If you haven’t signed up already, there’s just one week left before The Economist’s WhichMBA? Fair! This is a great, free resource for all you busy bees out there; we highly recommend that you attend. You’ll meet nearly forty business schools from across the world all in one place, and gather the information you need to make the right decision. Still not sold? Here are the top four reasons you should attend.
1. Chat one-on-one with admissions officers, alumni and students. Make important connections with the contacts you want to meet, and learn about the MBA experience from those who know first-hand.
2. Compare dozens of business schools side-by-side.
Browse virtual booths at your own pace, with instant access to key facts and requirements for each program.
3. Find out which schools are right for you. Complete a short compatibility profile to view schools that best match your preferences, from location to class size.
4. Access free prizes and giveaways. Visit five or more booths for a chance to win an iPad 2. Plus, just show up for a chance to win a free e-book, and download free MBA guides at the Information Desk.
Signing up is free and easy, so what are you waiting for? Start the year by meeting the business school that could be right for you. Register FREE at http://registermbafair.whichmba.com.
Our friends at The Economist are hosting an online fair for all of you who promised yourself this would be the year that you pursued your MBA and want to get an early start. On February 6th and February 7th, you can attend their MBA fair without having to leave your office!
Register free or learn more at http://registermbafair.whichmba.com
What can you expect?
You may already know that an MBA can you help you stay competitive and advance your career in today’s challenging economy. But how will you know which business school is right for you?
Gouizeta Business School
OK, so you love Chick-Fila-A, you insist on diet Coke and you only do your home improvement shopping at Home Depot. Clearly Atlanta is a good fit for b-school, but there is that one thing in your way — gaining acceptance to Emory. That is where Admit Advantage can help. These essays provide a real opportunity to express your personal, community and professional accomplishments, so take full advantage.
Essay 1 (250 words each): Please answer each of the following four questions in a short paragraph.
- Why have you decided to pursue an MBA at this time?
- What interested you in Goizueta Business School’s MBA program?
- What are your short term post MBA goals?
- What are your long term professional aspirations?
This is the standard yMBA, ySchool, yNow, ST/LT goal essay. You generally need to answer this question in most MBA applications (or interviews), so the expectation is that you will have a good answer to the questions. The challenge here is that it is not one fluid essay, rather four mini essays of 250 words or less. Make sure that you address the specific question for each essay. Fight the urge to cut and paste sections of essays from other schools unless they specifically address each question.
Admit Advantage: Don’t regurgitate your resume in the answer set (especially the yMBA). Feel free to mention how your past experiences have led you to where you are today, but they are not looking for more information about your background per se.
MIT Sloan
So you have a perfect score on your SAT, you enjoy going to circuitry conferences in your spare time and you met your significant other in the library—MIT is clearly the place for you, right? Undergrad, perhaps, but not exactly for the business school. One look at MIT Sloan’s 2011-2012 essay questions and you’ll see the school is looking to get into your mind to find the next great dynamic leaders. The questions are relatively basic and behavioral in nature (unchanged from last year except the removal of the cover letter question); the challenge is in the execution. Be sure to lay out your stories in advance to determine the most impactful and inspiring stories across your professional, community and personal experiences. Sloan wants to understand your capacity for leadership: drive, creative thinking, influencing skills, and assertiveness. Don’t forget that they want your most recent experiences (3 years); it’s hard enough to get in, so don’t give them a reason to ding you by talking about your trip to China in 2005!
Cover Letter (500 words): Prepare a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Describe your accomplishments and include an example of how you had an impact on a group or organization. Your letter should conform to standard business correspondence and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Director of MBA Admissions.
What an awesome opportunity to really brag about yourself! As you likely know, this is your chance to give your elevator speech (on paper) on why you below at Sloan (we know 500 words is not nearly enough for all of your accomplishments). Make sure to answer the question completely and conform to the standard business cover letter format (lots of formats online).
