Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 2:30 pm

I do believe that often the early bird does get the best worm. And yes, I subscribe to the idea that there is value in applying early—for starters, you show the schools you have your act together and you demonstrate your commitment that they are at the top of your list. But before pulling that trigger, you need to have answered this basic question: “Is your application the strongest it can be”?

If the answer is not a resounding yes, then perhaps you may want to hold off and go round two. Here are three things that can influence you to postpone your application to the second round:

1. New Job Limits: You’ve just changed jobs and the new job has some really interesting projects that can provide some strong experiences worth bringing to bear in your application. In this case, holding off for 3 months may be well worth it to give you the chance to further gain experience that can be a huge differentiator for your application.
2. Recommender Challenges: You are struggling to get your recommenders behind you, especially if this is a new job and you need more time to “prove your mettle” so to speak before making a demand on your supervisor to support your candidacy.
3. GMAT Issues: You just took the GMAT and bummed it. Instead of simply plowing ahead and retaking it in 30 days (which doesn’t give you enough time to strengthen your weak spots), you may be better served to push the application to the second round. This delay will give you time to invest in a course, self study, or one-on-one tutoring. While the GMAT isn’t the only variable looked at in the evaluation process, it is certainly an important one and if you are in a position to increase your score 50, even 100 points, then submitting the application in the second round is not a bad idea. This doesn’t include individuals who have taken the GMAT umpteenth times and are chasing the perfect 800!

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 5:49 am

This is the second part to how to tackle the Harvard 2+2 application essays. Applicants have the option to choose one of these three essays. After having tackled the first three required essays, these additional essays offer you the opportunity to showcase an aspect of your brand that hasn’t been covered so far in the application or to reinforce your brand. You can also use one of these three essays to address a potential gap that exists in your story. All three essays have equal weight in the eyes of the admissions board so choose what most resonates with you not the essay you believe the admissions board expects you to write.

Select one of the following essays (400-word limit each):

Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.

To do justice to this essay you should opt for quality over quantity. It’s more important that you have one or two activities that you are truly committed to and where you can show evidence of your direct involvement. The key word to keep in mind when addressing this essay is “engaged”. This conjures up a picture of rolling up one’s sleeves and helping to bring about an impact. Membership in several organizations doesn’t get at what the admissions board is looking for. The primary objective of this essay is to ascertain what type of student and future leader you will be. If you haven’t shown commitment to other people in the first three required essays, then this essay could be a vital one for you to make sure that you demonstrate that you care about others (not just your own achievements) and that you have tangible examples to show that.  It’s less about the leadership title you held and more about the passion you bring to an organization and how you are able to make an impact.

What area of the world are you most curious about and why?

Self awareness, global perspective/exposure, and maturity are a few words that come to mind when thinking of this essay. This essay could be good for applicants who have a genuine passion for a particular region of the world since it will allow them to “educate” the admissions board why they have this passion and how it fits with their vision for their lives. Remember, what is important is not the region but what it means to you—why you are curious about it. The “why” in this case is more important than the “what”. It’s what you reveal about yourself, your character, what matters to you, that is at the heart of this essay. This could be a great essay to delve into your background—talk about your family.  Or it could be an opportunity to share a hobby/interest that means a lot to you. The choice of topic and how you address it can say a thing or two about your maturity so use good judgment with this essay.

What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

It is interesting that HBS doesn’t word this question in terms of your goals but your vision. That leads me to believe, then, that it is less about a step by step process of achieving a particular set of career objectives and more about whether you have the foresight to imagine where you would like to end up and the necessary skills/resources you will need to achieve it. There is a strong element of aspiration connected to vision that applicants should think of when writing this essay. This essay could be good for someone for whom it is questionable why they are applying to the 2+2 program. If you are already on a business track, what is your vision that justifies applying now? Or conversely, if your background is quite far removed from business, then this essay could be a good platform to help the admissions board understand why you are motivated to going to business school and why a program like this would be necessary to help you make that transformation in your career.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 9:36 am

