Last visit was: 11 Sep 2024, 00:02 It is currently 11 Sep 2024, 00:02
Decision Tracker
My Rewards
Unanswered
Active Topics
New posts
New comers' posts
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel

The mbaMission Blog

SORT BY:
Date
Kudos
   1  ...  9   10   11   12   13  ...  180   
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Columbia Business School Essay Analysis, 2014–2015 [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   16 May 2014, 15:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Columbia Business School Essay Analysis, 2014–2015
For the second year in a row, Columbia Business School (CBS) has kicked off the MBA application season. During an online event with mbaMission, Manhattan Prep and Poets & Quants, CBS’s director of admissions, Christina Shelby, told the audience that the school has added urgency in releasing its questions, because it has to meet the needs of its January-entry (known as J-Term) applicants, whose application deadlines come much sooner (October 8, 2014, versus April 15, 2015). Whatever its rationale for the “early” application release, CBS is basically staying the course with its essay questions, though it has again reduced the allowable character count in its “Twitter-like” goal statement; from 200 characters two years ago, it was cut to 100 last year and now stands at a mere 75. Our analysis follows…


Short Answer Question: What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (75 characters maximum)

Examples of possible responses:

“Work in business development for a media company.”

“Join a consulting firm specializing in renewable energy.”

“Work for an investment firm that focuses on real estate.”

Offer ambitious but realistic goals. Do not try to be anything you are not.

These two sentences are 75 characters long. You can see now just how brief you need to be with CBS’s short-answer question, yet you must still demonstrate that you can convey a point within such strict limits. So, we are sticking with the advice in our example. Do not misguidedly believe that admissions officers have a preference for specific professions or industries—they do not. Think about what you truly want to do with your career and state it directly. Then be sure that the rest of your application provides evidence that this goal connects to your existing skills and profound interests, making your professed goal achievable and lending credibility to your statement. If you can do this in 75 characters—and remember that we are talking about characters, not words—you will have answered this question quite well.

Essay 1: Given your individual background and goals, why are you pursuing a Columbia MBA at this time? (Maximum 500 words)

Because the CBS admissions committee is asking “why” you have chosen to pursue an MBA, you can justifiably delve into your professional career and explain how you identified your need for this particular advanced degree. However, take care not to overwhelm the admissions committee with an unnecessary level of detail about your career history. We cannot emphasize this strongly enough—the admissions committee does not want a recap of your entire resume—moreover, such detail would use up valuable word count. Approximately 100–150 words on your past should be enough to provide appropriate context.

You could perhaps offer an anecdote that reveals an academic or experiential void on your part, or explain that now is the right time for you because you have just completed a lengthy assignment and are ready to transition to the next phase of your career. A number of good reasons exist for wanting to earn your MBA now—just make sure that in your essay, the story of your progression is clear and you demonstrate the momentum and advancement that have brought you to this point. You will then need to explain how and why an MBA will serve as a bridge to the next level of your career. Notice that the school very specifically asks why you wish to earn a “Columbia MBA,” so you absolutely must incorporate into your essay elements of the CBS experience that are pertinent to your candidacy. Do not just list classes, but give a reasoned argument that explains how your goals, timing and CBS all intersect to make this the right time and the right experience for you.

Because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of CBS’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Columbia Business School. We also suggest that you visit the campus (a must if you live anywhere near New York) and use your network to connect with students to gain a firsthand understanding of the CBS experience.

Essay 2: Please view the video. How will you take advantage of being “at the very center of business”? (Maximum 250 words)

This question may seem challenging, but the key here is not to consider what New York City offers in general, but to instead focus on what you need from your educational experience and then address how this will be fulfilled or enhanced by the school’s location. We strongly encourage you to develop your core ideas before you watch the video the school has provided as context for this question. Watching the video first might lead you to deliver a canned or clichéd response rather than honestly contemplating your needs and New York City’s ability to respond to them.

If you find that your sincere reasons for wanting to study in New York City are ones that others can also claim—such as proximity to Wall Street—you will need to do your homework and take your research a step further. Offering proximity to Wall Street alone would constitute a clichéd response, but taking your essay to a more granular level and discussing how specific experiential opportunities speak directly to your niche interests will allow you to “own” those resources and really personalize this brief, 250-word essay.

Essay 3: What will the people in your Cluster be pleasantly surprised to learn about you? (Maximum 250 words)

Stop now and consider what the admissions officers will already know about you at this point from the other elements of your application they have reviewed thus far. They will probably have read your resume and thus gotten a sense of your career path to date. Your other essays should have provided an understanding of your goals and why you want to be at CBS and in New York City. The admissions committee may have had some brief glimpses into your personality through these avenues, but this essay is your overt opportunity—albeit brief—to give a sense of your true character.

