Calling all Fall 2010 Consortium Applicants (merged)

I received admissions into a CGSM member school (UT) on Friday. Along with my admin they sent me an invitation to apply for the OP in June. This is a fantastic program, but the application is due tomorrow. My question is who are people using for recommenders? I don’t currently belong to any diversity programs so I would possibly ask a family member. I was the first in my entire family to even finish high school, but have sense helped others through the process of getting GED’s and attending college. Would something like this be in line with what the CGSM is looking for or are they specifically looking for membership in certain diversity programs?

For my non-professional recommender, I actually used my old college roommate and good friend. I had helped him with the job search coming out of school, and he had been with me or seen me do a lot of the mentoring I had done. He was able to speak to a lot of the community service and activities I had accomplished. I had very good results with the schools I applied to, so I can say it worked fine for me.

For the non-professional one, I think someone (preferably not family) who can really stand up and speak about your commitment is going to be key.

Good luck.

i don't know if it necessarily hurts your chances, unless you don't rank them 1st. this is especially true because the class size is so small (as others have already pointed out) and yield is a big part of the admissions process.

my non-professional recommendation was a college professor who i remained in close contact with. as with most other recommendation letters, i'd stay away from obtaining a family LOR.

your story sounds exactly like what the CGSM stands for - not only to receive help, but to pay it forward so to speak. good luck and hopefully you can make it to OP - from everything i've read, it sounds like it's a great event.

is anyone attending the mba jumpstart diversity forum and/or heard whether it's worth attending?

i'll be attending it this year. i heard from people who attended it last year that it was definitely worth it - at least one of them will be interning with goldman sachs this summer, which is one of the firms being represented at the conference. i think it's particularly useful if you're a career switcher and/or have limited experience in the banking or consulting industries. as with any conference, though, you'll have to put in time and effort in order to get any sort of tangible benefit from it.

Off waitlist at Stern ... dinged w/o interview. I'll be applying again next year.

great! i'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion about it online. i can use as much prepping as i can get so i'll def'ly be there. thanks for the info!

Just wondering about how the CGSM process works. Can you only receive a fellowship offer from one school? Or, can you receive a fellowship offer from multiple schools that where you are admitted?

when you apply, you rank the schools 1-6 (or however many you applied to). when it comes time to award the fellowships, reps from all the schools you applied to meet with the consortium. the school you ranked first will get the first chance to award you the fellowship. if they decline, then the next highest ranked school will be given the option, etc.

you can only receive one fellowship award, and it is non-transferable. if your 2nd ranked school offers you the fellowship, but you really want to go to the 1st ranked school, you can't transfer the award to the 1st school.

the fellowship does not take the place of a regular school award, so even if a school does not offer you the CGSM fellowship, they can still offer you financial aid or scholarships.

what isn't exactly clear to me is why your #1 school wouldn't always offer you the fellowship, assuming that the funds for the fellowship come 100% from the CGSM. the only situation that i can think of is that the school actually covers a portion (say half) of the fellowship, and the CGSM matches this. this is just me thinking out loud though - if anyone has any firm answers, i'd love to hear it.

Thanks shadowsjc.

Yeah I agree with you the school must take on some part of the financial responsibility for the scholorship, otherwise why would they give you the fellowship for your top ranked school. I know that NYU does not give out a lot of fellowhsips, but Ross does. So there must be some logical explanation for this.

The schools fund the fellowships not the Consortium and each school has a certain number of fellowships they will award and this is different for every school. From what I can tell these are awarded based on how attractive an applicant you are to that school.

Any idea if Duke will joing CGSM this year?

"But ... I want to a Duke ACC rival school ... so maybe I'm biased"

Judging by your grammar I'd say...unc, right?

Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing well at their new schools!

If anyone still checks this thread, can someone maybe answer a question for me?

I was wondering if I could get some examples of who you used for the mission recommendation. While I fit the mission, I don't have anyone that I can readily contact for a recommendation. I was thinking a family friend? I was also thinking about contacting my on-campus latino community group (im currently a grad student), and asking them if we can talk, explain my situation, and maybe someone there can write me a letter.

I've posted my reply to this over in the 2011 Consortium Thread