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05 Sep 2018, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Columbia Business School’s Financial Studies Program and Increasingly Flexible Curriculum |
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Already well known as a finance powerhouse, Columbia Business School (CBS) stepped up its finance game in 2010 with the establishment of the Program for Financial Studies. This umbrella initiative connects faculty who approach financial studies from a variety of disciplines with students, alumni, and external organizations. The program’s main goals are to support research, to enhance the CBS finance curriculum and related resources, and to create opportunities for the exchange of ideas between CBS students and faculty and members of the external finance community. Finance enthusiasts will enjoy the program’s case studies, including “The Norwegian Government Pension Fund: The Divestiture of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,” written by Professor Andrew Ang, and “Don’t Be Evil: Google’s 2004 Dutch Auction Initial Public Offering,” written by the program’s founding director, Professor Laurie Simon Hodrick. The structure of CBS’s core curriculum has also evolved in recent years. The school’s first-year curriculum was at one time very rigid—all first-year students took all their core courses with their cluster unless they were able to pass an exemption exam. Students complained, however, that this rigid system meant that they could take only one elective course their first year, which could put them at a disadvantage when competing for summer internships. For example, previously, a CBS student who accepted a summer internship at a bank may have taken only one finance elective by the end of his/her first year, but that student’s counterparts on the internship from other schools may have taken two or three—thus potentially putting the CBS student at a disadvantage with regard to being considered for a full-time job at the end of the internship. So, after an intense process of research and evaluation, CBS launched a more flexible core curriculum in 2008. Five years later in 2013, CBS implemented further changes to its core curriculum, including an increased emphasis on cross-disciplinary thinking, in addition to even more flexibility. The revamped core courses also make greater use of online teaching tools in an attempt to “free up more classroom time for deeper dives and discussions,” as a 2013 Poets&Quants article explains. In the second semester of the first year, students can pick three full-term electives and three half-term electives, replacing the school’s previous “flex-core” configuration and allowing students to better prepare for summer internships. In addition, students may take exemption exams in areas in which they are already proficient, thereby opting to replace core courses with electives. This revised curriculum was developed in response to student feedback that a full term was not needed to cover the “core” elements in certain courses, and the change has given students significantly more flexibility in the first year. CBS has thereby attempted to find a middle ground where students learn what the school considers fundamentals while having the latitude to specialize, and anecdotally, students have responded favorably. For a thorough exploration of what CBS and 16 other top U.S. business schools have to offer, please check out the free mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
06 Sep 2018, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: All About Critical Reasoning Questions on the GMAT (Part 1) |
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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. Which type of Critical Reasoning (CR) question drives you crazy? Boldface? Find the Assumption? Inference? The Critical Reasoning Process Before you dive into individual question types, knowing the overall CR process is critical. Here are a few key notes:
To master CR, you should be able to answer the following questions about each question type:
Assumption Family questions always involve a conclusion. This group consists of five subtypes overall. Here are the three major ones in this category: Find the Assumption: What does the other assume is true when drawing the conclusion? Want to try another? Strengthen the Conclusion: What new information would help to make the conclusion a little more likely to be true? Weaken the Conclusion: What new information would help to make the conclusion a little less likely to be true? The Evidence Family Evidence Family questions really do not have conclusions (never “big” conclusions, like the Assumption arguments, and usually no conclusions at all). This group consists of two subtypes overall, but only Inference questions are a major type: Inference: Given the information in the argument, which answer choice must be true? Spend some time mastering those four major types, as well as the overall CR process. |
07 Sep 2018, 14:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Oxford University (Saïd Business School) Essay Analysis, 2018–2019 |
 After taking a new approach with its application essay questions last year and moving away from its previously rather traditional focus, the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford has elected to maintain its newer prompts for this season. The program probes into applicants’ perception of the world with its first essay question, which asks candidates about a surprising trend and how it might be altered. And its second required essay gives applicants an essentially open invitation to share whatever additional information they believe the admissions committee should have in evaluating them, though they have only 300 words in which to do so. Our more detailed analysis of Oxford Saïd’s essay prompts follows. Essay #1: Consider a statistic or trend that shocks you. Why it is important to you and how could it be changed for the better? (Maximum 500 words) Few could argue that the news and social media outlets today are void of eye-opening and often surprising events, ideas, information, practices, and fashions. We are sure that at least a few things have struck a chord with you and caught your eye in recent months. The school’s use of the word “shock” here and its subsequent request for possible ways of “chang[ing] things for the better” imply to us that the admissions committee expects to hear about something you view as a negative within this context, something in need of improvement. On the Welcome page of its website, Saïd says, “We aim to provide the world’s future business leaders