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18 May 2017, 14:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: mbaMission Is Pleased to Offer In-Person Free Consultations in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Mexico City |
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Are you a business school applicant residing near Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or Mexico City, Mexico? Could you use some advice from an admissions advisor? If so, then we want to meet you for an in-person free consultation! From May 26–28, mbaMission Founder and President Jeremy Shinewald will be visiting Mexico City to deliver an exclusive presentation at a leading consulting firm, followed by a full weekend of in-person, one-on-one free consultations. And from May 25–28, Senior Consultant Katharine Lewis will be on the ground in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to present to analysts at a leading consulting firm. She, too, will follow her presentation with in-person consultations with business school hopefuls. To sign up for an in-person free consultation in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, or Mexico City, please fill out the form located on our Free Consultation submission page at www.mbamission.com/consult. We will reply to you within one business day with a link to schedule your appointment! Katharine and Jeremy look forward to getting to know some of this season’s best and brightest international business school applicants! |
19 May 2017, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Enjoy the Intimate Class Size at Mays Business School’s Full-Time MBA Program |
Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School offers a full-time, 49-credit MBA curriculum that can be completed in just 16 months (over an 18-month period of August to December) or customized for an extended period of time. Although the core curriculum is very rigid, with foundational management courses spanning the entirety of the program, Mays also offers the option of pursuing certificates and career specializations beyond the 16-month core. What really stands out about the Mays program, however, is its dedication to maintaining a strong sense of community. The school’s relatively small class size—the 2016 incoming class, for example, featured 74 students—facilitates an intimate classroom setting and personalized attention from faculty and staff. |
19 May 2017, 12:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Study Health Enterprise Management at Northwestern Kellogg |
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An often unsung program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management is the school’s Health Enterprise Management program, and a “star” within this program is the Global Health Initiative (GHI)—co-founded by former Kellogg professor (now the university’s provost) Daniel Diermeier, with several students in leadership and advisory roles—in which academics, students, corporations, and nonprofits create products that solve medical problems around the world. As evidence of the program’s profile, in 2006, the GHI received a $4.9M grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop diagnostic devices capable of identifying the HIV virus. Another impressive experiential offering is the multidisciplinary “NUVention: Medical Innovation” lab class, which brings together industry leaders, top faculty members, and students from several of Northwestern’s graduate schools (Law, Engineering, Medicine, and Business). In this two-term course, students experience the “entire innovation and entrepreneurial life cycle” from a variety of perspectives: scientific, legal, and entrepreneurial/managerial. Students even shadow surgeons and observe clinicians to facilitate their own brainstorming sessions for an innovative product—an actual product is created and presented to potential investors. Clearly, Kellogg provides students interested in health care with an opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty (and then sanitize them after, of course). |
19 May 2017, 12:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2017–2018 |
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Last year (after just one season), Harvard Business School (HBS) did away with its incredibly broad “introduce yourself” essay prompt in favor of one that at first glance seemed to have almost no parameters at all—and, interestingly, was more or less the same as the one from 2013–2014, when Dee Leopold was running the show. Now with a full year under his belt as HBS’s director of admissions, Chad Losee must feel that the essay question was effective in eliciting the kind of information the admissions committee finds valuable in evaluating the program’s potential students, because it remains exactly the same this year. Our analysis of the prompt and advice on the best way to approach it therefore also remain constant… “As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?” (no word limit) Take special note of the word “more” in this straightforward question. With it, the admissions committee is subtly acknowledging that it already has a lot of information about you that it can and will use to get to know you better, including your resume, extracurricular activities, recommendations, short-answer question responses, academic transcripts, and GMAT/GRE score. You should therefore think first about what these portions of your application convey about who you are as an individual and candidate, so you can determine which parts of your profile still need presenting or could benefit from more detail. Now, some applicants may fret that this means they absolutely cannot touch on anything mentioned elsewhere in their application, for fear that the admissions committee will become annoyed and reject them. However, HBS is not asking only for fresh information—it is asking for more, and specifically, whatever “more” you believe the