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10 Jun 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Faculty Mentoring and Development at HBS |
 Inside a Harvard Business School classroom; Image via wikipedia.org Harvard Business School (HBS) is well known for using the case method, through which virtually all the school’s classes are taught. Rather than resting on their laurels with regard to teaching the case method, however, HBS faculty members work hard to stay at the top of their game. Complementing the school’s tradition of faculty-to-faculty mentoring, HBS established the C. Roland Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning (named for the late HBS professor) in 2004 to promote and support teaching excellence and innovation. The center conducts research on pedagogical innovation and teaching effectiveness related to gender and diversity issues and helps faculty members refine their teaching styles and techniques. The center also offers professors classroom observations and the opportunity to do pre-class planning, receive within-term troubleshooting/post-term feedback, and conduct case and course development. For more information on HBS or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Friday Factoid: Faculty Mentoring and Development at HBS appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
10 Jun 2016, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: May 2016 Social Currency Rankings |
Rankings come in all shapes and sizes, but can any ranking truly capture social cachet? For a different perspective on the value of an MBA, we turn to the New York Times society pages, where the editors select and profile promising couples. Each month, we dedicate one B-School Chart of the Week to tallying how alumni from top-ranked business schools are advancing their social currency ranking. The prime wedding season is beginning to pick up steam, and business school graduates are certainly taking part in the flood of nuptials! In May, the New York Times (NYT) profiled 25 weddings involving one or two MBAs. Graduates of Columbia Business School’sMBA program were especially eager to walk down the aisle, with seven such weddings profiled in the NYT. Two brides—Komal Patel and Jessica Levine—just graduated from the school in May, while bride Melissa Danilow completed her first year in the school’s MBA program last month. Business school served as a matchmaker for one couple, Wesley Royce and Patrick Conlisk, who met at the Yale School of Management while both were pursuing their MBAs. We offer our congratulations to all, and we eagerly wait to see how many MBA weddings June brings! The post B-School Chart of the Week: May 2016 Social Currency Rankings appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
11 Jun 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: They Will Not Notice My Weakness! |
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Our clients frequently ask, “If I write the optional essay about my [low GMAT score, low GPA, bad semester in college, long stretch of unemployment, etc.], will it call attention to that weakness and overemphasize it?” In short, no. Writing the optional essay about a weakness will instead allow you to control the narrative and thereby better mitigate any negative effects of that weakness. The admissions committee very likely will take note of a low GMAT score or a low GPA, and if you do not use the optional essay to address the issue, they will be left with unanswered questions about that weakness. Rather than putting the committee in the position of having to guess at an explanation, take control of the situation yourself and grab the opportunity to explain the details behind the weakness. For example, let us say you have a weak GPA overall because you worked full time in your first two years of college, but your GPA from your last two years is much stronger. Not writing the optional essay means that you are hoping the admissions committee will take the time to search through your transcript, note the change in the GPA, and then examine your job history to learn that you worked full time during your first two years—then make the connection between your two years of full-time work and your subsequently lower grades during those years. On the other hand, if you use the optional essay to explain exactly what happened, you no longer have to simply hope that they will put in that extra effort and will know for sure that they are evaluating you using complete information. Likewise, they will not have to guess at the reason behind your low GPA, because you will have proactively filled in the story. The bottom line is that the admissions committee is made up of professionals whose obligation is to examine all aspects of your profile. They are not punitive, but they are also not careless and will certainly note any weaknesses like those mentioned here. At the same time, they are only human and are dealing with thousands of applications. Any way that you can save them time and effort by guiding them through the story of your application can only work to your advantage. The post MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: They Will Not Notice My Weakness! appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
12 Jun 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: Getting the 80/80 |
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. What is the “80/80”? All schools look at your overall three-digit GMAT score (the one given on the 200–800 scale). In addition, a few of the very top business schools, such as Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton, look for the 80/80: an 80th percentile score or higher on the individual quant and verbal subsections. Essentially, if someone hits a 700 but does so by scoring 99th percentile in one subsection and only 60-something in the other, the schools might be concerned about the lower-scoring area. From their point of view, an “80/80” minimum ensures that you have got a solid base in both quant and verbal. What if I score in the 75th percentile? The 80/80 guidelines are just that—guidelines. The schools do not use these parameters as a hard cutoff. In other words, a score in the 70s is generally fine, as long as the overall score is also within a school’s desired target