Admit Advantage: This is a branding exercise. Think about the various accomplishments that you have in your career, personal and community lives. Think hard about the impact you made, the role you played and demonstrated accomplishment (i.e. measurable). Legacy is important here—people want to know that you can truly make an impact on the people in your life. It is also important to choose your accomplishments carefully as it represents what is most important to you in your life. Make sure to spend plenty of time on this one; if this essay is not compelling, your sink is shipping rapidly.
Essay 1 (500 words): Please describe a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular.
Leaders are not afraid to break ranks if they are passionate about going in a certain direction. While you may not have as much to say about going beyond the establishment as President Obama, hopefully, you have something in your past that shows your ability to step outside the box. We suggest that you provide three critical components in this essay: 1) background of the situation, 2) why you chose to go beyond the expectation/establishment (passion) and 3) what you may have learned from the experience. This is a great opportunity for you to exhibit leadership and influence skills, especially if you were able to encourage others to follow you down this unconventional path.
Columbia GSB 2011-2012 Essay Reviews
CBS’ essays have changed a fair amount since last year with the addition of one essay and refreshing of the other two. Question 1 focuses more on yNow and the CBS fit as it relates to your ST and LT goals; last year’s essays were more focused on your ST and LT goals. Question 2 wants to dig deeper to get to know you more, so get ready to take a ride down memory lane. Question 3 is a new question this year and it gives you a chance to express yourself in 250 very carefully chosen words. With this one, your choice of essay will be very telling about what’s important to you, so choose wisely. Grab your Metro Card and let’s head uptown on the 1 train together!
Columbia Graduate School of Business
Essay 1 (750 words): Considering your post-MBA and long term professional goals, why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? Additionally, why is Columbia Business School a good fit for you?
Admit Advantage: As an MBA admission consultant, I must tell you not to fall into the trap of taking an essay from another school and dropping it in here. This essay does not ask you for a breakdown of your resume (there will be plenty of opportunity to submit a resume) J. The first question has two parts: 1) why an MBA is important to you and 2) why it is important to you now. It is important for the admission committee to know that you are serious about your MBA and ready to go now. If they just think you are fishing and there is no clear sense of purpose, you are asking for a thanks but no thanks letter.
Kellogg is probably best known for its marketing program, but nearly equally publicized is its focus on teamwork and leadership. The Kellogg MBA essays reflect this focus as the topics inquire about your leadership experiences, how others perceive you and your differentiating factors. Map out a plan for what you want to focus on and make sure to think about Kellogg’s focus as you’re writing.
Essay 1
a) MBA Program applicants – Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA. (600 word limit)
b) MMM Program applicants – Briefly assess your career progress to date. How do the unique characteristics of the MMM Program meet your educational needs and career goals? (600 word limit).
Unchanged from last year, this is essentially your elevator speech essay to the Kellogg MBA admissions committee incorporating yMBA, yNow, and short-term/long-term goals. Career progress to date should provide career highlights and touch on why you chose to change jobs, if applicable.
Paint a clear picture with your career being the pre-cursor to the (hopefully logical) decision to attend business school. It should also be clear why business school is important for you to achieve your long-term goals. Your career plans should be clear (even if you have 3 ideas of what you could do, you will need to choose one) and the progression needs to make sense (investment banker transitioning to brand manager is a stretch people!!!).
The Wharton School of Business is certainly near and dear to the hearts of the founders of Admit Advantage having walked the halls of Huntsman Hall for two (very short) years. Wharton is certainly known for their analytical bent, so make sure you highlight areas of your background and career where you have demonstrated analytical rigor. The misconception about Wharton is that it is very competitive (internally), but the school is actually very team oriented (learning team in yr 1), so make sure you display your ability to work in teams. Another major focus for Wharton is innovation, so be sure to address your creativity and innovation in one of your essays.
Essay 1 (300 words): What are your professional objectives?
