Accepted Admissions Podcast: Recent Episodes
Linda Abraham
MBA admissions chats conducted by Linda Abraham with admissions directors at top MBA programs and other leaders in graduate business school admissions.
ISB
Thinking about applying to the Indian School of Business?
Then check out our recent Q&A with Mr. V. K. Menon, Senior Director of Placements at ISB for valuable information on career prospects for ISB grads post-MBA. Read on for an excerpt: Question: Can you explain how well ISB graduates are placed in terms of being work ready on the first day? Do ISB and companies that hire consider that the PGP is robust enough to deliver work-ready managers with minimal training? VK Menon: Let’s look at how we operate. The ISB Program is a one-year program. So right when we were setting up the school the question arose, should we go in for a one-year program or should we do a normal two-year program like many other business schools? The research we conducted showed that if people had more than three years of experience they were in a very advantageous position if they went in for a one-year program, and so we chose the one-year model. The tradeoff of the model is that in a typical two-year model, you get about 720 contact hours. These are hours which you spend in class with the professors, 720. In a one-year program, that is the one that is done by ISB, you have around 680 contact hours. So there is a tradeoff of about 40 contact hours, but the advantage is that you get back to work one year earlier. So that’s how we formulated the design. Having formulated the design, the other thing which we had to do was that we had to do away with all the breaks....This one year is split up into eight terms and each term is one and a half months. In each term, you will do about four to five subjects which means that it’s a very tight program and the program rolls on term after term for one complete year.
Now, the interesting fact here is that close to around 70% of the students who join the PGP Program of the ISB change their careers. They either change their function or they change their industry or they change their location or they change all the three. So the question which was asked becomes very important. How is it that we make these people ready to be operative from day one, how is that we prepare them not just on that curriculum but also on the get-ready-to-industry concept? Now for that we have a complete -- under the Career Advancement Services, we have a Learning and Development Department. The Learning and Development Department is headed by vertical specialists....So it is their role...to ensure that you take the right subjects, you go to the projects which you need to do. You may have to choose certain projects which are specifically designed for you. You may have to kind of go out and work with certain industries. You may have to do special sessions from industry experts who are brought in for getting you ready to go to market. So there's a whole set of activities which are done by the Learning and Development Department. This department is not in any way associated with the academics that go on. The academics is a stream by itself. The Learning and Development Department just ensures that the student is job ready, job fit for both the interview and for the job, if and when the job is given to you. So that’s the way in which we train students to be ready on day one. Going by feedback of companies which have been recruiting, and we’re very sensitive about feedback, we get back to the companies and we are in close touch with more than about 1,000 companies worldwide. So the feedback suggests that the graduates of ISB have performed exceptionally well when it came to really handling assignments post graduation. For the complete conversation, please check out the 2014 ISB Career Opportunities Post-MBA Q&A or listen to the audio file. You can also view our ISB B-School Zone for more information.
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Alex Salter- Recruitment & Admissions Manager
Are you confused about the difference between London Business School’s MBA and its Masters in Management (MiM)? Are you considering applying for the MiM program but have questions about the program’s curriculum, student life, job prospects, etc.? Are you looking for winning tips on how to best present yourself in London’s MiM application?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then you’ll want to check out our recent Q&A with London Business School MiM reps Ivan Anderson, Client Services Manager at the Masters in Management; Alex Salter, Recruitment and Admissions Manager at the Masters in Management at London Business School; and Daniel Lay, Career Services Recruiter Lead for the Masters in Management at London Business School. Read on for an excerpt.
Question: What are the main differences between the MiM program and the conventional MBA program?
Alex Salter: With regards our MiM program, it really is a pre-experience program for more recent graduates in the last couple of years. The MBA at London Business School, I can certainly say you will be required to have a minimum of two years work experience and it's actually unusual to see students on the program contributing at that level. The average work experience on that program has risen year and year. At the moment it's just about six years work experience. So we really are filling the gap in the market. People are graduating more recently looking for that practical business experience, whilst they might not have the practical experience themselves. It may only be in a number of internships that they have undertaken.
Ivan Anderson: ...Also, I definitely think the differences between the MBA and the Masters in Management specifically is that we equip individuals who come from various different undergraduate disciplines with the skills and the knowledge, as well as, the tools that they need in order to really begin and to make their impact on the business world. Versus the MBA which is slightly different where individuals either use the MBA to shift careers or to move up to the next level within their career. Versus the MiM which is designed to really give young professionals that are just entering the market the extra competitive edge that they need in order to really make an impact.
