompt is so open-ended that we cannot possibly capture all possible options, but here are a few:
Finally, let us talk about word limits! HBS has not stipulated any particular parameters, but keep in mind that with each word, you are making a claim on someone else’s time—so you better make sure that what you have written is worth that additional time and effort. We expect that most of our clients will use between 750 and 1,000 words, with some using as few as 600 and a small minority using as many as 1,250. We have difficulty imagining a scenario in which an applicant would truly need more than 1,250, but we certainly know of candidates who were accepted with essays that exceeded that high target. In short, take the space you need to tell your story properly and showcase your personality and experience, and then work to reduce your essay to its lowest possible word count, without sacrificing any impact or effectiveness. Have the Last Word: The Post-Interview Reflection (conditional on being interviewed) From the admissions committee: “Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process.” For the fourth consecutive year, HBS ask candidates who are granted an interview to complete one more written task. Within 24 hours of interviewing, you must submit some final words of reflection, addressing the question “How well did we get to know you?” As with the application essay, this post-interview reflection is open-ended; you can structure it however you wish and write about whatever you want to tell the committee. HBS urges interviewed applicants not to approach this reflection as a formal essay but instead “as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor after a meeting.” Some candidates may find this additional submission intimidating, but we encourage you to view it as an opportunity to reveal new aspects of your profile to the admissions committee. Because your HBS interviewer will have read your entire application before your meeting, you will likely discuss information from your resume, essays, recommendations, etc., during your interview. This post-interview reflection, then, could provide an opening for you to integrate new and different elements of your profile, thereby adding depth to your candidacy. For example, if you could not find a way to include the story of a key life experience of yours into your essays, but your interviewer touches on a similar story or something connected with this experience in your meeting, you would now have license to share that anecdote. As soon as your interview is over, jot down all the topics covered and stories you discussed. If you interview on campus, note also any observations about your time there. For example, sitting in on a class might have reminded you of a compelling past experience, or participating in the case method may have provided insight into an approach you could use in some way in the future. Maybe the people you met or a building you saw made a meaningful impression on you. Whatever these elements are, tie them to aspects of your background and profile while adding some new thoughts and information about yourself. This last part is key—simply describing your visit will not teach the admissions committee anything about you, and a flat statement like “I loved the case method” will not make you stand out. Similarly, offering a summary of everything the admissions committee already knows about you will not advance your candidacy and would constitute a lost opportunity to keep the committee learning about who you are. HBS offers some additional advice on the post-interview reflection that we strongly urge you to take seriously and follow:
For a thorough exploration of HBS’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School. (Note: As a complement to our essay analysis, be sure to read Jeremy Shinewald’sPoets & Quants article “Before You Write That HBS Essay,” in which he offers his top five dos and don’ts for this essay question.) The Next Step—Mastering Your HBS Interview: Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. And, on your way to this high level of preparation, we offer our free Interview Primers to spur you along! Download your free copy of the Harvard Business School Interview Primer today—and be sure to check out our one-of-a-kind service: HBS Mock Interview and Post-Interview Reflection Support. The post Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
18 May 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: David Beim, Columbia Business School |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school. However, the educational experience you will have 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 David Beim from Columbia Business School (CBS). That a core-curriculum finance professor makes our roster of notable professors may be surprising to some of our readers—especially considering that many of CBS’s core-curriculum professors reportedly cycle through and leave the school after just a few years—but we learned that David Beim made an impact on his classroom and his students by delving beneath the numbers. An alumnus we interviewed included Beim as one of CBS’s “amazing” professors with success in top industries, and another, referring to one of Beim’s courses, told mbaMission, “I think that class could have just been about how to run a pretty spreadsheet and be technically proficient, but he made it be about how finance is the lifeblood of a business.” Beim retired from CBS in 2014 but his career serves as a prime example of a professor devoted to the school. For more information about CBS and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Professor Profiles: David Beim, Columbia Business School appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
18 May 2016, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: mbaMission’s Exclusive Interview with Yale School of Management’s Admissions Director Bruce DelMonico |
|