with the skills, knowledge and personal qualities needed to meet the world-scale challenges of the 21st century,” a statement with which this essay question clearly resonates. The school wants candidates it can equip with the tools necessary to make the world a better place, and this is your opportunity to frame yourself as such. That said, if the issue that resounds with you most strongly is actually a positive one, with some careful finessing, you should be able to still use it as your topic for this essay. For example, perhaps you are pleasantly surprised to know that childhood obesity rates have fallen. In this case, you would need to approach the “how could it be changed for the better” portion of Saïd’s prompt by explaining how this trend could be encouraged and continued, perhaps by incorporating new initiatives in elementary schools or rethinking marketing tie-ins between products perceived as unhealthy and movies aimed at young audiences. As long as your choices and ideas are authentic to you and speak to the concept of improving the world as a whole, you will likely be on a successful track. A successful essay response will of course address all three components of this prompt—the shocking statistic/trend, why it matters to you, and your thoughts on how to rectify the situation—but the 500-word limit does not provide a massive amount of space in which to accomplish this, so you need to be clear and concise. One of your goals here is to show the school your values and passion, what motivates you and why. The nature of topic you choose will do this in part, but you must also respond directly to the portion of the query that asks why your chosen issue is significant to you personally. You will likely not be able to present a guaranteed solution to the issue you have chosen in your essay, and especially not within a few hundred words. However, you must demonstrate that you are a problem solver at heart. You want the admissions committee to understand that when you encounter something amiss, you do not just see it but instinctively try to figure out some way of addressing it. Show that you have the spirit of a doer. Tying your ability to execute your projected solution to a skill you would learn or an experience you would have in the Saïd MBA program—if truly appropriate and not forced—could make your response even more compelling. Essay #2: Is there anything not covered in the application form which you would like the Admissions Committee to know about you? (Maximum 250 words) If you are not paying close attention as you read through Oxford Saïd’s application information (though of course, you are, right?), you might accidentally dismiss this question as a standard optional essay prompt. This is certainly almost verbatim what we have seen from other schools as an add-on essay invitation, but in this case, an essay is required, so this is not a mistake you want to make. Perhaps Saïd is hoping to check candidates’ attention to detail with this query? If you have a problem or issue in your candidacy, this would be the right place to address it, given that the school does not offer a typical, separate optional essay opportunity with which to do so. However, this is an essay that all applicants must submit, so if your profile is free of questionable components, you must still provide some key additional information here for the school to use in deciding whether to include you in its next incoming class. You will therefore need to determine what is most important for the admissions committee to know to evaluate you thoroughly and fairly, whether that is the story behind a seemingly unfavorable or deleterious part of your application or whether it is one about a significant learning experience or impressive accomplishment (or something else altogether). As always, take time to consider everything the admissions committee will already be able to learn about you from the other parts of your application, from your statistics and resume to your recommenders’ contributions. The goal here is to round out that information in a positive way that pushes your candidacy forward in the direction of acceptance. Even though this piece is not optional, we still recommend downloading a free copy of our mbaMission Optional Essays Guide. It might help you in determining whether you need to write this essay on a problem area/issue or not (or perhaps which one, if your candidacy somehow includes multiple questionable elements), and if so, the advice and many examples within will direct you in how to do so most effectively. If you are applying under the 1+1 scheme you also need to submit the following essay: Explain why you see this as particularly beneficial for you and how it fits with your careers and personal development aims (Maximum 250 words) For this essay, Saïd provides a very straightforward prompt. Oxford has created an innovative two-year program through which you can earn two master’s degrees simultaneously. But the school has a simple request first—explain why you want/need that non-MBA master’s degree. If you hope to participate in this program, you will need to help the school understand exactly why and how it will affect your career. With a mere 250 words in which to detail precisely how this particular program will contribute to your management education and where you will apply that learning, you have no room to be vague. You must clearly demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship between the dual-degree program and the achievement of your goals. Your underlying message needs to be readily comprehensible: “I will complete X degree, which will benefit me by manifesting in Y part of my career.” Re-applicants will need to complete the essays mentioned above and another essay on the topic: What improvements have you made in your candidacy since you last applied to the Oxford MBA? (Maximum 250 words) Whether you have improved your academic record, received a promotion, begun a new and exciting project, increased your community involvement, or accepted some sort of personal challenge, the key to success with this essay is conveying a very deliberate path of achievement. Saïd wants to know that you have been actively striving to improve yourself and your profile, and that you have seized opportunities during the previous year to do so, because a Saïd MBA is vital to you. The responses to this essay question will vary greatly from one candidate to the next, because each person’s needs and experiences differ. We are more than happy to provide one-on-one assistance with this highly personal essay to ensure that your efforts over the past year are presented in the best light possible. |