For the complete conversation, please check out the 2013 London Business School MiM Q&A transcript or listen to the audio file. You can also view our London Business School MiM B-School Zone for more information.
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA events list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.
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Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
"...there's definitely a great community just among all of us."
Thank you to Consortium representatives for another outstanding Q&A! As always, the Consortium team and partnering school reps offered loads of insight into the Consortium admissions process and the ways in which the individual programs support the Consortium mission. See the below excerpt for more on this:
Linda Abraham: Elva asks, "What percentage of your students in each of your programs are Consortium students? How does your program help candidates live up to the mission of the Consortium?"
Allison Jesse: Okay, I'd like to start with the mission part because I think in terms of the Consortium's mission, we have core values at our particular school, UNC Kenan-Flagler, and I'm sure many of my colleagues can also speak to something similar at their business school. Leadership, integrity, teamwork, excellence, all of these things mirror what the Consortium is all about....in terms of Consortium members, it's about 7%.
Cindy Jennings Millette: Well, I certainly agree with what Allison said. The culture in business school, definitely being able to kind of give back in that leadership experience and team skills and all that, definitely melds really well with what the Consortium has. And we also have a culture at Berkeley, we have four defining principles, one being, "Beyond Yourself” and “Student Always," and I think both of those really do mirror what the Consortium mission is. Right now, we have 20 students in each class that are Consortium members, and I do think that what's really great is we see a lot of these people in different roles throughout the leadership on campus, including in our MBA association, so that's someone who's a Vice President of, Admissions, and Student Services, and all of that. And then also in the different clubs, the industry-focused clubs, you just see students being very involved, as we see a lot of our students being involved, and that kind of drive to give back you definitely see throughout the community.
Jon Fuller: So, our MBA class each year is about 500 students, give or take. And this year, we have about 45 Consortium students....So not quite 10%, 8 -- 9%...So it's a very healthy number, and it's definitely a presence that's well-known and well-regarded on campus, and very similar to what Cindy was saying. Instead of..."How does your program help candidates?" It's really how do our students help candidates live up to the mission? Because they really hold one another accountable. We have a really strong and connected culture between MBA 1s and MBA 2s, which I won't go so far as to say is unique to Ross, but it always surprises me as to just how well-enmeshed they are with one another. And so the MBA 2s really take the role, in saying, "Hey, you know, we have this fine tradition here at Ross of not being passive individuals in our MBA experience, and taking on those leadership roles, and really stepping up to the opportunity." And sort of demonstrate the mission by living it, and demonstrating it to others by their actions and the ways that they're involved and the ways that they try to educate their classmates who come from, not just other U.S. backgrounds where they may have had more or less engagement, or opportunity to experience a diverse environment, but also with our international students where you really might have a monolithic culture, which is really kind of the antithesis of what you find here in the United States. So they're not just engaged with the U.S. students, but also, it's a great opportunity to demonstrate that activity or that perspective to our international students as well.
Rabia Ahmed: Sure, so I think one of the really nice things about the Consortium, in general, is that during OP, as Rebecca mentioned, the entire Consortium family gets to come together, and so you meet not only the students that are going to be in your class, but also in all of the other Consortium schools,
"300 to 400 companies would come and recruit."
Did you miss our recent ISB MBA Q&A? No problem! Read the excerpt below on the Indian job market for ISB MBAs and then check out the full transcript for more details. Thank you VK Menon, Senior Director of Placements at the Indian School of Business, for an insightful conversation about ISB! (P.S. We invite you to read the Q&A transcript even if you DID attend the event – an excellent review for those planning on applying to ISB!)
Linda Abraham: "How does the Indian job market look for a person graduating in 2014 from ISB?" Probably a question of interest to a lot of people on the call.
VK Menon: Okay. Actually, this is my personal take – but I have a very different take on this whole thing. I don’t think we should confuse the macro with the micro. That is, I’m not so concerned about how the economy is doing, or how certain sectors are doing, or how the global economy is, or whether we are in a recession, or whether we are in a buoyant mood. Yes, those are all factors. But end of the day, when you graduate out of a premium b-school like the ISB, it is what happens to you that’s important.