The key words in this question are “pleasantly surprised.” Although you certainly want to offer something surprising, you obviously do not want that surprise to be unpleasant. “Surprise” does not need to be understood as “shocked.” Do not think you need to totally revolutionize their understanding of you in a mere 250 words (though if you can, that is fine).

Our point is that you should not worry if you have not climbed Mount Everest or launched a $50M venture capital–backed start-up. You are not expected to have spectacular achievement to share—CBS just wants to get to know you better by learning about an interesting aspect of your life. Whether you spent a month volunteering in Peru, helped put your sister through school or are passionate about flamenco dancing, these are all suitable stories, and one is not necessarily better than the other. What is important is that you show how what you do is manifest. You must offer a narrative that engages the reader in your actions and emphasizes how you conduct yourself.

We should note that you do not need to answer a question that was not asked. So in this case, you do not need to tie your response to CBS and explain how this aspect of your life will allow you to contribute to the school or your cluster. Not only is this unnecessary, but such attempts are also often transparent and cloying. If the school wanted you to include such information, it would have asked for it.

Optional Essay: An optional fourth essay will allow you to discuss any issues that do not fall within the purview of the required essays.

However tempted you might be, this is not the place to paste in a strong essay from another school or to offer a few anecdotes that you were unable to use in any of your other essays. Instead, this is your opportunity, if needed, to address any lingering questions that an admissions officer may have about your candidacy, such as a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT score, a gap in your work experience, etc. In our mbaMission Optional Statement Guide, 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 profile.

 

Be sure to join us on Thursday, June 19 for a free, live webinar, “Writing Standout Columbia Business School Application Essays,” where we will help you conceptualize your essay ideas and understand how to execute, so that your experiences truly stand out! Register here!
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Stanford Graduate School of Business Essay Analysis, 2014–20 [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   17 May 2014, 07:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Stanford Graduate School of Business Essay Analysis, 2014–2015
The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) became the second top MBA program to release its essay questions this year, and the school follows a trend in application essays—“less is more.” Stanford has dropped its third essay question this season and stuck with two standbys, which we can abbreviate as “What matters most to you?” and “Why our school?” The GSB’s choice to stick with the “Why our school?” question is an interesting one, considering how selective the program is (the Princeton Review ranks it number one for Toughest to Get Into). Maybe one reason the school is so strong is that it still focuses on fit and does not take its desirability for granted (?).

Another big change in the Stanford application this year is that the number of recommendations required has dropped from three to two, leaving the candidate to make the vexing choice between a professional recommender or a peer for that second recommendation. Our guess is that most people will choose the far more straightforward professional recommendation option, because candidates who do so can be more confident that they have made the “right” choice of recommenders.


Essay 1: “What matters most to you and why?” (750 words)

When candidates ask us, “What should I write for what matters most to me?,” we offer a pretty simple tip: start brainstorming for this essay by asking yourself that very question: “What matters most to me?” This might seem like obvious advice, of course, but many applicants get flustered by the question—often believing that an actual “right” answer exists that they must identify—and never pause to actually consider their sincere responses, which are typically the most compelling.

So, we advise that you brainstorm in depth and push yourself to explore the psychological and philosophical motivations behind your goals and achievements—behind who you are today. We cannot emphasize this enough: do not make a snap decision about the content of this essay. Once you have identified what you believe is an appropriate theme, discuss your idea(s) with those with whom you are closest and whose input you respect. Doing so can help validate deeply personal and authentic themes, leading to an essay that truly stands out.

Once you have fully examined your options and identified your main themes, do not simply provide a handful of supporting anecdotes—or worse, recycle the stories you used in a similar essay for another school. A strong essay response to this question will involve a true exploration of the themes you have chosen and reveal a thorough analysis of decisions, motives and successes/failures, with a constant emphasis on how you conduct yourself. If you are merely telling stories and trying to tie in your preconceived conclusions, you are most likely forcing a theme on your reader rather than analyzing your experiences, and this will be transparent to any experienced admissions reader. In short, be sure to fully consider and develop your most sincere answer(s), outline your essay accordingly and then infuse your writing with your personality, thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Essay 2:“Why Stanford?” (350 words)

One of our favorite admissions quotes is from Stanford’s assistant dean for MBA admissions, Derrick Bolton: “Resist the urge to ‘package’ yourself in order to come across in a way you think Stanford wants” (emphasis added). What the admissions committee really wants is to know what and/or who you want to be. The school does not have a preferred job or industry in mind and expect to hear that you plan to fill that space—the admissions committee wants to understand your true vision and understand why you feel Stanford is necessary in facilitating this vision. If you try to present yourself as someone or something you are not, you will ultimately undermine your candidacy. Trust the admissions committee on this one!