08 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: The CFA Is a Liability |
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The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation—a grueling, three-year financial program that hundreds of thousands of people pursue each year—covers many of the subjects included in a “typical” first-year MBA curriculum. A CFA aspirant must study basic economics, accounting, finance, and quantitative analysis—areas that echo aspects of many first-year MBA core curricula. So, could working toward the CFA designation negatively affect an MBA applicant’s candidacy by suggesting that he/she already has the tools an MBA education would provide and that additional studies would therefore be superfluous? Definitely not! In fact, pursuing the CFA designation reflects positively on the applicant in that the effort emphasizes his/her ability to manage a rigorous MBA curriculum and establishes the candidate as a self-starter and a disciplined individual, given that CFA preparation is intense and requires several months of sustained study for each level. Furthermore, from an admissions perspective, admissions officers want to know that they are admitting individuals who are employable; the CFA charter holder has an advantage in the post-MBA recruiting world, because employers can point to the designation as a differentiator among otherwise indistinguishable applicants. The CFA can also be a useful marketing tool for candidates to help them during the admissions process. Because the CFA narrowly focuses on financial tools, it does not cover a myriad of other subjects the MBA does address and that are useful to financial professionals, including marketing, operations, international business, human resource management, and entrepreneurship. The CFA is an independent and largely quantitative program and thus cannot provide the elements that the MBA offers through discussion, debate, and measuring qualitative information in decision making. Together, the CFA designation and the MBA degree constitute a powerful one-two punch that can be advantageous in landing that coveted post-MBA position. |
10 Sep 2018, 10:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Barry Nalebuff, 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. Today, we profile Barry Nalebuff from the Yale School of Management (SOM). Perhaps best known as one of the founders of Honest Tea, Barry Nalebuff is the Milton Steinbach Professor of Management at the Yale SOM. An expert in game theory and strategy, Nalebuff has been a professor at the SOM since 1989. A second year told mbaMission that in the classroom, Nalebuff “is a favorite for his sharp wit and insights.” Nalebuff is also an accomplished author with more than 400,000 copies in print. His book The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life (W.W. Norton & Co., 2008), for example, explores how almost all interactions—business and personal alike—have a game theory component. Nalebuff and Adam Brandenburger, a professor of business economics and strategy at New York University’s Stern School of Business, developed the concept of a new business strategy called “co-opetition,” which they write about in the book Co-Opetition: A Revolutionary Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation: The Game Theory Strategy That’s Changing the Game of Business (Crown Business, 1997). The book’s listing on Amazon.com describes co-opetition as “a business strategy that goes beyond the old rules of competition and cooperation to combine the advantages of both. Co-opetition is a pioneering, high profit means of leveraging business relationships.” A first year noted in a SOM Community Blog post, “Prof. Nalebuff never misses an opportunity to illustrate the ways in which companies can cooperate to grow the PIE (potential industry earnings). Of course, he then always reminds us that these same companies should compete aggressively to secure the biggest piece of that newly expanded PIE.” For more information about the Yale SOM and 16 other top-ranked business schools, check out the free mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
11 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: How to Approach Overrepresentation and Old Achievements in Your MBA Application Essays |
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Many MBA applicants worry that they are overrepresented—male investment bankers and Indian software engineers, for example. Applicants cannot change their work histories, of course, but they can change the way they introduce themselves to the admissions committee. Consider the following examples: Example 1: “As an investment banker, I…” Example 2: “Managing a team to code a new software product for ABC Corp., I…” In these brief examples, each candidate introduces the very overrepresentation that he/she would like to minimize. Many applicants feel they must start their essays by presenting their titles or company names, but this approach can immediately make the reader pause and think, “Here we go again.” Overrepresented business school candidates should therefore consider the opening lines of their essays especially carefully. Rather than stating the obvious, an applicant might instead immerse the reader in a situation or present a special aspect of his/her position: Example 1 (launching into a story): “At 5:30 pm, I could rest easy. The deadline for all other offers had passed. At that point, I knew…” Example 2 (stand out): “While managing a multinational team, half in Silicon Valley and half in Pakistan, I…” In the first example here, the banker candidate avoids drab self-introduction and instead plunges the reader into the midst of a mystery that is playing out. In the second example, the software engineer candidate introduces him-/herself not as a “coder” but as a multinational manager. Of course, every applicant’s situation is different, but with some effort, your story can be told in a way that avoids the pitfalls of overrepresentation. Another issue that aspiring MBAs should consider is the relevance of the stories they tell in their application essays. Because business school candidates must share examples of a variety of experiences with admissions committees, we encourage applicants to truly reflect on their lives and consider all potential stories, including academic, professional, community, extracurricular, athletic, international, and personal. However, candidates inevitably have questions about which anecdotes are truly appropriate and effective. “Can I use stories from high school and college?” “Can I use a story from four years ago?” “How far in the past is too far in the past?” Although no definitive rule exists, with the exception of questions that specifically ask about personal history or family background, schools generally want to learn about the mature you—the individual you are today. So we ask you, “How long have you been the you that you are today?” When considering experiences that occurred long ago, ask yourself, “Would this impress an MBA admissions committee today?” If you ran a few successful bake sales six years ago when you were in college, this clearly would not stand the test of time and impress a stranger today. However, if, while you were still a student, you started a small business that grew and was ultimately sold to a local firm when you graduated, you would have a story to tell that would likely impress an admissions reader. Inevitably, judgment is always involved in these decisions. Nonetheless, we offer this simple example as a starting point to help you decide which stories to share. |
