Filed under: General — admin @ 4:06 pm

Interview between Chioma and Reapplicant (Spring 2009)

Chioma: What was going through your mind as you embarked on the reapplication?

Reapplicant: I won’t lie – the application process was daunting, even the second time around.  Not getting into your dream schools or getting into school at all is very frustrating. Also, a very humbling experience.

Chioma: What advice do you have for individuals who are attempting the application a second or third time around?

Reapplicant: I did some practical things that I believe made a difference in my application outcome this time around. The steps I took this year and the lessons I learned include:

• Invest the time/resources to find out where you went wrong the first time. I suspect that for many of you, it won’t necessarily be issues with your GMAT or G.P.A. (those can be mitigated by retaking the GMAT and securing a high score as well as taking some courses to offset weak grades); the greater challenge is when you have excellent academics, high GMATS, strong professional profile and still get rejected as was my case. That is very frustrating because you don’t know what intangibles could have kept you out. To pinpoint those factors, I recommend showing your applications to friends who are already in business school or to an admissions counselor. Don’t simply show the essays, but the recs, transcript, resume – everything that went into the application package to get a holistic evaluation of your application. This was the first step I took with my reapplication.

• Really ask yourself why you want an MBA. Timing is everything. I never understood that until the 2^nd time I reapplied. And I didn’t understand how skeptical business schools are when discerning your reasons for wanting an MBA. Luckily, I had a counselor who pushed me very hard and really made me sound out exactly why I needed an MBA. If you have progressed too far in your current career, it’s hard to make a case for why you still need an MBA so make sure you flesh out your goals and develop the rationale for the MBA.

• Be able to connect all the dots of your past and account for everything you’ve done. Obviously, this is harder if you’ve been out of school longer – your story is that much richer, but you’ll have to work harder to account for all that you’ve done and rationalize how the experiences have shaped you. It’s possible that you switched jobs or industries based on instinct. But unfortunately, that won’t sell with schools unless you can put a reason behind that or show what you learned from the transition and how that has impacted your current position and your aspirations. This was also something I didn’t really understand the first time around. I focused on my current position, without really connecting the dots from my past, beginning with my undergraduate experience.

• Know the importance of branding. This was another thing I failed to consider the first time I applied. I naively thought that my entire application package would somehow come together. But you can’t be passive when you apply. You have to know from the outset what your 3 – 4 key themes are that you want the schools to know about you. At the end of the day, schools need to be able to have a good read of your brand—who you are. Without communicating your brand, you won’t be a memorable candidate and you probably won’t be admitted.

• Take the time to research MBA programs. Schools really do have certain cultures and they are looking for different candidates. Make sure you are applying to schools where you are a fit. I applied more strategically the second time around, whereas the first time, I applied more blindly.

These steps helped me gain admission to 5 out of 6 top MBA programs (plus scholarships too!). Good luck with your application or reapplication!

Filed under: General — admin @ 4:03 am

I’m often asked about specific programs that target unique interests, whether it is real estate, entertainment or what have you.

I came across this article that talks about different customized programs for those interested in a career in the bio tech space  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123809943944451143.html

But beyond the schools covered in this article, there are also many U.S. MBA programs where students interested in pursuing a career in the BioTech industry can thrive. The key is to look at the course offerings at schools and the list of firms that recruit graduates of the program. Schools like Stanford and HBS, given their vicinity to the industry, are also worth consideration.

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: General — admin @ 4:28 am

Getting a pink slip shouldn’t derail your admission plans. In fact, it can serve as a catalyst for moving forward with the application you may have been putting off for so long.

There are some practical things you can do immediately to mitigate any negative impact a pink slip can have on your MBA admission outcome.

Don’t stay home and mop around. It is important that you use the time wisely. You will not be able to get away with saying that you spent the last 6 months looking for a job. Vacationing for more than a few weeks also would be a poor example as far as the admissions board is concerned.

Develop a track record that shows your leadership initiative and potential. A practical use of the time in between getting a pink slip and securing another job is volunteering. It’s not enough to simply go to a soup kitchen once a month. The MBA Board will scrutinize what you have spent your time on. Select a nonprofit organization that you genuinely care about and arrange to work with them to solve some of the challenges they are facing. For example, if you have a technical background, you could help them transform their technology infrastructure to help them become more efficient. If your background is in business development, it would be useful to draw from your experience, even contacts, to help the organization form new partnerships. The key here is that you are able to demonstrate your leadership ability and produce real impact in an area that reinforces your brand.