Bruce DelMonico, Yale School of Management’s Admissions Director The Yale School of Management’s (SOM’s) long-standing admissions director, Bruce DelMonico, recently took some time to chat with us about the MBA program’s current admissions process and provide insight into a few issues that are no doubt of interest to Yale SOM applicants. The following are just a few of the key topics DelMonico addressed:
mbaMission: First, let me start by thanking you for talking with me today. We appreciate it. Some have been saying that the Yale School of Management [SOM] is losing its reputation of being quirky and untraditional and instead becoming more Wall Street, more corporate. Would you agree with this, and if so, does it change the kind of student you’re trying to attract? Bruce DelMonico: I’ve heard that over the past year or two—concerns about the culture changing or losing the school’s character—but actually, I don’t agree with that assessment. From the admissions perspective, first of all, it hasn’t changed anything in terms of what we’re doing or who we’re hoping to attract. I haven’t seen changes in terms of the composition of the incoming students. I think if anything, in terms of that first job after graduation, the shift may be a little bit more toward consulting. I think that’s probably consistent with what other schools are seeing. I don’t think that’s a sign of anything large or any major deviation from our culture or mission, or from the character of the school. I think that remains intact. mbaMission: Great. The school has seen a pretty steady increase in application numbers over the past couple years. What do you believe is driving this increase, and what effect has it had, if any, on how you evaluate candidates? And what’s been the effect on selectivity? BD: That’s a good question. I think you could even go back farther and say that over the past decade, there’s been an increase. I’ve been at the school for 11 years now, and when I started, we received somewhere around 2,000 applications. Now we receive somewhere around 3,500. So, in my time, there’s been about a 70% increase in the number of applications we receive, which is a big jump. And I think there are a number of things behind this. I’d like to think that some of things we do in admissions have helped, but there have also been changes on a larger scale—the introduction of the integrated curriculum, Dean [Ted] Snyder’s arrival—a lot of momentum that’s been happening, so really sharpening our focus, deepening our integration with the university, expanding our global presence and our global aspirations, really working to continue to refine our integrated curriculum, and then things like Evans Hall, our new campus, have helped us or garnered attention. I think all those things have contributed to the growth of our applicant pool. As for the selectivity, we’ve been roughly in the same range over the past few years, because as we’ve grown the pool, we’ve also grown the class size. We used to be in the low 200s in terms of the class, and now, we’re in the low 300s. So the class has grown to a large degree in parallel with the applicant pool, and I think that’s held the selectivity consistent. In terms of the evaluation process, we obviously have more files to go through. But we of course want to maintain the quality of the process and not cut corners. We have more people reviewing, so that’s helped, but some of it is just simply working a little harder. We definitely evaluate more files in a week than we had previously, but we don’t want to devote any less time to them. We actually have a consensus-based process, which means we all sit down as a committee and have to be in agreement on the outcome of the files, of the applicants. Naturally, that has taken more time as the pool has grown, but we’ve been able to manage it. I’m a believer in that consensus model, so that’s something we’ll stay with. mbaMission: That does seem like it might slow the process down a bit, having a whole group making the final decisions, rather than just one or two people. BD: It does, but my belief is that it yields a richer outcome, and we make sure that we’re balancing, so that everybody brings a different perspective. I think that’s an important part of the process. mbaMission: Sure. With the increase in applications, do you feel you’ve also seen an increase in quality, for a lack of better word, in the applicants you’re getting, or are you just getting a greater number of the same-level candidates? BD: My sense is that it’s more the latter than the former. We’ve always received really, really strong, high-quality applications, and we continue to. So I don’t know that qualitatively, there’s been at the top end a huge increase in the quality of the pool. What we’ve seen is that there have been more of those high-quality applicants, if that makes sense. I don’t think the quality of the top end has gotten any stronger, but the depth maybe has gotten a little bit deeper. I think that’s obviously a good thing for us. mbaMission: Got it. You regularly offer applicants the advice of being themselves in their application, rather than trying to be whatever they think you or the admissions committee wants them to be. How do you know when someone is not being genuine in their application? Are there certain tells? BD: Maybe there are people who are so good at it we can’t tell! But we do tell people to be themselves, and I know other schools do as well, and we do it for a good reason. We want to get a sense of who you really are. I’ve used this analogy in the past, and hopefully, it’s a helpful one, but my professional background is that I’m a lawyer, so I was a litigator. And when you’re preparing someone for a deposition or for trial, the first thing you tell them is to tell the truth. And there are two reasons you do that: one is that it’s right thing to do, and then the second is that it’s much easier to remember the truth. And I think that applies in the application process as well. What we’re looking for as we’re evaluating candidates