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14 Mar 2018, 12:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: UV Darden Receives “Game Changing” Scholarship Gift |
 The University of Virginia Darden School of Business has announced the new Batten Foundation Darden Worldwide Scholarship program. A $15 million gift from the Batten Foundation unlocked a matching gift from UVA’s Bicentennial Scholars Fund, and the resulting $30 million endowment will ultimately provide every student in Darden’s full-time MBA program a scholarship to attend a Darden Worldwide course at no incremental cost. In recent years, Darden has significantly increased its offering of Darden Worldwide courses — faculty-led courses of typically seven to 10 days. Over the past two years, student participation in courses outside the U.S. has more than doubled. During the courses, students visit local companies, educators and officials, gaining hands-on experiences in new business environments and cultures guided by a Darden faculty member. This spring, students will have the option to choose from 14 courses on five continents, including courses exploring business in uncertain economic environments in Argentina, artificial intelligence and robotics in Germany, and government’s influence on business in China, among others. “We are incredibly grateful to the Batten Foundation for enabling this game-changing opportunity, which positions Darden to provide each MBA student funding for a global course through a scholarship,” said Darden Dean Scott Beardsley. “This gift will have a major impact on Darden. It makes the School more affordable and global, and gives students the opportunity to explore the world in which they will be tomorrow’s leaders.” The gift makes Darden unique among top MBA programs in its ability to offer each student a global experience fully funded by philanthropy. The Batten Foundation Darden Worldwide Scholarships will have an immediate impact for the MBA Class of 2020, which will arrive in August 2018. For these incoming students, the gift, combined with other philanthropy and Darden investment, will allow Darden to award a scholarship to every student in the class that will cover fees for a Darden Worldwide course, if the course is not already funded. When the Batten Foundation gift is fully funded in 2020, the scholarships will cover course fees and most travel costs for every Darden full-time MBA student to participate in a global experience. The gift is the largest gift to the Darden School since the Batten family established the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation through a $60 million gift in 1999. “The University of Virginia is committed to the intertwined principles of excellence and affordability,” UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan said when announcing the gift. “Darden fully embraces these principles, and with an infusion of energy from this generous philanthropic gift, Darden can continue to pursue its mission of preparing students from all walks of life for global leadership and service.” |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
15 Mar 2018, 12:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: When Applying in Round 3 is a Bad Idea |
 Everyone has an opinion about submitting an MBA application in round three, and a lot of the conversation circles around how competitive it is. If you tried your best but you just couldn’t pull together all of your business school materials before round two deadlines hit, you might wonder whether round three is the answer. By the time the final admission round starts, admissions committees have seen thousands of qualified applicants in the first two rounds, have a fairly good idea of what the incoming class will look like and also compiled a waitlist of additional qualified candidates. Before round three closes out, a certain percentage of people admitted in the first two rounds will have already committed to a program. In short, precious few spots remain when the admissions committees finally turn their attention to final-round applications. As such, deciding whether to apply in the final round requires serious reflection and sound reasoning. Consider these three signs that you should not apply to business school in round three. 1. You had no luck with earlier round applications. [/b]This is a guaranteed red flag that your MBA application needs more work, and applying in the final round will likely yield the same results. It’s a huge mistake to think that fewer applicants in round three means less competition and better chances of admission. As we’ve mentioned before, successful round three applications offer the schools something that has truly not appeared in applicants from the previous rounds. The admissions committees know what they need to round out the class. They have become good at estimating numbers and evaluating and accepting applicants who fit their criteria. Only the strongest, most compelling candidates make the cut, so if your applications didn’t generate sufficient interest in earlier rounds, they certainly won’t amid the exceptional candidates at the end of the season. Instead, you should regroup, restrategize and apply again next year. 2. Your test scores are middling and you’ve only tested once. [/b]The majority of applicants plan to take the GMAT or GRE a second time if their initial test scores aren’t in the 80-percent range for their target MBA programs. Like it or not, test scores greatly influence admissions decisions. As we’ve discussed in prior posts, preparing early and adequately for the entrance exam is critical. While each year we hear of that miracle case where someone gets into Harvard Business School with a 650 on the GMAT, it’s likely that the person’s profile was so extraordinary in every other way that it offset the low score. Devote ample time to test prep this spring and bring that crucial application component in line with what the admissions committee expects to see from successful candidates. 3. You’re rushing to get all of your materials together.[/b] The golden rule in MBA admissions is apply only when your application is as strong as possible – and not a moment before. Maybe projects at work have kept you ultra-busy these past few months. Perhaps one of your recommenders seems less enthusiastic about your b-school plans and you need to find a new one. Or maybe you just haven’t devoted as much time as you’d like to those important extracurricular interests that the admissions committee loves to see. Think of every part of the MBA application as precious real estate. If you’re rushing any one component just to get everything submitted on deadline, the quality will suffer. Take a breather, get your materials together in a thoughtful manner and wait for round one deadlines. This extra time will allow you to approach the application more strategically, and will certainly yield a more positive outcome than a sloppy last-round application will. Finally, if you do decide to throw your hat in the ring, be sure to have a Plan B in case things don’t go your way. Developing resilience is incredibly important if you need to reapply, but it’s also essential in life. Even when you put your best out there, you might still fail. However, to be successful, you need to learn how to bounce back and try again. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
15 Mar 2018, 12:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Why Can’t I Score Above 700 on the GMAT? |
 Every test taker seems to covet a 700+ score on the GMAT. For good reason too, since a score of 700 means that student broke into the 90th percentile—a big deal when the average GMAT score is a 545. Although a 700 is not a guarantee of getting into a grad program, it will make the admission committee notice you. And if anything, it will keep your application out of the rejection pile. But how to score 700 if you are stuck in the 600s? Let’s examine the common habits of students who score in the 700 range and dispel some common myths that test takers have to help you succeed. Practice GMATS are not the Real GMAT First, to score in the 700 range, let’s calibrate our expectations. Taking mock tests is a crucial part of preparing for the test, but don’t expect your performance on a practice test to match your performance on the real GMAT. Every practice test was not created equal and every practice question is not necessarily a strong representation of actual GMAT questions. Make sure that you know what the best GMAT prep books are and use them. Don’t waste your time with flawed resources. Multiple Attempts The real test can cause more stress, which leads to a loss of focus and an increase in mistakes compared to a practice test. So do not expect to reach a 700 score in one, two, or even three attempts. Many students need multiple attempts to see an increase from 600 to 700 (one student didn’t see improvement until he took the test eight times!). The students who break into the 700 range are working hard to do so, and often take the test multiple times. Remember that a score of 700 means that you are doing better on the GMAT than 90% of the people who take the test. This is an elite group, and you won’t make it there without hard work, dedication, and