committee needs to evaluate you thoroughly and fairly. So, even though a bullet on your resume may inform the school of a certain fact, if a profoundly important story lurks behind that fact that you feel effectively expresses a key part of your personality or skill set, you should not feel hesitant to share that story. That said, we are not advocating for you to explore your resume in depth, just trying to convey that “more” here does not mean strictly “thus far unmentioned.” Before we discuss a few approaches you might take in framing this essay, we must note that your goal in writing it is sincerity. The admissions committee is not staffed by robots, seeking to detect a certain “type” of applicant. These are human beings who are trying to get to know you and really want to end up liking you! With this essay, you essentially want to forge a meaningful connection with a complete stranger, and if you try to present yourself as something or someone you are not, you will fail. You, like many other applicants, may worry that your sincere stories will sound clichéd. For example, if you want to write about making a difference, you may wince simply thinking those words: “making a difference.” But the power of your story does not lie in the theme you choose (if you choose to write thematically, that is), but in the manner in which you reveal your actions. If you have truly made a significant difference in the lives of others and can own that angle by offering powerful anecdotes and demonstrating a deep emotional connection to others and profound purpose in your acts, you can write on this topic. Although more than a few candidates will undoubtedly submit clichéd pieces on making a difference, if you can capture your admissions reader’s attention fully and make a strong enough impression, the cliché aspect will disappear, and he or she will be impressed by your actions and character. So, what approach might you take to this essay? The prompt is so open-ended that we cannot possibly capture all possible options, but here are a few:
Finally, let us talk about word limits! HBS has not stipulated any particular parameters, but keep in mind that with each word, you are making a claim on someone else’s time—so you better make sure that what you have written is worth that additional time and effort. We expect that most of our clients will use between 750 and 1,000 words, with some using as few as 600 and a small minority using as many as 1,250. We have difficulty imagining a scenario in which an applicant would truly need more than 1,250, but we certainly know of candidates who were accepted with essays that exceeded that high target. In short, take the space you need to tell your story properly and showcase your personality and experience, and then work to reduce your essay to its lowest possible word count, without sacrificing any impact or effectiveness. Have the Last Word: The Post-Interview Reflection (conditional on being interviewed) From the admissions committee: “Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process.” For the fourth consecutive year, HBS ask candidates who are granted an interview to complete one more written task. Within 24 hours of interviewing, you must submit some final words of reflection, addressing the question “How well did we get to know you?” As with the application essay, this post-interview reflection is open-ended; you can structure it however you wish and write about whatever you want to tell the committee. HBS urges interviewed applicants not to approach this reflection as a formal essay but instead “as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor after a meeting.” Some candidates may find this additional submission intimidating, but we encourage you to view it as an opportunity to reveal new aspects of your profile to the admissions committee. Because your HBS interviewer will have read your entire application before your meeting, you will likely discuss information from your resume, essays, recommendations, etc., during your interview. This post-interview reflection, then, could provide an opening for you to integrate new and different elements of your profile, thereby adding depth to your candidacy. For example, if you could not find a way to include the story of a key life experience of yours into your essays, but your interviewer touches on a similar story or something connected with this experience in your meeting, you would now have license to share that anecdote. As soon as your interview is over, jot down all the topics covered and stories you discussed. If you interview on campus, note also any observations about your time there. For example, sitting in on a class might have reminded you of a compelling past experience, or participating in the case method may have provided insight into an approach you could use in some way in the future. Maybe the people you met or a building you saw made a meaningful impression on you. Whatever these elements are, tie them to aspects of your background and profile while adding some new thoughts and information about yourself. This last part is key—simply describing your visit will not teach the admissions committee anything about you, and a flat statement like “I loved the case method” will not make you stand out. Similarly, offering a summary of everything the admissions committee already knows about you will not advance your candidacy and would constitute a lost opportunity to keep the committee learning about who you are. HBS offers some additional advice on the post-interview reflection that we strongly urge you to take seriously and follow:
For a thorough exploration of HBS’s academic offerings, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, community/environment, and other key facets of the program, please download your free copy of the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School. The Next Step—Mastering Your HBS Interview: Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. Download your complimentary copy of the Harvard Business School Interview Primer today, and be sure to also check out our tailored HBS Mock Interview and Post-Interview Reflection Support. |
