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08 Jan 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Yale MBA Class Profile: Class of 2022 |
 Here is a look at Yale SOM’s class of 2022 profile, taken from the Yale SOM website. Student demographics and statistics
GPA statistics
GMAT statistics
GRE statistics
[b]Are you a competitive applicant at your dream school? Check out the B-School Selectivity Index! >>[/b] Citizenship by region (based on primary citizenship)
Undergraduate majors Humanities & social sciences29.4%STEM28.6%Business22.3%Economics19.7% Pre-MBA industry Financial services22.8%Consulting19.3%Non-profit11.4%Technology9.8%Government8.2%Media / Entertainment6.9%Consumer packaged goods5.7%Healthcare products & services3.8%Energy3.5%Manufacturing3.1%Retail2.2%Hospitality1%Real estate1%Other1.3% Pre-MBA function Consulting30%Finance / Accounting21%General management13%Operations / logistics8%Marketing / Sales6%Human resources2%Information technology2%Other19% Pre-MBA sector For-profit78.2%Non-profit13%Government8.9% Not sure that Yale SOM is the place for you? These resources can help guide you:
Can you see yourself at Yale SOM? Learn how you can secure your spot when you work one-on-one with an expert Accepted advisor. Explore our MBA Admissions Services for more information on how we can help you get ACCEPTED!  For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!  Related Resources: • Best MBA Programs, a guide to selecting the right one • MBA Application Timeline: How to Get Accepted in 2021 • Why Should I Spend Money on an Accepted MBA Admissions Consultant? Tags: MBA Admissions The post Yale MBA Class Profile: Class of 2022 appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
12 Jan 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Round 3 Deadlines Are Almost Here. Should You Apply? |
 Our free one-hour masterclass, Round 3 vs. Next Year: When Should You Apply? is airing live on Thursday, January 14th, but there’s still time for you to register to join us! Round 3 deadlines will be here before you know it, but is it worth it for you to invest the time, energy, and money into applying right now? Or are your odds of acceptance better if you wait until next year? This depends on a number of unique factors, which you need to understand if you’re going to make the right call. During this session, Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham will help you break down your individual applicant profile and determine if applying in Round 3 makes sense for you. It’s not the right move for everyone, but for some applicants, it’s the perfect opportunity to score that acceptance letter! Don’t miss out on this free expert guidance on how to time your application successfully. Register now and we’ll see you on January 14th at 10am PT/1pm ET! Register Now: For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Tags: MBA Admissions The post Round 3 Deadlines Are Almost Here. Should You Apply? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
12 Jan 2021, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Application Trends to Watch in 2021, and a Look Back at 2020 [Episode 400] |
 Can the lessons of 2020 help us forge a better 2021? [Show summary] For Admissions Straight Talk’s 400th episode, Linda Abraham reflects on a turbulent year and identifies the most important trends in higher ed admissions to watch in 2021. Applying to graduate school: A journey of self-improvement [Show notes] We’ve reached Episode 400! I feel it’s a milestone, and I’ve decided to do a little bit of a different kind of a show. I’m going to discuss two important developments of 2020 and their impact on applicants, their implications for you as you apply, and how you should deal with them. I also want to speak at the very end on a more personal and, hopefully, thoughtful perspective, a little bit higher level, more strategically, and share some thoughts as we are starting to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. This is a brand new year. The other perspective that I’m going to share will reflect a little of what I’ve learned from Rabbi Lord Dr. Jonathan Sacks, a favorite writer, thinker, and teacher of mine, who sadly passed away in November. His writings have relevance to many people and many situations, but specifically to grad school applicants, and I’m dedicating this podcast in his memory. The rising number of graduate program applicants [2:16] The first development that folks need to be aware of, and I’m sure you are aware of, is the surge. And no, I don’t mean the surge in COVID cases that we are tragically experiencing. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the surge in applicants to graduate programs across the board that is occurring this fall and winter. What do I mean by that? Let’s give some examples. In December, NPR reported that 18% more applicants applied via AAMC to medical school than did a year earlier. Some school-specific numbers: Stanford, which also went test-optional, reported a 50% increase in applications. Boston University reported a 27% increase in applications. And when I spoke with Paul White of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in October, for Admissions Straight Talk’s 392nd episode which you can find at accepted.com/392, he reported at that point an increase of 25% in applications to Johns Hopkins. Business schools are also experiencing a surge in applications. They were experiencing a decline in applications that seemed to end for most schools with round two of last year and the recession’s onset in March of 2020. They have also seen a surge in applications this cycle. The stats for last year revealed 67% of MBA programs reporting increased applications per GMAC. The stats for this year aren’t out yet, but news reports, whether from The Wall Street Journal, Poets&Quants, or my conversations with admissions directors, all indicate increased application volume. Law school applications have also soared. Through December 15th, LSAC reports a 38% increase in applicants (not applications, but applicants) year over year, a whopping 57.4% increase in applications year over year, and an almost 62% increase in applications over two years ago. Twelve out of 200 law schools reported a 100% increase in applications, and 106 out of 200 law schools reported an increase of between 50 and 99%, which means that well over half of law schools are reporting more than a 50% increase in applications. LSAC, conservatively, warns that it’s too early in the cycle to draw conclusions, since at this time last year, 34% of applications had been counted. However, I am concluding that with roughly a third of applications in, or presumed to be in at this point in time, the file numbers may not be this eye-popping, but there will be a marked increase in applications to the nation’s law schools. Various graduate specialties are also up: for example, Master’s in Public Health. ABC News, citing data from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, which has over 100 MPH programs participating in its Common Application service, reports a 20% increase in applications this year. Data science programs are mushrooming. Strategies for standing out in a competitive applicant pool [5:29] That’s the news; what can you do about it? We try to be very practical here at Admissions Straight Talk. I don’t like to just raise problems; I also like to suggest to you ways to deal with them. One thing I think you need to do, particularly this year, is be realistic. Apply mostly to programs where you are likely to get accepted. If your dream school is a stretch, I’m not saying you have to give up on your dreams. You can still apply to it, and you might get in because you really, really want to, and you can really demonstrate fit. But for the rest of the programs, make sure that you’re being realistic. Number two, submit outstanding applications that show that you both fit in at your target schools and are a standout in the applicant pool. Number three, apply to additional schools that support your educational and professional goals. So often, I see applicants write, “Oh, I want Top 10, or M7, or T14, or top 20.” That’s okay if you get in, and there can be reasons to want those schools, but beyond that, also think about your specific direction in your field and which schools are really good in that area, even if overall, they aren’t rated quite as high or rank quite as high. That way, you apply more thoughtfully, more strategically, and more successfully. Finally, demonstrate interest in the schools that you are applying to. Now, how can you do that? Isn’t submitting an application a demonstration of interest? It is, but there’s more you can do. Obviously, every applicant is demonstrating interest in that way. First of all, make sure that your application shows fit with the program’s strengths, its values, and its mission. Also, attend online events for applicants. You can’t visit now, but attend those online events. Doing so is a demonstration of interest, and it also will means that you have better information that you can include in your application, or when you interview, or in updates. Try to interact and communicate with current students and recent alumni, so that your application can reflect insight, your efforts, and your genuine informed interest in that particular program. The increasing availability of test-optional programs and test waivers [7:55] Who should take advantage of test waivers, and who shouldn’t? There has been a trend to go test-optional in undergrad admissions for several years, but it really hadn’t influenced grad admissions until the COVID shutdown. Suddenly, applicants could not take the MCAT, the LSAT, the GMAT, or the GRE. Within a few weeks of the shutdown, the GRE, the GMAT, and a little later, the LSAT, were widely available online. The MCAT remained offline and became available only at the end of June in 2020. Some schools, at the time, decided that they were going to expand the number of tests they were accepting. Others decided to allow you to apply and then get the test score in. The schools were trying to adapt to the situation as much as we were trying to deal with it. Let’s look at what happened in a few different fields. With most medical schools, the overwhelming majority are continuing to require the MCAT, but some, notably Stanford and the University of Wisconsin, have gone MCAT-optional for this application cycle. In the law school world, I couldn’t find any LSAC law schools that are now test-optional. In business schools, it was a little bit different. The trend over the last 10 years has been for business schools to accept an increasing number of tests. The trend started first with the GRE. Again, that was about 10, 12 years ago, and last year, some schools started accepting the Executive Assessment for their full-time MBA programs, even though that test was originally designed for executive MBA programs. When the shutdown hit, schools started accepting a broader collection of exams: LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and I think one was accepting the Chinese University Entrance Exam, and some schools waived the GMAT for the end of last cycle. This year, more schools are going test-optional or allowing applicants to request test waivers. A few examples would be MIT Sloan, Ross, and UVA Darden. There’s a list on the Accepted website where you can see which MBA programs are test-optional or are offering waivers. Many other grad programs have gone test-optional or allow applicants to apply for waivers, including most MPH programs. But you have to make sure that you know what your target program’s requirements are. Obviously, if some require the test and some don’t, you’re going to have to take it, and you’re going to have to prepare for it. When to accept a test waiver, and when to take the test [10:22] What should you do if your target schools are test-optional, or you’re applying intentionally and exclusively to test-optional schools? What if you really have that choice? The test is either entirely optional or you have test waiver options. What should you do? Should you jump up and down because you do not need to pay for, sit, or study for this exam? Maybe. If you have a great academic record, as well as all the other experiential must-haves and nice-to-haves that your program seeks, yes, jump up and down for joy. You probably are fine applying without the exam. Those are the people whom the schools would be happy to accept, and they won’t pay that much attention to your exam. If however, your undergraduate record reflects underachievement on your part, or is below average or lacking in some way for the programs that you’re applying to, you probably need the test score to present evidence you can handle the program. I’m sorry to say it, but you will probably enhance your chances of acceptance by studying, paying for, and taking the exam. That’s probably not what you want to hear, but I’m supposed to be a reality check sometimes. What if you are a bad-test taker and your undergraduate record reflects underachievement on your part or is not competitive at your target programs? Then you probably could better spend your time, money, and energy to show academic ability in other ways if the programs you want to apply to don’t require the test. Most medical schools are still requiring the MCAT, so this probably is not that germane to med school applicants, but you might consider a postbac program for medical school students. If you’re applying to MBA programs, you have more options. There’s HBS CORe for graduate management education. You could consider pursuing the CFA or, the Certified Financial Planner, if it’s relevant to your goal. Perhaps just go for relevant graded courses, especially if you don’t have the business course options that I just mentioned. We’ve seen that work very effectively with clients, where they take courses in a new field of interest, and they get A’s in them. It could be an online four-credit certificate program or another degree, or just coursework with A’s. The point here is that, with the application surge and with some schools going test-optional, you have to assess whether you need that test to reinforce the idea that you can do the work in the graduate program that you are applying to. Reflecting on 2020 [13:19] When we first started Admissions Straight Talk back in 2012, I can’t say we were regular. We didn’t necessarily do it every week. But since 2013, it’s been week in and week out, and that’s how we got to number 400, and I’m rather proud of that fact. I’m going to take advantage of my pride and use it as an excuse to share some thoughts on a higher plane than my usual tactical approach for some recognition about events this year, and also some recognition and admiration for you, my listeners and graduate applicants. I’m drawing here a lot on what I’ve learned by reading and following Rabbi Lord Dr. Jonathan Sacks, who I mentioned earlier. He’s a writer, thinker, and teacher whom I admire greatly, and I also mentioned earlier that he passed away in November. He was eulogized by people from a broad array of fields, and places, and geographies. I feel that I, along with the rest of the world, have lost a mentor, moral voice, and valued teacher. Here are a few lessons I gleaned from his work and teaching, which I think are relevant to applicants about to embark on a major self-improvement project. And that is what higher ed is, at this very tempestuous time in history, a very uncertain time in history. 2020 was a bad year. I don’t want to minimize that. But there were silver linings amidst the tragedy and the suffering, and yes, the many deaths. That means that people are grieving and hurting. I don’t want to minimize that, but I do think it’s really important to recognize some of the silver linings. It’s important to recognize those who showed up with heroism and courage every day, day in and day out: the essential workers in hospitals, and grocery stores, truckers, whatever their field, that just kept on going. Rabbi Sacks pointed out also that the pandemic is one of the few times in history when all of mankind, including those essential workers, was fighting the same enemy, despite the divisions and divisiveness in other areas in our time, and even despite the disagreement that existed and exists about how to fight COVID. We all had the same enemy, and this is possibly the first and only time in history where that was true. Let’s recognize and celebrate this fleeting, and yes, admittedly tenuous, unity. One result of the pandemic, I think, is a little humility on the part of mankind. A tiny, tiny microscopic microbe is throwing us for a loop, and with all our sophistication, and our technology, and our travel to the far corners of the universe, we had to pause and regroup. We had to realize that we are not always in control. Now, while a little humility is a good thing, paralysis is not, and one of Rabbi Sacks’ fundamental teachings, which I definitely share, is that we are empowered to change and improve. Our destiny is influenced by events and by our past, but not determined by them. We always have the choice of how to respond, and we should never give up hope, as we attempt to create a brighter and better future. Education is fundamentally about improvement, and your applying and pursuing an education shows your commitment to improve yourselves and society, and that too, needs to be recognized and celebrated. For those of you dealing with either prior academic issues or obstacles to the pursuit of your dreams, you may need to work a little longer, a little harder to get you where you want to go. But in most cases, you can get there, or you can get awfully close to it. You can change. Your past is not your future, and it doesn’t dictate your future. You can change. Finally, as his daughter eloquently stated at his funeral, Rabbi Sacks firmly believed that problems are there to be addressed and solved, not merely put up with. He firmly believed in the power of change and our ability to change, and I know that so do many of you, because I’ve had the privilege of reading and reviewing many personal statements, statements of purpose, and application essays. They frequently discuss how you want to use your graduate education to solve a problem, to improve yourselves and society, and to contribute. As we move deeper into 2021, please don’t lose that commitment to self-improvement, and as Admissions Straight Talk returns to its regular programs, with little or no pontification from me, I’d like you to give yourselves a pat on the back and celebrate both your ability to change and your commitment to self-improvement, as evidenced by your pursuit of additional education. Congratulations for not letting the turbulence of 2020 stop you from pursuing your dreams and improving the world in 2021 and beyond.  Related Links:
