Calling all Female MBA Applicants

I'm available this Friday after 9 PM EST (based in Northern California here), Saturday before 8 PM EST (do have to partake in Halloween festivities ), and Sunday anytime.

Don't forget this Sunday at 2 AM we turn back the clocks! Finally I can catch up on sleep

McNerdy

Hi!
Another female MBA application hoping to start Sept '10. Have just started a troop of actions to get ready for the application rounds.

I am wondering if anyone has given a thought on how to make your gender a distinguishing advantage in your essays, interview etc? I mean there are a couple of obvious reasons why you should consider the female gender an advantage:

-it is underrepresented among the MBA world (as it has been discussed in earlier threads)
-schools are looking for diversity

However as it has been also pointed out earlier, being female is not an advantage per se, but only works if you are truly good. But if you are indeed accomplished and female, I think this will stand out better than your similarly accomplished male applicant.

I'm just trying to figure out how I can make the "gender advantage" card work best and will appreciate any thoughts you can share.

Thanks.

I honestly don't think the "gender card" exists to the level that it's an advantage anymore. Many schools have near 40% (some over 40%) female enrollment, not the disparity that once existed; and if you look at the profile thread, the female profiles in there are extremely strong. Just being a female is not enough to get you into a top school anymore, especially when many women now have the 700+ GMATs, 3.6 GPA's, strong leadership and work experience. With the number of women applying, gender is no longer some distinctive trait.

What you may want to focus on is just selling yourself and your accomplishments, regardless of your sex.

All this talk about the number of female bschool students going up is really interesting. I wonder if we'll finally break even this year. I think we're seeing a higher of ratio of female applicants bc of how bad the economy is and many male applicants come from finance or IT for finance companies, both of which have been decimated.

Almostfamous, I think it’ll be important to highlight your quantitative strengths since many female applicants come from backgrounds that are less quant intensive than male applicants.

Hey pls add me too..

I started joining the chat every afternoon (3-6 est) and evening (8-10 est) in the last couple of weeks - if you are available, feel free to jump in. Hoping we will actually gain critical mass at one point to have most of us from here in the chat.

Hi
I just got done with my GMAT (730, Q49 V40) and now have seriously started thinking about this whole application process. Would love to be a part of this thread. Count me in!

I am here...

i am in. 2010 applicant. I have applied three schools so far. MIT, UT-Austin, and Duke. I have interviewed with Austin. Dinged by Duke at R1. I haven't heard anything from MIT yet. Some info sessions I went to mentioned about increasing Female/Male ration in their business schools. I think it is a great advantages for us. Ladies, let us keep trying. We are as good as men and we can do even better.

Another female applicant here, as well. I'm aiming for a 1-year MBA in the US or UK, beginning in fall 2010.

I just spoke to a Norwegian very competent, smart and driven lady who is wrapping up an EMBA at ESSEC, Paris. She found it very difficult to work in her pre-assigned study group which consisted of only men, mostly French. To her the stereotypical image of a dominant, independent Nordic woman proved to be true, at least in the eyes of her study mates. Apparently they had trouble taking her seriously and this proved to be the most difficult particular thing in the whole EMBA program process. I was very surprised to hear it.

Hi Ladies! Please add my name to the list. I will be applying to Stanford and Berkeley at a minimum.

I'd be curious to know how many of you will be bringing SOs to school. All the "partner" stuff sounds great, then I read more... and I doubt my husband will be signing up for the shoe shopping trips!

Re: female bump, I think women would have a bump as a group as a reflection of diversity in job experience-- ie, assuming it's a representative sample, men are more likely to hold IT/engineering jobs, which seem oversubscribed in the applicant pool.

There's a word for this I'm sure but the Haas app is draining my brain... I'm hoping it's just the 'first application' hump - this is tough!

You can add me as well.

26F/710GMAT/3.75GPA/4 years WE - the last two in IR/legal for a PE firm

I was accepted at UT-Austin, and have interviewed at Tuck, Emory, and Darden. Probably also going to apply to Fuqua R2.

Don't know about a gender differential with respect to GMAT/GPA, but most admissions reps I've spoken to have suggested that they definetly accepted younger, less experienced women applicants, recognizing women want to get their MBA earlier so they can settle into a career and raise a family.

eekthecat, seems like you want to stay west coast, but if you're bringing your husband to school, you may want to consider Tuck. When I revisited for their Women in Business Conference I met NUMEROUS women who were attending Tuck and had brought their husbands to school. Sounded like the partner events there went beyond the female centric "shoe shopping." That being said, I also had a male second year student say something extremely sexist to me during my interview, but overall it seemed like a campus that embraced women and their partners.

Until now, I was contemplating on whether should I apply this year or for next year. Finally made up my mind. So count me in as well.

Thanks for the suggestion smadge! I am sticking to the west coast for this year but if I'm doing this all again next year I will consider it. It looks like a great place to be, although two winters would probably be my limit.

hows the app season going so far for everyone? any advise/tips to share?

When I compare my first application essays to the ones I'm writing now, I notice a big leap in quality. I'm much more satisfied with these - they're more polished and my thoughts have evolved. It's interesting to see how much I've developed in writing applications. Also, I'm happy I chose to apply to the tougher schools in R2, not R1.

Hi,
Can you please add me. I will be applying to Foster School.

Thanks!