20 May 2017, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Inside mbaMission and Manhattan Prep’s Exclusive Online Q&A with Yale SOM and Columbia Business School Admissions Directors |
Last week, we at mbaMission joined forces with our friends at Manhattan Prep to host an online Q&A session with Bruce DelMonico, the assistant dean for admissions at the Yale School of Management (SOM), and Amanda Carlson, the assistant dean of admissions at Columbia Business School. At this exclusive event, DelMonico and Carlson shared their thoughts on the latest admissions season and discussed what they expect from the upcoming season. Here are some highlights from an evening filled with fascinating insight:
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21 May 2017, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Ace the GMAT Essay? No, Thanks! |
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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. Your business school application essays are critically important. Your GMAT essay? Not so much. We do, though, have to write the essays first thing, before we get to the more important Quant and Verbal sections (or even the Integrated Reasoning section), so we do not want to use up too much brainpower on the essay. Still, we cannot just bomb this section; the schools do care about the essay somewhat. So how do we do a good enough job without expending so much energy that we are negatively affected during the multiple-choice portion of the test? We need to develop a template, an organizational framework on which to “hang” our writing. The template will not, of course, tell us exactly what to write. For that, we need the actual essay prompt, which we will not see until we take the test. We can, however, determine how to organize the information ahead of time, as well as the general kinds of messages we need to convey at various points throughout. The template will vary a little bit from person to person; the important thing is to have a consistent template for yourself that you have worked out in advance of the official test. Brainstorming First, read the essay prompt. It will look/feel just like the critical reasoning arguments we see on the Verbal portion of the test, so analyze it in the same way! Take about three to four minutes to brainstorm, then pick your two or three best flaws; these will form the basis of your essay. First Paragraph
Each flaw gets its own paragraph, so you will write either two or three body paragraphs of four to six sentences each. (I personally pick my two best flaws, so I write two body paragraphs. Remember, we just need to be “good enough!”)
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22 May 2017, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Making the Most of Your MBA Summer Internship |
In this new blog series, our mbaMissionCareer Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, click here. With business school classes and exams ending and summer rapidly approaching, it is important to think strategically about your internship. (Note: For those first-year MBA students who are still actively engaged in the internship search, there is still time left! We are happy to help; please contact us for a complimentary consultation.) As you prepare for your internship, we recommend that you do the following:
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22 May 2017, 11:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Yale School of Management Essay Analysis, 2017–2018 |
 The Yale School of Management (SOM) is staying the course this year with its single application essay, joining both Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School in using the same essay queries as last season. The school has made no modifications to its one prompt, whose 500-word limit does not offer a lot of room to make an impression on the admissions committee. Having commented last year in a Yale SOM blog post that the “seemingly simple and straightforward question” was composed with assistance from one of the school’s organizational behavior professors, Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions Bruce DelMonico added in a more recent post that the admissions committee “is interested not just in the commitment itself but also in how you [applicants] approach the commitment and the behaviors that support it.” Clearly, the Yale SOM has invested some truly purposeful effort into constructing a query that will reveal something specific from and about the individuals targeting its MBA program. In our analysis, we explore how you can maximize your opportunity to shine with this forthright prompt… Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500 words maximum) You may initially think that this prompt is rather narrow in scope, allowing you space to share the story of just a single professional or community project and nothing more. Although you can certainly discuss your dedication to a particular project or cause, you are definitely not restricted to this approach. Consider this: you can also be committed to an idea (e.g., personal liberty) or a value (e.g., creating opportunity for others), and approaching your essay from this angle instead could enable you to share much more of and about yourself with the SOM admissions committee. For example, you might relate a few anecdotes that on the surface seem unrelated—drawing from different parts of your life—but that all support and illustrate how you are guided by a particular value. Or, to return to the example of personal liberty as a theme, you could show how you take control of your academic and professional paths, adhering steadfastly to your values and vision. Whatever you choose to feature as the focus of your commitment, your actions and