range. If, on the other hand, the overall score is a bit low, the GPA is a bit low, and one or both of the GMAT subscores are low… Well, you still might get in, but your job just became a lot harder. What if I score in the 60s? Unless there is something else that is stellar in your profile and can therefore offset this lower score, the 80/80 schools will likely be concerned about a quant or verbal percentile in the 60s—particularly so for quant. For verbal, they have a whole host of other tools with which to assess your communication skills, starting with your essays. A 60s (or lower) quant score, though, could indicate that you will have trouble handling the quantitative portions of the MBA curriculum. You might be able to offset this concern if you can demonstrate that your current job involves significant quantitative components; make sure that your recommendations highlight your quant skills. Alternatively, perhaps you excelled in quant-focused classes in school (calculus, accounting, physics, statistics) and your transcripts show A grades. If not, then something needs to be done. Two paths are possible here, and you can follow just one or both. First, the no-brainer: take the GMAT again and get a score in the 70s (or higher!). I call that a “no-brainer” in the sense that there is no question that you should try to do this. You might not succeed, though. An alternative, then, is to take a calculus or accounting class at a local university. If you do this, you must get an A; getting a B at this stage will not inspire confidence in the admissions staff. In addition, taking such a class will involve a decent amount of lead time; these classes often run over a period of two to four months, so this is not a last-minute solution. The big picture? Ideally, get the GMAT done well in advance of admissions season so that you have ample time to address unexpected or unwelcome surprises during the process. The post GMAT Impact: Getting the 80/80 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
12 Jun 2016, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MirSkin Founder Dr. Tabasum Mir Shares Her Journey from Medicine to Skin Care |
 Dr. Tabasum Mir, Founder of MirSkin Today, many aspiring MBAs and MBA graduates want to join start-ups or launch such companies themselves. Is entrepreneurship as exciting as it seems? Is it really for you? mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald has teamed up with Venture for America and CBS Interactive to launch Smart People Should Build Things: The Venture for America Podcast. Each week, Shinewald interviews another entrepreneur so you can hear the gritty stories of their ups and downs on the road to success. Dr. Tabasum Mir founded her skin care line, MirSkin, after practicing medicine for more than a decade. Mir is the first doctor to appear on our podcast series, in addition to being the first child prodigy profiled. Indeed, Mir enrolled in high school at the young age of 12 and has been a success story ever since. Download this episode to hear Mir discuss the following career highlights and more:
Subscribe to the podcast series to stay on top of the latest entrepreneurial stories! The post MirSkin Founder Dr. Tabasum Mir Shares Her Journey from Medicine to Skin Care appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
13 Jun 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Aim for a Descriptive Writing Style |
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Many writers tend to confuse adjectives and adverbs with details. When adjectives and adverbs are used to emphasize an emotion or an emotional state, they can actually end up adding very little to the description of an experience and possibly even undermine it. However, when that emotion or emotional state is described properly, it can add real life to a story. Consider the following example: “With my award in hand, I felt extremely proud of my accomplishment.” In this example, the word “extremely” does not help create or enhance the reader’s mental picture; it merely states the obvious. After all, the difference between being “extremely proud” and being “proud” is negligible, considering that pride is naturally an “extreme” emotion. This just does not effectively convey how the writer actually felt. Now consider this second example: “Approaching the podium to receive my award, I felt faint. Even though my hands were shaking, I managed to give our company president a firm handshake when she passed me the award. As I began speaking to a crowd of my colleagues, I finally understood what being proud of myself really means.” In this second example, the details of the story (“felt faint,” “my hands were shaking”) create an image in the reader’s mind. The reader is not relating to the simple adjectives that reinforce existing impressions, but experiencing details that bring color to the story. In the first example, the story does not change if the word “extremely” is removed, but in the second, real emotion is conveyed. We encourage you to avoid adjectives that simply reinforce an expressed emotion and to write descriptively to capture the true spirit of the experience you are sharing. The post Monday Morning Essay Tip: Aim for a Descriptive Writing Style appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
13 Jun 2016, 14:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mastering Your MBA Finances – The Often-Ignored Opportunity Cost (Part 4) |