Because Personal Statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

And for a thorough exploration of the Stanford GSB’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Monday Morning Essay Tip: Support Conclusions with Examples [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   19 May 2014, 09:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Support Conclusions with Examples
At mbaMission, we always encourage candidates to show their experiences rather than tell the reader conclusions. 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.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
The NYT Asks mbaMission President/Founder Jeremy Shinewald A [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   19 May 2014, 14:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: The NYT Asks mbaMission President/Founder Jeremy Shinewald About MBA Travel Budgets
Highlighting the “shadow budget” of additional travel expenses that can often accompany an already expensive business degree, the New York Times asked mbaMission President/Founder Jeremy Shinewald just how much MBA students should expect to invest in “lifestyle experiences.” Bonding with classmates on international excursions and keeping active with the seemingly limitless social functions of MBA student life have become increasingly vital to one’s induction into the business school network. Many students say that socioeconomics can play a decisive role in how much time they spend with one another.

“My father went to business school a generation ago as a married 25-year-old, and I can assure you he has no stories of jetting off to Vegas for the weekend,” says Shinewald in the article, noting that bars, parties and trips now occupy a significant portion of the average MBA student’s schedule. “I would say that $5,000 total for two years is a low to moderate budget, but is one that would still allow a student to experience significant social and academic opportunities.” The high-end budget for such expenses, Shinewald explains, can run as much as $20,000 to $30,000 for two years. Still, many students see the investment in social and travel opportunities as part and parcel of buying into an invaluable business network.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   20 May 2014, 10:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

On our blog, in our publications and in public presentations, we have tried repeatedly to persuade business school candidates who are deciding which MBA programs to target to downplay rankings, which fluctuate frequently (and sometimes wildly), and instead focus on fit, which is enduring. Now, as the admissions season is about to begin, we recommend that you accelerate and broaden your evaluative process.

One way to look beyond rankings is to speak with current MBA students. Even if you do not have direct access to students, reaching out to them in a targeted way can be quite easy, via club Web sites and even Facebook pages. You should not feel “pushy” when contacting a student this way, because most students take pride in their school and are open to speaking with candidates. They are a de facto part of the school’s marketing arm. So, if you are interested in a certain program for its entrepreneurship program, for example, you can reach out to the individual (or individuals) leading the entrepreneurship club to learn more about the program (and the club!). Of course, you should be respectful of each individual’s time and be well prepared for your conversation. If you are conscientious, you will be able to gain some great insight into the school’s academic environment and then have time to find out more about the atmosphere on campus. Networking now should enable you to begin narrowing your search and more effectively focus your limited “free” time over the next few months.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2014–2015 [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   21 May 2014, 10:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Harvard Business School Essay Analysis, 2014–2015
Last year, Harvard Business School (HBS) took a new approach to its application essay questions, moving from multiple queries to one very open-ended prompt with no clear word limit. This year, HBS Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold seems to have surprised even herself, judging from a recent blog post, by announcing that the school will be keeping its questions… err, question… exactly the same.

With the benefit of a year of HBS acceptances under our belt using this specific question, we can at least offer some confident guidance on word limits, an issue that really perplexed last year’s candidates. Last season, we had many successful applicants to HBS, some of whom used as few as 750 words while others used as many as 1,250.  In general, we encouraged our clients to stick with 1,000 or fewer, but certain candidates who had plenty to say used more, expressed themselves well and ultimately succeeded. Although Leopold notes that the essay is actually optional, we report—and this will likely come as no shock to applicants—that we had no clients audacious enough to completely forgo submitting an essay. Every single one of our successful candidates did so, as expected.

Here is our analysis of t
he sole HBS essay question and the accompanying post-interview assessment…

Essay 1: You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extracurricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?

Few things strike more fear into an MBA candidate’s heart than vague essay directions. Because of HBS’s lack of guidance with respect to word limits and its extremely open-ended question, knowing whether you are truly responding with information that the admissions committee wants and needs may be difficult. The committee further complicates things by specifically noting the information it will already have—transcripts, extracurricular activities, awards, etc. This may make you wonder if mentioning such information is a complete no-no and would weaken your chances for admission.

First, we would like to allay your fears to some degree and help you reframe your view of this question. Think of it as an opportunity to round out your candidacy in the admissions committee’s eyes the way you want, not within the parameters of a narrowly focused topic someone else has chosen. This is your chance to tell the school what you really feel it should know about you—what you believe makes you a worthy  candidate, deserving of a spot in HBS’s next incoming class.

So now let us take a step back and consider what the non-essay portions of your application—your resume, for example—actually convey, so you can start to determine which parts of your profile need presenting or could benefit from more detail. Your resume is a map of your professional, educational and extracurricular life to date, and although it may provide a narrow window into your personal life, by and large, it does not offer profound insight into your values, emotions, challenges, important relationships and other key elements of your character and journey. An appropriate analogy might be that the admissions committee will learn about you in black and white from the other parts of your application, and this essay is what will transform your story into bright colors.