Related Shows: [*]How to Address COVID-19 and the Events of 2020 in Your Application[*]Applying to Med School During COVID-19[*]Expert Advice for Applicants and an Inside Look at UCLA Anderson from an Intl MBA[*]Two Admissions Experts on the Latest in Law School Admissions[/list] Subscribe:   Podcast Feed  Tags: Admissions Straight Talk, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions The post Application Trends to Watch in 2021, and a Look Back at 2020 [Episode 400] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
17 Jan 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Bring Your Personal Statement to Life With Vivid, Active Verbs |
 Your personal statement and essays are essential elements of your application and allow the adcom great insights into who you really are aside from your stats. However, no matter how extensive your experience or how accomplished you may be, all that can be lost if presented in plodding prose that no one has the energy to read. Note the word “personal” in personal statement. It should convey something unique to you and not look like a robot put it together. Sometimes, in an effort to sound professional, applicants can go too far and come across as perfunctory or mechanical. At the same time, you might accidentally downplay your fabulous achievements by describing them blandly. Using strong, vivid verbs in your essays is an easy way to liven up any less-than-riveting descriptions. Do yourself justice by displaying your talents in their best possible light – and you can even elevate mediocre elements with the right use of verbal dexterity. So how can you make use of vivid verbs without coming across like you swallowed a dictionary? Take the following example: I watched a candle burn a few nights ago. It happened to have a particularly nice flame that conjured up many different images:
“The flame burned” sounds so dull next to the alternatives. It’s factual and gets the point across – true – but it’s just too pedestrian. Ordinary. Blah. It does not convey any of the images that the other sentences do because it doesn’t have the visual impact. Making your activities and experiences come alive In describing your activities, you want to use active verbs that convey sensory information and movement and that will transform your readers into observant and interested flies-on-the-wall of your stories. Those well-chosen, lively verbs will make your essays come alive. When you edit your essays, examine at least some of your verbs. Evaluate replacing the humdrum ones. Choose muscular, powerful verbs that convey images, sounds, smells, and experiences. Consider the following examples: Did you “try,” “plan,” “strive,” or “struggle” to complete your project on time? And what about that marathon you ran? Did you simply “run” it? Or did you limp across the finish line plagued by blisters, or did an adrenaline surge at the end combined with earlier weeks of training carry you, propel you, or thrust you across that finish line? Using a thesaurus (properly!) to transform your language When editing your essays, take a minute to examine your descriptions. Do they bore? Are they common? If so, look at your verbs. Then use a thesaurus to upgrade any bland verbs. You may find descriptive options far better than the ones you are so used to using. Looking in the thesaurus is like going to the store to buy a new pair of thick-soled, walking shoes. It means making the effort to turn in your trusty, worn-out pair for new ones. Your walk will have new bounce when you pull just the right pair off the shelf. Your writing will also have restored vigor when you use the thesaurus to inject life into it. Warning: To enliven your writing without making a fool of yourself, only use those words for which you know the meaning and connotation. Don’t choose words simply to impress. Choose them to convey meaning succinctly and vividly. Could your essays benefit from an invigorating injection of lively language? Our experienced consultants at Accepted know just how to lift your writing so it jumps off the page and grabs the adcom’s attention. We also know how to balance your vocabulary so you sound intelligent but still authentic. Take action today and check out our application essay services. We’ll help you demonstrate your drive, energize your essays, and actuate that acceptance letter. For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!  Related Resources:
Tags: Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions The post Bring Your Personal Statement to Life With Vivid, Active Verbs appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
20 Jan 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Should You Apply in Round 3? Let’s Find Out! |
 Our recent masterclass, Round 3 vs. Next Year: When Should You Apply? was so helpful for MBA applicants who are trying to decide how to time their application in a way that maximizes their chances for success. If you’re on the fence about applying and trying to determine what is best for you, make sure to watch the video now! Watch the masterclass: For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Tags: MBA Admissions The post Should You Apply in Round 3? Let’s Find Out! appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
22 Jan 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: UC Berkeley Haas Expands Deferred MBA Program |
 Haas has expanded its Accelerated Access program beyond UC Berkeley students, according to Haas’ Newsroom website. Accelerated Access enables students to apply for deferred admission to Haas’ full-time MBA program. Accelerated Access was introduced in January 2020 as a pilot program open to UC Berkeley students only. It was hoped that, if successful, the program would be expanded beyond UC Berkeley students. Its great success is evident in the decision to now allow all undergrad seniors or final-year grad students from any college to apply. According to Eric Askins, executive director of full-time MBA admissions, “We wanted to provide a new opportunity for young professionals who are planning to make an impact earlier in their careers through earning an MBA. Deferred admissions is the perfect option for many of these students, and we’re looking forward to meeting them.” Accelerated Access allows undergrad and masters students in their final year to apply to the MBA program. Students are granted a conditional admission, enabling them to enroll following a 2–5-year deferment. This time will be used to expand their professional experience and to “do work that aligns with their passions with the reassurance that they will be able to return to a top-ranked MBA program within a few years,” Askins stated. It is hoped that opening the program up to students outside of UC Berkeley will increase the diversity of the class. International students and those studying outside the traditional pre-MBA track are encouraged now to consider pursuing a Haas MBA. The chance to acquire 2–5 years of professional experience will provide these non-traditional students with the business foundation needed for their studies. [READ: No Work Experience. Want MBA. What Should You Do?] Once admitted, students will be able to join a Slack community, meeting with other deferred students to keep up with the admissions process and bond with future classmates. They will also meet yearly with an admissions officer to ensure they have the necessary support. Accelerated Access’ first admissions deadline is April 5, 2021. Applicants must submit a resume, two letters of recommendation, two short essays, undergrad transcripts, and either GMAT or GRE test scores. There will be an interview as well. Non-traditional students may not be able to demonstrate work experience, but this will not keep them from being admitted. According to Askins, “We’re looking for strong academic indicators paired with clarity of purpose. If you know an MBA will be useful in your future goals, it means you’ve thought about a plan. We are looking for clarity on that plan.” The Accelerated Access Program was also discussed in the recent Admissions Straight Talk interview with Eric Askins. For more of his perspective on that program and what Haas is seeking in Accelerated Access applicants, click here. Is a deferred admission program the right choice for you? We can help you evaluate your options, whether you are interested in Haas or another top-tier business school. Check out our MBA Services Packages to give yourself the edge and get ACCEPTED! For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources:
Tags: MBA Admissions The post UC Berkeley Haas Expands Deferred MBA Program appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
25 Jan 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: What is INSEAD Looking For? |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/What-is-INSEAD-looking-for.jpg[/img] [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-insead][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/What-is-INSEAD-looking-for.jpg[/img][/url] Wondering if you have what it takes to get accepted to INSEAD? This blog post examines [url=https://www.insead.edu/master-programmes/mba/admissions#admissions-criteria#admissions-criteria]INSEAD MBA’s 4 admission criteria[/url] and how you can demonstrate them in your application. What is INSEAD looking for? [list][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-insead-mba-criterion-1-ability-to-contribute]Ability to contribute[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-insead-mba-criterion-2-international-motivation]International motivation[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-insead-mba-criterion-3-academic-capacity]Academic capacity[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-insead-mba-criterion-4-leadership-potential]Leadership potential[/url][/*][/list] INSEAD MBA criterion #1: Ability to contribute The adcom gives, as its first admission criterion, “ability to contribute.” I take the liberty to add: ability to contribute as a person of quality and substance. All the criteria involve factors such as insight, growth, connection with people and cross-cultural facility, motivation. This criterion is based on INSEAD’s culture of interaction: among students (from around the world), between students and alumni, and between students and professors. Therefore, INSEAD seeks [url=https://blog.accepted.com/different-dimensions-diversity-episode-193/]students who bring something distinctive[/url] and meaningful to the program – it’s not just what you’ve done and plan to do – but what you have to say about it, what you’ve learned from it, how it informs your perspective, and how you may grow in the future – and your willingness to put that learning and growth at the service of your classmates and others. This criterion also therefore mentions participation – show how you have been an active member of your various communities: school, work, neighborhood, family, social group, etc., formally and/or informally. INSEAD is interested in long-term contribution, so, if you have already been an active alum for your undergrad (or grad) program, spotlight that participation in the application. Nothing will be more credible than [url=https://blog.accepted.com/4-ways-show-you-will-contribute-future/]an actual track record of contribution[/url]! Let’s finally examine the list of desired qualities this criterion cites at the end (on the school’s website); try to [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/essay-editing?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=what_insead_is_looking_for&utm_source=article]reflect these qualities in your essays[/url] and other application elements (some may naturally be more prominent than others): [list][*][b]Mature:[/b] You can show maturity in numerous ways: frank self-evaluation, willingness to listen to and acknowledge the validity of opinions you may not agree with, willingness to ask for help, ability to see multiple sides of an issue, acceptance of and ability to handle ambiguity, willingness to resist short-term gratification for longer-term goals, etc. [/*][*][b]Energetic:[/b] It’s not a matter of running marathons. It’s a matter of being engaged. (A curious person is inherently energetic, mentally and intellectually.) You can exemplify this quality in many ways, e.g. pursuing new learning opportunities (whether or not related to your goals and career), initiating relationships and interactions, asking questions, exploring new ideas, geographic areas, languages, sports, recipes… [/*][*][b]Highly motivated:[/b] A close cousin of energetic. For those things of interest and/or passion and/or concern and/or curiosity to you, you feel an inherent drive to address, explore, achieve. [/*][*][b]Well-rounded:[/b] You have a range of interests, skills, acquaintances. You lead a balanced life: aside from your busy job, you socialize, and you [url=https://blog.accepted.com/extracurriculars-activities-make-difference/]engage in activities of interest[/url]. You also balance reflection and action. Each well-rounded person reflects this quality in his unique way; there is no one formula for it. [/*][*][b]Possess strong communication and interpersonal skills:[/b] Without these skills, how can you contribute? These skills are the vehicle for your contribution, nothing less. It is imperative to illustrate your communication and interpersonal skills in your INSEAD application.[/*][/list] [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-insead][b]Looking for more INSEAD info? Register for our upcoming webinar, Get Accepted to INSEAD.[/b][/url] INSEAD MBA criterion #2: International motivation Sure, international experience is a big plus for an INSEAD applicant. But the website says that they seek candidates with [url=https://www.insead.edu/master-programmes/mba/admissions]international motivation[/url] which, in their eyes, means having “perceptive insights into the complexities of business in an international setting.” It also involves “adaptability and flexibility in multicultural environments” – which you can hardly achieve without some insight, so these elements naturally interconnect. The final component of international motivation is goals that have a global dimension. So, meeting this criterion involves more than working in multiple countries, continents, or galaxies. “International” should be an element of focus, reflection, and growth. What if you don’t have international experience? You can still possess international motivation if you’ve had global exposure (an example might be leading or serving on a virtual global team). It can even be in non-work form. (If you’ve had neither global experience nor global exposure, INSEAD might not be the school for you…) To summarize, the three key elements sought by the adcom – whether you have global experience, global exposure, or both – under this criterion are: [list][*]“Perceptive insights” about international business [/*][*]Adaptability across cultures [/*][*]Global goals[/*][/list] What does that mean for you? Global experience and/or global exposure is simply a qualifying point. To make yourself [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-insead][b]shine[/b] among INSEAD applicants[/url], go further. Offer vivid, thoughtful, sharp insights from your experiences. Those insights don’t have to be cosmic in scale. They do have to address “complexities of business in an international setting” in some way, shape, or form. Your insights should show that you are thoughtful, synthesize your experience and distill meaning from it, and are open to learning as you grow professionally. Also, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/proving-character-traits-in-your-application-essays]through example and anecdote[/url], demonstrate your ability to adapt across cultures – and beware the pitfall of using stereotypes when doing so (the Japanese are indirect, the Israelis are blunt, the Indians are culturally conservative) – hint: stop when you find yourself saying “the French,” “the Chinese,” “the Saudis.” Very likely a simplistic stereotype is about to burst forth. Here are some specific ways to incorporate this criterion into your application: [list][*]If you DO have international work experience, present anecdotes and examples from it [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/essay-editing?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=what_insead_is_looking_for&utm_source=article]in your essays[/url], make sure to portray your cultural adaptability and flexibility, and include insight you gained from this experience. [/*][*]If you DO NOT have international work experience, make certain to detail your international exposure, include insights gained, and show how this exposure involved your cultural flexibility. [/*][*]In the goals discussion, of course mention the global aspect, but go one step further, e.g., not just “become CIO of global pharma company” but add details about what that global aspect really entails for pharma, what are the specific global-related challenges and/or opportunities in the future, etc. Show awareness of global trends for your target industry, function, etc. [/*][*]Make sure your resume maximizes global-related experience. [/*][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/mba-interview-prep]Go into the interview[/url] with (a) a good grasp of current economic and geopolitical realities to add context for anecdotes and discussion points when possible, (b) a fresh recollection of your global experiences (professional and personal), and (c) thorough understanding of INSEAD’s global culture and how you fit into it. [/*][*]INSEAD includes its language requirements within its discussion of international motivation, so when you describe actual cross-cultural interactions (in essays and/or interview), if relevant include language component.