decisions, manifest via a variety of experiences, must allow you to own it as a genuine part of who you are as an individual. Identifying a theme that you think no one else will ever use is not your goal here; presenting authentic anecdotes that powerfully support your selected theme is what is important. However, if you prefer to focus on a single anecdote, the commitment you claim must be truly inordinate. Being particularly proud of an accomplishment is not enough to make it an effective topic for this essay. You need to demonstrate your constancy and dedication in the face of challenges or resistance, revealing that your connection to the experience was hard won. Strive to show that you have been resolute in following a sometimes difficult path and have doggedly stayed on course, citing clear examples to illustrate your steadfastness. Nothing commonplace will work here—you must make your reader truly understand your journey and leave him or her more impressed by your effort than the outcome. For a thorough exploration of the Yale SOM academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment, and other key features, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Yale School of Management. The Next Step—Mastering Your Yale SOM Interview: Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. To help you on your way to this high level of preparation, we offer our free Interview Primers. Download your free copy of the Yale SOM Interview Primer today. |
23 May 2017, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: At Least I Don’t Have to Rework My Resume |
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Many MBA candidates do not thoroughly consider and revise their resumes for their applications, often dismissing this element because an existing version may already be saved on their computer. We strongly caution you not to underestimate the value of this document—the admissions committees, in fact, review applicants’ resumes carefully, because they serve as a road map of each candidate’s career. In the past, we have highlighted that your resume is not the place to “stuff” all of your life experiences. Somewhere between the two extremes—cramming your resume with information and ignoring it altogether—lies the ideal: a clear, easily scannable, action-/results-oriented resume, one that tells a story that will capture the attention of an admissions officer who has reviewed hundreds of similar files. One of the most common errors that candidates make is leaving their resume in an industry-specific format, filled with jargon and acronyms recognizable only to an expert in their field. Remember, the admissions committee is not hiring you for a task, but is trying to understand your progress, your accomplishments, and even your character. Each bullet point in your resume needs to highlight achievement more than positional expertise. As you prepare your resume to be included in your application, think about your audience and recognize that your resume can be a strategic tool to reinforce certain characteristics that are important to you—characteristics that may complement information provided in other parts of your application. For example, if you aspire to a career that is international in nature, you may place more emphasis on your international experience in your resume. Or, if you come from a field that is not known for its management orientation—you were a teacher who administered a school’s $50,000 student activities budget, for example—you may use your resume to emphasize disciplines that are important to an MBA admissions audience. Some candidates are surprised to realize that one page can communicate so much and thus deserves a significant level of attention, but investing some time in this short but crucial document is definitely worth the effort. |
23 May 2017, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Support Conclusions with Examples in Your MBA Application Essays |
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At mbaMission, we always encourage candidates to show their experiences rather than tell their conclusions to the reader. For example, a candidate may mistakenly choose to tell the reader, “I performed exceptionally well in my job and was promoted.” In this case, the reader is left wondering, “What exactly did he/she do so well to earn that promotion?” The reader needs to understand the whole story for the conclusion to be “proven.” We find that candidates occasionally think they are providing the whole story when they are in fact offering only a single data point: Example 1: “For me, as an avid paraglider, extreme sports are not just a hobby but a way of life.” In this case, the conclusion—that the candidate “lives” for extreme sports—is not substantiated. One data point is not enough to “prove” this conclusion. Example 2: “For me, as an avid paraglider and budding heli-skier, extreme sports are not just a hobby but a way of life.” With the addition of the mention of a second activity, the applicant’s case becomes more compelling. Example 3: “For me, as an avid paraglider, budding heli-skier, and experienced cliff diver, extreme sports are not just a hobby but a way of life.” This series of three examples makes the candidate’s passion for extreme sports undeniable. Of course, we have used a simplified example here and would suggest that a candidate put his/her experience into action and show the passion via experience—“Leaping from a ten-meter cliff, I…”—depending on the context of the essay. |
24 May 2017, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: What to Do If You Are Just Getting Started with the GMAT |
