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Narenn
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What do you wish you had known before? Admitted Student Advice: Part 1 06 Jul 2020, 07:42
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What do you wish you had known before? Admitted Student Advice: Part 1


Hey Guys, We decided to get a "last call" from all MS admits before they step into their fancy business school oxfords. Here is what they had to say about what they wished they had known prior to applying. There will be two more threads like this with different questions coming up so stay tuned!



Please remember that these comments are completely unadulterated and we have not done any edits to them at all. Some of them may be controversial and some of them may not! I am glad the community was candid in sharing their advice and I hope you all prospective students would appreciate it.

What do you wish you had known before?


gioguidi Admitted to IE MiF, IESE MiM, SAIF MF-Fintech, IE MiM, SMU MAF
gioguidi
I'd liked to know more about the class median GMAT, class size, class composition and especially starting salary. School provide some datas but are often inaccurate and not very true. I had to contact current or ex alumni on LinkedIn one to one to retrieve these informations.
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Toffelfabriken Admitted to ESSEC, Imperial MFin, LSE MFin
Toffelfabriken
I wish I had known of how important some schools consider extra-curriculars to be, and how good it is to apply in an early round.
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Tsot Admitted to HEC, HSG SIM
Tsot
How important it is for someone to contact alumni before making an application as well as to having explored their post-Masters goal with an open-mind
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philippi Admitted to HSG SIM
philippi
Knowing how much each part of the application requirements "values" to them. Eg., in terms of the GMAT, how important is a high score to them and how high is the average?
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legend2000 Admitted to ESADE MFin
legend2000
To be honest, I had been researching about Esade for more than a year. I connected with alumni on Linkedin as well and got the basic info from them regarding the course. Something I think that could have helped me more during this application process is the description and course content of the MSc courses. After using Gmatclub as the primary source to obtain info about B-schools, MSc and MBA courses, I did not find any other website as helpful. But info about certain courses was missing. I used different websites to understand the difference between MiM and MFin but still wasn't too sure because these 2 courses have a certain overlap.
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Tim3321 Admitted to LBS MiM
Tim3321
How important it is to get in contact with alumni, to thoroughly inspect the school website and brochure. Best case, get to know as many insights as possible which you can't find in the brochure/website (specific student clubs, specific electives etc.).
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Sidpvtltd Admitted to LBS MiM
Sidpvtltd
I wish I knew the following before applying to the schools:
- How important it was to present a story to the school answering three questions, why MIM, why now and why this school.
- How important it is to understand the values of the school and not give generic applications
- How the application process isn't a 3 month or 6-month prep but a lifelong prep. In the 3-4 months, one only works on the presentation aspect.
- How important presentation is (essays can have great content, but it's important to structure them well to tell a story such as STAR and SCQA frameworks)
- How to exhaustively understand the application process, keep reminders for deadlines. For example, I didn't know that INSEAD had a KIRA interview in their process and it was a surprise to me, I was under-prepared. I also missed HEC Paris' deadline as I mixed it with that of ESSEC Business School cause they were in consecutive days. Thankfully, HEC gave me a 24-hour extension and I was able to apply, else all the hard work and planning I put in to submit my application in R1 would've gone for a toss.
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ClaireCATgmat Admitted to LBS MAM
ClaireCATgmat
I had done tons of research on the school before I started the application. Including all materials I thought could be used in writing essays. And I also reviewed all records I could found to see the backgrounds of previous students.
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SaiGanesh0705 Admitted to Fuqua MQM-BA
SaiGanesh0705
As an applicant I was failing to understand what individual school is looking for in a potential candidate. Everybody talks about how one can research and find out what the school is looking for but rarely does somebody actually chalk out their opinion on the same. But again I acknowledge the fact that there is no holy grail followed by schools and the applicant's story has to be unique.
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