Applicants to Harvard’s 2+2 program have just about one month to go before the deadline. For those considering applying to this program, here are a few words of advice regarding the essays:

Required Essay Questions

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

This essay gets at your self-awareness and character. What you will find is that successful candidates all have very different things that they have identified as significant achievements. What matters are two things: what you achieved (impact on a product, process, person or group) and why it matters to you (what you discovered about yourself). Most applicants tackle this essay by addressing the substantial achievements but leave out the second part of the question: THE SELF AWARENESS: “Why do you view them as such”? You need to do some serious soul-searching to arrive at what you consider your most substantial accomplishments. There isn’t a one size fits all response or formula of internship-check, academics-check, and personal- check. Having said that, successful accomplishment essays are those that show you are multidimensional and a strong leader.

What would you like us to know about your undergraduate academic experience? (400-word limit)

This question is trying to understand your academic decisions and the forethought that went into them. They obviously have your transcript and can see the impressive grades. What is more telling is revealing something about your character that drove the decision. Why did you take the two advanced masters courses? What was it about the subject matter that motivated you to pursue the coursework? How did you decide on what subjects to focus on for your major? Why did you pursue a triple major? What does that reveal about you besides the fact that you are smart and can handle different subjects and a challenging curricular? Are you someone who has always had a path mapped out for him and you are basically staying on cue or are you willing to steer your own boat? Do you explore other things and are you curious? Are you willing to try something new? Did you help get a new class introduced at your school? What was it like to teach the freshman seminar class and overcome your initial fears of X? If there are hiccups in the academic experience you should own up to it without excuses and without fixating on it. Simply address it and spend the rest of the essay presenting all the other positive aspects of your educational experience. It’s the self-awareness plus helping the admissions board to connect the dots about your experiences that could make this essay a hit.

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

This question can really reveal a candidate’s maturity level. Stay away from simplistic mistakes of “I procrastinated and ended up bumming my Physics final”. Equally troubling are mistakes that raise questions about your character. For example, rudeness towards a boss can never be excused. There is no turning back by putting a spin on the story about the important lesson you learned from the experience. I read an application of someone who wrote about how she went over her bosses head to get a project done because she had gotten buy-in from her bosses’ boss. What that showed about her is that she was insensitive and a solo player. Not the best example to convince Harvard to take a bet on you. Meaningful mistake examples go below the surface and reveal something about you as a person.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 6:17 am

Volunteering Can Do More than Land You a Coveted Admission Offer! It is true that leadership involvement in community service is an important ingredient to securing an admission offer to a top business school. But there are other benefits to volunteer work besides demonstrating to the admissions committee that you are a well-rounded, multi-dimensional leader who cares about society.

Researchers have been investigating the “Helper’s High”, a phrase that describes the energized feeling and excitement followed by a sense of calmness that individuals who are involved in helping others report, for a long time.  Allan Luks and Peggy Payne, authors of The Healing Power of Doing Good, studied over 3,000 Americans who were volunteers and found that 90% indicated that volunteering served as an “antidote to stress, chronic pain, and even insomnia”.   Now that’s good enough reason to get involved! No more excuses about not having enough time to volunteer in your community. We are not talking about hours on end of volunteer work but finding something meaningful that you could get involved in and making a real contribution where you are.

I encourage you to take that step and commit to helping improve someone’s life either through mentorship or by volunteering and serving in a leadership capacity for local organizations in your own backyard. You will not only benefit by feeling better about yourself after volunteering but this commitment will help you develop some experience that demonstrates to the admissions board that you are not simply a candidate who is in it for himself/herself only.