12 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Full-Time MBA Programs at Rotman School of Management and Simon Business School |
 Rotman School of Management One of Canada’s top-ranked business schools for finance—the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management—benefits from the leadership of a foremost figure in the nation’s financial sector. After Roger Martin stepped down as the school’s dean, Tiff Macklem, the former senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, assumed the role in 2014 for a five-year term. Rotman, ranked second among Canadian MBA programs by the Financial Times in 2018, underwent significant growth under Martin’s deanship, in both campus size and endowment. Macklem’s appointment as dean suggests a continued rise in Rotman’s academic profile and its reputation for financial education. “He has vast experience managing large institutions, translating academic research into public policy, and representing Canada on the world stage,” stated the university’s vice president and provost. In addition to its finance-related strengths, Rotman offers a rather unique approach to core business pedagogy. Relying on what it terms “integrative thinking,” Rotman’s teaching model challenges the compartmentalization of traditional functional areas. Students complete a series of core courses in their first year that emphasize generalized business skills and the ability to think across functional disciplines. In their second year, they are given the option to choose from among 16 different major areas, while supplementing their focus with a broader array of elective courses.  Simon Graduate School of Business Meanwhile, approximately only 170 miles away but across the border, the full-time MBA program at the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester offers a broadly finance-oriented general management curriculum featuring particular strengths in analytics and accounting. Simon’s program is built on a foundation of 13 core courses, including “Managerial Economics,” “Capital Budgeting and Corporate Objectives,” and “Marketing Management.” Students complete their core with an assigned study team before exploring more specialized professional interests. The school’s elective courses represent a variety of industries and functions, such as entrepreneurship, consulting, and real estate. Students may choose among 15 optional career concentrations, ranging from Competitive and Organizational Strategy (which includes both a Pricing track and a Strategy and Organizations track) and Marketing (which includes tracks in Brand Management, Pricing, and Marketing Strategy), to such analysis-heavy fields as Business Systems Consulting and Computers and Information Systems. In addition, the Simon MBA EDGE Program provides students with opportunities for personal development in such areas as problem solving, communication, and leadership through involvement in activities including clubs, advisory boards, and other groups on campus, as well as case competitions and projects with area companies. The program aims to complement knowledge learned in the classroom and increase students’ value to potential employers. Simon’s Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, Center for Information Intensive Services, and Center for Pricing offer curricular and research support to supplement the specific career concentrations. Simon is also home to more than 30 professional and social student-run organizations aimed at coordinating networking events and professional development resources to assist students in advancing their careers. |
13 Sep 2018, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: All About Critical Reasoning Questions on the GMAT (Part 2) |
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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In Part 1 of this article, we talked about the overall process for solving Critical Reasoning (CR) problems and reviewed the four major CR question types (the ones that show up the most often on the test). Now let’s take a look at the five minor types. The Assumption Family Assumption Family questions always involve a conclusion. This group consists of five subtypes, two of which are minor types: Flaw: This is the “flip” of Find the Assumption. The author assumes something, but that thing might not be true. What is the flaw in the author’s reasoning? Evaluate the Argument: What information would help to determine whether the conclusion is more or less likely to be valid? The Evidence Family Evidence Family questions really do not have conclusions (never “big” conclusions, like the Assumption arguments, and usually no conclusions at all). This group consists of two subtypes overall, but only one of these is a minor type: Explain a Discrepancy: The argument contains some surprising information or outcome. Which answer choice provides some new information that clears up this surprising situation? The Structure Family Like Assumption questions, Structure questions do involve conclusions. The answer choices are usually in more “abstract” form, discussing characteristics of pieces of the argument. Both question types here are minor types. Describe the Role: These are also known as boldface. The boldface portion plays what kind of role in the overall argument? Describe the Argument: These are a variant of the boldface question, and they are so rare that I do not have an article for you. If you are really worried about these, you can take a look at our CR Strategy guide—but my best advice for you is not to worry about these. Now what? Soon, we will talk about overall CR study strategies based on your scoring goals. |