For a small group of people, (700 is not a very large number in a collective world landscape), so in a small group it all depends on how you prepare for the job you want to join, and given that over the years the reputation that is built by premium schools is strong, and close to 300 to 400 companies would come and recruit. Your chance of getting a job which you want is high, subject to your preparations levels being strong and your commitment levels being strong.
So I really don’t bother too much about the macro-environment, or how the environment might go. Wherever it goes, the war for talent will be there. Good students will get lapped up, so, those are all reality....over the last ten years I have seen various ups and downs of the economy, but always the demand for talent and the demand for the right talent, and good talent has been constant.
For the complete conversation, please check out the Indian School of Business MBA transcript or listen to the audio file. For additional tips on how to ace the ISB application, visit our Indian School of Business B-School Zone.
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA events list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.
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Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
"We want you to be involved."
Thank you to Jon Fuller, Senior Associate Director Admissions, and Diana Economy, Associate Director of Admissions at Michigan Ross for an outstanding Q&A!
In the following excerpt you’ll read about Ross’s strengths and what distinguishes Ross from other top MBA programs:
Linda Abraham: "How is Ross' program different from other top programs? Is there anything in particular?" Now, I know that you know the Ross program best, so let me rephrase that question if I could and say "What do you think Ross is particularly strong at?"
Jon Fuller: Not that we're a one-trick pony with the action-based learning component, but that is definitely something that I think is a big differentiating factor to our students’ experience within our program; is that, again, through MAP and a lot of other experiences, such as through our institutes and centers, through student life experience, and the clubs and organizations that our students lead and develop, there are many, many opportunities to take theory and put it into practice, and to put it in practice in a context that actually has significant impact and significant weight to it.
...Our philosophy is "Why should you wait until you graduate from your MBA program to actually try some of these things out, to try some of these learnings out and apply them to the real world?" There’s a safety net in some ways for you to test yourself, to test your boundaries, and to experiment, but at the same time, there are real stakes involved...
... I'm always struck by is the engagement of our student body in terms of actually making the Ross experience their own, and really shaping and having a significant role and actually providing direction to the school. We have over seventy different student organizations and clubs. All of them are student run. Of course, there may be a faculty advisor and there is staff support to these organizations, but the students have ultimate say in terms of what the programming is...We tell people, we want you to be involved...and if you don't see something here that exists that is of interest to you, then make it happen.
...So students are very active. It is not a passive existence, or a passive experience that they have, and I think that's a real distinguishing feature to the extent that that happens, at the Ross school.
Diana Economy: I think our alumni base is very much a distinguishing factor. I noticed that both as a student as well as an alum. I think to further Jon's point about the connection that students have with one another through their experience here and co-creating this great experience that develops these very strong bonds that they continue on as alum.
I think our alumni feel very strongly about giving back. Of course, University of Michigan's got one of the largest living alumni bases anywhere. And as a Ross graduate, you're not just a part of the Ross school of business graduate community; you're part of a larger University of Michigan community. You could pick up the phone anywhere in the world and call somebody who was a law school alum or an undergraduate alum or a med school alum, and you're part of that broader network. Which of course, when you go to business school, you're not just preparing for that first job out of business school, but essentially for your whole career. Having that strong alumni base is something that we feel is very strong here.
For the full Q&A, please view the Michigan Ross MBA transcript or listen to the audio file. You can also boost your Ross IQ by visiting our Michigan Ross B-School Zone.
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA events list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.
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Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
“Be prepared!”
We had an excellent Q&A last week with admissions members from Cornell Johnson. We hope you enjoyed it! In the following excerpt, Cornell adcom members, Christine Sneva, Ann Richards, and Eddie Asby talk about their interview pet peeves. Read on for valuable advice about what NOT to do:
Linda Abraham: What are your greatest pet peeves during an interview? In other words, what mistakes do applicants make?
Christine Sneva: In terms of preparation, treat the interview as if it was a job interview. Dress professionally, prepare, and remember what you're going into. This is an interview that is assessing your fit with our program, that we know. You don't need to know everything about the program, but we really want to know, genuinely, why you want to be here, how you see yourself being a part of the community, how you came to that conclusion.