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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. If you are just getting started with the GMAT and are trying to figure out what to do, we have got several big categories of things to discuss: mind-set, devising a study plan, and learning how to study. Mind-Set If you do what most people do and try to prepare for this test in the same way that you prepared for tests in school, you are not going to get the best score that you could get. If you are not sure what is tested on the GMAT or what the different question types look like, take some time to wander around this section of the official GMAT Web site. Next, read this short article: “In It to Win It.” This will help you to start to adjust your mind-set so you can maximize your GMAT score. One important detail: you are only going to get about 60% of the questions right. How can that be? Glad you asked. Read the “Scoring” section of Manhattan Prep’s free e-book The GMAT Uncovered. This section explains just how the scoring on the GMAT works—which will help you better understand why trying to get everything right is a really bad strategy on the GMAT. Okay, we are essentially done with the mind-set category, but I have to say one more thing. I put mind-set first for a reason: if you have the wrong mind-set, it will not matter how much you learn or practice. You still will not get the best score that you are capable of getting. Devising a Study Plan Get started with this article: “Developing a GMAT Study Plan.” Note: make sure to follow the instructions about taking and analyzing a practice test. Next, read this article about time management. As you will have already learned from our discussions of mind-set and scoring, effective time management is crucial to your success on this test. How to Study One key GMAT skill is learning to recognize problems. “Recognize” means that we actually have a little light bulb go off in our brain—“Hey, I’ve seen something like this before, and on that other one, the best solution method was XYZ, so I’m going to try that this time, too!” When you recognize something, you have given yourself two big advantages: you save yourself time, because recognizing is faster than figuring something out from scratch, and you are more likely to get it right because you know what worked—and what did not—the previous time. You will not be able to recognize every problem, but the more you can, the better. Read the “How Do I Learn?” section in the second half of the “Developing a GMAT Study Plan” article. Make sure to follow the links given in that section—those links lead to the tools that will help you learn how to learn from GMAT questions. If you want to take advantage of online forums to chat with teachers and other students (and I strongly recommend that!), learn how to make the best use of the forums. Finally, ask for advice! So many resources are out there that it can be overwhelming, but most companies offer free advice (Manhattan Prep does here!) and you can also benefit from talking to fellow students. |
24 May 2017, 13:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Business School Faculty Members Criticize Rankings in New Research Paper |
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MBA students and hopefuls have long followed the business school rankings of such publications as Bloomberg Businessweek, U.S. News & World Report, and the Financial Times seeking guidance regarding which programs offer the highest quality education. Although we at mbaMission often recommend that applicants take these rankings with a grain of salt and avoid relying on them solely when deciding where to apply, we can understand the temptation to see which programs claim the top spots each year. Business schools’ official opinions on rankings vary, but now some are taking a definite stand against them. In a research paper published in the May edition of the Decision Sciences journal, deans and faculty members of more than 20 schools express doubts over the methodology used by various publications that offer rankings. “If the goal is to help inform [students] about how to make the best decision about business schools, let’s give them the raw information, and not take numbers—which may or may not be relevant to the student—and bungle them together into a ranked list,” Elliot Bendoly, co-author of the research paper and an associate dean at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University commented to the Wall Street Journal. Francesca Levy, one of Bloomberg Businessweek’s editors who oversees business school coverage and rankings disagrees: “Our ranking aims to answer a key question on the mind of many prospective students: Which B-schools are best at getting their graduates good jobs that set them on strong career paths?,” she told the Chicago Tribune. The more than 20 schools that took part in the research paper include the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, and the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. |
25 May 2017, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: I Am a Freelancer—How Do I Portray This Well in My Resume? |
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If you do mostly short-term, project-based work, you might struggle with how to structure your resume so that it does not give the impression that you switch jobs every few months. If you list each job separately, not only will your resume be too long, but you also run the risk that your reader will think you have not had a stable career—when in fact, if you are a successful freelancer or contractor, the opposite is the case. So how can you organize your resume so that it showcases the strength of your work and avoid having the variety and number of your work experiences come across as a weakness instead? The key here is “clustering.” Rather than listing each short-term job separately, cluster them all under one heading, such as “independent contractor” or “freelance project manager.” Next to this heading, note the time range (i.e., start and end dates) during which you have worked for yourself. Then, using bullet points, list the individual projects you completed as a freelancer, noting your primary accomplishments for each one, followed by the related company/organization name and dates. The goal is to keep the focus on your accomplishments. |