14 Sep 2018, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Building a Robust Target List of Companies: Where Do You Want to Work? |
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In this new blog series, our mbaMission Career Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news 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. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, click here. Identifying the right target companies for you is critical to achieving success both in the job search and on the job and ultimately achieving job satisfaction. During the job search, employers are seeking to understand your level of interest in the firm and your knowledge of their business. Meanwhile, your goal is to land at a company that aligns with you and your interests. To ensure success in your job search, spend time thinking about your selection criteria for potential employers. Perhaps your decisions are based on a company’s location, industry (or industry sub-sector), reputation, leadership team, business model, product(s), culture, mission, or something else. Look at the types of organizations in which you have been successful in the past as well as the environments that have led to your satisfaction at work. Use your natural curiosity to guide you toward potential companies of interest. Which firms are you reading about or talking about with your friends? In addition to using industry-specific resources and trade publications, you may also find some of the following resources useful in building a list of potential target companies:
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17 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Must Interview with the Admissions Committee |
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After submitting your MBA application, you endure weeks of nervous anticipation before ideally being invited to interview. You then start to prepare for the interview, ready to prove yourself to the admissions committee. You take your tour, sit in on a class, and head to the Admissions Office only to find—gasp!—a second-year MBA student waiting to interview you! You think, “This school must not take me seriously as a candidate. I must be some kind of second-tier applicant that it does not really care about!” If you find yourself in this situation, take a deep breath and reconsider. What is the admissions committee’s job? Quite simply, the committee strives to find the best candidates for its program. So whether you interview with a member of the committee, an alumnus/alumna, or a student, your interview will be considered equally. Why would an admissions committee put a huge group of candidates at a disadvantage? What would be the point of interviewing an applicant if the admissions committee did not consider its school’s alumni reliable interviewers? Why would the committee solicit the help of students if it sincerely believed those individuals were not capable of rendering an appropriate judgment? All this is to say that if you find yourself on campus and being interviewed by someone other than an admissions committee member, do not worry. This is not a reflection of the school’s impression of you or an indicator of how likely you are to ultimately be admitted. Maintain your focus, and remember that your story and your ability to connect with your interviewer are what truly matter in your interview. |
17 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Get an Early Start on Your Resume and Personal Goals |
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Not applying to any schools this admissions season? Only looking at Round 2 or 3? No problem, but keep in mind that you still have your work cut out for you. We at mbaMission try to encourage business school candidates to get as much “noise” out of the way as possible before they plan to apply, even if it is still months away. We want our applicants to have the freedom to reflect on their experiences, formally and thoroughly brainstorm, choose ideas, prepare outlines, and then focus on crafting powerful essays. Essentially, we want them to be unfettered as they engage in what is, for many, one of the most significant creative challenges they will ever face. Using this time to address a task such as preparing your resume—a process that often requires several rounds of revisions—will allow you to focus better on the other elements of your application later. By revising your resume now, you can dedicate the time needed to do so at a more leisurely pace, before “crunch time” hits. Further, you will lay the foundation for brainstorming for your essays later, by reminding yourself of your most significant accomplishments. If you prepare your resume now, you will definitely thank yourself later for having completed this task early. Note: We recognize that you may achieve additional accomplishments before applying. We nonetheless suggest that you update your resume now, however, and then revisit and amend your most recent entry one to two weeks before your application deadlines. A similar message applies to personal leadership—you always have time to take steps to bolster your chances of admission. Many candidates completely ignore the personal side of their candidacy. But if you have, for example, completed a triathlon, learned a language, published an article, or simply been an inordinately dedicated neighbor/sibling/mentor in an unofficial capacity, your story can provide an interesting point of differentiation. So, if you have an activity or adventure in mind that you would otherwise complete later anyway, go ahead and pursue it now. We are not suggesting that you start writing poetry tomorrow in hopes of getting something published—but if you are a dedicated poet and have poems that you have long intended to submit, do so now. If you can run 20 miles and have always planned to run a marathon, do it now. These kinds of personal stories can help set you apart from your fellow applicants. |
18 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Dean Profiles: R. Glenn Hubbard, Columbia Business School |