In an interview, you really also get a true sense of someone's goal clarity. So we'll ask you other schools that you may be applying to. We'll also ask what it is that you want to do, how you've prepared for that career. These are all questions that, through resources like Accepted.com and other ways, that really push you on these questions, not so you anticipate them and know this question, but really know why you want to get an MBA, and why is it important that you do this at this point in your life...But also, remember, it's only 30, maybe 40 minutes, so we can't have a two-hour interview or a day's worth of interviews where you want to really try to get to know someone. So that's where other pieces in the application really come in and are really also very important
Ann Richards: I would just add that really take the time to be prepared. I think the thing that bothers me the most, or my pet peeve regarding interviews, is we've read your application, we've put in this time, and we've identified you as somebody that we think has real potential at this school, and invited you to interview. And if you show up here, and you don't know about the school or you seem disinterested or you're not taking this seriously, I feel like we've wasted our time, and you may have wasted your time.
So be prepared, as Christine said, it's not hard to find out what kind of questions we're going to ask in the interview, and make the most of your visit here. Don't ask us questions that are easily answered by just visiting our website.
Eddie Asbie: I have just one piece of advice. I always just want to make sure the prospective students remember that the minute that you walk through the door, it's like you're being interviewed. Or if you are reaching out to current students, alums, just remember to keep yourself in a professional manner at all times....[Y]ou never know if that receptionist is part of the admissions committee. But then, also if you're walking with current students, [they] will even kind of look at you to see if you are going to be the best candidate to represent our school. Being a part of a business school, this is something that you're investing your time, your money, but also this is a lifelong affiliation that you will have from the minute that you walk in, [if you have] any kind of communications, keep it in a professional manner.
For the full Q&A, please view the Cornell Johnson transcript or listen to the audio file. Boost your MBA interview IQ by reading up on the resources on our Business School Interview Prep 101.
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA events list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.
// Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
Thank you to the Consortium MBA panelists (including reps from CMU Tepper, Rochester Simon, Cornell Johnson, and others) for an insightful Q&A. The following excerpt offers important tips into what NOT to do when completing your Consortium MBA application:
Linda Abraham: Kurt asked, "Could the member schools talk about a few common mistakes they see applicants make during the application process?"
Evan Bouffides: Well, there are certainly a lot of pitfalls and mistakes that could be made. As far as the most common ones, I would say, going back to a point I made earlier, we really, as business schools, want to know that you, the applicant, have given careful thought to the notion of going back to school, getting your graduate degree in business, that it's the right moment in time, that you've really thought about what you would like your life and your career to look like afterwards. I think sometimes students don't present with as much focus...and maybe the reason for that is they're trying to second-guess what admissions officers want to hear. We really want you to craft a good argument for yourself that goes something like this, "Here's who I've been so far in my life professionally, and maybe even personally speaking. This is where I want to go, and this is how the MBA is going to get me there."
Monique Moreland:I think one of the biggest pitfalls is that people need to take this process as seriously as if they were applying for a job. This is a serious process. From the application to the interview to the interactions with the staff, it's just as important as if you were looking for a job. As was mentioned before, we all talk with each other and so does our staff. If someone comes in and is rude to our receptionist or things like that, that doesn't look very good for you as an applicant, a Consortium applicant or an applicant in general. So my best piece of advice, take this process very seriously. It's just as important as it will be when you're applying for a job.
Stefanie Bascom: Sure. I agree with everything my colleagues have said. I'll take a pretty easy one: proofread, proofread, proofread. There's several applications every year–we've all experienced it–where someone is taking an essay on why they want to attend a certain business school, and they have another university name in there. This is not the best thing that we want to see. We certainly want you to be excited about coming to our school. This is a chance for you to show how you've researched the school, who you may have spoken with at the school, any alumni or current students, if you attended an event. So we really do expect you to know as much as possible about our business school prior to the application, and so that can come through in the essay
Ann Richards: I have to second what Stefanie said about that carelessness because the way that we look at it is if you're sloppy in your application to us, you're going to be that way with employers as well, and that's not how we want you to represent our program. So I really want to second Stefanie's comments and everybody else's. The unique piece of advice that I think I have is to really take this MBA application opportunity to think about what it is, why it is you're going to business school. It's not just to get a better salary. It's not just to change a job. We have all created our applications in a manner so that it really forces good candidates to be introspective, to think about what drives them, what motivates them. Take advantage of this opportunity. This is probably the first time in your adult life that you've really had the luxury to think about, "What is it that I want to do? What am I good at? What skills do I need to develop?" And if you really think about that, if you use this as an opportunity to really think about what drives you and what you want to do, your application will be so much stronger.
