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mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Given Kudos: 1
mbaMission Releases Updated Insider’s Guides for 2020–2021
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28 Aug 2020, 10:00
28 Aug 2020, 10:00
Expert Reply
| FROM mbaMission Blog: mbaMission Releases Updated Insider’s Guides for 2020–2021 |
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We at mbaMission are proud to offer a wealth of free, actionable content by way of our extensive trove of publications, including our recently updated [b][url=https://shop.mbamission.com/collections/insider-s-guides]Insider’s Guides[/url][/b]! Featuring 17 individual top-ranked business school titles, this collection of guides is informed by firsthand insight from students, alumni, program representatives, and admissions officers and offers detailed (and up-to-date) information on the following subjects: [list] [*]Defining characteristics of the business school’s location, class size, curriculum, teaching methods, facilities, alumni base/involvement, and rankings[/*] [*]Courses, experiential opportunities, faculty, and clubs related to MBAs’ most common career areas (consulting, finance, entrepreneurship, etc.)[/*] [*]The admissions committee’s stance on GMAT/GRE/TOEFL scores, recommendations, the waitlist, layoffs/unemployment, and other application elements[/*] [*]Notable professors and social/community events[/*] [*]Special year-over-year tables of rankings, class profile statistics, and top industries for each MBA program[/*] [/list] And now, completely new for 2020–2021, our Insider’s Guides include comments and recommendations from our [b][url=https://www.mbamission.com/who-we-are/team/]elite team of full-time admissions consultants[/url][/b] on subjects that span across the admissions process. We created our business school–specific Insider’s Guides to help arm today’s MBA hopefuls with a comprehensive picture of the resources, environments, activities, and communities at each school, so they can ultimately choose the program that is truly best for them. We hope you find the guides to be informative and helpful throughout your business school application journey! [b][url=https://shop.mbamission.com/collections/insider-s-guides]Download your free copy[/url][/b] of each of our comprehensive Insider’s Guides today! |
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mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Given Kudos: 1
MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Supervisor Graduated from HBS—He Kn
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30 Aug 2020, 08:00
30 Aug 2020, 08:00
Expert Reply
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Supervisor Graduated from HBS—He Knows! |
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We at mbaMission know of a man now in his 70s who graduated from a virtually unknown Canadian undergraduate school in 1963 and who, with no work experience at all, applied to Harvard Business School (HBS), Wharton, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), earning acceptance at all three (though the GSB deferred his entry for one year so he could gain a little more experience first). He ultimately studied at HBS and now runs a small grain-trading business. You could not meet a nicer man, and although he is certainly wise in many respects, one thing he knows nothing about is MBA admissions. “I attended so long ago, things must have changed since then,” he says. “I did not have any work experience at all. I had studied four years of commerce, and that was it!” Why are we telling you this? Many applicants each year tell us that their bosses, who applied to business school during far different times, have given them “sage” advice about applying and that they feel they should follow it—after all, what worked for their boss in 1966, 1976, 1986, or even 1996 must still be applicable today, right? Not quite so. For a long time, the MBA was actually not all that desirable a degree, so the admissions process was not so competitive. To give you an idea of the MBA’s relative popularity, Duke University (Fuqua) did not even start its MBA program until 1970, but its law school was founded in 1868. Yale University was founded in 1701, but it did not offer an MBA degree until 1999. So, the MBA is a relatively new degree that has only fairly recently (as of the late 1990s) reached its current level of popularity and prestige. What does all of this mean with regard to your boss’s advice? Although your supervisor may have gotten into one of your target schools, they likely did so years ago and therefore may not have had to contend with the steep competition you now face. Your boss may also not know anything about what the admissions process is like today and could be—however inadvertently—leading you astray. If your supervisor starts any bit of their well-intended advice with the phrase “when I applied,” you should view the coming declaration with tremendous caution. |
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mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4426