 Business school deans are more than administrative figureheads. Their character and leadership often reflect an MBA program’s unique culture and sense of community. Today, we profile R. Glenn Hubbard from Columbia Business School (CBS). Glenn Hubbard was appointed dean of CBS in 2004, having been at the school for nearly 20 years and having served as the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, the school’s senior vice dean, and codirector of the entrepreneurial program. He is also well known for having been an economic advisor to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012 and a leading designer of the 2003 Bush tax cuts, which he helped implement while serving as chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. In 2017, he became a member of the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission. Since being criticized for his ties to the financial services industry in the 2010 documentary Inside Job, Hubbard has made a concerted effort to bring professional responsibility to the fore of the CBS curriculum and to require faculty to fully disclose their professional activities outside of teaching. While many business schools responded to the financial crisis by adding standalone ethics courses to their curricula, Hubbard told the Wall Street Journal in 2011, “I don’t think students pay attention to it [ethics] the way they do when it’s integrated into your marketing course, into your operations course, into your finance class.” With the launch of a new flexible curriculum in 2008 and further curricular changes in 2013, the school has reportedly worked to incorporate this integrated approach to teaching ethics directly into its core components. The updated curriculum also engenders what Hubbard has promoted as the three most essential directives for business students: “analyze, decide, and lead.” Hubbard is often the good-natured subject of student sketches in the CBS Follies comedy show and has been known to even make a personal appearance now and then. Videos from past Follies in which the dean has been featured can be found on YouTube, including a musical parody of “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, in which Hubbard covets Ben Bernanke’s 2006 appointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve. For more information about CBS and 16 other top-ranked business schools, check out the free mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
19 Sep 2018, 07:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Should I Consider Chicago Booth and Wharton for Marketing? |
 You may be surprised to learn that Chicago Booth is making inroads into an area that its crosstown rival (Northwestern Kellogg) is known to dominate: marketing. Through the James M. Kilts Center for Marketing—named for the Chicago Booth alumnus who was formerly CEO of Gillette and Nabisco (and is now a partner at Centerview Partners)—Chicago Booth offers students roughly ten marketing electives. In particular, the school is growing its experiential opportunities in the marketing field, with students taking part in marketing management labs (semester-long consulting projects) at such companies as Abbott Laboratories, Bank of America, and Honeywell International. Further, professors in the department saw opportunities for increased practical involvement and created “hybrid” classes in “Marketing Research” and “New Product Development” that involve a lecture component but also allow students to work on shorter-term consulting projects. Students can also sign up to be paired with an alumni marketing mentor or apply for Marketing Fellowships, which provide scholarship funds and a two-year mentoring relationship. Another potentially overlooked destination for marketing-driven MBA applicants is the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which might be best known for its reputation in finance (as its original name, the “Wharton School of Finance and Commerce,” would imply). Nevertheless, the school prides itself on its breadth and depth of expertise in a multitude of business areas.  For instance, consider these facts about Wharton’s highly regarded marketing program:
For a thorough exploration of what Chicago Booth, UPenn Wharton, and other top business schools have to offer, check out the free mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
19 Sep 2018, 14:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: CBS Dean to Step Down, Continuing the Flood of B-School Dean Resignations |
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Glenn Hubbard Glenn Hubbard, who has served as the dean of Columbia Business School (CBS) since 2004, will step down from his position at the end of the 2018–2019 academic year. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger announced the news in a university-wide email last week, describing Hubbard’s tenure at CBS as “a historic period.” Hubbard will return to teaching at the school in July 2019, and a committee will commence the search for a new dean shortly. Hubbard joins a long list of deans at top-ranked business schools who have stepped down from their positions within the last year or so. Edward A. “Ted” Snyder, who joined the Yale School of Management as the dean in 2011, will conclude his tenure at the end of the current academic year. At the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, Richard Lyons announced his departure in June 2017 after two terms as dean. Berkeley alumna Ann E. Harrison, who is currently a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, will replace Lyons in January 2019. The Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University named L. Joseph Thomas as interim dean recently after the abrupt January resignation of Soumitra Dutta, who had served as dean since 2016. Similarly, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University named Professor Kathleen M. Hagerty as interim dean in July, replacing Sally Blount, who stepped down from her position as dean this past August. The NYU Stern School of Business also appointed a new dean to step in at the beginning of 2018, and the UCLA Anderson School of Management named an interim dean in May. |
21 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: All About Critical Reasoning Questions on the GMAT (Part 3) |