For the full Q&A, please view the Consortium MBA transcript or listen to th...
Thank you to Lindsay Haselton, Associate Director of MBA Admissions, and Adrian Aguirre, Associate Director in the Office of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at UCLA Anderson, for an informative admissions Q&A. Read the following excerpt for tips on making UCLA connections before applying to the program:
Linda Abraham: How many people do you recommend trying to connect with at UCLA, in terms of recent students, alumni, professors, etc., before applying?
Lindsay Haselton: We do get asked that question a lot, and I think it is great to be able to get a feel of the culture of the school that you’re entering or planning on applying to; so we do provide a number of different ways that you can do that. I think most commonly, first of all, would be an event. So we host a lot of events on campus and off campus where we have alums and current students hosting information sessions or sitting on panels, and they’re a really good chance to be able to ask questions about what it was like actually going through the student experience…The other way is by reaching out to our student clubs, and I know Adrian had told you a little bit about the leadership opportunities that you will have in the program. We have 45-plus different clubs—so what applicants often do is they will go to our website. We have a list of all of the different clubs, and you can email the leaders in those clubs and ask them questions that are relevant to their career interests, or perhaps, just hobbies on the side….
Adrian Aguirre: And if I could add just an extra thought. I want to make sure folks don’t misunderstand the reason why this is important. We’re not keeping track or scoring you for how many alums or students or faculty you have contacted. But it will definitely have an impact on the quality of your application, particularly in your essays for example, because the more informed you are and the more grounded your plan for the future is, the better it’s going to be perceived, and we think the more you’re going to be excited and enthused about the whole process. So it’s not so much for our sake; it’s really for you as an applicant to do part of your due diligence and to realize if this is the right school for you, what are some of the reasons that you feel that way….
Please view the full transcript or listen to the audio file here and see our UCLA Anderson B-School Zone for more advice on how to create the most impressive UCLA Anderson application.
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA event list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
We hope you enjoyed our recent Wharton Lauder MBA Q&A. We certainly learned a lot about the Wharton Lauder application process and about how these two programs work together to offer students a unique learning experience.
In the following excerpt, Marcy Bevan, Director of Admissions and External Affairs at the Lauder Institute, discusses the career path of the typical Lauder graduate…though as you’ll see, “typical” doesn’t exist at Lauder.
Linda Abraham: What is the typical career path for the Lauder graduate, or is there a typical career path for the Lauder graduate? What are the kinds of positions that they typically go into?
Marcy Bevan: The reason we don’t discuss this on our website is because there’s no such thing as “typical.” There are too many variations to start talking about it. Our students have access to the Wharton Career Center, so they can go through the regular recruiting program for them. There are multinational companies which do come to campus to interview. Our students also have access to recruiters when they do their Summer Immersion programs in specific locations. So they will go visit some of the companies they might end up wanting to work for. While it’s not the time to interview for a job, it’s a time to start making relationships. Our students go all over the world to work. Sometimes it corresponds with the language in which they focused, and sometimes it does not correspond. Sometimes it’s right after graduation, and sometimes it doesn’t happen for years after graduation. They do consulting, banking, non-profit work, private equity, hedge funds, and work as general managers for companies, a lot of entrepreneurs in the crowd these days. People wanting to start their own businesses. Some of our graduates have done so, very successfully, starting when they’re in school, and continuing when they’re out of school. And successful ones, too.
For the complete discussion, please see the Wharton Lauder transcript and mp3 audio file.
For soup-to-nuts advice on writing your MBA goals essay, please see MBA Goals, a resource kit loaded with expert advice on mapping out your career goals in your MBA application.
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our *MBA event list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.*
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
Students at HEC Paris
Did you get a chance to check out our HEC Paris MBA Q&A with Marie-Laurence Lemaire, HEC MBA's Senior Business Development Manager?