Stanford GSB Essay Reviews 2011-2012
Stanford GSB is generally somewhat unique in its essay questions. They genuinely attempt to get to know your personality and interests to see what makes you tick. In essay 1, almost like a law school personal statement, they want to know what matters most to you and why. In essay 2, they want to dig into your passion and interest in Stanford GSB. To round out the essays, they have a series of behavioral essay questions for you to further discuss your leadership characteristics and personality. Since these essays are so open-ended, they can be the toughest to write. Spend time thinking about what you want to say and then attack the questions. We recommend putting together an outline prior to writing the essays, so you will have a roadmap for success.
There is an 1800 word limit on all of the essays, but Stanford GSB provides guidelines for word count for each essay. As you think about what matters most to you, take liberties in expanding on the essay topics that are most important to you and cutting back on others, however, 1800 IS the limit. If they thought 2000 was OK, they would’ve set a 2000 word limit – that’s basically what the police officer told me about the speed limit when writing my ticket last week (despite pleading my case that everybody else was doing 80, so it should be OK!).
That’s right– Harvard Business School’s 2011-2012 essays are out, and it’s not even time to put on shorts, at least where I live (stop bragging, SoCal/Florida). The season continues to start earlier and earlier. Soon enough, we’ll be starting essay questions around Valentine’s day! Enough admissions banter…on to business.
The HBS essays have changed a bit from last year. Questions 1 and 2 are modifications of 2010-2011 questions, and they stripped your right to choose by eliminating the “choose 2 of 4” short essay format. In its place are a standard question about yMBA and a completely open question where you can determine the topic. When thinking about the HBS essays, reflect on how you have exhibited leadership and made an impact through your career and community pursuits. As always with writing MBA essays, your choice of essay topics can be just as important as the actual content (especially for the open-ended question), so think about the essay topics carefully.
Essay 1 (600 words): What are your three most substantial accomplishments?
This is fundamentally a carryover from last year. Clearly, this essay is meant to gain meaningful insight into your accomplishments. While they left out the clarifying question from last year’s application “…and why do you view them as such”, a more complete essay will provide your rationale for choosing these three accomplishments. This will provide the admissions committee with insight into your value compass to understand what is important to you.
Admit Advantage: This is an open invitation to give the HBS admissions committee insight into what matters most to you and your definition of success. Don’t relegate yourself to career accomplishments on this essay. While you certainly should address career accomplishments, perhaps there is an equally meaningful community achievement or perseverance through a personal trial that would be beneficial for you to highlight…remember, you have three choices!
Admit Advantage: Think about your MBA brand before you write this essay. Map out the key leadership traits that you want to get across to the admissions committee and try to identify accomplishments that highlight these traits. Attempt to balance your community, personal, and career accomplishments with a heavier emphasis on the latter. read more…
Field trip? Yes! Hyderabad? Even better! The beautiful city, located in the central east portion of India, is known for its spicy cuisine, Hindi-Islam mixture of culture, amazing corporate campuses and… The Indian School of Business (ISB) . Mesmerized by the chance to leave the densely populated circus of NYC and the bone-chilling winter weather, Admit Advantage jumped at the chance to join the…densely populated streets of Hyderabad with its balmy weather and adventuresome driving. By adventuresome, we mean harrowing, scary, and a bit thrilling.
Ms. Hima Bindu, Associate Director of Admissions & Financial Aid, ISB
Approximately fifteen years ago, India’s leading business leaders and academics surmised that the unparalleled emerging economic opportunities in India demanded the creation of a top-flight institution to train India’s and the world’s best students to assume leadership of this ever-evolving environment. Like the US Olympic Dream Team of 1992, the effort for universal excellence brought together a lot of lumaries and corporate titans who wanted to be part of building something special en route to obtaining this global dominance. It sounds lofty, but with a 260-acre idyllic campus, an executive board that would make any capitalist cry with envy, the involvement of three of the premier global programs, and a recent ranking of #13 in the Financial Times after only ten years of operation, they deserve some props. ISB is a powerhouse that may mark one of the first trends of the US and Europe not being the sole province of exceptional higher business education in the same way that industries like auto, biotechnology, and solar are no longer dominated by the old guard.