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Once you have been accepted to your target MBA program, things start to move very quickly, and you will need to begin planning for your transition to business school right away. Understanding the financial realities of your MBA education is an important first step, and we have created this comprehensive, five-part “Mastering Your MBA Finances” series to help you do so. In this fourth installment of the series, we examine the opportunity cost of an MBA—a very real, but often overlooked expense. (Be sure to read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series if you have not done so already.) For individualized advice, sign up for a free, 30-minute budget planning session with an M7 Financial budgeting coach. In the previous installment of this series, we examined a student budget provided by a top MBA program and revealed the ways in which it was too conservative for most students. We therefore annualized our budget and adjusted it upward by approximately 10% (holding tuition constant), yet we believe that some of our new assumptions may still be too modest for certain individuals. The following table shows our new budget estimates for a number of leading MBA programs in both large cities and college towns, given that the cost of living differs between the two locales.  Note: Figures are calculated based on the original budget estimates provided by the individual schools; only living expenses were increased by 10% (not tuition). Of course, another big cost we have not yet addressed is your 18 months of lost salary. Using data from Forbes’ September 2015 ranking of “The Best Business Schools,” we have converted the average pre-MBA salary for incoming students at these top programs into 18-month figures (not taking into account possible raises forgone). You will see in the following table that the average opportunity cost is significant, at approximately $110,250 over the course of one’s MBA program.  We will now take our 18-month adjusted sample student budget, factor in the average lost wages figure, and calculate the total real cost of earning an MBA at a few, selected top programs. You should do this calculation in your personal budget using your own pre-MBA salary data to get a more accurate picture of the expenses you will face.  As an average MBA student at a top program, you should expect a total cost of approximately $312,500 for the entirety of your MBA educational experience, when you consider both opportunity costs and direct costs. In the next installment of this series, we will create our final sample student budget, but we will not factor in the opportunity cost loss, because this component must be balanced by an increased salary over time, and we cannot predict or calculate where those increases might end. Theoretically, the benefits continue throughout your career, which may be part of why you have chosen to pursue an MBA—because you expect lifetime gains. Still, in the short term, if you plan to attend a full-time MBA program, keeping that opportunity cost in mind is financially prudent. Check back for our final installment, when we bring revenue and expenses together to round out our sample MBA student budget. And if you are looking for even more strategies for funding your degree and minimizing your debt burden, download the free M7 Financial Student Loan (Reduction) Primer or sign up for a free, 30-minute, one-on-one budget planning session! The post Mastering Your MBA Finances – The Often-Ignored Opportunity Cost (Part 4) appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
14 Jun 2016, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Again |
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. When candidates ask us whether they should take the GMAT again, our instinct is always to reply with this key question: “Do you think you can do better?” If the individual does indeed believe that he/she can improve, the next question we get is inevitably, “What do business schools think of multiple scores?” Fortunately, most MBA admissions committees do not frown on candidates taking the GMAT more than once. Many applicants feel that they have to be “perfect” the first time and that any subsequent test they take—particularly if they receive a lower score—might be damaging to their candidacy. This is not the case. In fact, Dartmouth Tuck, for one, anticipates that applicants will take the exam more than once and openly states its willingness to “consider your highest quantitative and highest verbal scores,” if they occur on separate tests. Meanwhile, other programs have been known to call candidates and tell them that if they can increase their GMAT scores, they will be offered admission. From an admissions perspective, accepting a candidate’s highest GMAT scores is in an MBA program’s best interest, because doing so will raise the school’s GMAT average, which is then reported to rankings bodies (Bloomberg Businessweek, U.S. News & World Report, etc.) and could positively influence the school’s position in these surveys. So, do not be afraid to take the test two or even three times. It can only help. The post Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Again appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
14 Jun 2016, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: Which School’s Class of 2015 Received the Highest Average Starting Salaries? |
Although quantifying a school’s profile certainly does not tell you everything, it can sometimes simplify the many differences among the various MBA programs. This week, we bring you a chart to help you decide which of the schools’ strengths speak to you. The graduates of top-ranked MBA programs typically receive hefty starting salaries. But which schools’ graduates captured the highest average starting pay? The numbers were largely similar among the 15 top-ranked business schools we surveyed, but the Class of 2015 at Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Stanford Graduate School of Business earned a slightly higher average salary than their peers: $130,000. At many programs, $125,000 appeared to be the magic number; such schools as the Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business reported this figure as the average MBA starting salary for their 2015 graduates. The post B-School Chart of the Week: Which School’s Class of 2015 Received the Highest Average Starting Salaries? appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