25 May 2017, 13:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Kevin Murphy, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business |
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. Today, we focus on Kevin Murphy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2005, Chicago Booth professor Kevin Murphy—who has a joint appointment in the department of economics at the University of Chicago, where he teaches PhD-level courses—became the first business school professor to win the MacArthur Genius Grant, which he received for his groundbreaking economic research. Murphy’s course “Advanced Microeconomic Analysis” is affectionately called “Turbo Micro” because of its enormous workload. One recent graduate told mbaMission that a typical Chicago Booth class is supposed to be complemented by five hours of homework per week but that Murphy’s course demands roughly 20 hours. So why would students clamber to take the class? The alumnus with whom we spoke raved that it was taught at the PhD level and that Murphy is deserving of his “genius” title, pushing students to think about their opinions in profoundly different ways. A first year we interviewed identified Murphy’s course as the most impressive he had taken thus far, saying it offered “a very complicated but logical way to view the world.” For more information about Chicago Booth and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
26 May 2017, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Taking the GMAT More than Once |
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When candidates who have already taken the GMAT exam once ask us whether they should take the test again, we always 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 inevitably get is “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 on it—might be damaging to their candidacy. This is not the case. 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. Accepting a candidate’s highest GMAT scores is actually in an MBA program’s best interest, because doing so will raise the school’s GMAT average, which is then reported to such rankings bodies as Bloomberg Businessweek and U.S. News & World Report and could positively affect 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. |
27 May 2017, 09:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Discover an MBA for Working Professionals at Villanova School of Business |
 In 2013, the Villanova School of Business (VSB) received a $50M gift from alumnus James C. Davis, founder of Allegis Group, and his wife, Kim. The donation—part of a $600M capital campaign—was the largest in the school’s history and was reportedly “earmarked to improve academic and career advising, increase internship and study abroad opportunities, perform technology upgrades, and provide scholarships,” according to Bloomberg Businessweek. VSB also planned to use a portion of the funds to “beef up its faculty roster to include more professors focused on teaching as opposed to research.” With a satellite campus in Center City, Philadelphia, VSB specializes in part-time programs for working professionals, allowing them to enjoy the benefits of a full-time curriculum without leaving their job. In this vein, the school offers an accelerated, two-year, part-time Fast Track degree option, which meets twice a week, as well as the more customizable Flex Track degree option, which typically takes three years to complete and accommodates varying course loads. Both of VSB’s programs offer the opportunity to partake in the school’s two-part consulting practicum project, which includes the “Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum” and the “Global Practicum” capstone courses—each lasting 14 weeks. In the former practicum, students work with local nonprofit organizations to identify strategies in such areas as branding, funding, and membership retention. Alternatively, the latter practicum entails working with a multinational corporation to gain firsthand experience analyzing market issues. VSB also hosts a variety of elective international immersion courses, through which students may travel abroad over winter break or during the summer semester. |
27 May 2017, 13:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Get an Ivy League Experience for a Public School Price at Rutgers |
 Benefiting from the prestige of its parent university, the eighth-oldest university in the United States, Rutgers Business School (RBS) offers a suite of flexible curricular options and formal concentrations that are rooted in its multidisciplinary strength. In the past, the school has marketed its program as the “same education as an Ivy League School, at a fraction of the price”—a claim that seems substantiated by robust industry connections across several disciplines, a network of more than 33,000 alumni, and a high employment rate (96.3% of its Class of 2016 MBAs were employed 90 days after graduation, and the figure was 98.3% for the Class of 2015). In 2015, U.S. News & World Report named Rutgers the best public MBA program in the New York City area, and in 2017, it ranked the school 50th among all MBA programs in the country (tied with the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University). For those aspiring to work on Wall Street, the school offers a Master of Quantitative Finance degree that earned RBS a place among the “Top 10 Quant Schools in 2012,” as ranked by Advanced Trading. |
28 May 2017, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: You Need a 750 to Get In! |
We often hear MBA applicants ask some form of the following question: “Do I need a 750 to get into a top MBA program?” Although a 750 on the GMAT can only help, it is definitely not a prerequisite. We wanted to dispel this myth and put some who believe it at ease. Here are a few simple reasons why this is just not the case:
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29 May 2017, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Top Five Reasons to Work with an mbaMission Career Coach |
 Are you wondering whether working with a career coach could benefit you and your job search? Check out our top five ways a career coach can help you: 5. You are unhappy in your job (or are getting ready to start business school), but you are uncertain about your career direction. Working together, we can uncover what motivates you in the workplace, craft a list of your essential career components, and draft your brand statement. 4. You have not updated your resume or your LinkedIn profile in more than six months (or you saw a job posting of interest and need to write a cover letter/submit an up-to-date resume), and you do not know where to begin. By sharing best practices, brainstorming experiences to highlight, and editing content, we can help you identify and present your brand to your target audience in a memorable and relevant way. 3. You are terrified of networking, but you know that finding advocates and getting referrals are important parts of your job search. Whether we are helping you to create your pitch, identify target companies and contacts, and draft introductory emails/sample networking questions to ask or are holding you accountable to your goals, we can offer support as you build and execute a networking action plan. 2. You are getting interviews but no offers! We will brainstorm potential questions you will receive during interviews, identify how to strategically address these questions, and help you practice delivering your answers. We also will ensure that during the interview, you are expressing your ability to do the job, your interest in the job, and your fit with the company. 1.You are feeling frustrated with the lack of results in your current job search. By listening carefully and asking probing questions, our career coaches can offer thoughtful insights, personalized advice, and candid feedback on where you could be more effective in your job search. Then together, we can draft a job search plan that includes specific milestones. Of course, we can also help you with other aspects of career management, including the following:
Schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation so we can discuss your job search efforts to date and how we can support your needs! Have you been admitted to business school? If so, do you want to get a head start on defining your career goals? Do you need help preparing for job interviews or learning how to effectively network with your target employers? Or maybe you want to be a top performer in your current role but are unsure how to maximize your potential. Let an mbaMission Career Coach help via a free 30-minute consultation! |
30 May 2017, 08:01
| FROM mbaMission Blog: How to Approach Quantitative Comparison Questions in the GMAT |
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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. If you are taking the GRE instead of the GMAT, you will have to deal with the GRE’s “weird” question type: Quantitative Comparison (QC). What are these questions, and how do we handle them? What is Quantitative Comparison? The GRE and the GMAT really are not math tests, all evidence to the contrary. These tests are actually trying to test us on our “executive reasoning” skills—that is, how well we make decisions and prioritize when faced with too many things to do in too little time. So QC questions are really about quickly analyzing some information and figuring out a relationship between two quantities. If we label the two quantities A and B, we have four possibilities: (A) Quantity A is always bigger than Quantity B. (B) Quantity B is always bigger than Quantity A. (C) The two quantities are always equal. (D) I cannot tell, or there is not an “always” relationship; maybe sometimes A is bigger and sometimes B is bigger, or sometimes A is bigger and sometimes they are equal. We do, of course, have to do some math—and sometimes that math is quite annoying. We usually do not, however, have to do as much as we usually do on regular “problem solving” questions (the normal Quant questions). How does Quantitative Comparison work? First, the question is always the same: figure out the “always” relationship, if there is one (in which case the answer is A, B, or C), or figure out that there is not an “always” relationship, in which case the answer is D. Some QC questions will provide us with “givens”—information that must be true and that we will need to use when answering the question. For example, a problem might read as follows: x > 0 So now I know that x is positive. Is it an integer? Maybe. But it could also be a fraction or decimal, as long as that value is positive. Next, the problem will give us two columns with their own pieces of information. For example: Quantity A Quantity B x = 3 x2-9 = 0 We do not have to do anything with Quantity A; it already tells us what x is. What about Quantity B? Solve: (x+3)(x-3) = 0 x = -3, x = 3 It seems like the answer should be D, right? Sometimes Quantity A is bigger and sometimes they are the same. Do not forget about our “given,” though! We are only supposed to use positive values for x, so we can ignore x = -3 for Quantity B. Both quantities are always equal, so the answer is C. Okay, these are weird. How do I get better? These are going to take some practice, yes. In addition, this was only a very short introduction; a ton of great strategies are out there that you can learn. Look for books, articles, classes, and other resources to help. (Here is one to get you started.) You also, of course, have to learn a bunch of math. What we have presented here, though, should help you get started on this kind-of-bizarre question type in the first place! |
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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
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