Definitely heed the school’s directions—thoroughly weigh what the other elements of your application provide and identify the information that is missing that you believe is key to your candidacy. Then ask yourself whether these missing elements constitute information that is simply important to you or that will effectively enhance the admissions committee’s knowledge of you—not as a professional but as a human being. If you are grouping together a few accomplishments and searching for a theme to link them, you are on the wrong track. However, if you are thinking carefully about key moments, experiences and people in your life that are central to who you are and what you offer—and that the admissions committee could not possibly surmise from your “black and white” application—then you are likely on your way to writing a compelling essay.

Will what you are planning to write tell the admissions committee about your values—about who you are, rather than what you have accomplished or tried to accomplish? Be sure to clearly convey why you have made certain choices in your life and, most importantly, how you have conducted yourself and made those choices. For example, sharing the story of how you started over as an immigrant in your essay is profoundly more compelling than merely stating your citizenship via a drop-down menu in the application’s short-answer section. Detailing how you resigned from a nonprofit board to expose rampant chicanery on that board will convey much more than including a list of extracurriculars at the end of your resume. We do not expect that you will have these exact stories, but be sure to pinpoint situations and characteristics that bring “color” to your file. Remember that your goal is to reveal your personality and stand out as an individual, not by claiming specific life accomplishments, but by demonstrating perspective and values and by showing you have lived an interesting life that your classmates will appreciate and that will allow you to bring depth to class discussions.

As we noted, the school stipulates no word limit for this essay. We offered some guidance above, but this is not to say that there is a right word count. More people are tempted to push the “limits” on the upper end of the spectrum, but you should show some restraint and recognize that you cannot share “everything.” Writing excessively—and unnecessarily—will only reveal that you lack self-awareness and the ability to censor yourself. Keep in mind that HBS operates on the case method, in which you will be expected to identify the most important facets of a situation and be able to discuss them clearly and succinctly in a class setting. This essay could be, on some level, the admissions committee’s way of evaluating your ability to do just that—only with yourself as the subject. You do not want to send the message that you are the self-important individual who will speak inordinately in class, but instead that you are the thoughtful one who understands what is important and can pinpoint and reveal truly interesting and relevant information.

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 third consecutive year, HBS is stipulating a final written task for candidates who are granted an interview. 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 discuss 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.

During your conversation, focus exclusively  on your interviewer’s questions and your responses—in other words, do not try to identify possible topics for your post-interview reflection while you are still in your meeting—but as soon as it 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:

  • We will be much more generous in our reaction to typos and grammatical errors than we will be with pre-packaged responses. Emails that give any indication that they were produced BEFORE you had the interview will raise a flag for us.
  • We do not expect you to solicit or receive any outside assistance with this exercise.
As for how long this essay should be, HBS again does not offer a word limit. We have seen successful submissions ranging from 400 words to more than 1,000. We recommend aiming for approximately 500, but adjust as appropriate to thoroughly tell the admissions committee what you feel is important, while striving to be succinct.

For a thorough exploration of HBS’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School.

Be sure to join us on Thursday, June 5, for a free, live webinar: “Writing a Standout HBS Application Essay,” where we will help you conceptualize your essay ideas and understand how to execute them, so that your experiences truly stand out! Register here!
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Professor Profiles: Robert Shiller, Yale School of Managemen [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   21 May 2014, 13:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Robert Shiller, Yale School of Management
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school to attend, but the educational experience itself 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 Shiller from the Yale School of Management (SOM).



Even those not considering pursuing an MBA may be familiar with Robert Shiller (“Behavioral and Institutional Economics”), thanks to the famed Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Currently the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at the SOM, Shiller has been at Yale since 1982. The SOM Web site notes that Shiller has written about “financial markets, behavioral economics, macroeconomics, real estate, statistical methods, and public attitudes, opinions, and moral judgments regarding markets” and is the author of Finance and the Good Society (Princeton University Press, 2012). And according to Treasury & Risk magazine, which named Shiller one of the 100 most influential economists of 2009, he “is credited with predicting the 2007 housing market peak and the subsequent plunge of global markets.” SOM students appear to hold Shiller, who often uses games to explain ideas, in high regard. “He’s awesome,” a second year told mbaMission, with a “very nice, easy manner.” Another second-year student we interviewed said, “You come out [of his class] pretty convinced of the things he says.” In addition, Shiller writes regular columns for both the New York Times and Project Syndicate.

For more information about the Yale SOM and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
B-School Chart of the Week: April 2014 Social Currency Ranki [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   22 May 2014, 11:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: April 2014 Social Currency Ranking
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.