[/*][/list] INSEAD MBA criterion #3: Academic capacity The operative word in this criterion is capacity. This word conveys the adcom’s perspective on the academic component of the application: it’s dynamic, focusing on how you can grow and perform and achieve academically going forward. The only way for the adcom to determine this is to draw conclusions based on your existing academic record. (Professional accomplishment does not indicate academic capacity, sorry to say.) There are two core components of that academic record: [list][*]Undergraduate record [/*][*]Standardized test[/*][/list] INSEAD now accepts both the GMAT and the GRE. Unlike many programs, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/insead-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]INSEAD[/url] recommends score levels: for the GMAT, at least 70-75% for both quant and verbal sections and 6 for the IR; for the GRE, at least 80% for both verbal and quant. Evaluating your undergraduate record The case of the undergraduate record is a bit more nuanced. The adcom looks at both the performance (grades, GPA) and competitiveness of the school. So, a 3.5 isn’t just a 3.5; it’s 3.5 relative to the rigor of the undergrad school and program. There are additional considerations in evaluating your undergrad record that are relevant for academic capacity, including: [list][*][b]How did your GPA trend?[/b] Even if it’s great, if it drops a lot in the last year or semester, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-to-b-school-with-a-low-gpa/]it’s not a great signal for academic capacity[/url] – and vice versa, a rising trend over 4 years even if the overall GPA is so-so, is helpful. [/*][*][b]How did you do in your quant courses?[/b] Those grades should be solid at least. There should be no doubt about academic capacity in quant. [/*][*][b]Did you work during school?[/b] (If so, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/mba-optional-essay-not-really-optional/]make sure the adcom knows it[/url].) The ability to perform well (or even pretty well) while working indicates academic capacity. [/*][*][b]Did you earn a graduate degree?[/b] The rigors of graduate work plus the tenacity graduate level study requires show academic capacity, even though a grad degree is not required. [/*][*][b]How competitive and challenging was your undergrad program and school?[/b] And how does your GPA relate to that?[/*][/list] Evaluating your academic capacity With these factors in mind, evaluate your own academic capacity, trying to see it from the adcom’s view: [list][*][b]First, evaluate the GMAT score and how it breaks down.[/b] What story or impression will the adcom see behind the numbers and percentiles? [/*][*][b]Second, evaluate your undergrad record thoroughly.[/b] Again, what will the adcom see behind the grades and the course names? Does it see broad or narrow interests? A global perspective? Growth? Curiosity? What’s the story and the academic personality that emerge? [/*][*][b]Third, combine the insights from these two evaluations.[/b] What’s the holistic academic picture that develops and what does it tell the adcom about your academic capacity?This evaluation process may simply clarify that everything is fine on the academic front and you can focus your application efforts into other topics and considerations. Or, it may reveal that, while you are qualified for INSEAD academically, there is room to strengthen the impression of academic capacity. In that case, look for opportunities in [url=https://blog.accepted.com/insead-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]the essays[/url], resume, and (fingers-crossed) interview to fill in that gap through the examples, anecdotes, and details you include.[/*][/list] INSEAD MBA criterion #4: Leadership potential INSEAD is not unique among MBA programs in desiring leadership potential in applicants. All do. It is unique in how it characterizes leadership and leadership potential. The adcom has a two-pronged view of leadership: [list][*]factual (what you did, [url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/leadership-in-admissions-2]your experience that reflects leadership[/url]) and [/*][*]qualitative (the values, character, and vision that inform your leadership, and its nature, impact and significance).[/*][/list] So, in this framework it’s not enough just to have impact or to drive change – it’s what kind of impact and why you pursue it; what specific change – from what to what and why. Let’s focus for a moment on the word “potential.” The adcom doesn’t just say “leadership” for the criterion. Potential is forward focused. You may have led a big project to success, but if your application indicates that you aren’t reflective, engaged, and interested in growth, your potential – future – leadership may be limited. So, this criterion must resonate with the other elements of your application to show (ideally) a mature, open, curious, intellectually agile, personally reflective nature. Such a nature will, when leading, provide quality leadership. Demonstrating leadership potential How do you show that you meet this criterion? [list][*][b]First[/b], obviously, present experiences (through example, anecdote, and resume points) that clearly portray your leadership roles to date. These may be formal (where you were a designated leader AND met the responsibilities of the role) or informal (where you identified the need for and stepped in to tactfully provide leadership in a given situation, e.g. resolving a conflict among teammates). In presenting these experiences, keep “quality” on the radar screen and strive to weave in aspects of the experience that include this dimension. [/*][*][b]Second[/b], through essays, resume, interview, etc., discuss experiences that convey elements of leadership. For example, you might have maturely handled an ethical challenge that didn’t necessarily involve leadership, but still showed qualities, such as courage, moral compass, willingness to prioritize values, etc., that one wants in a leader. There are an infinite variety of such elements – they include things like ability to motivate and/or inspire people, ability to persuade, willingness to take a stand for a value or an idea, ability and/or willingness to make tough decisions and forthrightly address the consequences, openness to appropriate risk-taking, etc. [url=https://blog.accepted.com/showing-strengths-in-application-essays/]Bring them to the foreground[/url] when you describe an experience in an essay. In the resume, sometimes you can work it in contextually. [/*][*][b]Third[/b], I’ll mention a factor too little used by applicants IMHO. When a good opportunity presents itself, mention (in essays and/or interview), a leader you admire and from whose example of leadership you are learning and growing. It may be someone you know at work, or a figure out in “the world.” No need to go on at length about such exemplars – but devoting a couple of lines in an essay or a sentence or two in [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba-interview-prep]an interview[/url] to such a mention is a great way to show leadership potential: you are thinking about leadership, you resourcefully gain insight from prevailing circumstances and apply it to your own situation, and you have the grace to elevate another.[/*][/list] Follow these steps and you are on your way to showing the INSEAD adcom that you are a great fit for the program. [b]For personalized assistance that will help you get accepted to INSEAD, [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=what_insead_is_looking_for&utm_source=article]check out our MBA Application Packages[/url]. I am always thrilled when I get an “I’m in at INSEAD!” email. I welcome the chance to help you show you belong at INSEAD and receive such an email from you in the future.[/b] [img]https://blog.accepted.com/cindy-tokumitsu-accepted-consultant/[/img] Cindy Tokumitsu has advised hundreds of successful applicants, helping them gain acceptance to top MBA and EMBA programs in her 20 years with Accepted. She would love to help you too. [url=https://www.accepted.com/service-request-cindy?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_cindy&utm_source=blog][b]Want Cindy to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch![/b][/url] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/4e484144-a453-4fe0-8b1c-95aef9c90181][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/4e484144-a453-4fe0-8b1c-95aef9c90181.png[/img][/url] [b]Related Resources:[/b] [list][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/leadership-in-admissions-2]Leadership in Admissions[/url], a free guide[/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/display-teamwork-in-application-essays/]4 Ways to Display Teamwork in Application Essays[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/insead-mba-essay-tips-deadlines/]INSEAD MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines[/url][/*][/list] Tags: [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/]MBA Admissions[/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/what-is-insead-looking-for/]What is INSEAD Looking For?[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
26 Jan 2021, 12:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: The Secret to Getting Accepted to INSEAD |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-INSEAD-Blog-Register-small.jpg[/img] [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-insead?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=webinar&utm_medium=INSEAD_Feb_2021_p1][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-INSEAD-Blog-Register-small.jpg[/img][/url] If your ambitions for a business career lean global, INSEAD is probably at the top of your list. But the Business School for the World is highly competitive. How can you ensure that your application makes the right impression on the adcom, earning you a spot in the class? Our upcoming masterclass, [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-insead?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=webinar&utm_medium=INSEAD_Feb_2021_p1]Get Accepted to INSEAD[/url], will walk you through the process of evaluating your submission with an eye on the areas you should focus on to increase your chances of being accepted. It’s airing live on Wednesday, February 3rd at 10am PT/1pm ET and we’d love for you to join us! Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham will present this masterclass. She has more than two decades of experience helping MBA hopefuls beat the odds and gain acceptance at the world’s top business programs. Her expert guidance is available free of charge, but you must register. Don’t wait—[url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-insead?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=webinar&utm_medium=INSEAD_Feb_2021_p1]grab your spot today[/url]! Register now: [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_mba&utm_source=blog][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/accepted_admissions_consulting.jpg[/img][/url] For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_mba&utm_source=blog][b]Want an MBA admissions expert [/b][b]to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch![/b][/url] Tags: [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/]MBA Admissions[/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-to-insead-read-this/]The Secret to Getting Accepted to INSEAD[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
26 Jan 2021, 15:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Why These GMAT Experts Approach Test-Taking With Empathy |
 How can you ace the GMAT, the EA or any test required at your dream school? [Show summary] Mike Diamond of Apex GMAT shares his advice for acing the GMAT, prepping for graduate program tests of all kinds, and why empathy is central to Apex’s approach to test-coaching. Mike Diamond, Director of Curriculum Development at Apex GMAT talks test prep [Show notes] How can you ace the GMAT, the EA, or any tests that may be required at the school you have your heart set on? Today’s guest has your answer. Mike Diamond is Director of Curriculum Development at Apex GMAT, and also its Co-Founder. Mike earned his bachelor’s at Brandeis in 2000 and has worked in finance, strategy advising, and political consulting. However, his passion is the GMAT. How did you get involved in the test prep business? [1:55] Entirely by accident. My passion is teaching and helping people, and I’ve always pursued that in all the various places that I’ve been in my career, and even going back to being a student. And like many, I was sort of the go-to guy for friends and family members, as a resource for people I knew, without paying attention to it as a potential career choice. I had spent some time working in a hedge fund, and then I was in the world of political consulting as you had mentioned. I loved it. I was helping people. I was doing really interesting work. But frankly, I was getting a little jaded, and this is well over a decade ago, and I know a lot more people are jaded these days. I was getting a little jaded, and I was having a burrito with my best friend’s cousin. We’re sitting in the Qdoba, and she’s brilliant. She’s actually an instructor at Manhattan Prep and she says to me, “Hey, I’m super passionate about Teach For America. I love teaching fourth grade science in North Philly, but I pay my mortgage teaching the GMAT.” I said, “Oh really?” At the time, I only thought there were the bigger shops, the Kaplans and Princeton Reviews. And frankly, as an educator, and I certainly consider myself an educator, those never held much appeal for me as a place of employment. I said, “Oh wow, that’s really fascinating.” I had always had a proclivity towards psychometric standardized testing. So about four days later, I went in, I did the GMAT, and then I began taking meetings with various GMAT firms. I was disappointed in what I saw, and there’s plenty of great firms and great tutors out there. But once a GMAT business gets beyond a small scale, personalized attention really isn’t a priority, and everything defaults to curriculum and having very bright instructors go through a prescriptive method for learning how to excel. There’s two problems with that. One is that it only gets a candidate so far, and the other is that it’s very one-size-fits-all, and yet one size does not fit all. Very quickly, everything else went into the rear view mirror. I began Apex with some like-minded instructors, and the rest, as they say, is history.  What is Apex GMAT Prep? [4:54] Apex is dedicated to helping people become better thinkers and better learners. We really consider the GMAT and the results that you get from becoming a better thinker as a result of that deeper process, permit you to be a more creative problem-solver, a more critical thinker in your profession, in your MBA, EMBA, or other graduate school program, and in your life and your relationships. There are a core suite of thinking skills that are not taught academically, that come through experience, but also come through having a particularly great teacher or particularly great circumstances with respect to family or mentors on how to approach the attitudinal adjustments one needs to make the emotional and psychological adjustments that one has to make to even approach intractable problems. Most of this is what we focus on. It’s not tips, it’s not tricks, it’s not heuristics. It’s how you enhance your level of skill and become a better thinker all around, and the GMAT scores kind of comes along for the ride. How do you do that? What is the method of delivery? [6:25] Everything is online, but even prior to COVID, I’d say 90 to 95% of our clients worked with us online. We’ve traveled the entire world, but we have in place a great online learning system, not just a classroom, but an online platform with 6,000 questions and practice exams and all that stuff that you ought to expect with whomever you’re working with. We do customized one-on-one tutoring, helping each individual learner understand their mind and how it works. Different people operate differently, approach things differently. A core precept for us is that we don’t teach down. It’s not about, “Do it this way because that works for me,” or, “If you see this problem, then do it this way.” It’s about iterating with the client towards those solution paths that work best for them, their proclivities, their wiring, if you will. What does Apex bring to the test prep marketplace that it previously lacked? [7:49] Cognitive empathy. It’s a term we use here at Apex, and it’s the core filter for an instructor to come join us. All of our instructors have scored at least a 770, but even so, 90% of them don’t make the final cut because of this thing we call cognitive empathy: the ability to get inside others’ heads, understand how they think, how they’re approaching problems, what their preferred learning style is, their method of construal. Or, are they spatial thinkers, are they graphic thinkers? Are they narrative thinkers? The ability to both help others access their own thought process and mentor them to be mindful with their thought process, so they can go in and adjust it and use it to the best effect and sense the things that clients aren’t seeing. This really is the vital part of the process. It’s why you go to a tutor. It’s not for someone to run you through a bunch of problems. It’s for them to see the things that you can’t see, especially if you’re already performing well and you’re so focused on the task at hand that you can’t switch and have enough bandwidth to observe what it is you’re doing. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] Number two: Zoom out. That’s a very generic thing to say, so it requires a little explanation. These exams, the GMAT and the others we’ve spoken about, they test logical reasoning, which means if you’re making it about the vocabulary word, if you’re making it about the formula, you’ve missed the larger point. The larger point is understanding there are multiple solution paths to every problem and that simply knowing how to do a problem correctly is not enough for success. You need to be able to do that problem efficiently, and you need to see the whole picture of the problem. Meaning that a lot of times it’s not getting to be answered, but in these multiple choice exams, it’s about selecting the correct answer choice. And many times that can be done at a characteristic level. You don’t have to arrive at 73.12 if the other answers are seven and 700. There’s only one answer that’s going to be in that 70-ish range. You don’t have to get the precise word to go to the GRE or the precise answer that’s in your head for a critical reasoning problem with the GMAT. All you have to do is say, “Well, it’s going to look something like this.” Once you start doing that, all of a sudden a lot of the DSMs (default solving mechanisms) and these time-wasting things that we’re doing, fall away. Finally, and this is a big one: Take fewer practice exams. We actually have a video about this on our YouTube, “The 6 Most Common Mistakes Preppers Make.” Practice exams are often misused, and most people use them as a way to rank where they are now, which really doesn’t matter when you’re preparing. It’s sort of like running a race as fast as you can and saying, “Well, I got this time. How much time did it take?” Well, it doesn’t matter. You want to run it faster. Focus on the skills that are going to help you to run it faster. People get psyched out. They get preoccupied with the score that they’re receiving, rather than using practice exams for what they are, which are calibration tools. Practice tests are for calibrating your timing decisions, for understanding how you’re operating under pressure, for identifying weaknesses and places where you’re not handling problems, even if you’re getting them correct in the way you want to be. And most importantly, they’re for experimentation. If you’re focused on performing on a practice exam, you’re not focused on using the new skills you’ve been developing during all your self-prep, whether with a tutor on your own or otherwise. If you are preoccupied with the score you end up DSM-ing, you end up going back and grabbing that side of the pool and not actually building confidence in the new ways. Practice exams are great for understanding everything that you’re doing wrong, but then you have to put in the work in between the practices exams. Doing a practice exam every week is too much. Doing a practice exam every day is frankly insane. If you’re not sure, and this isn’t a plug for Apex, but more generally, provide yourself with a teacher. Find a guide, find a friend, find a loved one, find a mentor at work, someone who’s been through it and who can advise you on what worked for them. And then question every single thing you hear from them and find two of them who just like it. Because what works for one does not work for another, but don’t do this in a vacuum. It’s a recipe for disaster. And that’s the case with all teachers and with all students; there’s no one size fits all, especially as you’re pushing for elite performance. It’s rare that we have anyone who doesn’t say, “I want a 700. I want to go to a top school,” which is very natural. But to get that elite performance, you need to get beyond the basics and find the ways to make your mind work at its highest capacity. This is worth noting that many people, when they’re preparing, are focused on the wrong skills. They’re focused on all the tools at their disposal, without focusing on growing their skills. Imagine going into a craftsman’s shop, to a woodworker. There are plenty of people out there who are preparing by saying, “Oh, there’s a picture. That’s a hammer, that’s a saw, that’s a screwdriver.” They go to the test and they say, “Well, oh, this is a hammer problem. That’s a saw problem. That’s a screwdriver problem.” But they never pick them up. They never build. And when they’re told to build a birdhouse, it doesn’t come out great because they’ve never used the tools. Many others use the tools, but they keep building that same birdhouse over and over and they’ve got a beautiful birdhouse. They get on the GMAT and the GMAT says, “Okay, we’ll build a chair.” The chair doesn’t come out well because they’ve been focused on the project, rather on how to use the tools better. A lot of times people get into these cycles where they keep focusing on repeating the things they already know, which is comfortable. It feels like you’re making progress, rather than working on the things that you don’t know and going into the places where you’re less comfortable. What about on test day itself? [26:36] Stop preparing 24 hours in advance of your exam. The common mistake is: They’re sitting there in the exam room with their notes, or in the waiting room. If you haven’t learned it by now, you’re not going to learn it. The last 24 hours, and really the last couple of days before the exam, it’s time to get yourself into a good head space. You should be eating well. You should be sleeping well. You should not be partaking in alcohol and other substances if that’s your custom. You really should be just focused on de-stressing, keep yourself out of stressful situations, away from people that stress you out. Another thing that’s really vital is: Expect something to go wrong, especially at the test center. There’s a bit of what they call lab coat or white coat syndrome in going to take a test. That syndrome is when you go to a doctor, your blood pressure tends to be higher because there’s something mildly unsettling for most people about being in the doctor’s office; something could be wrong. There’s this medical phenomenon, and it’s well documented, where people have higher blood pressures when their blood pressure is taken compared to other times. The same thing happens at the testing center. Expect something to go wrong. Expect the person checking you in to be rude. Expect someone to have the sniffles when you’re sitting next to them in the test. Once you’re mentally prepared for that, then you can sort of put that aside. One great thing for those with test anxiety, and this is one of our secrets: Go to the testing center a couple of times before your test. It’s not about making sure you know the traffic patterns or where the front door is, although that’s a side effect. If you’re going to be triggered, if you’re going to be unnerved by being there, simply the act of going there and desensitizing yourself to those stimuli a little bit can really get in front of test anxiety. Go ahead and read a book, and eventually you’re going to calm down about it a little bit.  You were kind enough to invite me and a few of the other Accepted consultants to a mini-session. Mike gave us some questions and had us solve them on the spot, and it was fascinating how easy it was to miss key elements in the question. A little humiliating and humbling, but still fascinating. It definitely increased my empathy for students taking these exams. [28:53] I have to say, Linda, it ought not to be. It’s very natural. These are things that our brain does that we’re wired to do. We see, okay, we’re going to talk about apples, bananas and cherries. It’s natural to start thinking about the apples first, because it was presented first or has the letter A and our mind associates that with number one, “start here.” Since we were two years old, A comes first, right? We’re wired to organize information in certain ways. A lot of people think these exams are about intelligence or knowing formulas and all that stuff, and really it’s about attentiveness. It’s about sensitivity. It’s about self-discipline and about really sharpening your process for dealing with information. This is something that’s incredibly hard to do. It takes habitual work to do. But it’s also something that we do very well in situations where we know we need it. You read a contract very differently than you really had a book. You solve a problem when it’s about the money in your pocket very differently than when it’s about Annie selling oranges at the seashore. A lot of times it’s about making it real to yourself, but also understanding that the focus ought to be on how you’re processing, organizing, and approaching information. Those underlying skills, while they take a little bit of work, are relatively easy to load. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 400 or a 700, those fundamentals and the mechanics can be learned in short order. Everything else is what you do with those tools. Any last advice for applicants about to take either the GMAT, the EA, or the GRE? [31:56] I’d refer back to something I’ve kind of been alluding to throughout the hour, but I’ve never come out and said it: Be kind to yourself. Take the pressure off yourself. You are not your GMAT score. It’s not the measure of your self-worth. And frankly, we don’t let any instructor in the door at Apex who is proud of their GMAT score. That’s not what it’s about. It’s one part, it’s necessary, but not sufficient. It’s one part of a much larger profile, and many candidates and applicants really build it up in their mind that it’s the be-all end-all and that it has to come first. Again, it’s necessary, but your applications are just as necessary. Your work is just as necessary. Being a good person is also necessary. Spending time with your family. These are much more important things. And when you look back on it, you’re not going to be thinking about your GMAT score. Take it in stride and give yourself a break. And oddly enough, when you do so, you give yourself a break at the emotional level. That tends to be the catharsis that allows for great performance. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Apex? [34:18] They can find us at apexgmat.com. That has our GMAT and executive assessment materials, or apexgre.com if you’re interested in the GRE. Also, we’re rolling out a new tool, apexgmat.com/calculator. Right now it’s for the GMAT. You can go on and input a bunch of background information. I’ll warn you, it’s a bit of a longer form, but we’ve gotten pretty good at understanding both where someone is likely to be, even if you haven’t started the GMAT process yet, but also getting a sense from things of your background, where the range of potential is, both now and where you can likely be. It’s a really great way to get started in the process, to calibrate what the reasonableness is for achieving a certain score and the timeline that you’re looking at. It’s designed to give you a sense of what the process looks like. Of course, you can always speak with any one of us. We don’t have a sales force here. We just have instructors who do this full-time and care about you and your success. That’s why we’re all in this business. We all started elsewhere. We’re all dedicated educators. You can give us a call anytime and we’re happy to speak with you. Related links:
Related shows:
Subscribe:  Podcast Feed Tags: Admissions Straight Talk, Grad School Admissions, MBA Admissions The post Why These GMAT Experts Approach Test-Taking With Empathy [Episode 402] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
01 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: STOP! Don’t Apply to INSEAD Without This Information! |
 Our free one-hour masterclass, Get Accepted to INSEAD, is airing live on Wednesday, February 3rd, but there’s still time for you to register to join us! INSEAD is highly selective, but if your ambitions for a career in business have a global bent, there is no better program from which to launch a successful career. Don’t take the chance of having your application fall by the wayside. Join us for this session and let Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham help you develop a winning application strategy. Expert assistance like this doesn’t come along often—especially free of charge. Hurry and snag your spot now so you don’t miss out on critical information that could make the difference between acceptance and rejection. We’ll see you at 10am PT/1pm ET on Wednesday, February 3rd! Register now: For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Tags: MBA Admissions The post STOP! Don’t Apply to INSEAD Without This Information! appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
04 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Cambridge Judge MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines [2021] |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Cambridge-Judge-2021-essay-tips-and-deadlines.jpg[/img] [url=https://blog.accepted.com/resources/mba-admissions/mba-essay-tip-posts/][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Cambridge-Judge-2021-essay-tips-and-deadlines.jpg[/img][/url] The [url=https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/mba/apply/]Cambridge Judge MBA program[/url] is a one-year program with a small class of around 200 students from approximately 40 countries. The Judge MBA is a very experiential program, with three required team projects and another optional one, engaging students with external companies or organizations. Judge is seeking applicants with proven academic abilities, ambition, the ability to thrive under pressure, international experience, and strong interpersonal skills. Use your essays to [url=https://blog.accepted.com/proving-character-traits-in-your-application-essays/]demonstrate that you have these qualities[/url]. Keep in mind that Judge is one of the few programs that is extremely strict about its word limits: not one additional word can be entered into the text boxes beyond their word limits. Judge’s application requires a CV that adheres to their template, then offers 3 areas to elaborate on your current role: your primary responsibilities (250 words), your most significant professional challenge in this role (200 words), and your most significant professional achievement (200 words). When choosing among the experiences to highlight in these short-answer sections, I typically look for challenges that are atypical and [url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/leadership-in-admissions-2]demonstrate leadership[/url]. Cambridge Judge offers 5 essay spaces for you to show your fit with the program. Cambridge Judge 2021 MBA application essays Cambridge Judge MBA essay question #1 Please provide a personal statement. It should not exceed 500 words and must address the following questions: [list] [*] [list] [*]What are your short and long term career objectives and what skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you achieve them? [/*] [*]What actions will you take before and during the MBA to contribute to your career outcome? [/*] [*]If you are unsure of your post-MBA career path, how will the MBA equip you for the future?[/*] [/list] [/*] [/list] This is a straightforward [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/why-mba]goals essay[/url]. Strong essays will demonstrate clear goals, insight into what skills you need to gain to succeed in those roles, and an understanding of the Judge curriculum and other campus activities that will help you acquire those skills. I personally love the phrasing of this question because for some applicants this is the first notification that they need to take an active role in their post-MBA job search. The admissions office cannot accept students who expect the school’s name and career services office to open every door for them, so applicants need to demonstrate in this essay that they are comfortable with that reality. Cambridge Judge MBA essay question #2 Describe a difficult decision that you had to make. What did you learn from this and how have you changed as a result? (up to 200 words) Leaders must make difficult decisions. Here is your opportunity to show one example of you displaying the analytical abilities required to do so. When selecting an example, I recommend choosing a time you said yes to a risk rather than one in which you were risk-averse: big growth and impact require saying yes sometimes, so these stories do a better job of illustrating your potential as a future leader. Cambridge Judge MBA essay question #3 Describe a time where you worked with a team on a project. What did you learn from the experience and how might you approach it differently today? (up to 200 words) Much of Cambridge Judge’s curriculum is executed in teams, so the admissions committee needs to know that [url=https://blog.accepted.com/display-teamwork-in-application-essays/]you work well in that kind of environment[/url]. To show what you learned, share some detail about the challenges the group faced – for example, cultural differences, personality clashes, execution conflicts – and how you led the team to resolve them, increase understanding of each other and of the scope of the project. Ideally, readers will hear about the impact of or value added to the project in addition to the lessons you learned about team leadership. Cambridge Judge MBA essay question #4 If you could give one piece of advice to your 18-year-old self, what would it be? (up to 200 words) This is a tricky question. The adcom does not want to read 200 words of advice to your 18-year-old self; they do want to hear about a lesson you learned later that you wish 18-year-old you had known. One way to answer this question is to start with the advice and then share the experience in which you learned the lesson. Cambridge Judge MBA essay question #5 (for reapplicants only) Describe any relevant developments since you last applied to the Cambridge MBA? (up to 200 words) In order to answer this question, you need to [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/rejection-review]recognize the weaknesses in your previous application[/url]: [list][*]Were your goals unclear? [/*][*]Did you not demonstrate why you wanted an MBA? [/*][*]Did you fail to share leadership examples that impressed the adcom with your potential? [/*][*]Did you have [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-with-low-stats]low scores[/url] that needed to be boosted? [/*][/list] Be sure to share new information here – not something that was already described in your role description or another essay – to give the adcom even more reasons to be impressed by your growth since you last applied. Cambridge Judge MBA optional additional question Please provide information on any aspect of your candidacy that requires further explanation, or information that you would like the Admissions Committee to know (300 word limit). I personally always recommend [url=https://blog.accepted.com/mba-optional-essay-not-really-optional/]taking advantage of optional essay space[/url] when offered it. This would be a great opportunity to share more about your international experiences, your interpersonal skills, or your activities outside of work, whatever has not been adequately covered elsewhere in your application. [b]For expert guidance with your Cambridge Judge MBA application, check out Accepted’s [/b][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/application-packages?