is to make sure that everything kind of fits together, which isn’t to say that it has to be entirely consistent across every element of the application, that it’s all uniform. But when you say one thing in your essay about what you’ve done and what you’re interested in doing, and then your recommenders say something completely different, and your academic record and professional background show something else, those are the things we see as potential tells that you’re trying to present yourself as someone other than who you are. So that will raise a red flag for us. By telling the truth and being yourself, you’re not presenting multiple selves to different schools, and you don’t have to keep track of “What did I say to this school?” and “What did I say to that school?” I think there’s a sense that some schools are finance schools or marketing schools or nonprofit schools or operations schools, and therefore you need to be a finance person or a marketing person or a nonprofit person or an operations person to each of these schools. I don’t know if that ever was the case in the past, but I know that certainly at Yale and every other school, the admissions offices are looking to put together a very diverse class, so you don’t have fit any one particular model or mold. mbaMission: Right. BD: But when you start to sort of shape your candidacy to fit the school—I mean obviously, you might highlight certain aspects of yourself to different schools, based on what you think might resonate more with them—but if you go too far in that direction, you start to seem insincere or not terribly genuine, and that’s where the red flags come in. So, if you have always been in finance and now you want to go into nonprofit, well, did you ever volunteer? Did you ever do anything in the nonprofit space? Where is that interest coming from? Or if you have always been in the nonprofit space and want to go into finance, where is that interest coming from? What’s behind that? If we see a disconnect there, that’s where we question that aspect of the candidacy. But even when we see that, that doesn’t automatically mean we’re not going to admit that person. Sometimes we’ll see a candidate who says, “I have these goals,” but we’ll look at their profile and get the sense that they’re saying that because they think that’s what they need to say. We might still admit them, and they might think they got admitted because they said that, but actually, they got admitted despite having said it. We recognize that they’re maybe being a little cute with the application, but we still find their application compelling, and we’re willing to overlook that. mbaMission: Okay. So what would you say to someone who thinks, “I can’t just be who I am in my application because I’m too boring,” or, “I don’t have anything impressive to say, so they won’t notice me”? What advice would you give someone like that? BD: That’s a good question. I have to say that if your goal is to stick out and be unique, no one else will have the same experiences you have, and even if you say, “I’m boring” or, “My career path has been too straightforward,” the way to stand out is to discuss what you did there, how you distinguished yourself. We’re looking for people who have a range of different backgrounds, but the thing that really makes them stand out is that they really sell what they’ve done. So if you maybe have what you think is a traditional MBA background, and you don’t stick out in terms of where you’ve been, the way to stick out is by focusing on what you’ve done. That’s really what will get our attention. mbaMission: Sure. If you were to speak to someone who had just decided to go for their MBA and hadn’t done any research at all on any of the top schools, but you could tell them only one thing about Yale, what would be your selling point? BD: No pressure! Okay, I won’t be evasive and say, “Well, I couldn’t pick just one.” If I really could give only one thing, I would say that we’re a school where the mission matters. Our mission is to educate leaders for business and society, and we really care about that mission. We care about living up to that mission. It’s very broad, it’s very multisector, and it’s the founding mission. It’s been the same since the school was founded back in 1970s. It very much still guides what we do at the school. So, that is the one thing I would tell someone who is just coming to the process and just learning about SOM. mbaMission: Nicely done! What guidance can you give someone who finds him- or herself on the waitlist? And why might someone end up on the waitlist in the first place? BD: People can end up on the waitlist for a number of different reasons. We might really like their candidacy, but there might be one thing we have a question about or one thing we feel they need to strengthen. It could be something very specific, or it could just be that it’s a very competitive applicant pool, and they’re strong, but we want to have a better sense of how the pool and the class are going to shape up before we make a final decision. They might be on the waitlist really just because of the competitiveness of the pool. We do also sometimes waitlist people without interviewing them, and I think that sometimes freaks people out, so just to let people know, that’s not the norm, but it’s not so uncommon that you should be concerned. If you didn’t get an interview but then find yourself on the waitlist, sometimes that can be a sign that there might be one thing that we have a question about or something we want to get a little more clarity on. The advice I would give, I think the main thing is that if you find yourself on the waitlist, when you get the decision, we will give you a list of FAQs that tells you, here are some next steps, here’s what you can do, and the first thing we say is to reach out and ask for feedback. We have an email address you can use to request feedback, and it surprises me the number of people I speak to on the waitlist, when I