15 Jun 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: George Geis, UCLA Anderson School of Management |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose an MBA program. However, the educational experience you will have is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile George Geis from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. George Geis has been voted Outstanding Teacher of the Year five times while at UCLA Anderson, most recently in 2012, and currently serves as faculty director of the school’s Executive Mergers and Acquisitions Program. Geis is also the editor of a Web site that provides analysis of mergers and acquisitions deals in technology, media, and communications (www.trivergence.com), and he writes a mergers and acquisitions blog (https://maprofessor.blogspot.com). One alumnus described Geis to mbaMission as an experienced investor and a funny and credible guy. The graduate added that he had very much enjoyed the guest speakers Geis brought to class, as well as the strategic analysis of the board game industry, covered in a case discussion about the game Trivial Pursuit. For more information about the UCLA Anderson School of Management and 15 other top-ranked MBA schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Professor Profiles: George Geis, UCLA Anderson School of Management appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
16 Jun 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Life As an International Student at Fuqua |
When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment but are also committing to becoming part of a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school. International students (by citizenship) make up 40% of the typical class at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Daytime MBA program, according to the school’s Web site. The Duke International Programs Office and the Duke International House offer many resources to assist international students with issues associated with acclimating to, studying in, and working in the United States, including visa applications and processing. In addition, the International Student Bootcamp (formerly the Language Institute) at Fuqua is designed to prepare incoming international students for the MBA experience at the school. One first year mbaMission interviewed whose time at Fuqua was his first experience in the United States of longer than two weeks said, “We all bonded during the [bootcamp] and met many classmates who knew what we were all going through.” According to the bootcamp’s site, as part of the four-phase program, which is held before the MBA curriculum begins, “Students are given opportunities to refine their skills through rigorous assignments and experiential learning. Students take part in a comprehensive program of lectures, case presentations, writing exercises, and a variety of assignments that get them ready for the rigors of the Duke MBA program. It goes beyond mere preparation; it includes weeks of monitoring students’ progress once they start school, and it offers opportunities for individualized support and learning throughout the two years of the Daytime MBA program.” For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Duke Fuqua and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Beyond the MBA Classroom: Life As an International Student at Fuqua appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
16 Jun 2016, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Immersion Weeks at Penn State Smeal |
MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15. Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business is known for balancing traditional coursework with immersive learning. Smeal’s “7-1-7” modular curriculum structure includes four different immersion experiences sandwiched between seven-week modules over the course of the two-year MBA program. Beginning with a “Career Immersion” week, students participate in various workshops that focus on honing career development skills. The third module focuses on such themes as “Leadership Communications” and “Managerial Accounting.” Smeal’s curriculum also includes a required international experience component during the “Global Immersion” module, which takes place in the spring of the first year. Students travel to such countries as Chile, India, and China to visit international organizations across various industries. The first year culminates in a capstone case competition, in which students work in teams to present business strategies to a panel. The post Diamonds in the Rough: Immersion Weeks at Penn State Smeal appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
17 Jun 2016, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: A Focused Student Experience at Stanford GSB |
 Stanford GSB The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) is well known for its close-knit atmosphere, and the school’s small class size allows it to provide students with a unique program of individualized coaching. First-year students at the GSB are assigned a dedicated Faculty Advisor who helps them create a customized plan for fulfilling their General Management Perspectives and General Management Foundations (core) requirements based on their strengths, weaknesses, experiences, and interests. Each Faculty Advisor also teaches his/her own small seminar, which meets during the autumn quarter of the first year. These required “Critical Analytical Thinking” (CAT) seminars involve up to 18 students who learn to argue their perspectives on various management issues and develop their written and oral communication skills. This small seminar also helps the advisors and students get to know each other better before they collaborate on the students’ customized curriculum plans. The GSB is also unique in that first-year students are assigned writing coaches in the first quarter to help with CAT’s significant writing assignments. Lastly, students are paired with both a career advisor and a student life advisor to help them identify and pursue appropriate leadership opportunities. Needless to write, if you get into the Stanford GSB, you certainly should not worry about falling between the cracks! For more information on the Stanford GSB or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Friday Factoid: A Focused Student Experience at Stanford GSB appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
18 Jun 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Recommender’s Grammar Will Ruin My Chances |