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=mba_essay_tips&utm_source=blog][b]MBA Application Packages[/b][/url][b], which include comprehensive guidance from an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to top MBA programs and look forward to helping you too![/b] Cambridge Judge remaining MBA application deadlines for 2021 [b]Round [/b][b]Application deadline [/b][b]4 [/b]March 8, 2021 [b]5 [/b]April 26, 2021 Source: [url=https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/mba/apply/]Cambridge Judge website[/url] [b]Stay on top of MBA deadlines with the [url=https://www.accepted.com/calendar]MBA Admissions Calendar[/url]![/b] [[url=https://calendar.google.com/calendar/b/2?cid=ZWdybWVsZ3IzZTZtczUxYzMwOGY0MGxiODhAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ]Click here[/url] to add the calendar to your Google calendar; or [url=https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/egrmelgr3e6ms51c308f40lb88%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics]here[/url] to add the calendar to another app.] ***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with individual programs to verify the essay questions, instructions and deadlines.*** [b]For expert guidance with your Cambridge Judge MBA application, check out Accepted’s [/b][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/application-packages?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=mba_essay_tips&utm_source=blog][b]MBA Application Packages[/b][/url][b], which include comprehensive guidance from an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to top MBA programs and look forward to helping you too![/b] [img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Jennifer-Bloom-Accepted-Consultant.jpg[/img] By Jennifer Bloom, admissions consultant at Accepted for 20 years and Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW). She is an expert at guiding you to produce application materials that truly differentiate you from the rest of the driven applicant pool. If you would like help with your application, Jennifer can suggest a number of options that work with any budget. [url=https://www.accepted.com/service-request-jennifer?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_jennifer&utm_source=blog][b]Want Jennifer to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/b][/url] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/a921552d-3588-4837-b48b-f2b386f0a230][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/a921552d-3588-4837-b48b-f2b386f0a230.png[/img][/url] [b]Related Resources:[/b] [list][*][url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/why-mba]Why MBA[/url], a free guide to show you how to determine your MBA goals and weave them into compelling essays[/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/mba-admissions-committees-want-know-deal-criticism/]How Do You Deal with Criticism? MBA Admissions Committees Want to Know[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/display-teamwork-in-application-essays/]4 Ways to Display Teamwork in Application Essays[/url][/*][/list] Tags: [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/]MBA Admissions[/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/cambridge-judge-mba-application-tips-deadlines/]Cambridge Judge MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines [2021][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
05 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Reapplying to Business School: How to Do It Right the Second Time Around |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Reapplying-to-business-school-How-to-do-it-right-the-second-time-around.jpg[/img] [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/reapplication][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Reapplying-to-business-school-How-to-do-it-right-the-second-time-around.jpg[/img][/url] Were your b-school applications rejected? Eager to go for the gold again? If this sounds like you, read on! This blog post offers a step-by-step process for [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/rejection-review?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=reapplying_to_business_school&utm_source=article]reevaluating your rejected application[/url], and submitting top-notch applications to the best schools for you. If you implement the principles discussed here and apply with strong essays, letters of recommendation, and interviews, you should find yourself preparing to attend a favorite business school in the not-too-distant future. [b]Here’s to your successful reapplication! [/b] A reapplication effort inevitably starts with rejections. When you get that rejection, you realize that you’re either not going to the business school you initially wanted to attend, or not going to business school next year at all. In either case, should you decide to reapply, there are several must-knows to make your next attempt more successful. Reasons for rejection First of all, it is important to consider any possible reasons for your rejection. There are two main types of rejections. The first type is a rejection because of [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/selectivity-index]the numbers[/url]: if you applied to any of the most competitive, top fifteen schools, chances of admission are slim, as they often have a 10–20% acceptance rate. Thus, even if you possessed impressive qualifications, there were too many candidates possessing your overall profile who applied to that school, and you simply did not make the cut. Any more specific reason remains unclear. (One thing to keep in mind: if you had a promising application and you submitted it late in the cycle, chances are that the school just ran out of spots.) Waitlisted applicants certainly fall into the category of the basically qualified, but not quite accepted pool. Think of it this way: If you were waitlisted, you were acceptable. You met the bar. But somehow you weren’t as acceptable as somebody who got an acceptance letter. (Again, applying late is frequently a risk factor and something you should consider if you were rejected and are [url=https://blog.accepted.com/which-mba-program-is-right-for-me-the-ultimate-guide-to-choosing-an-mba-program/]fundamentally competitive[/url].) Years ago, Accepted had a client, an accountant, who was accepted to every single MBA program that he applied to except for one, where he was waitlisted, and which was, naturally, the one he wanted to attend. He eventually decided to withdraw his name from the waitlist, but he wrote to the school letting them know that he intended to apply again in the future and asking for some feedback. They told him that his stats were excellent; his work experience was competitive; his essays were among the best they’d ever read. Naturally, he asked the logical question, “Well then, why didn’t you admit me?” And they told him they had a policy of admitting only fourteen accountants each year. Because he applied in Round 2 due to health problems during Round 1, they’d already filled the fourteen accountant slots by the time he applied; thus, they had to put him on the waiting list. Again, while applying in the second round is not late, some spots are taken. And if you [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/round-3-vs-next-year]apply third or fourth round[/url], that increases your chances of a rejection simply based on the decreasing spaces available, never mind your qualifications. If you’re applying in one of these later rounds, therefore, you’ll need to try especially hard to distinguish yourself from your fellow applicants. That means demonstrating professional growth; addressing whatever weaknesses there may be in your profile head-on; and, perhaps most importantly, highlighting your distinctive personal or professional background. The good news is that reapplicants in this rather large category tend to do well the second time around. Let’s consider a different group now – those who were rejected because of an application weakness. Usually, one of the “five pillars” of their application was weak. The “five pillars” are the most critical aspects of your application: [list][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-1-academics]Academics[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-2-work-experience]Work experience[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-3-personal-qualities]Personal qualities and characteristics[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-4-fit]Fit[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com#h-5-why-should-we-admit-you]The “Why should we admit you?” factor[/url][/*][/list] Unless you are 100% certain which of these pillars might have caused your rejection, you should seek feedback from the programs that provide it. You need to determine which factors contributed to your rejection in order to rectify them. Each school’s feedback protocol is subject to change so check with your programs as to whether and when they give feedback. Getting feedback often involves a 15–20-minute session with an admissions director, who will go through the different aspects of your application. [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/a7004604-d7d1-4d1f-98ef-a0ec53d7e590.png[/img][/url] Prepare for a feedback session by developing a set of questions that you would like answered. The first and foremost one should be, “Could you point out areas of weakness in my application that contributed to my rejection?” (They probably will answer this question without prompting, but just in case, that should be at the top of your list.) After you get their feedback, even if they have addressed this fundamental question and while being respectful of the adcom member’s time, go through the five pillars and ask the following questions: [list][*]Were my academic stats competitive? If not, how so? Would additional coursework improve my application? [/*][*]Was my work experience MBA quality? If not, what can I do to make it more competitive? [/*][*]Did my essays convey the personal qualities you value? If not, how can I do better? [/*][*]Did I show why I am a good match for your particular institution? [/*][/list] Now, if you walk out of that interview and you don’t have answers to these questions, you’ve missed a golden opportunity. At the same time, as valuable as the feedback from an admissions director can be, just like everything else you read or hear, you have to evaluate it. If it appears vague, general, and unfocused, you were probably rejected for subjective reasons. If the feedback, however, points to concrete and specific issues in your previous application, then you have to change that aspect of your profile or apply to a different school. Most schools, when considering your reapplication, look at how well you addressed their concerns in the new application. If your schools don’t give feedback, or if you miss the windows they have provided for feedback, then you need to do a self-evaluation, and/or you need to [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services/rejection-review?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=reapplying_to_business_school&utm_source=article]seek feedback from a service like Accepted[/url]. The self-evaluation Look more closely at the five pillars of your application: 1. Academics Look at your stats and compare them to [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/selectivity-index]your target school’s averages[/url]. If you applied to a school where the average GPA for accepted students is 3.5, and your GPA is 2.8, you’re in trouble. You need to take classes and show that you are ready and capable of applying yourself in an academic setting and earning A’s. That’s the name of the game. Calculus, Statistics, Accounting, Econ and Finance are all excellent preparatory, quant-based courses for business school. You may also want to consider online options like HBS CORe or MBAMath.com. If your verbal or English skills are weak, enroll in Toastmasters or take advanced English courses, such as English for Business, or Communications for Business; these are all classes that will improve your verbal skills, and again, garnering A grades will demonstrate that you’re working on this weakness. If your test score was weak and your target school requires a GMAT, GRE, or EA, you need to prepare for and take the test that you find easiest. If you applied to two or more schools where your stats are significantly below the schools’ averages and you are not from an under-represented minority, you are probably aiming too high and not applying realistically. If this is the case, you have two options: Either you need to improve those stats by retaking the test or earning A’s in additional coursework, or you need to apply to different schools. Furthermore, evaluate the school(s) you applied to. If you applied exclusively to [url=https://blog.accepted.com/m7-mba-programs-everything-you-need-to-know-in-2020/]M7 schools[/url] (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Booth, and Columbia) and you simply don’t have the stats for them, mix it up; apply to some lower-ranked schools. If you applied only to one or two schools, and you were not quite competitive at those two schools, consider additional programs that support your goals and diversify your application pool. We recommend that you apply to between four and six schools, and apply to a range of schools with varying reputations for prestige and selectivity, particularly if there is a weakness that you’re asking the school to overlook. Now, if you decide to apply to a few lower-ranked schools, then look for schools well regarded in your specific area of interest, but perhaps not as highly regarded overall. For example, Tepper is constantly ranked number two in IT and Operations. Overall, however, it’s typically ranked in the mid-twenties. The same with Purdue – it consistently ranks in the top five for Operations, Management, Supply Chain, etc., but overall, it’s ranked much lower. Babson is consistently placed by both Business Week and U.S. News in the top five for entrepreneurship, yet ranks in the top fifty overall. The University of South Carolina ranks very highly in international business, but overall ranks much lower. So, think about your interests: if the aforementioned specialties are of interest to you, and you are having trouble qualifying for the schools that are ranked highly overall, then these programs, and others like them, are excellent options for you. 2. Work experience Now in terms of the professional pillar, you have to examine both quantity and quality. Another year has passed and presumably you’ve moved up. If lack of quantity was the issue, time has been your friend and you’re already in better shape. On the other hand, if you’re an older applicant and time is working against you, you have an embarrassment of riches in your experience. Consider applying to more experience-friendly schools. Another option is an [url=https://blog.accepted.com/emba-the-ultimate-guide-for-applicants/]executive MBA program[/url]; if you have the stats for them, look into the Sloan Fellows Programs, either at LBS or MIT or the Stanford MSx programs. They are full-time programs aimed at more experienced applicants. But in terms of your reapplication efforts, although the time since your initial application can help you supplement your professional experience, it can also work against you if too much work experience was the problem. For more information on overcoming the challenges of both early career and more experienced applicants, please see: [list][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-for-an-mba-with-no-work-experience-what-you-need-to-know/]Applying for an MBA with No Work Experience: What You Need to Know[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/mba-admissions-younger-applicants/]MBA Application Advice for Younger Applicants[/url] [/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/applying-to-regular-full-time-mba-programs-as-an-older-applicant/]Applying to Regular Full-Time MBA Programs as an Older Applicant[/url][/*][/list] However, [url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-an-admissions-committee-views-mba-work-experience/]your professional experience[/url] is not just looked at in terms of quantity. If anything, that’s the less important aspect. Quality is far more important. If you assess, or the school provides feedback, that your work experience didn’t measure up qualitatively, that it somehow was not competitive, or that the school feared you would not be able to contribute valuable insights and perspective to classroom discussions, then perhaps a promotion or a change in your responsibility has already addressed this problem. If it hasn’t – in other words, you haven’t earned a promotion, or you’re in a very narrow technical role and need to broaden your horizons – try to move to a more business-oriented position. If you have been in a strictly domestic role, try to add an international dimension to your experience. Any of these changes will improve the quality of your work experience from an admissions perspective. You also have to present your work experience effectively. Be sure to quantify how you’ve improved, advanced, gained more responsibility. Admissions folks will want specificity, such as, “I’m now managing a department of twenty,” or “I now have budgetary responsibility twice what it was,” or “I have a sales territory three times the size….” Another way you can show significant change is to take initiative, especially for elite MBA programs, which like to see leadership initiative outside of work. Start a charity, lead a fundraising drive, take a significant role in a mentoring program. There are endless opportunities. And again, adding international dimensions to your profile or work experience would be a significant change. [url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/leadership-in-admissions-2]Assuming leadership[/url] for competitive schools is everything. 