ask whether they asked for feedback, they say no. In my mind, that should be the first thing you do. We’ll tell you why you’re on the waitlist. We’ll tell you what we think you can do to improve your candidacy, to strengthen yourself and strengthen your chances of getting in. But there are people who don’t take advantage of that opportunity. So, the first thing is definitely ask us why you’re on the waitlist. It might be that it’s a very competitive year, and that’s all we can say, or there might be something very specific we can tell you that will help. The other thing is to continue to be in touch, but obviously, in appropriate ways and at appropriate times. If you have a major update, let us know. If you want to just check in every so often, that’s fine, too. But there are some people who are in touch several times a week. I would not suggest that; that’s what can distinguish you in a not-so-positive way. But every two weeks or once a month, if you want to check in and see how things are going and just reiterate your interest, that is always helpful to us. It’s always good for us to know that you remain interested, you want to continue to be considered, and that could be a helpful thing just by itself. mbaMission: Sure. Is there an end date for the Yale waitlist, or do you keep accepting candidates more or less up until the last minute? BD: It depends on the year. We can accept people sometimes up to the very last minute. We try to give people some sense of what the time frame is, but it depends on how things evolve on our end. We try not to keep a huge waitlist going into the summer, for example, just because it’s not fair to people to leave them in limbo for that long. So we try to have a somewhat more targeted waitlist. And every so often, at various points, we’ll reach out to see if you are still interested, so we know that if we get to the point where we’re thinking about making additional offers, we have a current list of people who are still interested and people who aren’t anymore. mbaMission: That makes sense. As you know best, Yale has accepted the GRE in addition to the GMAT for quite a while now. How would you compare the two exams from an admissions perspective, and if you were to recommend that an applicant take only one or the other, which one would you suggest? BD: Right, we have accepted the GRE for a number of years, and I think at this point, roughly 20% of students in our incoming class took the GRE as opposed to the GMAT, which I think is probably on the higher end among schools. We have no preference for one or the other; we value them equally. I think it would be a little perverse for us to accept both but then weight one more heavily than the other. We wouldn’t want to disadvantage anybody either way. In terms of recommending taking one or the other, I really think it’s a matter of personal preference, which one you feel more comfortable with. We look at them the same, and we incorporate them into the process the same way. There’s actually a concordance tool that ETS offers to help us better understand how the scores align. It’s a little bit broad, but it’s narrowed since the first inception, so it gives us a decent sense of what the corresponding score might be. We also have now a number of years of students who have come through and taken the GRE, so we’ve done our own regressions and analyses and have a better sense of how to view the tests. So, I think from the applicant perspective, it’s really just which one you feel more comfortable with. A lot of our applicants who have taken the GRE are interested in perhaps a joint degree with another school—so forestry and environmental sciences, for example, or public health—and they want to take just one test as opposed to two, and that’s fine. Or maybe they’re thinking about other graduate schools, not just business school, maybe something like public policy school, and the GRE has more flexibility in that regard. But it’s really a matter of personal preference. mbaMission: Okay. What was your primary motivation for adding the video component to the Yale application, and what information or insight do you feel you get from the video question that you don’t get from the other parts of the application? BD: We actually first piloted the video component in I think 2011, so it’s been several years since we first started playing around with it. And it came about from a conversation we had internally. I was talking to a colleague who has now moved on, and we were talking about how admissions offices really hadn’t incorporated technology in what we thought was a very beneficial way, things like video essays or having applicants upload some sort of multimedia presentation. We didn’t feel as though that was really taking advantage of the technology as much as it could, and it wasn’t really leveraging the benefits of the technology. At the same time, we felt that some of the formats might advantage people with more resources. They would be able to put together more impressive packages or have more advanced technology available to them. So we were thinking about what kind of technology we could use that would level the playing field but also give us really good insights that we wouldn’t be getting in other contexts. That’s where the video questions came about. Again, I think we piloted it in 2011. We played around with different vendors and different formats to get to where we are now, and I think it will continue to evolve. In terms of what we’re hoping to get out of it, at the basic level, we want to get a sense of someone’s speaking ability, especially their English ability if they’re a nonnative speaker. Actually, in tandem with incorporating the video questions, we eliminated the TOEFL and the IELTS requirements, so no English language test, because we felt we could evaluate that directly ourselves. Beyond that, we wanted to get a sense of how well someone can think in the moment, so that extemporaneous speaking ability, which is a little