Be Open to New Opportunities. Say you are a career changer and wish to pursue an MBA to move into a different industry or function, getting laid off could be an opportunity for you to get some preliminary experience in the new career area before business school. Don’t be afraid to take on an interesting job that is a one year commitment. I had a client leave banking to go to the Amazonian Jungles for a year. The experiences he gained in the first three months of his time there featured prominently in his application and he was able to gain admission to all his schools.  If entrepreneurship is appealing to you, this may be an opportunity for you to start an organization that you are truly passionate about. The key is to have a game plan, targeted goals and a realistic timeline to achieve them so you can ensure you have results you can point to that demonstrate your commitment and value to the MBA class should you be admitted.

Beef Up Your Academics. If your transcript is spotty with several C grades or lower, it may be worth taking some coursework and earning strong grades to show academic discipline. On the GMAT front, you can use this time to take a prep program to significantly improve your score. I’m often asked the magic score and while there isn’t one, a benchmark that I use is that if it is below 680, and it’s the first time you have taken it, you should definitely retake it if you have the time to prepare more thoroughly for it. If you have taken it 5 times, even after two prep courses, and still have 620 as your highest score, you may be better off focusing on other parts of your application. You may also want to try the GRE (Graduate Records Examination) since a few schools accept them (Stanford and MIT Sloan to name a few).   

Filed under: General — admin @ 7:15 am

So you poured your heart into the admission process and invested hundreds of hours into fine-tuning your application. And what do you have to show for all your efforts? Or maybe you dashed off an application at the last minute after learning that your group was being fired. Regardless of where you fall on the effort continuum, getting that email that says “sorry we are unable to admit you given an extraordinarily competitive pool and year…” still stings.

Here are Three things I encourage anyone considering reapplying to do:

Reassess

Examine what was weak in the application. And be objective. Have an expert assess your entire application to give you honest feedback. If cost is a factor, consider a friend/colleague you trust (especially someone who has an MBA from a top school as they can also provide insight gleaned from their own experience. Follow up with MBA programs that give feedback (eg. Wharton) but don’t count on them to spend a lot of time going over the old application. And try to read between the lines as sometimes schools are not going to explicitly tell you why your application didn’t meet their criteria. Finally, the reality may be simply one of timing (you left it too late and are now a better fit for an executive or part time MBA instead of a full time program).

Strategize

Once you have a clear sense of what you need to improve upon, you will need to devise an application strategy that will increase your odds of success the next time around. If the issue is a weak GMAT, you should absolutely invest in a course/private tutoring to make sure you make it a non-issue. I have a wonderful client who took the GMAT and applied with a score of under 600 to later retake the GMAT and score over 700. His very low GMAT contributed in keeping him out of several of his top schools. Fortunately, he was able to gain admission to a top program. If the issue is the reverse, great GMAT scores but weak GPA, in some instances, it is worth taking a couple of business courses and earning grades of As to show that you can sit through an academic course and have the discipline to do well. Weak leadership can also torpedo an application. Beef up your leadership in the interim (even if you have a 9 month track record). The quality of your impact can go a long way so start today to build leadership experiences if you are lacking in this area. Another common weakness in applications is a poor choice of Brand Champions (recommenders). You need to set a plan to reconnect with people you have worked for in the past who were brand champions. Seek out new brand champions who could write honest, detailed and compelling recommendation letters on your behalf. The reality is that you may need to put off the reapplication for over a year to address the weaknesses (depending on your age/where you are in your career).

Execute

Now that you are reapplying, it is critical to avoid having a chip on your shoulder. It is equally important not to be paranoid. The most important message a reapplicant has to convey is why he/she is reapplying. Success can’t be achieved without effectively addressing this point. So make sure that you convey to the admissions board what is new about your application and why your new application demonstrates that you are a fit for their program.

Having taken an objective view of your application, identified the gaps and proactively addressed them, you should approach the reapplication with calm and confidence. Pace yourself effectively and split your application (consider 3 applications in round 1 and 2 or 3 in round 2). Take advantage of open house events, visitation programs at the schools, network and get to know the admissions staff (this can be helpful at schools with an open door policy, for example, Tuck). Give your recommenders at least 4 weeks head start so that they have enough time to work on your application. With the applications submitted, you can take a deep breadth and relax, knowing you sent in the absolute best application you possibly could.

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.

Filed under: General — admin @ 12:48 am

Applicants to business school often make mistakes that make it easy for the MBA Board to reject their application. Below are some of the usual suspect mistakes that MBA applicants make:

1. Lack of passion: Do not sacrifice your passion in an attempt to spin a story you think the admissions board wants to hear. Focus on what gets you excited professionally? Applications without passion are bland and no one wants accomplished but boring students. The admissions board can see through contrived stories. So be authentic and talk about what matters to you and how the MBA will help you achieve your passion.

2. Lack of clarity about why you want an MBA: Be clear on why you are applying to business school. Your rationale has to make sense. Many candidates jump on the MBA bandwagon because many of their colleagues/friends are applying or because their jobs expect them to pursue an MBA as a natural next step. Make a compelling case for why you need the MBA to achieve the vision you have for your future.