3. Personal qualities Demonstrating your personal qualities is one of the central purposes of your essays. More specifically, your essays should reveal how your personal qualities match the values of the school, particularly those attributes not shown in your transcript, resume, or job history. The most desired MBA applicant qualities are leadership, interpersonal skills, initiative, and teamwork. They also look for impact. For example, if you mentor someone and have a significant and long-lasting impact, that stands out in your application (and in the life of others!). Perhaps you turned around an at-risk kid and got them to study, ultimately helping them to get accepted to college; perhaps you taught an illiterate to read! [url=https://blog.accepted.com/why-extracurricular-activities-make-a-difference-in-your-mba-application/]Showing community service is important[/url], however you do it. And take note: community service does not only mean working in soup kitchens; it can also mean helping your community in whatever way you relate to “community”: it can be your professional community, ethnic community, political community, or religious community. The bottom line is that by assuming responsibility, taking leadership roles, and having an impact on those around you, you’ll be demonstrating all kinds of qualities that business schools value, including leadership, community service, teamwork, organizational and time management skills, and initiative. Here is a CRUCIAL writing tip: The key is to [b]demonstrate [/b]these qualities and attributes, not to claim them. “Show, don’t tell,” is the name of the game. The essays should not represent a form of essay spam or key word choices. You want to use experiences from your life to [b]prove [/b]that you have these qualities. You can find lots of good tips for writing the essays and demonstrating the qualities on the [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/]Accepted Admission Blog[/url]. 4. Fit Did you show why this specific school’s program is going to help you achieve your particular goals? That’s a key question. To answer it, you must also have a clear answer to the question: “What are your goals?” Once you [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/guide/why-mba]clarify your personal and professional goals[/url], you can figure out which schools are best for you. Start by researching the schools you are interested in. You can perform this research by visiting the school’s website and examining the curriculum and special programs at the school. You can attend their info sessions online, or offline when offline programming resumes. In most years, school representatives travel throughout the world, meeting with prospective students and pitching their programs. Attending the school receptions and MBA fairs is a good way to get an introduction to the school. Additionally, talk to current students and recent alumni. Ask them about professional opportunities in your field of interest for graduates of the school. Make sure that the school’s graduates get the kinds of jobs you are most interested in. Finally, look into what the professors at the school are doing. Would you like to take a particular professor’s class? Is the professor doing research or consulting for a firm that you’re particularly interested in? That kind of knowledge can really add specificity and authenticity meat to an essay on why you want to attend the school, and you are encouraged to mention professors and their courses by name in your essay. 5. Why should we admit you? This key question must be answered if you’re applying to intensely competitive schools or you’re coming from a common applicant profile, be it an accountant, an Indian IT grad, or whatever. This question is on some level code for: How will you make a difference at our school? What can you contribute? [url=https://blog.accepted.com/different-dimensions-diversity-episode-193/]How are you unique?[/url] What can you add to the class? Do you have an unusual level of professional achievements? Do you have musical talent? Unusual energy? Initiative? A spiritual bent? A mania for running? Experience abroad? What are you going to bring to the b-school party? That is an exceedingly important question for all, but especially for the very traditional applicant. Non-traditional applicants have a different challenge, as they have to show how they’ll fit in. But the more traditional you are, the more you have to show how you will stand out. How do schools view my reapplication? Now let’s look at how the schools themselves look at the application. First of all, let’s recognize differences in attitudes towards reapplicants. INSEAD, for example, has historically been less welcoming to reapplicants. In the past, [url=https://reports.accepted.com/mba/webinar/get-accepted-to-insead]INSEAD[/url] would admit or reject. There were a few options for admittance: For example, if it had filled up its particular intake, INSEAD might admit you for the next year, or at a different location. But once it rejected you, that was it; there was no such thing as reapplication. That changed several years ago. Now some applicants are encouraged to reapply, and if you get that encouragement, it definitely pays to try again. But if reapplication is discouraged, it definitely does not pay to reapply. The Bottom Line: Pay attention to what the adcom tells you. Most other schools are much friendlier to reapplicants. Chicago, Wharton, Michigan, Darden, MIT – they look at reapplication as a sign of serious interest. Again, seek feedback, evaluate it, and follow instructions, but generally speaking, most MBA programs look favorably on applications from reapplicants. This is especially true if you are reapplying after being on the waitlist; while there are no guarantees, you are a little bit ahead of the game. Types of reapplications Schools generally ask for one of two kinds of reapplications. The first kind is a whole new application. In this case, you have to file all new essays, new letters of recommendations, your same transcripts, and your test score. (If you have improved your score, submit it!) If you received feedback from the school on your first application, they will be looking to see that your new application addresses the issues they raised in their feedback; after all, they’re not giving you feedback to waste time. They want to see that you used it. They won’t read your whole file from last year, but they will very likely read the previous reviewers’ notes. If they have questions, then they’ll go to last year’s file, but usually they don’t. The other kind of reapplication just requires you to submit one or two essays, or a letter to update the school on what has changed since your last application, plus any new scores, new transcripts, etc. In this kind of reapplication, your earlier application is far more significant. If you feel your old essays were dismal, or that your letters of rec need to be “adjusted,” or that your old application was really flawed, you can ask the school if it’s permissible for you to submit an entirely new application. You should make that request if you feel your previous application was really weak and problematic. And there are also schools, of course, that fall in between these two extremes. Again, it’s a judgment call as to whether it’s worth putting in the additional effort to rewrite your application, or simply augment the original version. If you are unsure which path is best for you, this is [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=reapplying_to_business_schools&utm_source=blog]something with which our expert Accepted consultants can help you[/url]. Timing a reapplication Particularly for waitlisted applicants, we advise you to [url=https://blog.accepted.com/whats-the-rush-r1-vs-r2-for-mba-applicants-2/]aim for the first round as much as possible[/url], as this demonstrates seriousness, preparedness, and eagerness. Furthermore, a few schools require reapplicants to apply first round, so be sure to check the reapplication requirements. However, if your work experience was lacking and applying in the second or third round would allow you crucial time to build up that resume, and the school does not require a Round 1 reapplication, this deserves some serious thought. While this is the type of question to navigate with an admissions consultant, it might be advisable to prepare your application for Round 1, and if you feel something is going to change at work significantly that you would like to include in your application, you can hold off on submitting until Round 2. Another possibility: apply in the first round, and if something does change, let them know about it. But make sure that any later updates you send are reporting significant changes, not minor or superficial adjustments. And make sure they accept the update. Reapply with confidence [b]The reapplication process can be tricky and requires careful consideration, but it is also a fantastic opportunity to claim your place in your dream program. Don’t waste this chance! The experienced admissions consultants at Accepted know how to craft excellent essays, improve interpersonal skills, and perfect your profile so that you can beat the odds second time around. [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=reapplying_to_business_schools&utm_source=blog]Check out our reapplication packages[/url] and get back on track to MBA success.[/b] [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_mba&utm_source=blog][img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/accepted_admissions_consulting.jpg[/img][/url] For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. [url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_mba&utm_source=blog][b]Want an MBA admissions expert [/b][b]to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch![/b][/url] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/5408ec42-be9e-4103-af71-50f665979c25][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/5408ec42-be9e-4103-af71-50f665979c25.png[/img][/url] [b]Related Resources:[/b] [list][*][url=https://www.accepted.com/mba/guide/best-mba-programs]Best MBA Programs[/url], a free guide to selecting the right one for you[/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-reapply-successfully-to-top-mba-programs/]How to Reapply Successfully to Top MBA Programs[/url], a short video[/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/5-mba-reapplication-lessons/]5 MBA Reapplication Lessons[/url][/*][/list] Tags: [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/]MBA Admissions[/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/reapplying-to-business-school-how-to-do-it-right-the-second-time-around/]Reapplying to Business School: How to Do It Right the Second Time Around[/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
07 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: “I’m Smart, Really I Am!” Proving Character Traits in Your Essays [With Sample Essays] |
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[img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Proving-Character-Traits-in-Your-Essays.jpg[/img] [img]https://blog.accepted.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Proving-Character-Traits-in-Your-Essays.jpg[/img] When you [url=https://reports.accepted.com/guide/from-example-to-exemplary-guide]write an application essay or statement of purpose[/url], you’re trying to accomplish two equally vital goals at once. First, you need to prove your worthiness for acceptance at your target school. Second, you also need to show the adcom that you have the desirable character traits that your program values. But how do you prove to people whom you have never met that you really are a person of good character, as well as smart, determined, focused, capable, and creative – [url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-project-professionalism-positivity-and-confidence-in-your-statement-of-purpose/]without bragging[/url]? The secret sauce – show, don’t tell The cardinal rule for achieving this goal is: “Show, don’t tell.” How? Simply by illustrating the personal characteristics that you want to show in a compelling way. If you do the opposite – “Tell, don’t show” – you end up with boastful claims such as: “I was considered among the smartest in my department,” or “I’m a team player,” or “I have the maturity of someone much older.” Whenever clients make these statements without backing them up with real examples, they sound empty, and utterly unconvincing. However, when you highlight selected experiences to underscore your fantastic character and professional qualities, you’ll make a far more convincing case. Tell stories to make your point Let’s look at one essay example from a law applicant and see how the narrative he tells reveals his candidate’s character: Driving home from a busy day at work as general manager of our family’s signage and graphics company, I received a text message from the director of a local, small, post-collegiate Talmudic academy. The director was going out of town in a few days, and asked me if I would give his daily morning class on the Talmud in his absence. The class is given every day at 6 a.m., before prayer, to a group of men dedicated to studying this body of Jewish civil and criminal law. I felt honored to be asked to stand in for a man of his stature. Studying and teaching the Talmud is one of my favorite activities, and I gladly accepted. Now, in less than 12 hours, I must be ready to teach the next day’s topic. I’d be up late preparing. Right out of the gate, we learn that this candidate [url=https://blog.accepted.com/7-tips-for-mba-applicants-from-family-businesses/]manages a family business[/url], and was tapped to substitute teach a high-level class in Talmud. These simple facts, with no embellishment, establish that his character traits include responsibility, reliability, and the capability to teach sophisticated concepts in ancient Jewish law. Moving to the next paragraph, he explains the relevance of this subject matter, suggesting a link between the study of ancient law and modern-day law: . . . I spent many years poring over the Talmud. Though codified in the 7th Century, its exacting, sometimes tedious arguments, legal theory and decisions apply even in modern life. Jewish law applies to most facets and situations of our everyday living. For example, there are laws, and nuances within laws, governing proper speech, the types of permissible foods, and honoring parents, teachers and elders. In the next paragraph, he connects the dots between his work in the family business and his aspirations in law. The attention to detail required in his job also feels relevant to the practice of law and its endless details: . . . I’ve learned many invaluable skills: project and time management, creative thinking, customer service, and leadership. I have had to develop extra attention to detail, particularly because of the customized nature of nearly all our jobs and because one of my duties is to make sure we are in compliance with the very strict signage codes in Santa Monica as well as in the City of Los Angeles. Additionally, I review the signage criteria and create a “permit package” for the city, after which we hope to obtain the permit without too much bureaucratic aggravation. He also discusses a part-time job at an employment law firm, which illustrates his commitment to readying himself for law school. This section builds from a strong foundation that convincingly revealed the candidate’s broad-based personal character traits, becoming tightly focused on how he has gained a basic orientation into the workings of a law practice: Because it is a small practice, I was able to speak directly with clients, send out personnel requests, and draft[b] [/b]documents required before, during and after litigation. Although I enjoyed learning about the various stages of the civil litigation process and had an excellent[b] [/b]experience, I also learned that I don’t foresee myself practicing civil litigation.[b] [/b]Instead, I hope to work as a regulatory and corporate compliance specialist in the context of commercial real estate and mergers and acquisitions. Concluding, the applicant explains his interest in this law school, pointing to its outstanding reputation, large local alumni base, an employment rate for the most recent graduating class of more than 80%, and its emphasis on practical legal theory: One civil litigation attorney I met — at a World Series party — told me (during a commercial break) that Loyola’s hands on-training and practical approach prepared him for his career better than he could have imagined, and he found a job within a week of graduating. This essay models the “show, don’t tell” advice we are giving here. By the end of the essay, the reader cannot help but be impressed with his personal character traits, which he illustrated by example, not making claims. Let’s look at an equally strong, but different essay where the candidate is asked to show when she has been [url=https://blog.accepted.com/display-teamwork-in-application-essays/]a team player[/url]. This is a valuable trait for just about any career, and especially important for aspiring MBAs. Good examples could include: a time you came up with a creative compromise to a problem where your coworkers on a team were deadlocked; offering to take on additional responsibilities at work or on a school or club project when you saw everyone else was overloaded; or asking your supervisor what you could do to add more value to your department. Here, the challenge was even bigger, as we see at the opening: (This essay appears in [url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466294981/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl]MBA Admissions for Smarties[/url], by Linda Abraham and Judy Gruen, pages 93-94.) I arrived in Chicago in the summer of 20__ as tech lead to revamp the website of a large chain of hotels. My company, Bright Zone (a pseudonym), was in an uncommon position as subcontractor to a management consultancy. I discovered that my coworkers’ morale had been falling for the last four months, a casualty of negative attitudes and the widely perceived incompetence of the previous firm that had been hired for the website overhaul, which had ended in disaster. I had been hired to direct development, but that was like putting out small brush fires when the whole forest was burning. I pursued team unification. We learn several things about this candidate’s personality traits right away. First, she has formidable tech abilities, having been asked to revamp a failed website overhaul. Second, her observations about low morale among her coworkers shows her emotional intelligence and sensitivity. I don’t know about you, but I’m impressed. In the next paragraph, she starts proving her commitment to her team and to the success of this huge engagement. Notice the thought process that sparked her idea to invite the team out for social dinners after hours: I theorized that if people enjoyed being with each other socially, it would be harder to vilify each other at work. Over many dinners, the other techs under my supervision as well as the consultants seemed to begin to actually like each other and began trusting my recommendations. Moving her story forward, she pinpoints the main perpetrator of the negativity. Barry is not only very senior to her but also her friend, but because of his severe antagonism toward the client, she takes a risk. Overstepping her normal boundaries, she convinces her firm’s vice president and company chairman to take action: My friendship with Barry complicated this dynamic but I believed for my team to succeed we had to purge toxicity. After two weeks of meetings and interventions he was fired. With Barry’s negativity removed, my social activities began to have a dramatic impact. We became a true team as the other consulting company now trusted us and gave us broad influence to the client. In moving beyond a tech lead’s responsibilities, I helped build a multimillion-dollar, strategic account. The specifics the writer lists here: inviting team members for meals, talking privately with key players, and pushing to remove a toxic team member from the picture, all illustrate her mature ability to assess the situation, take risks for the sake of the team, and earn her success on the other side. Actions matter! Whether you want to reveal creativity, intelligence, dedication, commitment to social action, or anything else, ensure that you also include specific examples where you have actively displayed those traits. Telling these mini-stories will save you from awkwardly claiming a certain quality. Let your own actions make the case for you. [b]Our consultants have 20+ years of experience guiding applicants to admission with compelling, detailed, and story-filled essays. Are you ready to join the ranks of Accepted’s accepted clients? Explore our [/b][url=https://www.accepted.com/grad/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=proving_character_traits&utm_source=blog][b]Admissions Consulting & Editing Services[/b][/url][b] for more information on how we can help you create a winning application essay that highlights your greatest character traits, one that will get you noticed and accepted at your top-choice program. Learn more here.