Here are a few places you could go to for information to get started:

• USA: Board Net USA
• UK: Volunteering England
• UK: Community Service Volunteers
• NIGERIA: Fate Foundation
• AFRICA: Eleghana
• GLOBAL: Serve Your World
• USA: All For Good
• USA: Volunteer Match

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 4:45 pm

Ok, so you have worked so hard to put in the application and you were so relieved to hit submit in time for the round one deadline at such schools like Stanford, Wharton, and Harvard. What do you do now? The toughest part of the application process for many applicants is the waiting process. The good news is that schools are becoming more proactive in getting their interview decisions out earlier, so hopefully the wait won’t be as long and torturous for applicants. 

Stanford has already started extending invitations for interviews and HBS will begin extending its interview invitations in four days (October 16th). Know your story cold for your HBS interview and have someone review your essays to identify questions/gaps that may prompt interview questions. For Stanford, be ready to defend any information you provide on your resume since that is the focal point of the interview. But most importantly, be yourself and come prepared to communicate the value you will add to each MBA program.

Filed under: Essays, Uncategorized — admin @ 9:06 am

Without a doubt, the essay remains a critical part of the application process. Applicants have to find creative ways of sharing their brand but schools are also becoming creative with the types of essay questions they are asking.

But they are not stopping there. Applicants now have the option to write a cover letter as one of the essays at Harvard Business School. Chicago has for the past few years required applicants to provide 4 slides to showcase who they are. UCLA’s Anderson program with its audio essay question has definitely raised the bar for applicants. What’s next? Applicants have to turn in a short video of themselves answering an admission question? That may not be too far away. In any case, what applicants need to focus on is knowing their brand and effectively communicating it to the admission board, regardless of the questions they face or the mode of presentation  

Filed under: General, Uncategorized — admin @ 6:52 am

There are just a few weeks remaining before classes end and MBA programs wrap up their class visit programs at most business schools. Since the class visit programs are not usually available before the first deadlines, applicants who can fit them in now should try to do so in the next few weeks.

Some of you may be questioning whether campus visits are worth it. I know, cost is a major factor, especially for those of you who live abroad or in different states. And one can’t forget the fact that you already have crazy work schedules and it’s near impossible to get away from work. I get it and quite honestly, admissions people know this and can be lenient regarding campus visits, especially for those who live far away from their programs. Now if you work in the same city and never take the time to attend a class or an information session, you clearly are opening yourself up to some scrutiny down the road.

I personally think that applicants should visit the MBA programs before applying, and certainly before enrolling to the program. Would you buy a $50,000 car without testing it out, or for that matter, seeing it? Why would you go on other people’s opinion (alumni recommendation, websites, etc) without visiting a school that would cost you over $140,000? I’m a bit risk adverse and want to know what I’m “buying”.

Five Reasons to Visit Your MBA Programs

1.      MBA Programs like it. It signals that you have done your homework and that you are serious about them.

2.      It can help you position why you are a fit for the particular program since you gain insight into the nuanced culture and what makes the program different from others.

3.      It can tip your admission to your favor in some unique circumstances such as getting off a waitlist.

4.      You can better assess whether the program is a fit for you.

5.      It’s a great chance to network with students and connect with future classmates

If you can’t make a campus visit, the next best thing is to attend an open house event in your city. These fill up quickly so make sure you are in the program’s database so you can be invited to open house events in the late summer and fall.

Filed under: General, Uncategorized — admin @ 6:09 am

There are many ways an applicant can jeopardize his/her chance of admission. One common way is not getting the timing of the application right–that is applying when you don’t have enough experience or applying after too long, and the MBA doesn’t make sense anymore for you.

Applicants who time it right are more likely to have a successful application outcome. As a first step, applicants should find out the age/work experience profile of students at their target schools. It’s not enough to get the average age since the mean doesn’t necessarily paint a full picture of the class.

Take a look at the profile of Harvard’s class of 2010 Complete List From the Director – MBA – Harvard Business School. Only 102 out of 900 admitted students had graduated from undergraduate programs within the past 6 years or more. Majority had graduated in the past 5 years. While graduation year doesn’t necessarily translate to number of years of work experience, there is a strong link between the two. That doesn’t mean that you have no chance of gaining admission to a MBA program like HBS if you have been out of school for 8 years. But knowing that only 14 students with 8 years out of school gained admission in 2008 is important information to have when applying. You should research all programs to find out what the class profile looks like and to get a better sense of how you fit in that profile. Do keep in mind that every MBA program is different.