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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the overall process for tackling Critical Reasoning (CR), as well as the four major CR question types. In Part 2, we reviewed the five minor question types. Now, let’s put it all together! What is my strategy? As we discussed in Part 1, the four major CR types are Find the Assumption, Strengthen, Weaken, and Inference. The majority of your CR questions will be in one of those four categories. If you are going for up to about 75th percentile on verbal, concentrate on those. Of the minor types, discussed in Part 2, the most common are Discrepancy, Describe the Role, and Evaluate. If you want to break the 75th percentile on verbal, then also take a look at those three minor types, but still spend more time on the four major types. If CR is your weakest verbal area, you can also skip whichever of those three minor types is hardest for you—some people really hate boldface questions, and others think Evaluate questions are the worst. If you are looking to break the 90th percentile on verbal, then you have to study everything. You can still pick one minor type as your “I’ll guess/bail quickly if I have to” question type, but you still have to try to learn how to do it and, during the test, take a crack at the question unless you are already behind on time and must bail on a question. Great, I have mastered CR! Let’s test that theory, shall we? After you have studied all of the above and you feel pretty comfortable with CR, try this problem. I am not even going to tell you which type it is (in fact, that is one of the things that makes this problem so hard—what is it, in the first place?). If you struggle with it, do not get discouraged. It is a very challenging problem. Instead, use it as an opportunity to get even better! By the way, the best outcome is not necessarily to get it right. Depending on your score goals and your other strengths and weaknesses, the best outcome may very well be to recognize that the question is too hard and to make a guess before the two-minute mark. Happy studying! |
23 Sep 2018, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap in My Resume |
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The perfect MBA applicant does not actually exist. However, the perception of the perfect applicant absolutely does—he/she is an individual who scales greater and greater personal, community, and professional peaks unabated until finally applying to business school. Because of this idealized image of an applicant, candidates who have taken any time off from their professional pursuits think of themselves as disadvantaged. They worry that the admissions committees will see the gap(s) in their professional timeline and dismiss them outright. After all, the schools probably have numerous other, seemingly more determined individuals they could admit, right? Time off can be destructive, true. If you spent a year sitting on your couch watching reality TV, you may be in trouble. If you have a strong professional history and spent one month between jobs sitting on your couch watching reality TV, your record should still speak for itself. But even if you do take (or have taken) an extended leave, as long as you are productive during that time and grow personally, you should still be just fine. In fact, an adventure may even add to your story and help you differentiate yourself. If you spend six months or a year traveling before you start your professional career, you are certainly still eligible for a top MBA program. If you take personal leave to care for a family member, do charity work, or even pursue a personal passion—an art form, for example—as long as you can show purpose and reveal a broad record of competency, an admissions officer should still see your merits. Admissions officers are—and this may be surprising to some—human beings. They understand that applicants are not robots and that they have interests, passions, and personal lives. If you make good use of your time, they will not condemn you. They just might envy you. |
24 Sep 2018, 11:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: How to Use Parallel Construction in Your MBA Application Essays—and More on Being Appropriately Personal |
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Longer and more complex sentences often require parallel construction. Simply put, parallel construction ensures that any given longer sentence has a standard rhythm or construction. With parallel construction, each pronoun corresponds with another pronoun, each verb corresponds with another verb, each adjective matches with a corresponding adjective, and so on. Parallel construction can certainly be found in shorter sentences as well, and to great effect. Consider the example of Hamlet’s words “To be or not to be”—some of the most famous in the English language. Shakespeare wrote this short sentence in perfect parallel form; “to be” is matched perfectly with its corresponding negative “not to be” and is separated only by the necessary word “or.” Another short example of parallel construction from history is “I came, I saw, I conquered.” With these words, Julius Caesar spoke in perfect parallel construction—the grammatical form is a pronoun (the word “I”) followed by a verb in the past tense (“came,” “saw,” “conquered”). If we were to change that second famous phrase just a touch, the amazing quality it now has would be lost, and the phrase would become unremarkable. For example, if Caesar had said, “I came, I saw, and I became the conqueror,” he would likely not be quoted today because the rhythm would have been destroyed. Keep this rule in mind for everything that you write, especially for longer sentences. Here are a few more examples: Bad: We are successful for three key reasons: understanding our client, trying harder than our competition, and teamwork. Good: We are successful for three key reasons: understanding our client, trying harder than our competition, and working as a team. (In this example, gerunds [the words ending in “ing”] parallel each other, unlike in the previous, “bad” example.) Bad: We are in the forestry business. We sell wood to hardware stores and paper to stationery stores. Good: We are in the forestry business. We sell wood and paper. On another note, we have previously discussed the importance of thoroughly exploring and accessing your personal stories when writing your application essays. Of course, having too much of a good thing is always a risk as well—admissions committees can be put off by candidates who go too far and become too personal. Some stories are particularly challenging for admissions committees. For example, we strongly discourage candidates from writing about divorce as a moment of failure. If an individual were to take responsibility in an essay for a failed marriage, he/she would likely end up revealing intensely personal issues, rather than portraying him-/herself as having learned from a constructive professional or personal challenge. Always keep in mind that in many ways, the admissions committee is meeting you for the first time via your application. So, a simple way to judge whether you are being too personal in your materials is to ask yourself, “Would I be uncomfortable if, immediately upon meeting someone, he/she were to share this sort of information with me?” If your answer is “yes,” you should most likely consider changing your topic. |
25 Sep 2018, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Cameron Anderson, Haas School of Business |
