Calling all Carlson (Minnesota) Applicants:(2018 Intake) Class of 2020

Personal Statement

Carlson requires a personal statement answering the following three questions:

• Briefly describe your short-term and long-term career goals. Why are you choosing to pursue an MBA at this time in your career, and what are you hoping to accomplish by doing so?
• Why are you interested in pursuing an MBA at the Carlson School of Management?
• What do you feel makes you a strong candidate for the program? How will you contribute to the MBA Program overall?

Hi All,

I am a 2nd year full time MBA candidate at Carlson. These thread were very helpful to me while I was preparing for my B school applications. I am happy to continue contributing to them: answering your questions and serving as a resource for you.

Here are links to my blogs:
1. Why MBA: https://www.mba.com/us/the-gmat-blog-hub ... ander.aspx
2. Why Carlson: https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/degrees/m ... es-carlson
3. Major surprises and shocks joining Carlson: https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/degrees/m ... and-shocks

Interview resources:
1. Compilation of interview experiences: https://gmatclub.com/forum/calling-all- ... l#p1606390
2. My interview experience: https://gmatclub.com/forum/calling-all- ... l#p1609339


Happy to help you with your questions. All the very best!

Hi Joseph,

Welcome to this forum!! Thanks a ton for taking out your valuable time to share your experiences. It's great to have you guide us through this process.

Hi Guys,

Very excited to be applying to Carlson School's FT MBA program.
I already had a 1-on-1 interview with an Admissions Director and they invited me to the Connect with Carlson 2-day on campus event.

I'm trying to complete my application before Nov 1 to be eligible for an early-admit decision and would love to connect with folks who plan to go to the event on Oct 26-27.

Thank you very much for bringing some life into this thread
It would be great if you can share your interview experience briefly. When are you planning to apply?

Announcement: Live Chat with Carlson Adcoms

Hi Guys, We are thrilled to announce that Carlson admissions will be conducting a live chat session for prospective applicants on GMATClub, thanks to the efforts made by our Carlson threadmaster, vivek6199, in arranging this session. In this chat, adcoms will dialogue with applicants in the chat room and answer their questions about Carlson's MBA program. Hope all of you will utilize this opportunity to interact with adcoms and get your questions answered by them.

Presenter:
Dana Daniele, Associate Director of Admissions and Recruiting, Carlson School of Management.

Date & Time: Friday, November 3, 2017; 10 am Central Time (8am Pacific, 8:30pm Indian Time)
Join Link: GMATClub Chat Room
Add this event to your Google calendar

Good news to all Carlson MBA applicants:

Carlson ranks 22nd among schools in the United States, an 11-place improvement from last year’s list. Overall, the school sits 32nd in the world, 16 spots higher than it did in the 2016 rankings. Among U.S. public institutions, Carlson is eighth.

The Carlson Full-Time MBA Program scored particularly well in the category of “Open New Career Opportunities,” placing eighth in the world and sixth in the U.S.

Read the full report here: https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/news/carl ... t-rankings

Guys, we have new the applicant data (for the 2017-2019 class). A big note of thanks to AdmitJA, our 2nd year FT MBA student at Carlson.

Applicant Data

Enrolled: 88
Median GMAT: 690
Median GRE: 319
Median GPA: 3.43
Average WE: 4.92
FT Rank: 88
US News Rank: 32
BW Ranking: 39
Economist: 32
Forbes: 27

Minority Students: 16% Intl Students: 26% Male: 69% Female: 31% Military: 18%

Program Cost (for the 2018-2020 class)
Tuition (international students): $48,936 per year
Required Fees: $5,157.66
Room and board, books, & miscellaneous expenses: $17,000

Employment Data (for the 2014-2016 class)
Full-time graduates: 107
Full-time graduates employed three months after graduation: 97%
Average base salary: $108,720
Average signing bonus: $22,101

Hi AdmitJA,

I was at the Connect with Carlson event last week and had a great time interacting with the faculty, adcom and students.
I had a query - didn't want to ask there to torpedo my chances, but is there a specific method to how were folks invited for the Connect event?

I might be trying to read tea leaves here, but just trying to figure out if being invited to the event and participating in on-campus interviews as part of early decision would increase my chances of conversion. Minneapolis in general seems to be a great place to reboot one's career

Hey MisterBrown,

Glad to hear that you had a great time at Carlson and that you like Minneapolis. Minneapolis is a wonderful city to enjoy the 4 seasons and to reboot one's career.

Regarding your questions, I do not have crystal clear answers for you, and so I apologize in advance. I am not sure how candidates were invited for the Connect With Carlson event, and hence no comments on that. However, like most schools Carlson also has programs and processes in place to ensure that candidates have an uniform recruiting process and experience throughout the admissions cycles. Hence I do not know whether interviewing early would increases your chances of conversion. Sit tight and all the very best!

Live Chat with Carlson Adcoms Starting in 120 minutes

I just wanted to remind you guys about GMATClub chat session scheduled today at 8am PST. Its being held in the GMATClub Chat Room (https://gmatclub.com/forum/mchat.php?fl=menu).

Please make sure that you attend this chat and get your queries resolved.

Hi Guys,

We had a great chat session yesterday and we got all of our queries resolved. For those who couldn't attend the chat session, we are posting the chat transcript here. Thank you Narenn for providing the transcripts.

This really helps. Thank you!

I would like to add on for the international candidates. I have been in touch with an international candidate at Carlson.

The general impression I got was that the GBCC helps a lot during job search and also there should be effort from the candidates to make sure that they are in sync with the GBCC from day 1 so that they don't lose out on opportunities.

Also I read that there are a lot of questions regarding the H1B visa issues. It is my understanding that there are companies that are still willing to sponsor H1B for graduates.

Small correction. The GBCC starts working with admitted students even before they reach Carlson. Resume and LinkedIn profile can be finalized if admitted students are available before school commences.



I think the balance the US maintains for ease of finding career opportunities Vs. ease of getting work visa is slight disturbed. However, I don't know whether there are countries where this balance is better for international students. Do check the perspectives of current students from other countries.

Some prospective students ask me my perspectives on top MBA programs in Canada Vs. Carlson. I think Carlson and other US schools still have an advantage. Here is a quote from a top Canadian program's career report: "This class also reached an 85% employment rate at 6 months post-graduation." At Carlson, last year and this year, 97% and 96% of the graduates were placed within 90 days (3 months) of graduation.

Yup. Sorry I forgot to mention about that. Surya did notify me about that.



This is the main reason I am much more interested to join Carlson than any other school. Given Carlson's prowess in the field of consulting and IT, it fits with my career aspirations.
But as the median GMAT is 690, I am tensed. I have a GMAT of 690 (previous scores-570,610,620) which is like border line cholestrol

So AdmitJA here's a question that comes to my mind now. Does multiple attempts at GMAT affect the chances of getting an admit at Carlson?

I think schools understand that taking the GMAT is a big commitment of time and energy. Due to professional and personal priorities, GMAT test results may not be representative of a candidate's abilities and hence candidates may take multiple attempts to get better GMAT scores. I don't think multiple attempts, unless they are 4 or 5 or above, would be frowned upon. Hope this helps. All the best!

Any Interview calls yet ?? I didn't receive any mail for application submission as well although the portal says that the application has been submitted