Three Quick Things to Help You Time Your MBA:

1.      Take the GMAT early and get it out of the way. Ideally, you should take the test while you are in college–consider taking it in your senior year. Remember that the test is active for five years.

2.      Seek Challenging Projects: You can create a track record of leadership early in your career and don’t have to wait for too long to apply to business school. What ever you do, volunteer for more challenging opportunities and build a track record of creating impact. The quality of the work experience is what MBA Boards care about not just number of years of work experience.

3.      Plan Ahead: This is an obvious one but lack of careful planning has caused many applicants to delay their MBA applications, leaving it too late. You should commit to two years to plan and execute a successful MBA application.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 3:33 pm

With the presidential elections heating up, the issue of age and experience has played a prominent role as seventy something year old McCain and forty something year old Obama duke it out to convince the American people that they are not too old or inexperienced to lead the country. Apparently, politicians are not the only ones who need to grapple with the issue of age.

MBA applicants, too, have to time their application effectively, and need to be able to show that they have enough relevant experience to “deserve” a seat in the class. The converse is also true. Being too old, or more politically correct, over qualified to justify the need for an MBA, can also pose a serious challenge to MBA aspirants.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a prospective client about his admission candidacy that made me take a closer look at the age issue. He was almost 40, had worked in the same industry and was in a middle management role. He felt he needed an MBA to make a switch to something that was closely tied to his passion. And he was seeking admission for top tier, fulltime, US MBA programs.  The reality for a candidate in this situation is that he/she will need to have a phenomenal experience or some X factor to make the admissions board take a second look. I know, everytime this conversation comes up, a throng of people pipe up about the 42 year old teacher or artist in their class. The reality is that that 42 year old student is the exception, not the norm.

With average age of applicants to MBA programs between 26 and 28 years, candidates should do everything in their power to not delay applying if they are already in their late twenties. The exception to this is applicants from nontraditional backgrounds (military, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, etc) who may have life situations that make it difficult to apply while they are in their twenties.

I’ll tackle applying too young and questions to think about to determine if you are ready to apply to business school in another entry.

Filed under: General, Uncategorized — Tags: Add new tag, Grades — admin @ 10:52 pm

Can having too much fun in college kill your admissions hopes? The answer is not a simple yes or no. It depends on exactly how much “fun” you had and how much of an impact it had on your grades. Here’s the way the grades will be viewed by the admissions board:

1. Scenario One: You have a 3.5 but your grades dropped one semester (not a deal breaker especially if you have solid GMAT, above 720, and strong essays, work experience and overall application.
2. Scenario Two: Too many tequila nights for four years resulted in a below 3.0 gpa. My experience is that if you fall in this category, you will need to come up with some major damage control as well as reality check. The chance of being admitted at the top four MBA program is extremely unlikely. Note that I didn’t say absolutely impossible.  You may want to widen the net when selecting schools and have a good two or three back up schools. If every thing else is strong, I still think it will be extremly difficult to convince an admissions board to wink at four years of sketchy grades. In any case, you will need to “own” your story. Take responsibility and proactively address what happened. Avoid making excuses and make sure that the rest of your application does not suggest any maturity weaknesses. If recommenders can reinforce your commitment, focus, drive and maturity, that’s a plus. Your essays can also go a long way to show that you have grown a lot since your undergrad experience.  Finally, you can take a couple of courses and earn an A in each of them to show your discipline sitting through an academic course. A final option, though a bit extreme, is taking a masters degree. I don’t recommend this unless you are naturally interested in the graduate program. I wouldn’t just do a masters degree just for the sake of addressing the academic weakness as an undergrad. But if you have genuine interest in the subject and it fits with your long term goal, then go for it.