probably multiple attempts. Practice Questions aren’t Enough Plenty of students think that if they answer 1000+ practice questions, they will be ready for the test. This is a myth. The best test takers, the students who do score in the 700 range, not only answer a lot of practice problems, but they also read The Economist and The New York Times regularly. The are challenging themselves by choosing articles that they normally wouldn’t read so that they are comfortable with new, strange, foreign reading passages. These students have made a habit of improving their skills outside of doing practice problems and learning grammar points. Make practicing for the GMAT more than just opening a test prep book or logging into your test prep software. Pacing is Key Not only are they expanding their skills outside of practice problems, but these students also have a very strong understanding of the questions types, the common wrong answer traps for each question type, and the strategy for each type of question. This knowledge, like knowing the answer choices and how to eliminate them in Data Sufficiency, ultimately, saves them time. And this is the last piece: students scoring in the 700 range have a strong pacing strategy, know how to save time, and use time efficiently. Not feeling rushed is a key to success, which comes with practice problems for sure. But not just answering questions correctly, but also setting a timer for questions and answering them correctly. If you lack a pacing strategy, it is time to start coming up with one. Focused, Targeted Practice Each time you sit down and study, you need to have direction and purpose. The big difference between a 600 and a 700 is targeting weakness and improving. So that means sitting down to study, and working on those weakness. You need to be constantly on the look out for weakness. Be honest with yourself and keep track of your weaknesses in a notebook. Then when it comes to practice, focus on improving those skills. For example, if you struggle with identifying assumptions in arguments, then you need to spend your time generating assumptions and doing practice problems that are about assumptions. Or if you struggle with statistics, you need to spend time watching lesson videos that teach the basics, like Khan Academy. Without a strong foundation in the basics of math and grammar, you cannot expect to break into the 700 range. Do you even need a 700 on the GMAT? But, let’s step back from this problem. Do you even need to take the GMAT and get a 700 to actually get into a graduate program? Plenty of business schools now accept the GMAT or GRE, so even before you invest all of your waking hours to preparing for the GMAT, look into the GRE. Take a practice GRE test and see how you do. If you do better on the GRE, you might want to pivot your preparation to the GRE. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
19 Mar 2018, 10:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Should You Hold Out for Your Dream B-School? |
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Did you give it your all this application season and end up with mixed results? By mixed results we mean that you were dinged by your dream school (or schools), but still got in to one or more other great programs. If that’s the case and you’re excited about heading to campus this fall, read no further. But continue on if a nagging voice in the back of your head keeps asking, “What if…?” This is the quintessential “bird in hand” dilemma for future business school students: do you count your lucky stars that you have the option to earn an MBA from a school you were interested in enough to apply to in the first place? Or do you forego your golden ticket and give it another shot next year, hoping to land a spot at your dream school? While the saying goes “A bird in hand is better than two in the bush,” we understand that in real life it isn’t always easy to accept an outcome you’re not 100% enthusiastic about. And there is no one-size-fits-all answer here, of course. But we can suggest this first step for your decision-making process: think long and hard (and objectively as possible) about how comfortable you are with risk. How have you reacted in the past when you took a big chance on something and it didn’t pan out? How upset or regretful do you become when you realize an opportunity you turned down might have actually been the right choice? Asking a trusted friend or family member for their take might be helpful as well. We’d also recommend giving yourself as much time as possible to make your final decision. It may just be that once the initial sting of any rejections wears off, you’ll realize that you’re in a very enviable position. Remember:  Still not sure if you should reapply to your dream school next year? Here’s more advice from Stacy. Until next time, The team at Stacy Blackman Consulting ***Do you want to stay on top of the application process with timely tips like these? Please subscribe to our weekly newsletter and you’ll receive our expert advice straight in your mailbox before it appears on the blog, plus special offers, promotions, discounts, invitations to events, and more. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
20 Mar 2018, 14:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: US News Releases 2019 Best B-Schools Ranking |
 U.S. News & World Report has announced its ranking of the 2019 Best Graduate Schools, and in the business school category, the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business moved up this year to tie with Harvard Business School for the No. 1 spot among full-time MBA programs for the first time in the history of the U.S. News ranking. 2019 Best Full-Time MBA Programs 1. Harvard Business School (tie) 1. Chicago Booth School of Business (tie) 3. University of Pennsylvania Wharton School 4. Stanford Graduate School of Business 5. MIT Sloan School of Management 6. Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management 7. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business 8. University of Michigan Ross School of Business 9. Columbia Business School 10. Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business 2019 Best Part-Time MBA Programs 1. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business 2. Chicago Booth School of Business 3. Kellogg School of Management 4. NYU Stern School of Business 5. UCLA Anderson School of Management 6. UM Ross School of Business 7. CMU Tepper School of Business (tie) 7. UT McCombs School of Business (tie) 9. Fisher College of Business-Ohio State (tie) 9. Carlson School of Management-University of Minnesota (tie) 11. Georgetown McDonough School of Business (tie) 11. USC Marshall School of Business (tie) Methodology Rankings come from statistical surveys of the programs, as well as reputation surveys sent to more than 20,500 academics and professionals between 2017 and the beginning of 2018. Factors that go into rankings include test scores, starting salaries and employment rates after graduation. For the first time, U.S. News reduced the value of reported GPA, GRE and GMAT scores for full-time and part-time MBA programs and GRE scores in the education rankings if less than 50 percent of an entering class submitted these scores. U.S. News believes this lack of data means the scores are not representative of the entire class. “In measuring graduate schools nationwide, our ranking formulas evolve as more and more data become available,” said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, in a statement. “From MBA programs to law schools, our aim is to take full advantage of data that are representative of incoming classes and to provide information, where available, on career placement success.” Also new this year, the MBA rankings, along with U.S. News’ rankings of online and undergraduate business programs, will be featured in the “Best Business Schools 2019” guidebook, to be published later this spring. “Prospective students can choose from a range of options to continue their education,” said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. “The graduate school rankings and data are a great starting point for applicants to find the program that’s the best fit for them academically and financially.” |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
21 Mar 2018, 12:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: MBA Applicants: Make an Impact with Your Input! |