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At mbaMission, we emphasize the need for effective written communication. Indeed, gaining admission to your target school involves no real “trick”—earning that coveted letter of acceptance depends on your ability to tell your story in a compelling way and in your own words. But is good grammar vital to good communication? And if so, will your recommender’s bad grammar be detrimental to your chances? We can assure you that no MBA admissions committee will reject a candidate’s application because he/she incorrectly used a semicolon instead of a comma. The committee is seeking to learn about you as an individual to evaluate you and your potential, both as a student at the school and in the business world after graduation. What is most important in your application is that you convey your unique stories—and ideally captivate your reader—in your own voice. Of course, you should always strive to perfect your presentation, but in the end, the quality and authenticity of your content carry more weight than your verbiage and punctuation. And if you are not a native English speaker, you can certainly be forgiven for the occasional idiosyncrasy in your expression. This is even truer for your recommender. The committee is not evaluating this individual for a spot in the school’s program, so his/her grammar is largely irrelevant to your candidacy. And again, if your recommender is not a native English speaker, the admissions committees can be even more forgiving. The school will not penalize you for having a recommender who grew up in another country or whose English skills are not very polished for any other reason. As long as your recommender can offer anecdotes about your performance that create a strong impression about you and complement the abilities and qualities you have presented elsewhere in your application, you should be just fine. The substance of the recommendation is always what matters most. The post MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Recommender’s Grammar Will Ruin My Chances appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
19 Jun 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: How to Minimize Careless Errors |
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. Remember those times when you were sure you got the answer right, only to find out that you got it wrong? For a moment, you even think that the answer key must have a mistake in it. Then, you take another look at the problem, check your work, and say, “I can’t believe I did that!” By definition, a careless mistake occurs when we did actually know all of the necessary info and we did actually possess all of the necessary skills, but we committed an error anyway. We all make careless mistakes; our goal is to learn how to minimize these mistakes as much as possible. A lot of times, careless errors are due to one of two things: (1) some bad habit that actually increases the chances that we will make a mistake or (2) our own natural weaknesses. Here is an example of the former: they ask me to find how long Car B takes to go a certain distance, and I do everything perfectly, but I solve for Car A instead. So, what is my bad habit here? Often, I did not write down “Car B = ?” I also noticed that I was more likely to make this mistake when I set up the problem such that I was solving for Car A first; sometimes, I would forget to finish the problem and just pick Car A’s time. So I developed several different good habits to put in the place of my various bad habits. First, I set up a reminder for myself: I skipped several blank lines on my scrap paper and then wrote “B time = ______?” I also built the habit of solving directly for what I wanted. Now, while I am setting up the problem, I always look first to see whether I can set it up to solve directly for Car B, not Car A. So, what did I do here? First, I figured out what specific mistake I was making and why I was making it. Then, I instituted three new habits that would minimize my chances of making the same mistake in the future. Incidentally, one of those habits (solving directly for what is asked) also saves me time! Happy studying, and go start figuring out how to minimize those careless mistakes! The post GMAT Impact: How to Minimize Careless Errors appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
20 Jun 2016, 07:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: New York University (Stern) Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 |
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We have to assume that New York University’s (NYU’s) Stern School of Business was pleased with the essays that last season’s applicants submitted, because the school has made no changes to its essay prompts this year. Stern requests that candidates answer a few key questions (within a 750-word limit) about their interest in and knowledge of the school, their reasons for wanting an MBA, and their immediate post-graduation career goals. The school then balances this essay with its very broad “personal expression” prompt, which appeals to applicants’ creative side and offers a largely blank slate with respect to the medium used. Successful candidates will use these two submissions in a complementary way to convey a well-rounded impression of themselves as individuals, professionals, and potential Stern students. Read on for our suggestions on possible ways to do so. Essay 1: Professional Aspirations (750 words maximum)
And for a thorough exploration of NYU Stern’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, important statistics, social life, academic environment, and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Essay 2: Personal Expression (500 words maximum if submitted as a written essay) Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g., words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative. [See the NYU Stern site for all guidelines and restrictions for this submission.] In NYU Stern’s famed “personal expression” essay, you have a phenomenal opportunity to differentiate yourself from the rest of the applicant pool in two distinct ways. The first is the vehicle through which you choose to reveal your persona. By using a creative and captivating format, you can grab the admissions committee’s interest and compel your “reader” to pay close attention to your content. However, be sure to consider the possible limitations of certain clever options, not just their uniqueness. For example, although a baseball card may be aesthetically pleasing, this format severely limits the amount of information you can convey because of its size and anticipated style. Instead, if you were to submit a eulogy theoretically written by your best friend—note that you can submit a