April was a noticeably slow month in the world of MBA matrimony. Of the 84 wedding announcements in the New York Times society pages, only eight included some mention of business school students or alumni (compared with 23 in March). Columbia Business School (CBS) came out ahead for the month, boasting four mentions—although CBS is tied with Wharton for our year-to-date tally, with each claiming a total of 13.

Among the announcements for April is a double CBS wedding, with student Erin Muckey (who is pursuing a joint medical degree and MBA) marrying alumnus Alexander Cavin. Wharton alumna Charlotte Evans ventured further afield from her alma mater, marrying Stanford MBA Tyler Will. Also among the notable Wharton weddings this month is that of third-year student Eric Feinstein—who is pursuing a dual law and MBA degree—to Julia Emanuel.

The total number of MBA weddings thus reached 48 for the year, out of an aggregate total of 272 wedding announcements.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Beyond the MBA Classroom: MIT Sloan Charity Auctions [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   22 May 2014, 17:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: MIT Sloan Charity Auctions
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.

Twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, students at the MIT Sloan School of Management organize charity auctions. Each “ocean” (the 60-person cohort with which students take their first-semester core classes) selects a charity to support and identifies items to be auctioned, ranging from lunch with a professor to a home-cooked meal by a student to more unusual offerings, like having a professor chauffeur you to class in his classic car. First-year oceans compete to see which one can raise the most money, and second-year students organize a similar auction. In 2013, the oceans raised more than $70,000 to benefit Children of Fallen Patriots, Heifer International, Curing kids Cancer, the Cancer Research Institute, Pencils of Promise and the Wounded Warrior Program. Items up for bid included a personal White House Tour, a weekend tour of Napa Valley and a week at a Costa Rican beach house.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at MIT Sloan and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Friday Factoid: Campus Development at MIT Sloan [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   23 May 2014, 09:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Campus Development at MIT Sloan
In 2006, MIT President Susan Hockfield announced a major campus development program that would invest approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars in new and renovated facilities on the school’s 154-acre Cambridge campus, and which included the Sloan School Expansion. This expansion added a new classroom building, E62 (address: 100 Main St.), with approximately 210,000 square feet of space that houses 205 offices, 6 classrooms, more than 30 group study rooms, a dining area, an Executive Education suite, lounge areas and new, usable outdoor spaces. It was completed in time for the start of classes in fall 2010 and dedicated in May 2011, to coincide with MIT’s 150th anniversary.

The new classroom building is described on the MIT Web site as “the ‘greenest’ building on the entire MIT campus.” A student from the Class of 2012, the first class to enter Sloan after the new building opened, described E62 to us at mbaMIssion as “the social hub at Sloan. It’s where students meet to socialize, eat—the cafeteria provides some of the best food in the neighborhood—and work on class projects. It’s probably one of the more significant things Sloan has done recently, as it provides the ideal networking space not only for students but also for the many professionals who come to check out the new building and recruit MBAs. The new building really adds to the Sloan experience, and I can’t imagine life before it!”

For a thorough exploration of what MIT Sloan and other top business schools have to offer, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Dartmouth College (Tuck) Essay Analysis, 2014–2015 [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   23 May 2014, 11:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Dartmouth College (Tuck) Essay Analysis, 2014–2015
Following what seems to be an emerging trend this season, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College has decreased the number of required applications essays this year from (an already fairly minimal) three to just two 500-word submissions, one of which is a classic career statement, while the other asks candidates to share and reflect on a significant leadership experience. Having just 1,000 words with which to convey meaningful elements of their profile means that applicants will need to be especially judicious in choosing their messages and particularly efficient in their writing to get the most impact from these two rather circumscribed essays. As always, we recommend a thorough brainstorming session before you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) so that your messages are clear, complete and fully on topic.

Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. There are no right or wrong answers. We encourage applicants to limit the length of their responses to 500 words for each essay. Please double-space your responses.


1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA fit for you and your goals and why are you the best fit for Tuck?

Because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Dartmouth Tuck’s academic program, merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Tuck School of Business.

2. Tell us about your most meaningful leadership experience and what role you played. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?

In an interesting divergence from last year’s version of this essay prompt, Tuck has removed the adjective “collaborative” from where it appeared just before “leadership,” thereby allowing this season’s candidates to select from a broader range of experiences to find the best one for this essay. For you, your most “meaningful leadership experience” may be one in which you shared power with someone else (or various people) and achieved an objective, in which case you should feel free to discuss that situation. On the other hand, your standout leadership experience may have been a more conventional one, in which you stood alone at the head of a group or team and achieved something of note—that would also be a fitting story for this prompt. What is key is choosing the experience that was the most significant for you and has had the longest-lasting impact. Also, keep in mind that leadership is not a matter of title—you can be the associate to someone else’s vice president or vice versa and still be a leader if you are helping to drive something forward. In other words, think about your actions, not about the org chart.