 Have you recently gone through the MBA admissions process? Then the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) wants to hear from you! Schools and members utilize AIGAC MBA Applicant Survey data to learn about applicant perceptions of each stage of the admissions process. The AIGAC Survey helps stakeholders understand the tools applicants use to research programs. It also provides valuable insight into the reasons that applicants select programs as well as their career and salary expectations. Your feedback is very important to the admissions consultants who are members of AIGAC. Each year, admissions consultants all over the world use what we learn to work on giving our clients a better experience. Additionally, what you tell us about your experiences with the admissions process itself is tremendously valuable—so much so that top-ranked business schools eagerly await your responses every year! This feedback has resulted in tangible changes in the admissions process, such as streamlining the letter of recommendation process. As a token of appreciation for your time, you will have the opportunity to enter a random drawing to win a $500 cash prize by simply entering your email address at the end of the survey. Your email address will be used only to notify you if you are selected as a winner. We will protect your answers and contact information as completely confidential. Your feedback will be aggregated with other survey respondents to protect your confidentiality. We appreciate your candid opinions and ask that you complete the survey by Sunday, March 25th, 2018. You may start by using this unique survey link. The survey should take only about 10 minutes. Thank you in advance for providing your valued feedback! Image credit: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
22 Mar 2018, 14:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Georgetown MBA Students Tackle Implicit Bias in New Training Program |
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[img]https://cdn.stacyblackman.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Georgetown-MBA-at-Night-734x293.jpg[/img] Students at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business frequently discuss ethical and social issues related to leadership and business in the classroom. While the school prepares and encourages students to have these difficult conversations — informed by its commitment to diversity and inclusion and the Jesuit value of educating the whole person — the MBA Program has taken new steps to address implicit bias. Implicit bias describes the attitudes or stereotypes that unconsciously affect actions and decisions. It can impact hiring and promotion practices, affect client services, and influence the culture of an organization. In 2017, the Graduate Women in Business (GWIB) student club launched a pilotimplicit bias training program and is now working with the MBA Program Office to further increase awareness and integrate training into the MBA student experience. The awareness-raising session in fall 2017 attracted 30 participants, including faculty and administrators, and garnered support from across the MBA community. The event was co-sponsored by an exceptionally high number of groups, including the MBA Program Office, Student Government Association, Human Capital and Leadership Club, Latin American Business Association, Black MBA Association, Consortium, and OutMSB. Aware of the mixed results from corporate implicit bias training programs, GWIB had worked for over nine months researching lessons learned from other implicit bias trainings and identifying effective trainers and curricula. They brought in Bryant Marks, a seasoned implicit bias trainer, to facilitate the pilot. Marks is the founder and lead trainer at the National Training and Education Institute, associate professor of psychology at Morehouse College, and former senior advisor to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. His approach focuses on associations rather than prejudice and establishes trust and credibility from the onset by demonstrating how all human beings hold these associations. In feedback surveys, students wrote that the data he presented during the training was “relatable” and “some were a revelation.” Implicit bias training “better prepares students for successful careers as principled business leaders and continues to improve our amazing community,” said Kerry Pace, associate dean of MBA programs. “By spending time reflecting on and acknowledging our own biases, we are following our Jesuit heritage of women and men in service to others and to ourselves.” [img]https://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/StacyBlackman/~4/Mx0woKYMyUM[/img] |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
23 Mar 2018, 14:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: The GMAT and Your MBA Application Strategy |
 Just about every MBA candidate needs to submit a GMAT or GRE score as part of their business school admission package, but not everyone has a clear grasp on when and how the exam fits within the context of the whole application process. In an ideal world, you would take the test just coming out of college, while you’re still in study and test mode as a recent student. Since both GMAT and GRE scores are valid for five years, getting the exams out of the way years in advance would free you to focus on all of the other elements of the application. If, like most applicants, you didn’t have the foresight to take the exam right after college, the next best step is to plan your application strategy so that the GMAT is finished before you finalize your list of schools. Your score isn’t everything, but it is an important part of the admissions equation. If you bomb the exam and can’t improve your score, you may need to reassess your target schools to include less-competitive options. Conversely, you may be able to add one more reach school if the score was higher than expected. Round one of business school admissions is about six months away at many schools, and if you still need to take the GMAT, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Unless you’re a natural at taking standardized tests, you’ll need to train your brain to get it back into test-taking form. Most applicants devote at least 100 hours to test preparation, and depending on where you are in the process, you may have to take a prep class and perhaps take the test more than once. If this is the case, the first round may not be a realistic option unless you’re able and prepared to completely immerse yourself in the process. We typically advise clients to plan for two attempts at the GMAT, leaving a buffer for a retake if needed. There’s no harm in taking the test two or even three times, and unless you score really well right out of the gate, you often will do better the second time. This is because you’ll have fewer nerves, more familiarity with the process and no big surprises. There is no such thing as a bad test, just opportunities to build on and learn from. Average scores are creeping higher every year at the top MBA programs, making it hard to offset a bad GMAT score. It truly is a level playing field, and we often cringe when reading essays where people try to rationalize a low score. What you can do, however, is acknowledge the score and say you don’t find it truly reflective of your abilities. Then show why you are actually strong in quant or going to excel academically by pointing to your college GPA, work experience or by encouraging your recommenders to focus heavily on your intellect. Timing and planning are key to reducing the stress of the application process. We generally encourage applicants to not cram everything into too short of a timeline, but everyone has their own style and you need to figure out what makes the most sense for you, your goals and your schedule. Image credit: KMo Foto (CC BY 2.0) |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
26 Mar 2018, 11:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Advice for the Waitlisted |
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All MBA applicants are anxious to learn whether or not they’ve been admitted to their dream schools. For some prospective MBAs, however, those decision dates come and go … and they’re still in limbo. They’ve been waitlisted. If you’ve been rolled over from a Round 1 waitlist, have recently been informed that you were neither accepted nor denied at one of your Round 2 schools, or get this same news in the coming weeks from a program that hasn’t notified applicants yet, your first question might be, “Well, now what?” Before you pick up the phone and call the admissions team to ask questions or plead your case, take a moment to reread the email they sent. Usually it will contain pretty explicit information and instructions about timelines and next steps. It should also be clear as to whether the program has a dedicated waitlist contact, whether they’ll be following up with more information for you in the weeks ahead, and if there’s a drop-dead date by which you’ll have a final answer. Most importantly, there should be guidance on additional actions you can (or must) take or supplemental materials they’d be willing to consider. Some schools make it very, very clear that they will not look at any more letters of recommendations or candidate updates before they make their decision, whereas other programs encourage applicants to send in additional essays, videos and words of support from colleagues and alumni. Some people are tempted to bombard the adcom with more information after they’ve been waitlisted, but the reality is that doing so probably won’t help your case. If the school has stated that they don’t want anything else from you, now might not be the best time to ignore their instructions. As frustrating as it is to feel like you’re not doing anything proactive, you need to remind yourself that you already did do everything you could to put your best foot forward in your original application. If a school welcomes more insight into your candidacy, then give it to them. Let them know what you’ve been up to in the months since your round’s deadline. What else have you done at work? What more have you learned about their program? Who else have you spoken to from their community? Have you taken any trips, had any interesting experiences or gotten involved in a new volunteer activity? Make your communication with them count, because even if a school does accept new information on waitlisted candidates, they’re not going to want to be contacted every single day. One solid update will likely come off better than several emails or uploads that don’t have much meat. At some point (and that point might already be here), there’s nothing you can do but wait. Try to keep your mind off of it and hope for the best. A number of waitlisted candidates are ultimately accepted into top programs each year, so there’s reason to remain positive! Remember:  Until next time, The team at Stacy Blackman Consulting ***Do you want to stay on top of the application process with timely tips like these? Please subscribe to our weekly newsletter and you’ll receive our expert advice straight in your mailbox before it appears on the blog, plus special offers, promotions, discounts, invitations to events, and more. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