Given Kudos: 1
How to Use Anecdotes and Captivate with Experience in Your MBA Applica
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31 Aug 2020, 08:00
31 Aug 2020, 08:00
Expert Reply
| FROM mbaMission Blog: How to Use Anecdotes and Captivate with Experience in Your MBA Application Essays |
|
Many business school candidates take a straightforward, historical approach in their personal statement essays. Although this can be an easy way to organize an essay, it may deprive applicants of an opportunity to deliver a more focused and gripping introduction. Nothing is fundamentally wrong with taking a historical approach, of course, but an anecdotal approach can better maintain a reader’s interest in certain circumstances. Of course, this all comes down to execution. Example: Historical “When I graduated from New York University with a finance degree, I eschewed Wall Street and pursued my own distinct path; I opened a flower shop in midtown New York, never imagining the challenges I would face as I strived to bring in new customers and locate products around the world. With time, I learned to advertise selectively (on billboards in local office buildings) and developed relationships with suppliers, particularly one in Peru, with whom I obtained an exclusive on Heliconia flowers. After one year, we started to specialize in foreign flowers, and with a niche identified, we developed a strong client base. My firm stabilized, and I was no longer bleeding cash to support my 11 employees; we were cash-flow neutral and contemplating a new location.” This introduction is very direct and informative but involves almost no drama or emotion. To be more effective, the writer might instead consider positioning themselves as “the hero” and drawing the reader in with some anecdotal tension. Example: Anecdotal “My hand quivered as I signed the lease for 1,000 square feet of retail space in midtown New York. Two months later, I threw open the doors to my flower shop and was stunned when I did not make a sale until my third day. Admittedly, I began to question the wisdom of entrepreneurship and wondered if I should have joined my peers from New York University’s finance program as an analyst on Wall Street instead. However, each day, a trickle of customers came in, and more often than not, they commented on the colorful and rare flowers in my window, like the Peruvian Heliconia, exclusive to my shop. Within weeks, I had core customers picking up scheduled orders and referring friends; I bolstered this ‘word of mouth’ with select advertising on electronic billboards in the four 50-story office towers surrounding the shop. Soon, I noticed a surge of customers and was no longer bleeding cash. After one year, we were cash-flow neutral, and I was even contemplating opening another location.” In this version, the same information is conveyed, but the tension inherent in the “quivering hand” and the empty store acts as a “hook” to draw the reader in. By taking this more personal, emotional, and indeed anecdotal approach, the writer allows the reader to identify with their struggle and thereby maintains the reader’s interest. Again, this is not a case of right or wrong, and each MBA candidate should decide what works best in their own essays. Indeed, our philosophy is that candidates should let their experiences, not just their word choices, captivate the admissions committees. Sometimes we find that applicants attempt to emphasize their actions with “extreme” adjectives and adverbs—an approach we strongly discourage. Example: “As others withdrew their support, I remained remarkably dedicated to our crucial fundraising efforts. I dramatically increased my participation in our strategic planning meetings and insisted that we push forward with a wildly creative guerrilla marketing plan, which brought forth tremendous results—$1M in ‘instant’ proceeds.” In these two sentences, the writer uses the descriptors “remarkably,” “dramatically,” “wildly,” and “tremendous” to make their impression. We find that a more effective approach is to eliminate these “extreme” descriptions and let the experiences do the “talking.” Example: “As others withdrew their support, I remained dedicated to our fundraising efforts. I increased my participation in our strategic planning meetings and insisted that we push forward with a guerrilla marketing plan that brought $1M in ‘instant’ proceeds.” In this second example, the writer does not need to say that the results were “tremendous,” because the $1M in proceeds speaks for itself; we do not need to be told that the marketing campaign was “wildly creative,” because this is implied in the nature of guerrilla marketing. In addition to truly showing a level of humility on the part of the candidate, this approach is also less wordy. Although the eight words saved in the latter example may seem inconsequential, we removed them from only two sentences. If you can remove four words from every sentence in your original draft, you could significantly but humbly augment your essay with other compelling ideas. |
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