bit beyond basic English ability and can show how well you think on your feet, because that is a skill that is tested and needed in business school and beyond. We do focus some of the video questions on certain different competencies that we think are important. We’re still working on building that part in terms of really structuring the questions and coding the responses in a way that we feel is helpful to us. That’s where I think a lot of the evolution will be. But we do feel that the video question provides a perspective on the applicant that we can’t get just from the paper application. It provides a new dimension, a new aspect to the candidacy, and I can say that we tend to view it almost invariably as a positive. It’s very rare for the questions to be a negative in someone’s application. More often it’s the case that it will allow us to see something new and maybe be even more interested in the candidate than we were before, so I think it’s overall positive for the applicants. mbaMission: I’m sure that will be very reassuring to any candidates who may be worried about the video component. BD: I think that’s the thing that when I talk to people, they’re the most nervous and the most apprehensive about, and the advice I tend to give people is, first of all, we don’t expect perfection—nobody does it perfectly—and second, you invariably did better than you thought you did. I think people are just really nervous about it. mbaMission: Absolutely. Do you recommend that candidates apply in any specific round? Is one better than the other? BD: We really don’t. We model to admit the same quality of students in each round, so it’s not as though there’s an advantage to applying in one round versus another. We have three rounds, and we’re also part of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, so we do receive applications that come in through the consortium and that are referred to us. But in terms of our three direct application rounds, like a lot of schools, we counsel people that if they can avoid the third round, they should try to do that. That’s not because it’s inherently any more difficult, but just because it’s more variable. It depends on how many people have already been accepted into the class in the first two rounds, so you just don’t know. It could be more than we were expecting, or it could be less. It’s that uncertainty that can make it more challenging. The main piece of advice we give everybody is to apply when you have your strongest application ready. Don’t rush to get it in earlier if it’s going to be less strong. And especially between rounds one and two, as I said, we model so that the quality of people we’re admitting stays constant throughout, so there’s no advantage in applying in one round versus another. mbaMission: That’s helpful. What can reapplicants do to improve their chances the second time around? Those people who don’t get into Yale this year, what advice would you give them about trying again next year or the year after? BD: This is similar to what we tell people in terms of the waitlist. People are not successful for different reasons, so it’s not just one thing that each person can do; it’s really specific to an individual. And again, like with the waitlist, we’ll give feedback to applicants who are not successful. We do it over the summer, after the admissions season has wound down, in June, typically. We will provide feedback to anybody who was denied admission, and that’s really where you can get a sense of what you need to do to strengthen your candidacy, whether we felt you needed a little more professional experience, or we needed better evidence of your quantitative abilities, or any number of other things. We can give you that feedback, and that can help guide you as you think about strengthening your application for that reapplication. One other thing is that we run the numbers every year, and the admission rate for reapplicants is actually the same as for first-time applicants, so it’s definitely not the case that we have any sort of bias or prejudice against reapplicants. We definitely encourage them, and we definitely do admit people who have reapplied. mbaMission: That’s great. When you say you give feedback, what’s the format? Over the phone? BD: We’ve tried different formats, and right now, we do it by email. We find that’s the most helpful way to do it. mbaMission: Okay, thanks. Can you share any stories of outstanding applications or interview performance from the past couple years? What is something a candidate did or said that really stood out to you? BD: That’s such a tough one for a few reasons. One, candidacies are so different, there’s no template for it—you know, this person did this, so if you do that same thing, you’ll be successful. And I feel as though with things like interviews, for example, a lot is based on the relationship, the give-and-take between the interviewer and the interviewee, and that can vary from person to person, which I think makes the interview especially challenging. I can’t think of any particular things or stories that stood out. One thing, and again it comes back to sincerity, is people acknowledging weaknesses but then explaining them and what they’ve learned from them and what they’re hoping to improve on. If you’ve done that well, it definitely stands out. I find that, if done well, it can be incredibly compelling. So it’s not just constantly touting your successes and how great you are, but stepping back, having a little bit of perspective, a little bit of self-awareness and incorporating that into your reason for wanting to get an MBA or using it to show your growth and development. I find that I’m often drawn to and rooting for those candidates who show that kind of self-awareness, that sense of humility, that desire to grow at business school and beyond. mbaMission: That makes sense. What is a part of the application process that you would like to see applicants spend a little more time on or maybe take a