27 Mar 2018, 07:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Professor Profiles: Kellogg School’s Jose Maria Liberti |
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Having the opportunity to learn from the best and brightest minds in business is one of the top motivators for many applicants considering an MBA degree at an elite business school. The professors and lecturers you’ll encounter have worked in the trenches, and bring an incredible wealth of real-world experiences into the classroom setting. In our new limited series of professor interviews on the SBC blog, readers will get to know a bit more about these brilliant academics, what fields most excite them, the trends they foresee, what they enjoy most about teaching at their respective universities, and how it all comes together with their students.  Today, we’re meeting Jose Maria Liberti, Clinical Professor of Finance at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and William M. Scholl Professor of Finance at Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University. Liberti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from the Universidad de San Andres (UdeSA), in Buenos Aires. He moved to the United States in 1998 and earned both a Masters and a PhD in Economics from The University of Chicago. Courses Taught: Mergers and Acquisitions, LBOs and Corporate Restructuring; Global Entrepreneurial Finance What triggered your interest in your subject matter? I am an economist by education, but a practitioner by nature. Given my professional experience working in a financial institution before my graduate studies, I have always been interested in corporate finance in general and mergers and acquisitions in particular. For example, problems between minority and controlling stakeholders were daily topics in my working years. While in my graduate studies (and given my personal interests), I found that the most interesting applications on incentives issues were in the field of corporate finance. What’s changed since you entered the field? Any surprising or unique applications of your field of study? The field has changed a lot. Even relative to my years of the PhD, the academic finance profession has shifted considerably. There was a period where the capital structure or the way you finance a project is irrelevant, and the only frictions that matter are probably only tax frictions. Of course, scholars realized that the way you allocate the cash flows of the firm has some impact on the way the firm is run. But all this old academic literature focused on external rules being fixed. What happens when the environment and rules change? People realized that the rules are not fixed, that the changing nature of the rules is actually important, and of course, political gain or incentive gains is what makes the rules change. Topics like nepotism, crony capitalism and extraction of rents from other parties have been introduced, making finance an incredible stimulating and thought-provoking field. What do you like about the school you are teaching at? The Kellogg School of Management provides all the resources and makes my life as an educator very simple, providing me with all the adequate resources to provide a high-quality product to the students. One great advantage, and most important, is the high quality of students that enroll in my classes. They are just outstanding, since they are willing to be challenged and pushed outside of their comfort zones. What role, if any, does ethics play in your curriculum, and how has that evolved over time? Transparency and ethical behavior of financial professionals have become key components in any academic finance curriculum. After the 2008 financial crisis, there has been larger focus in Kellogg’s finance curriculum on the role of ethical behavior. This behavior is also tied to new regulations passed on monitoring the financial industry since new investors pay more attention to their financial professional’s ethical standards. Given that we prepare financial professionals for the future, I feel I have the responsibility to make sure the message of ethical standards is properly conveyed in the classroom and in the finance curriculum in general. What are you most excited about in your classroom? The most excited part of my classes are the discussions we have among the students. Since I teach advanced classes in corporate finance, the exchange of ideas can become very lively and dynamic in the classroom. If you are not ready to engage in class discussions, these are not the courses you would like to enroll in! Best advice for an aspiring business mogul? The advice I’d give is simple: Just push yourself to the limits and give 150% on whatever you do. For me, this would leave a mark independent of what you are doing career-wise. What’s the impact you want to leave on your students? … On the world? I prefer to think that I do something small and the sum of those small things will hopefully affect the bigger scheme of things. If I can push students to think deeply on issues, challenge the status-quo, and be engaged and curious on financial strategy topics – a subject that for many students is challenging or daunting – then I would feel personally satisfied. Thank you Professor Liberti for sharing your time and insights with our readers! (Photo by Jean Lachat) |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
28 Mar 2018, 13:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Round 3 Insight from MBA Admissions Officers |
 Round 3 deadlines are nearly upon us, and while the final round is the biggest gamble of the application cycle, schools have that round for a reason and use it to admit those stellar students that add something really special to their classes. Special meaning unusual work experience, substantial community service, a diverse background, compelling leadership examples, unique or uncommon interests outside of business or entrepreneurial success of some sort. Here’s a sampling of reactions from the admissions teams at well-ranked MBA programs on whether Round 3 really is a viable option for applicants. Yale School of Management “My view is that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by applying in Round 3,” says Admissions Director Bruce DelMonico. His reasoning? Well, they always save room for applicants from the final round. Plus, unlike at some business schools, international students are welcome to apply in the third round. And finally, DelMonico says, “Round 3 can be a ‘test run’ for your next application, without any negative consequences. For applicants who aren’t admitted this year, we provide feedback upon request over the summer on how you might be able to improve your candidacy, so there can even be a benefit to applying now.” MIT Sloan School of Management “Three years ago, we decided to add a Round 3 application deadline for a variety of reasons, one of which was because we wanted to accommodate applicants who become ready to apply later in the traditional MBA admissions cycle,” explains MBA admissions director Dawna Levenson. “The Round 3 application deadline was designed to give these individuals—whose professional or personal circumstances have unexpectedly changed—an opportunity not to have to wait another year. So if this sounds like you, and you are now ready to begin your MBA studies next fall, I encourage you to apply!” UT McCombs School of Business “Our goal in all of our programs is to build the best and most diverse class that we can, NOT to fill all of our seats as fast as we can. So the best time to submit your application is when you are ready to do so, when you’re confident it will be the best representation of you and your fit with the program. You can trust that we’ll be ready to start the review process,” writes Kimberly Jones on the McCombs MBA Insider blog. Michigan Ross School of Business And finally, admissions Director Soojin Kwon gives these three, succinct reasons to apply in Round 3.