 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. Today, we profile Cameron Anderson from the Haas School of Business at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. Cameron Anderson, who received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2001, came to Haas from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 2005. His teaching awards include Professor of the Year at Stern in 2005 and the Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching at Haas in 2008. He was also named a Bakar Faculty Fellow in 2010. A second year described Anderson’s “Power and Politics in Organizations” course to mbaMission as “easily one of the most sought-after classes at Haas.” Another second-year student we interviewed said the class “teaches students how to gain power and influence people without formal authority” and added that Anderson “teaches applicable skills based on academic research and case studies of great leaders from history. He uses assignments to force students to uncover their own tools of influence and develop strategies for acquiring power in our immediate careers after Haas. I think his class is popular because it’s academic, directly applicable, and introspective all at once.” For more information on the defining characteristics of the MBA program at UC Berkeley Haas or one of 16 other top business schools, check out the free mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
26 Sep 2018, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Making Big Decisions |
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In this new blog series, our mbaMission Career Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news 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. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, click here. Our clients often ask us to help them with big life decisions, including which business program to attend and what job offer to accept. On a related note, we would like to share with you a recent New York Times Opinion article, titled “How to Make a Big Decision,” that we thought was valuable. The article discusses research into the importance of generating alternatives to any course of action you are considering. In fact, one insight that has emerged from the research of Professor Paul Nutt is the strong correlation between the number of alternatives deliberated and the ultimate success of the decision itself. As the article notes, “In one of his studies, Professor Nutt found that participants who considered only one alternative ultimately judged their decision a failure more than 50 percent of the time, while decisions that involved contemplating at least two alternatives were felt to be successes two-thirds of the time.” If alternatives are necessary when making a decision, so that you do not simply make a choice between two inferior options, you must have a way to assess your options. Imagine different potential outcomes for each option, including a worst-case scenario. Next, create a robust “pros and cons” list incorporating a clear understanding of your priorities. Here is a sample pain/gain model that you can complete as part of your decision-making process: Instructions Clearly define the current state (i.e., status quo) and future state (i.e., what you are considering) by filling out the boxes in this order: Current Pain, Future Gain, Current Gain, and Future Pain. Then look at which stands out to you the most—and use that to make your decision.  Of course, a career coach can always help you better understand your choices and how to assess them given your values and priorities. Let an mbaMission Career Coach help via a free 30-minute consultation! Have you been admitted to business school? If so, do you want to get a head start on defining your career goals? Do you need help preparing for job interviews or learning how to effectively network with your target employers? Or maybe you want to be a top performer in your current role but are unsure how to maximize your potential. Let an mbaMission Career Coach help via a free 30-minute consultation! |
27 Sep 2018, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Prepare for Your HBS Interview with a Former HBS Interviewer |
 Devi Vallabhaneni, mbaMission’s HBS Interviewer in Residence One of the most critical steps in the MBA application process is the interview, and none is more legendary—or stress inducing—than Harvard Business School’s (HBS’s). The HBS interview is particularly fast-paced and can cover a wide range of topics, all based on your specific application and personal story. It is designed to help the admissions representative get to know the real you. Devi Vallabhaneni, a veteran admissions interviewer with years of experience interviewing hundreds of HBS candidates and mbaMission’s new HBS Interviewer in Residence, emphasizes how much preparation goes into an HBS interview. “Your submitted HBS application includes so many different elements—your essay, your short answers, your transcripts, your letters of recommendation… I review everything extensively so that during our interview, I already know your story and can push deeper into the areas that interest me. You’ve worked so hard to show HBS who you are through your application; the interview reflects this same intensity back to you.” Although the HBS admissions interview is specialized and unpredictable, Devi asserts that preparing for it is still both important and possible, and she encourages candidates to take steps to ready themselves for this pivotal discussion. “In just 30 minutes, even though you have no control over the questions, you have to convey the kind of HBS student and future leader you will be. To prepare, make sure that you know everything you submitted in your application. This sounds elementary, but I have seen people forget details about their own experiences! Practicing ahead of time is more than worth your while.” With that in mind, starting this fall, Devi will be offering intensive interview simulations in New York City and online via webcam to help HBS applicants prepare for the real thing. She will also hold an HBS Interview Workshop exclusively for mbaMission Complete “Start-to-Finish” Package clients. The live interview simulation includes
Current mbaMission Complete “Start-to-Finish” Package clients are eligible for a $500 discount for the HBS Intensive Interview Simulation and will be invited to participate in the exclusive HBS Interview Workshop with Devi if they are invited to interview at HBS. |
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 11:30am NY / 3:30pm London / 9pm Mumbai Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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