3. Lack of time: A rushed application is likely to yield an unsuccessful application. We have all heard of the guy who did his application for business school in 48 hours and was admitted to Stanford and HBS. Well, as far as we know, this could very well be a great urban legend. Given the very high stakes, why would you want to rush the application and chance a rejection? Basic errors such as switching school names, grammatical and spelling errors occur when you are pressed for time.

4. Lack of introspection: Applications that lack insight is another major mistake that candidates make. Admissions Boards can see all you have achieved by simply referring to your resume and recommendations. What is missing is the WHY behind what you have done. It is not enough to present your blue chip career and Ivy education, for instance. There are too many people with the same name brand background and only one out of ten of you will be admitted in many cases. Failing to provide the admissions board with your reasoning and motivations behind your decisions and actions leaves many unanswered questions which can hurt your admission chances.

5. Lack of judgment: Failure to exercise good judgment can hurt an MBA candidate’s admission chances. One area where this error plays out is the recommendation decision. Candidates who select a recommender based on title can sacrifice substance. Yes, a managing director or CEO recommendation can carry significant weight; however, this is the case only if the individual knows you very well and can speak substantially to your contributions and impact. Title alone will not get you any bonus points. Alumni recommendations are also not useful if the person does not know you very well. You are better off selecting recommenders who can speak at great length of your brand and back it up with specific examples. Some applicants also express poor judgment when it comes to their essays. For instance, avoid a personal tragedy story unless it truly had a profound impact on your character and you can tie the lessons learned directly back to business.

6. Lack of understanding of what business schools are looking for: MBA programs are not looking for a particular prototype. Yet many candidates make the mistake to assume that there is a particular candidate profile that is appealing to the admission board (for instance an investment banker or consultant). While a sizeable number of individuals from these two backgrounds apply to business school, MBA programs are interested in diversity across the board and are equally interested in candidates from the public sector, not for profit sector as well as varied industries. Also, assuming that business school admissions boards are mostly interested in your academics (the GMAT and GPA for instance) at the exclusion of other aspects of the application can be detrimental as well. Focus on presenting a strong application across the three application criteria: academics, leadership/managerial potential, and unique/diverse perspectives. The stronger you are across all three areas the better your chances of admission.

7. Lack of brand champions: It is not enough to have people writing recommendations for you. Applicants need to cultivate relationships with their recommenders for them to become their brand champions. Make sure the recommenders know what your goals are and the unique value you offer. I’ve read enough recommendation letters where the candidate says one thing in her application and the recommender says something else. This type of confusion never benefits the applicant. Brand champions will go the extra mile. They will sit down with you to understand your admission strategy and how you are marketing yourself. They will invest the appropriate amount of time to write detailed and glowing recommendations for you. Avoid situations where recommenders ask you to write your own recommendation letters and they sign them. This is a clear indication that the person isn’t invested in you and is unwilling to take the time to write a compelling recommendation on your behalf. Besides, MBA boards may be able to see through this! Don’t take the chance.

8. Lack of fit: Applicants who do not do enough diligence to identify schools that are an appropriate fit set themselves up for disappointment. Research the MBA program and make sure that there is a fit before applying. For instance if you don’t enjoy speaking in class, you may think twice before attending case focused MBA programs such as HBS and Darden. Also take the time to visit the schools and attend classes. When you skip this step and you blindly apply, your application may reflect the fact that you don’t understand the brand of the school.

9. Lack of leadership: All top MBA programs value leadership in their admitted students. Yet many applicants apply to business school without presenting a compelling case of their leadership track record. It is important to recognize that leadership is not simply about title. Leadership can be demonstrated through influencing others without formal title. It can be shown through thought leadership by becoming an expert in a particular thing and using that to create value for your firm. Leadership is about having an impact on people, whether it is on a mentee, colleagues you work with on a project, or changing the way customers at your firm are served. What is important is to present tangible examples of your role leading and ythe impact you had.

10. Lack of a brand: I saved this for last, though it is of utmost importance. Since Admissions Board members read hundreds (if not thousands) of applications per admission cycle, and can only accept 10-15%, you should ask yourself how your story is different from other candidates with similar work and academic profile. It is the quirky, interesting, and unique things that are distinctively you that set you apart. Be clear on what your brand is and avoid the temptation of having multiple people “weighing in” on your essays. You don’t want to “water down” your story in your attempt to take on the different feedback that you receive. What’s more important is to focus on one or two compelling things that differentiate you besides your job title and look for ways to reinforce that message through out your application. So for instance although you may be an engineer who has strong academic records and work experience, you may focus on your innovative interests and the fact that you enjoy transforming things. So your brand could be “Turnaround Innovator” instead of the generic “Smart Engineer Guy”.