You should definitely use the required or optional MBA admission essays to explain to the admissions committee your reasons for waiting until the third – or final – round to apply. You don’t want anyone to jump to the conclusion that you are using round three as a last-ditch effort to get into business school in the fall after receiving rejections from other schools in earlier rounds. With fewer slots available, fine-tune your focus on schools where you’ll be a compelling candidate. A strong, well-thought-out application is critical. Make sure your academic profile aligns with the school’s median GMAT and average GPA and that you add something special to the class that the admissions committee didn’t see earlier in the season. Standing out from the pack is imperative, and never more so than when applying later in the game. As I mentioned in this US News blog post, if you want to do well in the admissions process, you have to communicate who you are, not just what you do. Finally, it’s important to have a Plan B in case things don’t go your way. You can always apply to a set of schools in round three knowing there is a good chance you will need to reapply to them and add in some new ones next season. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
30 Mar 2018, 11:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: It’s Not Too Late to Improve Your B-School Candidacy |
 If you are planning on applying to business school in the upcoming admissions season, you may think there is nothing you can do to bolster your MBA candidacy in such a short amount of time. Not true! You can take action in several areas right now that will pay dividends in the fall. Academic Enhancement If your GPA is a 3.2 or below, or you majored in liberal arts, you may want to consider taking quantitative classes to enhance your academic profile. When in doubt about the strength of your test scores, consult your target schools’ admitted student profile page and compare them to the median reported score. If you took the GMAT once or twice and did not receive the score you think you are capable of, consider taking a prep course to remind you how to solve those high school math logic problems. Retake the GMAT until you’re satisfied, or prove you have the quantitative chops by acing a college-level statistics, microeconomics, or calculus course at the local community college. If an applicant is really dissatisfied with their GMAT score, sometimes the best option is to think way out of the box and take the GRE and see how the two scores stack up. Fortunately, most MBA admissions teams take a holistic view toward an individual’s candidacy, so enthusiastic recommendation letters that also address the applicant’s quant skills will carry significant weight with the committee. Extracurricular Involvement A strong focus on work is great, but it’s important to showcase other aspects of your personality and prove that you bring a diverse set of skills to an MBA program. Community involvement demonstrates that you have a larger view of the world; that you see what’s happening outside of your office; and that you’re interested in contributing in some way. You may not have had much time or energy to devote to outside interests and passions due to your 80-hour pre-MBA work week, but you should find ways to subtly up your engagement with the community in the coming months. This isn’t about gaming the process with some new-found volunteering involvement, however. The best way to seamlessly incorporate extracurriculars is to think about longstanding passions and interests and build upon them. If you’ve volunteered for a certain group before, see what else you can help them with that’s more high profile, or ask if there are any open leadership roles that would be a good fit. Don’t get hung up on traditional volunteer work, though. There are many ways to show your diversity, so think hard about what excites you and how you can leverage those interests for a greater good. Leadership Development Business schools want to see applicants with proven leadership skills that can be further developed through an MBA program. A promotion between now and the fall would be the ideal scenario, but you don’t have to wait for your supervisor to act in order to enhance your overall leadership and management potential for business school applications. Letting others at work know you are interested in developing your people skills may uncover more opportunities to go above and beyond, and provide great material for your resume and essays. Volunteer for that cross-functional team or project, offer to help your boss with a tough long-term goal, or get involved with employee groups at work whether through volunteering in the community or promoting diversity in your company. To show leadership without clear career progression, look again to your extracurricular activities and think about taking on a leadership role. Can you find a way to lead with ideas, to show success because of your influence, communication skills, or ability to motivate people? This is your opportunity to demonstrate that you can run a project and motivate a team. The spring and summer months can be very fruitful both for your personal development and for improving your business school application—or, more precisely, for strengthening your MBA candidacy. With a little advanced planning and a commitment of just a few hours a week, applicants can do a great deal to enhance their profile before that final rush of the fall and winter. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
02 Apr 2018, 11:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: More than One Admit? Decisions, Decisions |
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Are you one of the fortunate b-school applicants who is weighing acceptances from more than one MBA program? If so, congratulations! Before we go any further, let’s stop and take a moment to appreciate how many people wish they were you right now. We certainly hope you understand how impressive this achievement is and have taken some time to celebrate accordingly. But now, you have a tough decision to make. You probably only applied to schools you were truly interested in, and soon it will be time to choose between two of them (or more). How should you figure out where to spend eighteen months of your life — not to mention tens of thousands of dollars? Step one is to attend each program’s Admit Weekend. Spending time on campus and around current students and other admitted applicants will go a long way in helping you decide which program is the better fit. If you cannot find a way to go to the Admit Weekend for each school you’ve been accepted to, do everything else you can to at least visit campus and sit in on a few classes. Worst-case scenario: try to speak or Skype with alumni and current students. Then think about where you want to end up geographically after graduation. Is one program in your desired city — or at least in the same overall region? Does one program have a reputation for helping its students land jobs in the area you want to live? If location isn’t a concern, then focus on what does matter most to you: recruitment stats for certain industries? Diversity? International opportunities? We know you reviewed all of this information when you were deciding where to apply in the first place, but now it warrants a second, closer look. In the end, this may be the best advice of all:  Until next time, The team at Stacy Blackman Consulting ***Do you want to stay on top of the application process with timely tips like these? Please subscribe to our weekly newsletter and you’ll receive our expert advice straight in your mailbox before it appears on the blog, plus special offers, promotions, discounts, invitations to events, and more. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
03 Apr 2018, 06:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: The Bigger Picture: Trust the Process |