[/b] By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools. [b][url=https://www.accepted.com/services?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_medium=blog_bio_Judy&utm_source=blog]Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch![/url][/b] [url=https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/58291/4751002f-5aa9-40d8-bb71-6d43a4318bd2][img]https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/58291/4751002f-5aa9-40d8-bb71-6d43a4318bd2.png[/img][/url] [b]Related Resources:[/b] [list][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/essay-tip-the-importance-of-details/]Application Essay Tip: The Devil is in the Details[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/5-elements-telling-attention-grabbing-story/]9 Secrets to Telling an Attention-Grabbing Story[/url][/*][*][url=https://blog.accepted.com/how-to-project-professionalism-positivity-and-confidence-in-your-statement-of-purpose/]How to Project Professionalism, Positivity, and Confidence in Your Statement of Purpose[/url][/*][/list] Tags: [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/college-admissions/]College Admissions[/url], [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/grad-school-admissions/]Grad School Admissions[/url], [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/law-school-admissions/]Law School Admissions[/url], [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/mba-admissions/]MBA Admissions[/url], [url=https://blog.accepted.com/category/medical-school-admissions/]Medical School Admissions[/url] The post [url=https://blog.accepted.com/proving-character-traits-in-your-application-essays/]“I’m Smart, Really I Am!” Proving Character Traits in Your Essays [With Sample Essays][/url] appeared first on [url=https://blog.accepted.com]Accepted Admissions Blog[/url]. |
09 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: What Post-MBA Life Is Like, During COVID and Beyond |
  Applying the lessons of MBA school to the reality of COVID-19 [Show summary] Al Dea, a tech product manager who earned his MBA from UNC, dives deep into what life is like after business school, including how the pandemic has impacted the post-MBA experience. What steps can businesses take to help employees thrive during COVID? How can MBA programs help students thrive during this time? [Show notes] Our guest today is a tech product manager, member of the UNC MBA class of 2015, host of the MBASchooled podcast, and author of the book MBA Insider: How to Make the Most of Your MBA Experience. Al Dea earned his bachelor’s in marketing and theology from Boston College in 2010. He then became a Deloitte analyst and consultant until starting his MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. He earned his MBA from Kenan-Flagler in 2015 and returned to Deloitte for a couple of years, then started in product management for a leading high tech firm in 2017, and today is a senior manager in product marketing at that company. On the side, he launched his website, MBASchooled, in 2015. A year ago, he published his first book, MBA Insider: How to Make The Most of Your MBA Experience, and started the MBASchooled podcast. It’s been about a year since he was last on Admissions Straight Talk, and we discussed in that interview his application experience and MBA experience at UNC. We’re not going to cover those topics again, but if you would like to hear Al’s perspective on the topics I typically discuss, check out the original interview, MBA Insider Shares His Secrets in New Book. How did you adjust to remote work both personally and as a manager working in tech? [2:46] I’m someone who works as a knowledge worker and for a tech company. Relatively speaking, we’ve all experienced challenges, but my experience making the transition was rather seamless. Many of the people on my team have worked remotely for varying degrees of time, and in some cases, many are only remote based off of where they are, geographically speaking. It wasn’t so much that we hadn’t done this before; we just all hadn’t done it permanently before. It was really about refining and getting used to this being an everyday thing. That said, even though we did have incredible resources to make the transition, even though we had some kind of norms for knowing how to collaborate over Google Hangouts and Google Meet and the like, it definitely was still challenging. Anytime you get a shock to the system, or you have to make an adjustment, it takes the body a little bit of time to adapt and evolve. For me, a couple of things stood out. Number one, the fundamentals in the ways of working. Fundamentals: these are the things that are critical to helping you be at your best and do your job effectively. If you think about a professional athlete, if I think about someone like LeBron James, LeBron James is amazing on the court because of all the things he does off the court in order for him to be at his best. That was something that I took to heart as I made the transition to working more remote and thought about for the folks on my team. What are those fundamentals that, in this new environment, we need to make sure we focus on so that we can do the best we possibly can each and every day? It was going to be different because the environment was different. The second thing was thinking about the ways of working. These are the kinds of the things that you sometimes take for granted when you’re working in an office every day, the ability to pop over to someone’s desk and say, “Hey, what about that thing in that meeting that we talked about? Can you follow up real quick?” Or being able to go to the coffee bar to catch up with someone and have that chat about what’s going on. We paid attention to those as well and thought about how we reenacted those. All of us as humans are social beings, and those are really critical and important. Those were the things that I paid attention to and that I asked my team to pay attention to, to try to do the best we could. Though we’re very fortunate, it still is hard to make a change like that no matter how many resources or how much you have at your disposal. As a remote team, it’s challenging to have the kind of casual encounters that make for a good team experience. How did you encourage that? [5:35] We are fortunate in that we have a lot of technology resources at our disposal. (Maybe too many at times; you can make the argument for that.) But it can be little things such as having a channel or a thread on whatever collaboration tool of choice just to talk about what everyone’s watching right now. Or, what’s a book recommendation, or a Netflix recommendation? A couple times on our team, our leader reached out and said, “Hey, everyone, take care of yourself today. Go expense a delivery meal of some sort and tell everyone what you ordered.” It can be things like proactively scheduling time just to check in with someone, with no agenda, but just to ask, how are you doing? How are you feeling? I’m always someone who asks, “How are you doing?” but during the first couple months of the pandemic, I always made it very clear before I started any meetings to ask someone, “How are you doing?” Those are little things that may seem trivial, but, I found from my experience, people appreciate them. Also, they give you a little bit of boost. They give you a little bit of that feeling like you are on a team with other people who want to work hard but also care about you and are trying to help you do your best work. Certainly, we had our virtual happy hours. Our broader organization, at one point, had a virtual Olympics of sorts where we had virtual competitions and a virtual scavenger hunt and things like that. Part of it for me, at least, is just getting people to come together to do something that makes them feel like they’re a valued member of the team. And it could be just something small, like a thread or a chat, or it could be something like a virtual Olympics. Recreating that team environment is hard to do, but when you can do it, it’s better than nothing. When you’re in a meeting, sometimes there’s a persona that you have to put on to speak articulately, to make points, or to project confidence. But who you are at work and who you are as a person is going to show up in your work life. I’m fortunate that I was able to do that before. I’m on a team that is very inclusive, that is very accepting of others and really encourages people to be their full selves. But there really wasn’t any other way to not do that, given the fact that, as everyone has kind of documented, your work life and your personal life were wedged together. We’re literally working from home and have little ones wandering around, or little creatures running around, or other things happening. I hope that this gave everyone a little bit of a chance to recognize the humanity that exists in all of us, hopefully. I too appreciate the photos of the dogs and the grandkids and anything else. It always brightens up my day. Do you think your MBA education assisted you in adapting to this new environment? And if so, how? [9:36] Working in a large company like I do, and also working in a role like mine, which is incredibly cross-functional, means when I work on a project, I’m usually never doing it alone. I’m working with a lot of people. It is critical to have good communication and the ability to work well with others and drive towards an outcome. That’s critical when you’re in person. That becomes even more critical when you’re all virtual and all remote. The running joke is that business school is one big cross functional group project because you’re constantly having to do that, whether that’s in a study team, working on an initiative for a club or organization, engaging with other folks at your schools or community. All of those experiences in business school definitely were critical to how I showed up and did that before COVID, but they’re even more critical in COVID, because it was all virtual. Another thing that was really important was dealing with uncertainty. When you think about the MBA education, you think of something like the case method, or case studies in general. For those who aren’t familiar, Harvard Business School and Darden are generally the two schools that really rely solely on the case method. Most MBA programs use cases in their classes. Usually in the case, there’s a summary of the situation, and at the end of it, you’re given the task of making a decision of what should happen. In a lot of cases, you’re given some information, but it’s incomplete, and there’s some uncertainty. There isn’t always a clear answer. I think we’ve all had to deal with more uncertainty over the last six to nine months. In business school when you’re taking a stretch project, or when you’re doing something outside your comfort zone, all of those things matter to how you show up. In this COVID world, where we’ve all had to do a lot of things that we probably never thought we would ever have to do before, I think that was really key. The last thing is empathy. I’ve always had a keen sense of empathy, but you get a greater sense in an MBA environment, I think, when you’re exposed to people of different backgrounds, of diverse walks of life. If you do business school right, it really gets you to be much more thoughtful and curious about where people are coming from and who they are. That notion of empathy, I think, has been really critical and really important, particularly in these times when you can’t always be face to face with someone to see their body language or to know exactly what’s going on, or if you’re working cross-function with people you’ve never met before and you have to try to build relationships. I think those are the couple things that really stand out from my time at UNC and getting an MBA that have been valuable to navigating this past year. [youtube2]figure> [/youtube2] Do you have any suggestions for how applicants can respond to or adapt to the increased competition concretely? [34:51] Drawing on the analogy of a successful company, the successful companies out there know themselves, but they also stay in touch with their customers. They’re very clear about who their customer is, what their challenges and pain points are, and how their service or product can solve them. An applicant can think about that in the same way: knowing themselves incredibly well, who you are, what you bring to the table, why you want to get an MBA, and how an MBA from that school is going to help in your career. But on the flip side of that, double down and know your customer. In this case, the customer is the school you’re applying to. Know what they look for in applicants. Be very specific about how that school or how that community, by you being there, is going to be better because that you’re there, what you really bring to the table and what you have to offer them, just as a good product or service would do the same for their customer. Concretely, and this will be digital given the environment we’re in, take the time to really get to know those schools and those programs. Do your research. Ask the right questions, the thoughtful questions that are going to yield insights and help you refine and hone in on, internally and externally, how you are a fit for that school. I think everyone knows, “Yes, I should read the Accepted blog or listen to podcasts and hear about what’s going on.” Or they know that they need to look at the rankings and all those things. They know they need to reach out to the admissions team or whatnot. But I think the gap is really making sure you’re asking the right questions that give you those insights that can help you tailor and refine how you position yourself in your application. If people can focus on that, and then take what they’ve learned from that to refine their overall package, that’s going to make them unique and differentiated, just like a good company will be unique and differentiated from their competitors by doing the exact same thing. Do you have any tips for MBA applicants looking ahead to apply in the 2021/22 cycle, or even later? What do some of your interviewees wish they would have done before they matriculated? What do you wish you would have done? [37:11] If you’re curious about an MBA, it’s never been easier to find something on the internet. Go to MBASchooled, or go to Accepted.com. It’s a great starting point, very tactical. But one of the things that I often hear from MBA students and even alumni is, “I didn’t know that was even a career,” or, “I didn’t even know that was a thing.” Certainly, that makes sense. You don’t know what you don’t know, particularly given where most folks are when they apply to business school for full time programs, right? You’ve done a couple things, but there’s a whole world out there that you don’t know yet. How do you discover the world that you don’t know? Well, it’s through research. It’s through exploration, going out and looking at the resources, talking to people when you can, and learning about some of these paths and fields. If there’s something that is curious to you, find some folks who do that thing and learn more about what it is, why they show up to work and really enjoy doing that every day, and how they got to where they got to. Those are still things that really apply. If there’s even a kernel of thought, start now because it will take time. The tactical thing that I would urge people to do is (and I just learned this, so I’m still practicing it, but I’m going to share it in case it’s helpful) find a question and ask yourself that same question every single day for a period of time, and write down your answer. Perhaps if you are thinking about applying next year, every day for the next two weeks, write down the question, why do I want an MBA? And write down your answer. Do it every single day and see what happens. I think a lot of times, what happens is that you think, “Oh, I just need to ask it once.” But the first time you do it, it’s going to be kind of vague. The second time you do it, it’s going to be a little bit more specific. The third time you do it, the fourth time you do it, and so on and so on, you get closer to it. If you have a thought about applying next year, hopefully, this is part of the preparation plan. Or even if you’re earlier in the stage in the cycle, start with, “What does success look like in my career in five years?” Or, “What do I want to do next?” Pick the question, ask yourself the question and write down the answer, and see what comes of it. I think it could