To effectively reveal your “strengths and weaknesses,” you will need to demonstrate that you encountered challenges along the way and show how you overcame them. You cannot tell the story of your experience and then just tack on a mention of some unrelated—and thus “unproven”—lesson at the end. This is a common mistake, so be extra careful to avoid it. You must also reflect on the experience, because the question asks you to, but make sure the reflection you share is derived directly from the experience you describe in your essay. If you write 350–400 words of narrative and 100–150 words of related reflection, you should be on the right track.

3. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.

Applicants may be especially tempted to take advantage of the optional essay for Tuck this application season, given that the school is offering fewer essay opportunities, but we strongly encourage you to resist any such temptation and submit an optional essay only if your candidacy truly needs it. This is most certainly not the place to paste in a strong essay from another school or to offer an anecdote that you were unable to use in the other essays. Again, only if your profile has a noticeable gap of some kind or would provoke any lingering questions on the part of an admissions officer—such as a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT score, a gap in your work experience, etc.—should you take this opportunity to provide additional information. In our mbaMission Optional Statement Guide, available through our online store, we offer detailed advice on when and how to take advantage of the optional essay (including multiple sample essays) to help you mitigate any problem areas in your profile.

4. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.

Whether you have improved your academic record, received a promotion, begun a new and exciting project, increased your community involvement or taken on some sort of personal challenge, the key to success with this essay is conveying a very deliberate path of achievement. Tuck wants to know that you have been actively striving to improve yourself and your profile, and that you have seized opportunities during the previous year to do so, because a Tuck MBA is vital to you. The responses to this essay question will vary greatly from one candidate to the next, because each person’s needs and experiences differ. We are more than happy to provide one-on-one assistance with this highly personal essay to ensure that your efforts over the past year are presented in the best light possible.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Monday Morning Essay Tip: Use Past and Present Tense Judicio [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   26 May 2014, 09:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Use Past and Present Tense Judiciously
Virtually all MBA application essays are written in the past tense, which makes sense, considering that candidates are most often discussing past experiences. Although the past tense is quite “user friendly,” another choice is to use the present tense to heighten the immediacy of the experience being presented and to draw the reader into the story. Consider the following examples:

Past tense: “I arrived at my supervisor’s office at 11 a.m.; we tabled the deal no less than 15 minutes later. Then, the two of us sat by the phone, casually chatting about baseball, and waited. When our CEO finally called two hours later, we discovered that we had indeed submitted the winning bid….”

Present tense: “I arrive at my supervisor’s office at 11 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, we table our deal. For the next two hours, as we casually chat about baseball, we wait by the phone. When it finally rings, our CEO is on the line, informing us that our offer has been accepted….”

These examples do not represent “right” and “wrong” options but instead illustrate two different styles a candidate might use, both of which can be equally effective; choosing which is the better fit for a particular essay depends entirely on the skill of the writer. Executing well in the present tense can sometimes be difficult, and we recommend that candidates undertake the task with caution. Further, this choice also depends significantly on the story’s content and context—the present tense is a good option when the experience recounted involves “high drama,” but it is not necessarily appropriate for every essay.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Mission Admission: Keep Your Parents Out of It [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   27 May 2014, 08:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Keep Your Parents Out of It
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

When you are applying to business school, leave your parents out of the process! Although we hope this MBA admissions tip will be obvious to most candidates, those who are a part of “Gen Y” or “The Millennials” may have parents who are accustomed to helping guide their children’s choices, having done so throughout the candidates’ high school and college years. These parents naturally want to be involved in the MBA application process as well and are now leaving many admissions officers across the country shaking their heads.

Of course, having a parent call to confirm whether an important document was received when an applicant is perhaps traveling or working abroad and/or cannot personally make such a call during work hours is certainly not the same as having a parent call to ask why his/her son or daughter has not received an interview invitation yet. Unless the matter at hand is an entirely practical one, candidates have nothing to gain by having their parents act as their agents. On the contrary, they have everything to lose. An aggressive parent can reflect badly on an applicant for a variety of reasons, the most obvious being that the parent’s interference suggests that the candidate lacks maturity and perhaps even the ability to make independent judgments and decisions.

Think very carefully before you involve your parents in any aspect of the application process except sitting at home and waiting for great news—successful applicants do it all the time!
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
mbaMission’s MBA Application Writing Boot Camp is Back! [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   28 May 2014, 10:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: mbaMission’s MBA Application Writing Boot Camp is Back!
We are pleased to announce our MBA Application Writing Boot Camp dates for the 2014-2015 business school application season!