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I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up: a brand manager at a big consumer packaged goods company, like Nestle or Proctor & Gamble. After I received my undergraduate degree from Wharton, I moved to San Francisco and landed a good post-college position in finance. As I spent my days behind a desk, staring at black and white spreadsheets with complex financial models, I knew what would happen next. I would go to Kellogg, known for its marketing expertise, and then transition from finance into a job in brand. I kept my head down, worked very hard, and was admitted to Kellogg. When I got there, I attended every marketing presentation, joined the marketing club and was genuinely excited when interview season began. Unfortunately, there was a glitch; I bombed interview after interview, rarely making it to the second round and never beyond that. As the season progressed without offer in hand, I grew increasingly anxious. Fortunately, I did secure an offer for a summer position with Pillsbury, working on the Haagen-Dazs ice cream brand. I breathed a sigh of relief, confident that everything was proceeding according to the master plan. As it turned out, I did not like brand management. Not at all. As I endured my summer, I was seized with panic, not knowing what my next move would be. When I headed back to school in the Fall I was completely deflated. I was a second year at Kellogg and I had no direction. Recruiting for full time positions would begin right away and I did not even know what I would interview for. Why was I at Kellogg? Where was I going? Would my degree be a waste? When everyone landed on campus, I reunited with friends and we swapped stories from our summer adventures. One night I found myself sharing sob stories with two other women in my class. They also hated their internships and did not know what they were going to do next. Feeling lost at a time when most other classmates were “set”, we joked about going off and starting our own thing: writing a book, opening a store, launching a business. Over the course of that year, we did launch a business, and that business was quickly acquired, and it set me off on an unexpected entrepreneurial path that was exciting, interesting and fulfilling. It turns out I didn’t know everything at age 17. There were possibilities that I did not even know existed at that time. I had to walk that twisty-turny path in order to find my place, to discover what worked for me. I had to fail. I had to feel desperately lost. I had to go through interviews that weren’t right for me. I had to be rejected. A lot. The universe had plans for me that I could not even conceive of. It honestly never crossed my mind that I would run my own company.  I went to b-school in order to land a job but instead was exposed to ideas and options and people that would help me more personally define my future and create my own career. The process is usually painful and difficult. Whether it is a quest for a job, a degree, love or personal fulfillment, the single thing that makes it really hard is the uncertainty. Getting rejected from 30 different jobs is painful, but if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would land #31, that would certainly cushion the blows. The rejections, setbacks and stumbles are nothing to be ashamed of. They are badges of honor that you accumulate on your way, as part of an essential process. Over time, I have learned to trust that process, uncertainty and all. We rarely land at Point B via the straight line that we envision. Walk that tangled line. Walk it deliberately. Pay attention. Trust and fail and succeed. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
04 Apr 2018, 11:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Shortened GMAT Exam Debuts April 16 |
 The Graduate Management Admission Council has announced it is shortening the length of the GMAT exam by 30 minutes as part of its ongoing focus on creating the best possible testing experience and offering user-friendly features. The new, shorter exam – 3.5 hours instead of 4 – will be available for test-takers worldwide beginning April 16. The quality of the exam remains unchanged in terms of reliability, validity, security and integrity. GMAT scores before and after this change will be the same and comparable across time. The time savings are achieved by streamlining the two longer sections of the exam, the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections, reducing the number of unscored, research questions in these sections. Several tutorial and instruction screens that test-takers see at the test center have also been simplified. This includes a 23-minute reduction in the exam sections, as well as additional time and content reduction across several non-exam screens at the test center (e.g. Tutorial, Section Instructions). The Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections of the GMAT exam will be shorter by 13 and 10 minutes, respectively. The new section structure is as follows: Old Structure (Reference) New Structure (After April 16) Section # of Questions Section Time # of Questions Section Time Quantitative Reasoning 37 75 minutes 31 62 minutes Verbal Reasoning 41 75 minutes 36 65 minutes There are no changes to the exam’s Analytical Writing or Integrated Reasoning sections. The way the GMAT exam is scored, the content of the exam, the question types and the average time per question are not changing. “We are always looking for ways to help build candidate confidence and streamline the test experience, all with one goal in mind—to help GMAT test-takers do their very best on exam day,” said Vineet Chhabra, senior director of product management for GMAC. “We believe candidates will have less anxiety and feel better prepared, which can contribute to a better reflection of their true performance on the exam.” These changes are part of a series of candidate-friendly enhancements to the GMAT exam in recent years, all focused on improving the testing experience, including: • Exam section order selection at the testing center (Select Section Order) • Making unofficial scores available immediately, before leaving the test center following the exam • Updates to score cancellation and reinstatement options “Through our ongoing market feedback and operational reviews, we were able to identify this opportunity to shorten the exam, without changing its reliability,” said Chhabra. “This change will not affect GMAT exam scoring as the number of scored questions will not change. The scoring algorithm will be the same; the Total Score and individual Quantitative and Verbal section scores will be comparable to the exams taken prior to this change. There is no action or change required on the part of business schools and universities. We are providing candidates with a better testing experience, while providing business schools with the same high quality, fair and reliable scores,” Chhabra added. Along with these changes, GMAC is providing a new, online tutorial that mimics the screens that test-takers see on exam day, further enhancing and streamlining the test center experience. By moving the tutorial information online, to www.mba.com, test takers can access it prior to arriving at the test center, at their convenience and as often as they wish. To align with the changes, GMAC is launching new GMAT Official Prep tools to match the structure of the shorter exam. The GMAT Official Practice Exams and Practice Questions will be available on an online platform for better ease-of-use, as well as some feature improvements such as single sign-on and ability to access prep materials across multiple devices. GMAT Official Prep tools are the only official source of retired GMAT questions, and the Council’s research shows that candidates who use official products score an average of 18 percent higher on the GMAT exam than those who don’t. The updated practice tools will be available by the end of April. To learn more about the changes, please review these FAQs. Image by Flickr user Heather Katsoulis (CC BY-SA 2.0) |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
05 Apr 2018, 11:01
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Advance Planning is Key to Funding Your MBA |