written piece—the format would be sufficiently broad to allow you to touch on all that is unique about you. (Do not use this idea, however; it is a rather well-known option at this point and would very likely not be seen as very creative.) The second way this essay prompt allows you to differentiate yourself is through your content. Ideally, you will use this opportunity to showcase a diversity of professional, personal, academic, and community accomplishments that you were not able to share in Essay 1. The personal expression piece allows you to reveal your true personality and “likeability” beyond your professional/academic competencies. One important note: Although NYU Stern is open to accepting multimedia presentations and physical items, do not feel compelled to use one of these options if you are not comfortable with them and feel you would be better served submitting a traditional written piece. Similarly, if you do choose one of these alternate methods, do not worry about the level of your Web design, audio/video production skills, or artistic mastery relative to that of others. For this essay, content trumps style. In fact, at an mbaMission event, we interviewed various NYU Stern admissions officers, students, and alumni who spoke of some incredibly simple “personal expression” submissions that had impressed the admissions committee—and many of these were straightforward essays! Essay 3. Additional Information (optional) Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. This may include current or past gaps in employment, further explanation of your undergraduate record or self-reported academic transcript(s), plans to retake the GMAT, GRE, IELTS or TOEFL or any other relevant information. If you are a re-applicant from last year, please explain how your candidacy has improved since your last application. Stern’s optional essay prompt is broader than most in that it does not demand that you discuss only problem areas in your candidacy. That said, in most cases, this is still your opportunity to address any lingering questions that an admissions officer might have about your profile—if you need to—such as a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT or GRE score, a gap in your work experience, etc. We caution you against simply trying to fill this space because you fear that not doing so would somehow count against you. And of course, however tempted you might be, this is not the place to reuse a strong essay you wrote for another school or to offer a few anecdotes you were unable to use in your other submissions. But if you are inclined to use this essay to emphasize or explain something that if omitted would render your application incomplete, write a very brief piece on this key aspect of your profile. For more guidance, see our mbaMission Optional Essays Guide, in which we offer detailed advice on when and how to take advantage of the optional essay, with multiple examples, to help you mitigate any problem areas in your application. The post New York University (Stern) Essay Analysis, 2016–2017 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
20 Jun 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Make It Personal |
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Business school candidates often fixate on using professional and community-based stories in their MBA application essays. As a result, many forget or neglect to even consider personal stories as possible differentiators. Because so many candidates have similar professional experiences, their personal dimensions should be highlighted whenever possible—considering that few lives are truly similar. Stories of commitment to oneself or others can have a strong emotional impact on an admissions committee and can help distinguish you from other applicants. What types of experiences should you discuss? This question has no easy answer. For personal stories to work in your application essays, they need to be truly distinct. An example of a unique personal story might be that of an individual who helped his/her cousin, who was adopted at birth, locate his/her birth mother; another might be one of an individual who took a six-month leave of absence to take his/her disabled grandmother on a tour of her home country. Each of us has interesting anecdotes we can share about ourselves. These are the kinds of stories that can be showcased in your essays with a little bit of thought and creativity. The post Monday Morning Essay Tip: Make It Personal appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
21 Jun 2016, 07:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Are You Employable? |
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. We believe that asking MBA candidates about their goals is plainly absurd, because so many students change their goals while they are in business school. Further, the pursuit of an MBA is supposed to be about career development and exploration, right? Regardless of how we feel regarding the subject, though, you must ensure that if a school asks about your goals in its essay questions or an interview, you have a compelling story about where you believe your MBA will take you. Several years ago, getting a banking job may have sounded compelling to you—are you really capable of making that transition today? Certainly, fewer jobs are available now in the real estate world—is this a likely next step for you during a prolonged real estate drought? Venture capital and private equity jobs are challenging to land even during the best of times—are you able to compete with the elite during a downturn? These are just a few examples of questions you should honestly ask yourself. Keep in mind that not only are the admissions committees examining your story to determine what attributes you might bring to the next class, but if you are a borderline case, they may also send your profile to the career services office to help confirm whether your stated goals are realistic and if you will be difficult to place by or after graduation (i.e., whether you will hinder the school’s employment stats and thereby negatively affect its standing in the rankings). So, pay special attention to your goal statements and make sure that you can credibly stand behind them—and, as we have written in the past, even consider being prepared to discuss some alternate goals. The post Mission Admission: Are You Employable? appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