Through seven hours of live instruction, two hours of recorded materials, plus direct review of your work and 30 minutes of one-on-one feedback from your expert instructor, we will guide you step-by-step through the process of creating a compelling MBA application that will reveal your unique character and catch the attention of the MBA admissions committee. In a classroom workshop environment over the course of one weekend day, you will brainstorm for creative ideas, practice the techniques of effective storytelling and resume construction and learn how to structure and draft your essays for your target school. You will also get a head start on your recommendations and interviews in the two additional hours of recorded content and develop a process for completing the rest of your applications. This class is designed to jump-start your application process and get you headed in the right direction. Throughout the course, you will benefit from direct feedback from both the instructor, an mbaMission senior consultant, and your classmates. And after the formal instruction is complete, you will have one half hour of one-on-one coaching from your instructor on some of the specific work you developed during class.

Class Dates:

  • Online A: Sunday, July 27
  • Online B: Saturday, August 9
  • Online C: Sunday, August 24
  • Online D: Saturday, September 6
  • Online E: Saturday, September 13
  • Online F: Sunday, November 16
  • Online G: Saturday, November 22
  • Online H: Saturday, December 6
  • Online I: Saturday, December 13
All boot camps are held in our online workshop environment from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, with ample breaks. The cost of each boot camp is $799.

For more information, or to register for one of our MBA Application Writing Boot Camps, click here.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Professor Profiles: Adam Brandenburger, NYU Stern School of [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   28 May 2014, 15:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Adam Brandenburger, NYU Stern School of Business
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school at attend, but the educational experience itself is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we highlight a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Adam Brandenburger from New York University’s (NYU’s) Leonard N. Stern School of Business.


An expert on game theory and its practical application to business strategy, Adam Brandenburger (“Game Theory and Business Strategy”) was voted the NYU Stern MBA Professor of the Year in 2006, and in 2008 received an NYU Excellence in Teaching award in recognition of his teaching and course development work. Students with whom mbaMission spoke reported being consistently impressed by his ability to make the complex simple in the classroom, stating that Brandenburger is able to take the “complicated, theoretical and intangible” world of game theory and make it “easy to understand and practical.”

For more information about NYU Stern and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Beyond the MBA Classroom: Kellogg Students KWEST [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   29 May 2014, 11:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Kellogg Students KWEST
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.

Each year, incoming Kellogg School of Management students gather for the four-day Kellogg Worldwide Experiences and Service Trips (KWEST) experience, during which they engage in volunteerism and tourist activities alongside the veritable strangers that will soon become their friends. KWEST experiences occur throughout the United States and internationally; in 2014, trips and activities were organized to more than 30 locations around the world, including a cycling trip through the Netherlands, beer tasting in Germany, zip-lining and surfing in Nicaragua and a meeting with a U.S. Ambassador on the Denmark/Austria trip. In 2013, trips were organized to such locations as Argentina, the Canary Islands, Iceland, Romania and Turkey. In 2012, students on KWEST adventures traveled to 19 different countries, including Canada, Belize, Croatia, Costa Rica, Portugal and Thailand. Destinations in 2011 included Ecuador, Italy, Spain, Greece and France. Some students even participate in a mystery trip: they do not learn their destination until they check in at the airport!

During KWEST, students are not expected to discuss their work experience or academic/professional plans. Instead, students get to know each other on a more personal and intellectual level, returning to campus well acquainted and, ideally, even bonded.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Kellogg and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Diamonds in the Rough: Wisconsin School of Business at the U [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   29 May 2014, 15:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools which are typically ranked outside the top 15.

Students who have clear objectives for their post-MBA career may find that seeking out a business school curriculum built around focused career specializations can be beneficial. The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers a uniquely applied learning experience for ten such areas of specialization:

  • Arts administration
  • Brand and product management
  • Corporate finance and investment banking
  • Investment research and portfolio management
  • Marketing research
  • Operations and technology management
  • Real estate
  • Risk management and insurance
  • Strategic human resource management
  • Supply chain management
Immersive engagement begins early in the program, simultaneously with first-year core courses. For example, during their first semester, student teams work to perform an integrated company analysis of a publicly traded company of their choosing. By the time students break out into courses within their designated focus, they are ready to gain hands-on experience through applied projects. Investment research and portfolio management students, for example, practice managing a portfolio with more than $50M in assets, while many other areas of specialization include partnering with businesses and organizations.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Friday Factoid: Columbia Business School’s Increasingly Flex [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   30 May 2014, 12:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Columbia Business School’s Increasingly Flexible First-Year Curriculum
The Columbia Business School (CBS) first-year curriculum was at one time very rigid—all first-year students took all their core courses with their cluster, unless they were able to pass an exemption exam. Students complained, however, that this rigid core curriculum system meant that they could take only one elective course their first year, which could put them at a disadvantage when competing for summer internships. For example, previously, a CBS student who accepted a summer internship at a bank may have taken only one finance elective by the end of his/her first year, but that student’s counterparts on the internship from other schools may have taken two or three, thus potentially putting the CBS student at a disadvantage with regard to being considered for a full-time job at the end of the internship. So, after an intense process of research and evaluation, CBS launched a more flexible core curriculum in the fall of 2008.