 Business school is an expensive investment, and it’s never too early to start figuring out how you will pay for it. It helps to think of the MBA as a long-term investment, and fortunately, schools want to work with students to find a solution to financing school through a combination of loans and scholarships. As you create your plan to pay for business school, you should contact your prospective school’s financial aid office. You can also get advice through admissions events. Financial aid officers have seen it all before, and they want to ensure qualified candidates can pay for the degree. Starting early – at least three months before applying – is also important if you’re pursuing scholarships, fellowships or grants. You can count on fierce competition for scholarships–AKA free money—so you’ll benefit from having the time to create strong scholarship applications, and from knowing the key deadlines so that opportunities don’t pass you by. You may also need to submit a different application for each fellowship or scholarship. Don’t lose out because of a missed deadline. Look beyond your business school, too, to organizations like the Forte Foundation or Consortium for Graduate Study in Management that offer highly valuable scholarships for MBA students. Schools that offer you admission may automatically consider you for merit fellowships based on your academic credentials, accomplishments and experience communicated in your application. Some schools may also offer additional fellowships that you can apply for directly through the program. Applying for the Money There are many different application processes for financial aid, from demonstrating need to demonstrating merit. Organize the deadlines and submission guidelines to make sure you have a plan to complete the applications, and carefully follow the directions of each scholarship, fellowship or loan you apply for. If you need to submit an essay, answer the question thoroughly and succinctly as you would any other MBA essay. Questions may vary, though this question is representative of the type of question you may receive: Describe what you see as the value of fellowships/scholarships to students. Why should you receive one? What impact will it have on you and/or your business school experience? (500 words) The value of fellowships/scholarships should be fairly straightforward, though you may emphasize either need or merit in your response, depending upon the direction you plan to take in the argument for your own application. The need-based direction may be difficult to prove without serious financial hardship. If you did have difficulties with finances throughout your life and could not attend business school without such assistance, you may have a good argument. If not, you should pursue the merit-based direction. Providing evidence for the need-based direction of the argument should be fairly straightforward. Describe your situation and why you would have difficulty paying for your MBA education. Avoid any complaining or blame, and instead focus on what you have accomplished in your life with little resources, and what you would continue to accomplish as you benefit from greater resources. If you choose a merit-based argument, you should outline your accomplishments, both academic and professional. Sell yourself as you would in a job interview, and provide solid evidence for your accomplishments as you did in your application essays. The impact of financial assistance may allow you to pursue activities such as travel and leadership opportunities. In addition, your receipt of aid may benefit the people around you. If you have been involved in your community or with charity, you can certainly describe the impact you have made on the lives of others thus far and how that impact will be even greater with a business education. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
06 Apr 2018, 12:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Wharton’s New Leadership Fellows Program Launched with $4M Alumni Gift |
 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has received a commitment of $4 million from alum William P. Lauder to endow the William P. Lauder Wharton Leadership Fellows Program. Wharton Leadership Fellows are a community of second-year MBA students who mentor, coach, and support first-year students in developing their potential and strengthening their performance as learning teams. Over the course of 15 months, the fellows receive intensive leadership development opportunities that first focus on enhancing their own abilities and then transition to hands-on experience building those skills in others. Fellows play a critical role in strengthening team dynamics, providing feedback, addressing conflict, and coaching individual growth and development. Lauder is a member of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, the Lauder Institute Board of Governors, the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board, and a lecturer in the Wharton School. “I have always believed that great leaders are also great teachers, coaches, and mentors,” says Lauder, who serves as Executive Chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies. “That’s what I expect of leaders at The Estée Lauder Companies, and what I hope to model for MBA students. I’ve been fortunate to have many extraordinary mentors in my career — my father Leonard A. Lauder, W’54, chief among them — and I’ve been consistently impressed by the ways in which Wharton Leadership Fellows enhance and contribute to the learning culture at Wharton. I am thrilled to support this outstanding program’s continued growth and evolution.” This gift continues the Lauder family’s longstanding commitment to supporting education and the Penn community — from the Lauder Institute, to student fellowships, to numerous capital projects, including the recently completed New College House at 3335 Woodland Walk — and enriching the Penn experience for future generations of students. “William Lauder’s contributions to the Penn community extend far beyond his generous financial support,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “William is an active presence on campus, sharing his time and insight with our students enrolled in his popular MBA course and providing exceptional advice and guidance to University leadership as a member of the Penn Board of Trustees. William’s investment in the Wharton community is a deeply personal one, and he has been an extraordinary asset to our students over the years as a teacher, mentor, and role model. I look forward to watching the William P. Lauder Wharton Leadership Fellows Program flourish under his stewardship.” Income from the endowment will provide sustainable resources to select, train, and support the Wharton Leadership Fellows in their work with first-year MBA students. Lauder’s gift will also bring a new one-day leadership symposium to the William P. Lauder Wharton Leadership Fellows Program dedicated to exploring leadership principles in action. “William embodies the core Wharton value of empowering leaders to change the world and we are deeply honored by his decision to endow the William P. Lauder Wharton Leadership Fellows Program,” said Wharton Dean Geoff Garrett. “The Leadership Fellows Program is a jewel in the Wharton MBA crown providing life-changing experiences for countless students. With William’s partnership, the program’s reach and impact will grow exponentially.” Lauder is already known as an innovator among the Wharton faculty. The course he created and teaches, MGMT 892: Decision Making in the Leadership Chair, now in its sixth year, brings renowned business and civic leaders into the classroom each week to share lessons from their careers with second-year MBA students. In 2014, Mr. Lauder was recognized by his fellow faculty members with the Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award for the by-application course, which consistently ranks among the school’s most popular electives. “I have had the privilege of working with William for the past decade on various programs for senior leaders through our Executive Education partnership, and on his outstanding course, Decision Making in the Leadership Chair,” said Professor Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management and the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management at Wharton. “William’s passion for teaching and love of learning are second to none, and his insight and experience as a leader of a global company make him the ideal sponsor for the Wharton Leadership Fellows Program. I am pleased to partner with him to continue building this signature program for future generations of leaders.” |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
09 Apr 2018, 06:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Repeat After Me: The MBA Admissions Process is Subjective |
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If Round 2 results from your dream school are in and you didn’t get the news you were hoping for, it can be pretty devastating. After months of hard work on your application and then a few more months of anxiety-ridden waiting, finding out that you weren’t accepted is tough. When you’re already feeling confused, down or angry, learning that a friend or co-worker did get in is like having salt poured in your proverbial wound. If you believe you’re actually more qualified than the person you know who was accepted, it’s even worse. Why do scenarios like this come to pass? How can it be that two people who work at the same place or are similar “on paper” meet such different MBA fates? How can someone who’s a stellar candidate receive a ding when a seemingly so-so applicant is accepted? There are three main answers to those questions:
Think of it this way:  Until next time, The team at Stacy Blackman Consulting *** Looking for an objective, expert opinion on why you might have been dinged from your dream school? You might be interested in our Ding Analysis, available through our hourly consulting service. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