be a really valuable exercise to help you think about, “Okay, what’s next?” And then once you get a good answer (and assuming that you’re thinking about the application process), hopefully that feeds your “why an MBA?” Because if you are going to apply, you will definitely have to answer that at some point. There’s research, actually, that with writing notes versus typing notes, people remember more when they write. I would encourage folks to write it down. It makes it more real. What would you have liked me to ask you? [40:49] It would have been interesting if you’d asked, “What is business school like in 2020 or 2021?” Because of COVID and because business schools are located in different states or in different countries, a product that is usually somewhat consistent is different, because it has to be, right? There are some places that were hybrid; there are a lot of places that were mostly virtual; there are some places where you literally get tested once a week to be able to go to campus; there are some places where you can sort of still meet up with your classmates outside in the park, and other places where you can’t. What’s been interesting to me is that talking to folks from different programs, there are some components that are somewhat similar, and virtual is very much an element of pretty much every program, but to what degree is different. There are definitely some schools out there like Berkeley where, because they did have a robust digital education delivery mechanism, the classroom experience is a little bit more differentiated than simply just Zoom. That is not the same at every school, though. That is a difference that we probably would not have been talking about at all if COVID didn’t exist, right? Harvard also has that. Some more schools have done this other thing now (I think Stanford’s done it, and a couple others) where they’ve also invested in proctors or teacher support to help moderate the class. That was something that’s different and unique. The way in which schools are doing city tracks are different. It’s very common for a lot of folks in the fall or the spring to go and do a trek to the San Francisco Bay area to go meet all the tech companies and all the VC firms, and certainly that can’t happen. So there’s been some interesting ways in which schools have tried to do that digitally. Another thing that’s very different this year is conferences. Most schools put on conferences. On the downside, they can’t meet in person, but on the upside, they can drive up registration and attendance because anyone can go. At Kellogg, they did a really good job from what I’ve been able to understand of really involving students in the process for how they were going to deliver this experience for the year. That is another unique differentiator. I think it speaks to something that we talked about earlier: None of us really wanted this, but there’s things that you can control and there’s things that you can’t control. Once the cards are dealt, you have two choices: sulk or make the best of what you have. Despite all the challenges that this brought on, there were opportunities to be had. There are some really great stories of students, faculty members, and administrators really stepping up and finding unique and innovative ways and really embracing the constraints to innovate and to find ways to get the most out of the experience. It’s not ideal, and none of us wanted it, but there are still some positive outcomes that have come from it. Where can listeners find you online? [45:25] People can find me at mbaschooled.com. They can check out the blog there, or they can check me out on the MBA Insider podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Either of those two places are a great place to start. Related Links:
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Subscribe:  Podcast Feed Tags: Admissions Straight Talk, MBA Admissions The post What Post-MBA Life Is Like, During COVID and Beyond [Episode 404] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
11 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Expert Guidance on Getting into INSEAD |
 Our recent masterclass, Get Accepted to INSEAD, laid out a clear game plan for applicants looking to gain acceptance to the Business School for the World. If your career aspirations lean global, it’s a can’t-miss session for you! It’s now available for free, on-demand viewing. Watch the masterclass: For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Tags: MBA Admissions The post Expert Guidance on Getting into INSEAD appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
14 Feb 2021, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Kellogg Receives Transformative Gift to Accelerate Women Leaders |
 Kellogg alumna Ann M. Drake ’84 has made a transformative gift to establish the Drake Scholar Network, according to theKellogg website. This formal, global network will emphasize Kellogg’s long-term dedication to educating future female business leaders by fostering powerful, intergenerational connections between women students, faculty, and alumnae. In the words of Dean Francesca Cornelli, “Kellogg has a long legacy of breaking new ground in the education and professional advancement of women, but there is still much work to be done to address gender-based disparities in the business world. Ann’s gift will help reinforce Kellogg’s standing as the premier global business school that equips high-potential women to become impactful, inclusive leaders.” The Drake Scholar Network will concentrate on
It is expected that Drake’s gift, the largest ever from a Kellogg alumna, will fund a network that impacts more than 5,000 women, a bi-annual women’s summit, the recruitment of five to seven new faculty and two full-time staff, and 30–35 partial scholarships, over a five-year period, across all Kellogg degree programs. Kellogg has a robust history of educating and advancing women business leaders. The Kellogg Center for Executive Women was established in 2001, and was the first of its kind at a major business school. Kellogg became the first top-ranked global business school to have a female dean, with the appointment of Sally Blount ’92 in 2010, and Francesca Cornelli was appointed as Kellogg’s second permanent female dean in 2019. The school inaugurated the Global Women’s Summit in 2018. Drake has always had a passion for advancing the careers of the women surrounding her. She founded the charitable organization AWESOME (Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management, and Education) in 2013 to assist women in networking and excelling in the supply chain industry. Initiated in 2019, Drake’s Lincoln Road Enterprises looks for new avenues to develop the influence and contributions of women in business, supply chain, engineering and technology, infrastructure, and design. Drake began her relationship with Kellogg when she got her MBA through Kellogg’s Executive MBA program, and has maintained her involvement with the school, establishing the Drake Scholars Fund, supporting the Global Women’s Summit, and serving on Kellogg’s Global Advisory Board. She received Kellogg’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 2018. “My experience at Kellogg gave me not only a foundational education to transform my company, but a tight network of women who were crucial sounding boards and partners as I advanced in the logistics industry,” said Drake. “With this gift I hope to make that possible for more women, equipping them to pursue, navigate and sustain careers that drive organizational and societal impact and create lives of personal meaning.” Dawn Cornelius, Drake Scholar alumna ’20, is grateful for the impact being a Drake Scholar has had on her education and professional life. “Joining the Kellogg alumni community is a monumental and significant moment in my life and career. It has meant access to a network of incredibly talented individuals who have helped me navigate issues in my current work or solutions for launching my next venture. Being a Drake Scholar gave me the opportunity to complete my Kellogg journey. I continue to be grateful for this support and distinction.” Could the Drake Scholars program be your path to MBA success? We can help you evaluate your options, whether you are interested in Kellogg or another top-tier business school. Check out our MBA Services Packages to give yourself the edge and get ACCEPTED! For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!  Related Resources:
Tags: MBA Admissions The post Kellogg Receives Transformative Gift to Accelerate Women Leaders appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
17 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Do You Have the Keys to MBA Acceptance in 2022? |
 2022 might seem far away right now (didn’t 2021 just start?). However, the MBA application process is lengthy and complex. Those deadlines will be on top of you before you know it! Don’t get caught unprepared. On Wednesday, March 3rd, we’ll host a masterclass entitled 7 Steps to MBA Acceptance in 2022. This class is designed to help you prepare for the MBA application process in a way that will markedly increase your chances of being accepted to your program of choice. Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham will present this masterclass. With more than 25 years of experience navigating the complexities of the b-school admissions process, Linda is the ideal person to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to be competitive. The session is totally free, but registration is required. Hurry and reserve your seat today! Register for the masterclass: For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Tags: MBA Admissions The post Do You Have the Keys to MBA Acceptance in 2022? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
17 Feb 2021, 10:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Do You Have the Keys to MBA Acceptance in 2022? |
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2022 might seem far away right now (didn’t 2021 just start?). However, the MBA application process is lengthy and complex. Those deadlines will be on top of you before you know it! Don’t get caught unprepared. On Wednesday, March 3rd, we’ll host a masterclass entitled 7 Steps to MBA Acceptance in 2022. This class is designed to help you prepare for the MBA application process in a way that will markedly increase your chances of being accepted to your program of choice. Accepted founder and CEO Linda Abraham will present this masterclass. With more than 25 years of experience navigating the complexities of the b-school admissions process, Linda is the ideal person to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to be competitive. The session is totally free, but registration is required. Hurry and reserve your seat today! Register for the masterclass: For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Tags: MBA Admissions The post Do You Have the Keys to MBA Acceptance in 2022? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
18 Feb 2021, 11:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Got a Criminal Record? Here’s How to Address It in Your Application |
 If you have ever engaged in disorderly conduct, petty theft, gotten a DUI, been arrested during a political protest, or have any other infractions (minor or major) on your record, we hope that you have learned important lessons from those experiences and won’t repeat them. But if you are applying to a grad program, you are likely to be asked on your application, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain.” In this post, we will show you how to appear in the best possible light in this situation, while also explaining how to approach this question honestly, but without going overboard. After all, if you have done something stupid, something deserving of a conviction or suspension, you have a higher bar to prove to an admissions committee that you are worthy of their acceptance.
Perfect execution of these suggestions will increase your chances of admission, but still may not be enough to earn acceptance to a top school. Think twice and three times before you do something that you could regret for a very long time and avoid having to deal with this situation altogether. Are you applying to grad school with a criminal record? Work one-on-one with an Accepted consultant to evaluate your profile, figure out where you should apply, and devise an admissions strategy that will help you present your story in the best light. These actions will strengthen your chances of acceptance. Please see our Graduate School Admissions Consulting Services for more information. For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources:
Tags: Admissions Consulting, College Admissions, Grad School Admissions, Law School Admissions, MBA Admissions, Medical School Admissions The post Got a Criminal Record? Here’s How to Address It in Your Application appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
21 Feb 2021, 13:00
| FROM Accepted.com Blog: Enhancements to the GMAT Online Exam |
 The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) recently announced that the GMAT Online, a take-at-home version of the GMAT introduced in April 2020 in response to COVID restrictions on public gatherings, is to become a permanent option for test-takers. At the same time, GMAC added the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) to the GMAT Online and made several other updates. The GMAC, which administers and manages the GMAT, swiftly rolled out the GMAT Online for business school applicants who weren’t able to reach a test center during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, there were a number of differences between the GMAT Online, and the traditional version taken in test centers, but over the last few months GMAC has been acting to close the gap between the two experiences. Updates to the GMAT online As well as the addition of the AWA, the GMAC announced that GMAT Online users will now have more flexibility to take breaks and choose the order in which they complete the sections of the exam. GMAT Online candidates can now take two optional eight-minute breaks – one between the Quant and Verbal sections and one before or after the AWA and the Integrated Reasoning sections, which is the same as those offered to test center candidates. Candidates who take the GMAT Online will also now be able to see an unofficial score immediately after completing the exam and can book an online exam up to six months in advance. If you prefer to avoid having to do the AWA section, there’s still time to do so. If you take the exam before April 7th, 2021, you’ll receive the AWA-free version. GMAC chief product officer and general manager of assessments Joy Jones said that the changes are part of an ongoing commitment to improving the GMAT experience. “We’re focused on providing the flexibility and support to address the long-term needs of schools and test-takers,” Jones said, adding, “We’ll continue to make investments that support our schools and test-takers with enhanced and comparable online and test-center exam experiences.” GMAC has been constantly striving to improve the GMAT Online as part of their struggle to remain competitive against the GRE. Since its rollout in April 2020, the GMAC has added better accommodations for candidates with disabilities, improved its whiteboard option, and chosen to allow candidates to retake the online exam. Aligning test experiences is a positive development Business school candidates and educational consultants have been broadly positive about the new announcement, although a number have pointed out that the GMAT itself is less relevant as many schools now waive the requirement for an entrance exam. The main impact of these changes is that the online and test center experiences are now more closely aligned, which gives business schools and candidates more confidence in the fairness of the test. The addition of the AWA section lengthens the at-home test by an extra 30 minutes, but it also allows candidates more opportunity to demonstrate their skills and abilities. Some GMAT Online candidates had felt nervous that their results wouldn’t be taken as seriously as in-person ones, because of the lack of the AWA section. Allowing at-home exam candidates to see an unofficial score immediately after taking the test also makes a big difference. Many had preferred to take the exam in person simply to receive their results more quickly, so that they can meet deadlines and make decisions about their next steps. There is still one significant difference between the online and in-person versions of the exam. Test-takers can take GMAT Online a maximum of two times. They can take the in-person version a maximum of five times in a 12-month period and a total maximum of eight times. Nonetheless, with these updates, the decision between taking the GMAT in a test center or online is now a matter of personal preference. Business schools have made it clear that they don’t mind which version you take, so it’s down to personal factors like access to reliable internet, proximity to a test center, distractions when taking the test at home, and concerns about COVID-19. Consultants have also pointed out that testing stress can affect a candidate’s performance, sometimes by well over 100 points. Taking the test at home can reduce exam stress and help candidates perform at their best. Overall, it can only be good news to business school applicants to have more options for taking the GMAT and a more equal experience for at-home and in-person tests. Are you currently navigating the MBA testing maze? Wondering which of the new flexible options is right for you? Our expert MBA admissions consultants work with you one-on-one to guide you through the application process and help you get ACCEPTED! For 25 years, Accepted has helped business school applicants gain acceptance to top programs. Our outstanding team of MBA admissions consultants features former business school admissions directors and professional writers who have guided our clients to admission at top MBA, EMBA, and other graduate business programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, INSEAD, London Business School, and many more. Want an MBA admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!  Related Resources:
Tags: MBA Admissions The post Enhancements to the GMAT Online Exam appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog. |
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