21 Jun 2016, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mastering Your MBA Finances – Assembling Your Student Budget (Part 5) |
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Once you have been accepted to your target MBA program, things start to move very quickly, and you will need to begin planning for your transition to business school right away. Understanding the financial realities of your MBA education is an important first step, and we have created this comprehensive, five-part “Mastering Your MBA Finances” series to help you do so. In this fifth and final installment of the series, we bring the revenue and expense pieces together to round out our sample MBA student budget. (Be sure to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series if you have not done so already.) For individualized advice, sign up for a free, 30-minute budget planning session with an M7 Financial budgeting coach. In the earlier parts of this newsletter series, we discussed the income MBA students can generally expect to receive via their summer internship salary and signing bonus. We determined that an MBA candidate could anticipate approximately $43,000 in income during business school and that other potential income streams may also be available, which would need to be incorporated into one’s projected budget.  Next, we broke down various expected costs and adjusted the individual programs’ budgets to come up with an average tuition and living expenses figure. The following table presents ballpark estimates for the expenses you can generally expect at a top MBA program over the course of 21 months.  Putting this all together—though without including opportunity costs—we find that an MBA student who is not sponsored and cannot count on receiving scholarship funds could need to finance approximately $160,000 in education expenses over a 21-month period. This reinforces how helpful a scholarship can be in mitigating an average MBA student’s expenses. To be fair, we must note that the average student is not this indebted, because many are sponsored by their firm or receive scholarship funds, and some have access to personal or family resources to finance their educations in part or in full. In short, we are again being conservative in our sample budget by assuming no other sources of funding.  The somewhat good news here is that borrowing is not terribly expensive right now, because interest rates are relatively low. For example, the interest rate on the Federal Direct Stafford Loan (for which the annual borrowing limit is typically $20,500) is currently 5.84% with a 1.068% origination fee, and the interest rate on the Federal Direct PLUS Loan is 6.84% with a 4.272% origination fee. Furthermore, many MBA students at top schools have found that they can access even lower interest rates with absolutely no origination fees through the private student loan market. The interest rate you receive in the private student loan market will depend on the strength of your loan application in a process similar to that of obtaining a car loan or mortgage. The stronger your application, the more likely you are to receive a loan at a significantly lower borrowing cost than those offered by the federal loans available. Your FICO score plays a big role in this process. To increase your likelihood of receiving the lowest possible interest rate, you could apply for a private student loan with a cosigner, such as a spouse, parent, or sibling. Although this is not required, we have seen that having a cosigner often makes a big difference—it enhances one’s chance of being approved for a loan as well as one’s eligibility for the best interest rates. You now have the tools to construct a projected MBA student budget of your own, using your income and expenses and tailored to your target school(s). The prospect of tackling your MBA-related finances may be a little daunting, but for the vast majority of candidates, a real opportunity is waiting. These days, the average starting post-MBA salary is roughly $125,000, which should make earning your MBA a financially prudent choice. For even more strategies for paying for your degree and minimizing your debt burden, download the free M7 Financial Student Loan (Reduction) Primer or sign up for a free, 30-minute, one-on-one budget planning session! And for more information on private student loans, including current interest rates for a number of options, check out M7 Financial’s Web site at www.m7financial.com. The post Mastering Your MBA Finances – Assembling Your Student Budget (Part 5) appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
22 Jun 2016, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Robert Pindyck, MIT Sloan School of Management |
 Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school. However, the educational experience you will have is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Robert Pindyck from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Robert Pindyck has won multiple teaching awards going back more than 20 years, including an MIT Sloan Outstanding Teaching Award in both 1995 and 2005, the MIT Sloan Excellence in Teaching Award in 2002, and the school’s Teacher of the Year Award in 2007. Students and alumni with whom we spoke made note of his intense passion, which inspires his students to involve themselves ever more deeply into the material they are studying. An alumnus described Pindyck’s “tremendous authority,” which the professor balanced with “immense accessibility,” and a second-year teaching assistant in Pindyck’s “Industrial Economics [for Strategic Decisions]” course noted in a 2012 MIT Sloan Students Speak blog post that working with him was “a great learning experience.” For more information about the MIT Sloan School of Management and 15 other top-ranked MBA schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Professor Profiles: Robert Pindyck, MIT Sloan School of Management appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 11:30am NY / 3:30pm London / 9pm Mumbai Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
 GMAT Club REWARDS
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