10 Apr 2018, 07:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Professor Profiles: Babson College’s Ruben Mancha |
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Having the opportunity to learn from the best and brightest minds in business is one of the top motivators for many applicants considering an MBA degree at an elite business school. The professors and lecturers you’ll encounter have worked in the trenches, and bring an incredible wealth of real-world experiences into the classroom setting. In our new limited series of professor interviews on the SBC blog, readers will get to know a bit more about these brilliant academics, what fields most excite them, the trends they foresee, what they enjoy most about teaching at their respective universities, and how it all comes together with their students.  Today, let’s learn more about Rubén Mancha, Assistant Professor of Information Systems at Babson College and Faculty Director of the Babson Digital Experience Initiative. He teaches information technology courses at Olin Graduate School of Management and business analytics courses at Babson Executive Education. In 2017, he was a recipient of the Best 40-Under-40 Business School Professors award by Poets and Quants. Education: Ph.D. in Information Technology; M.S. in Management of Technology, The University of Texas at San Antonio. B.S. in Food Science and Technology, University of La Laguna (Spain). Courses Taught: Information Technology, MBA and M.S. in Entrepreneurial Leadership programs; Digital Innovation and Strategy, executive education. What triggered your interest in your subject matter? I have always been interested in technology. As I high school student, when I first had access to a computer, I was captivated by the creative possibilities technology enabled. I learned to code websites and was fascinated by Seti@Home, the volunteer computing project to process radio telescope data. As an undergraduate science student, I interned for a chemistry research group with state-of-the-art computer-aided tools and became interested in the simulation of biological systems. Soon I started seeing technology as a driver of scientific and economic development and social change, and made technology the focus of my studies. What do you like about the school you are teaching at? Babson is a small college with grand ambitions and accomplishments. I particularly like the culture of experimentation shared by students, faculty, and administrators; the emphasis on teaching excellence; and the focus on social innovation. Babson is a lifelong community of entrepreneurs, and being part of it comes with a sense of purpose. How do you leverage technology in your classroom? I incorporate several technologies in my classes, from data analysis and visualization tools (e.g., Tableau) to IoT prototyping platforms (e.g., Arduino). I find it essential that my students experiment with technologies and gain confidence using them. At the same time, I avoid making technology the sole object of my courses, as managing technology is as much of a human endeavor as it is a technical one. What can you do in the classroom to best prepare students for the real world? I limit lectures in favor of the study of cases and experiential projects. I find students are better prepared for their careers when they have the opportunity to analyze realistic business scenarios and work on consulting engagements with clients. Can you speak to interesting trends in your field? It is an exciting time to study digital technology. Self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and robotics will become part of our everyday lives in the next decade. Those advances will not only change the way businesses create and deliver value to people but will also have a transformative impact on humankind and our relationship with the natural environment. These technologies will offer opportunities for building more egalitarian and sustainable societies, at the same time that they will accentuate some of the ethical challenges (e.g., algorithmic bias, privacy, data and algorithmic governance, electricity consumption) that legislators, researchers, and technologists seek to address. What role, if any, does ethics play in your curriculum, and how has that evolved over time? Over the years, ethics has become a prominent topic in my classes. When I started teaching information technology more than a decade ago, ethics of technology was discussed a side note on a topic covering information security and privacy. These days, it is not possible to separate technology from the business ecosystems and societies in which it lives. Over time, I learned to design courses incorporating ethical frameworks to support business decision-making and analyze the social and environmental consequences of those decisions. Also, as my courses have become more experiential and students build technology prototypes and design businesses, I expect them to demonstrate ethical sensibility and incorporate ethical analyses into their business models. How can business leaders make better decisions? In my research, I explore how digital companies and incumbent organizations innovate with digital technologies. I have identified some principles that business leaders should follow to make better decisions in the age of digitalization:
No matter what business you are in, seek to design experiences that deliver value to every stakeholder. Thank you Professor Mancha for sharing your time and insights with our readers! You can find Professor Rubén Mancha on LinkedIn and Twitter: @RubenMMancha |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
11 Apr 2018, 13:00
| FROM Stacy Blackman Consulting Blog: Have You Drafted Your MBA Application Timeline? |
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If you’re planning to apply to business school in the fall, now is the time to come up with a game plan for completing the admissions components within a schedule that doesn’t necessitate sleepless nights and a jumbo bottle of Maalox. The best way to do this is to put together your MBA application timeline months before your target deadlines. Timing and planning are both key to reducing the stress of the MBA application process, and applicants should channel their energy and enthusiasm into planning through their MBA steps. This way, candidates can commit enough time to put their ”˜best foot forward’ when it comes to completing all of the application requirements. By identifying your desired program’s start date and planning backward through the necessary steps required to meet all admissions components, you’ll build a critical path that makes the process manageable and allows you to shine in every aspect. Here are some time management suggestions for the MBA application process:
We typically recommend that candidates allocate two to three hours each time they sit down to work on their essays, particularly for the first few drafts. Conversely, most applicants should also avoid the “marathon session.” Few people are still sharp or creative eight hours into a writing and editing session. If you need to make up for lost time, try breaking it up with a session in the morning and another in the evening. The amount of time MBA aspirants will spend on their applications will vary, depending on writing abilities and general work efficiency. That said, plan to spend between 40 and 60 hours preparing four to eight applications. Non-native English speakers will also likely need to allot more time on their applications, particularly on writing, revising, editing, proofing, formatting, and inputting essays. Remember that all parts of your application must be submitted by the application deadline, including the recommendation letters. Since it is more difficult to control the timeline of a third party, give your recommenders plenty of lead time. Build in a buffer for yourself by providing them with a deadline well in advance of the actual application deadline. At a minimum, request the letter four weeks prior to the application deadline. The b-school application process is stressful, but careful planning will make the experience manageable and help you channel your energies into continually improving your candidacy until the moment you submit your applications. |
Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers from every M7 program and the elite European MBA programs. If you are looking for guidance on your MBA application, we can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Interested in a free 15-minute consultation with the Stacy Blackman Team? Contact us to learn more.
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