Beginning in the fall of 2013, CBS implemented further changes to its core curriculum, including an increased emphasis on cross-disciplinary thinking, in addition to even more flexibility. The revamped core courses also make greater use of online teaching tools in an attempt to “free up more classroom time for deeper dives and discussions,” as an August 2013 Poets & Quants article explains. In the second semester of the first year, students can pick three full-term electives and two half-term electives, replacing the school’s previous “flex-core” configuration and allowing students to better prepare for summer internships. In addition, students may take exemption exams in areas in which they are already proficient, thereby opting to replace core courses with electives. This revised curriculum was developed in response to student feedback that a full term was not needed to cover the “core” elements in certain courses, and the change has given students significantly more flexibility in the first year.

CBS has thereby attempted to find a middle ground, where students learn what the school considers fundamentals while having the latitude to specialize, and anecdotally, students have responded favorably.

For a thorough exploration of what CBS and other top U.S. business schools have to offer, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides series.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Monday Morning Essay Tip: Overrepresenting Your Overrepresen [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   02 Jun 2014, 08:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Overrepresenting Your Overrepresentation
Many in the MBA application pool worry that they are overrepresented—particularly male investment bankers and Indian software engineers. Applicants cannot change their work histories, of course, but they can change the way they introduce themselves to the admissions committee. Consider the following examples:

Example 1: “As an investment banker, I…”

Example 2: “Managing a team to code a new software product for ABC Corp., I….”

In these brief examples, each candidate mistakenly introduces the reader to the very overrepresentation that he/she would likeis trying to minimize. Many applicants feel they must start their essays by presenting their titles or company names, but this approach can immediately give the reader pause and leave him/her thinking, “Here we go again.”

Overrepresented business school candidates should therefore consider the opening lines of their essays especially carefully. Rather than stating the obvious, an applicant might instead immerse the reader in a situation or present a special aspect of his/her position.

Example 1 (launching into a story): “At 5:30 pm, I could rest easy. The deadline for all other offers had passed. At that point, I knew….”

Example 2: (stand out): “While managing a multinational team, half in Silicon Valley and half in Pakistan, I….”

In the first example here, the banker candidate avoids drab self-introduction and instead plunges the reader into the midst of a mystery that is playing out. In the second example, the software engineer candidate introduces him-/herself not as a “coder” but as a multinational manager. Of course, every applicant’s situation is different, but with some effort, youhis/her story can be told in a way that avoids the pitfalls of overrepresentation.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Mission Admission: The MBA Resume, Part 1 [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   03 Jun 2014, 11:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: The MBA Resume, Part 1
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

In your MBA resume, make sure that you are showcasing your accomplishments, not merely stating responsibilities. When only your responsibilities are presented—with no accompanying results—the reader has no understanding of whether you were effective in the role you are highlighting. For example, consider the following entry, in which only responsibilities are offered:

2009–Present Household Products Group, Flocter & Gramble Cincinnati, Ohio

Brand Manager

  • Responsible for managing a $10M media campaign, supervising a staff of five junior brand managers, monitoring daily sales volumes and ensuring the consistent supply of product from five production facilities in three countries.
The reader is left wondering, “Was the media campaign successful? Did the staff of five progress? Did sales volumes increase? Did the supply of products reach its destination?” When this one large bullet point is instead broken down into individual bulleted entries that elaborate on each task and show clear results, the reader learns not just about the candidate’s responsibilities, but also about that person’s ultimate effectiveness and successes:

2009–Present Flocter & Gramble Cincinnati, Ohio

Brand Manager

  • Initiated $10M television/Internet “Island Vacation” promotion introducing new Shine brand detergent, surpassing first-year sales targets within three months.
  • Mentored and supervised five junior brand managers, each of whom was promoted to brand manager (company traditionally promotes 25%).
  • Analyzed daily sales volumes and identified opportunity to increase price point in Midwest, resulting in 26% margin improvement and $35M in new profits.
  • Secured “safety supply” of vital chemicals from alternate suppliers, ensuring 99% order fulfillment.
By comparing the first Flocter & Gramble entry with the second, you can see how much more effective an accomplishment-driven resume is than one that simply states responsibilities.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
   1  ...  9   10   11   12   13  ...  180   
Moderator:
mbaMissionKate
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
1471 posts