Scheduled Chat with Current MBA Students (Wed 9 PM Eastern)

I found this answer to be very interesting:




I was under the impression that Adcoms took ECs very seriously. Perhaps they're more important for those with less work experience?

What I've heard is that the activity itself isn't as important, they want to know that you're not sitting around doing nothing. Also, ECs help when you don't have as much leadership experience at work, if you can show it in an EC, then that makes up for it some.

I agree with highhopes. For me, ECs are very important to my application story because I don't have much experience managing people or leading teams at work, where I'm the most junior person. They allow me to show a different kind of leadership than I can show through my professional experiences.

Regardless of the nature of your work experience, I think it's important to show some sort of involvement to show you're multidimensional and have impact in your community as well as your workplace. But the extent of that involvement doesn't necessarily have to be that great, particularly if you're in a job where you're working very long hours or traveling extensively.

1000% agree. I think ECs give you some critical leadership experiences that you may miss out by virtue of being a junior person. I've been incredibly lucky to have some great leadership experiences at work and EC wise. Sometimes, I've felt I've gotten more responsibility at work, because my supervisors were aware of the amount of EC stuff I've done (especially within the company's junior employee forum).

Plus, it really does fulfill you and gives you a reason to get up in the morning They also make you strive for balance---and that is incredibly critical, especially as a bschool student.

Questions to be discussed on the next Chat Session (September 30th) will be posted 24 hours before the chat.

Please PM with your questions or post them in this thread.

Whats this week's topic...sticking with applications or going to something new like school life?

I have tried getting some responses from the members, but no luck so far. What do you think would be a good topic to discuss at this point in the application process?

I just posted an announcement with a poll -- I will include both of your questions.

I would ask what were the hardest questions they got in their interviews, and what were the least expected questions during the interview. Sometimes interviews drift into topics that are not business related, and i would like to know if this is usual too in top bschool interviews.

already added to the list of questions - please vote!

Does one need a certain number of posts to vote? I would love to see both interview questions and last minute app checks discussed. I'm just mortified by all the things that can go wrong without me realizing it.

Great job on the first transcript btw (+1)

I am sorry for the confusion - the poll questions on this thread were part of the first chat.

The questions for the second chat are here --

current-student-chat-wednesday-09-30-9pm-est-84518.html