little more seriously? BD: That’s another tough question, because every application is so different, and the weak points tend to differ for each person. Obviously, we’re looking for lots of different qualities, and we’re looking for lots of different competences as we evaluate candidates for the program. And this is an across-the-board kind of thing, but one thing we do look at is quantitative ability. All business schools have some quantitative component in the course work, and obviously, we’re ultimately looking to admit people with long-term professional success, but we also want to make sure they’re able to keep up and do well in the more immediate term, during their two years in the program. And one thing we see sometimes is applicants who maybe haven’t demonstrated that quantitative proficiency through their course work, their testing, or their work experience, or some combination of the three. We look at all those three together. And I think where people don’t take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen their profile is by either not acknowledging that they might not have that exposure or as much exposure as they could, or by acknowledging it but not doing something about it—telling us, for example, “If I’m admitted, I will take statistics and microeconomics.” What we would like to see is you acknowledge it and then actually be proactive in taking those courses to show you have the ability and the preparation to be able to keep up. That’s just one of a number of different things I could point to, but that’s one I think we see probably more often than some others. mbaMission: Got it. Thank you again for bringing us up to speed on the Yale program and admissions process. BD: No problem! Happy to talk. The post mbaMission’s Exclusive Interview with Yale School of Management’s Admissions Director Bruce DelMonico appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
19 May 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Ross’s Thursday Happy Hours at Scorekeepers |
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. Students at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business gather for Happy Hour, which is sponsored by the Ross Student Association (RSA), every Thursday at Scorekeepers, or “Skeeps,” a watering hole near campus. This sports bar and grill offers cheap drinks, good music, and lots of TVs—especially important when a game is on. (Members of the RSA usually drink for free for the first few hours of the evening.) The casual atmosphere offers an opportunity for MBA students to “unwind, free their minds from assignments and corporate recruiting, and socialize with classmates,” asserts the RSA’s Web site. Happy Hours are occasionally frequented by faculty and often co-sponsored by Ross clubs and organizations. For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Michigan Ross and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Beyond the MBA Classroom: Ross’s Thursday Happy Hours at Scorekeepers appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
19 May 2016, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business |
 Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business 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. Corporate connections are a major selling point at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. Located in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, the school offers its MBA students access to a large network of corporate representatives and recruiters—from the 21 Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in the area to a global university alumni base in excess of 110,000. One highlight of the networking resources Cox provides is its Alumni Association, which has chapters in more than 20 countries. The Economist ranked Cox’s small, collaborative program 22nd for “potential to network” in 2015. In addition, Entrepreneur magazine has ranked business-friendly Dallas second among U.S. cities for entrepreneurs. The post Diamonds in the Rough: Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
20 May 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Acclimating to the Cold at Dartmouth Tuck |
 The thought of spending the winters in Hanover, New Hampshire—home of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business—may send shivers down your spine. But those who tough it out and embrace the cold can discover some rewarding winter experiences, such as ice hockey and downhill skiing. From beginners to seasoned veterans, roughly 150 students participate each year in ice hockey games organized by the Tuck Hockey Club. Never played? Not to worry—teams are organized by skill level, so you can find a team of hockey players who will not care if you trip over the blueline (that is ice hockey lingo—you will learn). And those who are not quite ready to play hockey can always get in the game by cheering on their classmates! Meanwhile, the Dartmouth Skiing and Boarding Club takes advantage of the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme, New Hampshire, and organizes trips beyond campus as well. The club’s major event is the Tuck Winter Carnival, which draws more than 600 people from approximately 15 business schools. The 2016 event welcomed aspiring MBAs and sent teams of students to participate in the weekend events, which—in addition to the annual downhill ski races—included a 1980s ski party, a hot dog eating contest, sledding, and a raffle. Attendees also enjoyed live music at the end of the weekend. All events at the Winter Carnival are geared toward socializing while also raising money for a selected nonprofit organization. At Tuck, you just might be too busy working up a sweat to fret about the cold. For more information on Dartmouth Tuck or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Friday Factoid: Acclimating to the Cold at Dartmouth Tuck appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
|
|
||
Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
 |