The excerpt below emphasizes the importance of describing clear post-MBA career goals in your HEC MBA application: Linda Abraham: What role does “hire-ability” and clear career goals play in the evaluation process? Marie-Laurence Lemaire: We ask this question in the application file because we want the people actually applying to the MBA program to think about their future. We don’t want people who just apply for a program because of the ranking or this and that. You do obviously apply to a specific program because it highly ranked, etc., but we want more than just that. We want people to think about their future and have a clear idea of what they want to do. Most of our students are career switchers, so they want to change something in their environment. They want to change geography, they want to change sector of activity, or they want to change job. They can’t change all three at the same time; that is just impossible. Sometimes they can change two things. But most of the time, if they manage to change one thing, it’s really great. And then later on, you can change something else. But to change too many things at the same time won’t work. Linda Abraham: If you want to change two or more of those parameters, you are best off doing it in a multi-step process and as a long-term plan? Marie-Laurence Lemaire: Absolutely. Because by changing too many things at the same time, you might really be confronting too many difficulties, especially in the environment today. You need to really do one step at a time. So you might have to accept a job just after the MBA which might not be your dream job. But that job will lead you to something else, to getting more experience in something that will lead to something that you are really dreaming of later on. So you have to do it step by step. I think it is very important. To go back to your original question about the admission, we want our students to think about what they want to do, but we know very well that over the course of the program, a lot of people will change their minds. And that is fine. We are used to that. I think it’s pretty okay to grow up during the course of an MBA and say, I know that in the admissions file I wanted to do this and work in that sector of activity, but really, I spoke to some alum, I’ve seen some companies, and this is not me. I’d rather work in sustainability, for example. So yes, we want to hear about projects. Sometimes people have a clear view of what they want to do, but sometimes people change and that is fine. To learn more about this top ranked European business school, please see the full HEC Paris MBA transcript or listen to the audio file here. For detailed tips for career changers on how they can best highlight their post-MBA goals, check out the resources on our MBA Career Change Admissions Advice page.
Please join us for our upcoming Q&A featuring an international panel of adcom members from top European b-schools. Marie-Laurence Lemaire will be joining us again to represent HEC, as will Jeroen Verhoeven (ESADE) and Lisa Piguet (IMD). The event will take place on Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 8:30 AM PST / 11:30 AM EST / 3:30 PM GMT / 5:30 pm CEST. Register now to reserve your spot!
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA event list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
Students at HEC Paris
Thank you Marie-Laurence Lemaire, HEC Paris MBA's Senior Business Development Manager, for an excellent admissions Q&A.
The excerpt below emphasizes the importance of describing clear post-MBA career goals in your HEC MBA application: Linda Abraham: What role does “hire-ability” and clear career goals play in the evaluation process? Marie-Laurence Lemaire: We ask this question in the application file because we want the people actually applying to the MBA program to think about their future. We don’t want people who just apply for a program because of the ranking or this and that. You do obviously apply to a specific program because it highly ranked, etc., but we want more than just that. We want people to think about their future and have a clear idea of what they want to do. Most of our students are career switchers, so they want to change something in their environment. They want to change geography, they want to change sector of activity, or they want to change job. They can’t change all three at the same time; that is just impossible. Sometimes they can change two things. But most of the time, if they manage to change one thing, it’s really great. And then later on, you can change something else. But to change too many things at the same time won’t work. Linda Abraham: If you want to change two or more of those parameters, you are best off doing it in a multi-step process and as a long-term plan? Marie-Laurence Lemaire: Absolutely. Because by changing too many things at the same time, you might really be confronting too many difficulties, especially in the environment today. You need to really do one step at a time. So you might have to accept a job just after the MBA which might not be your dream job. But that job will lead you to something else, to getting more experience in something that will lead to something that you are really dreaming of later on. So you have to do it step by step. I think it is very important. To go back to your original question about the admission, we want our students to think about what they want to do, but we know very well that over the course of the program, a lot of people will change their minds. And that is fine. We are used to that. I think it’s pretty okay to grow up during the course of an MBA and say, I know that in the admissions file I wanted to do this and work in that sector of activity, but really, I spoke to some alum, I’ve seen some companies, and this is not me. I’d rather work in sustainability, for example. So yes, we want to hear about projects. Sometimes people have a clear view of what they want to do, but sometimes people change and that is fine. To learn more about this top-ranked European business school, please see the full HEC Paris MBA transcript or listen to the audio file here.
For detailed tips for career changers on how they can best highlight their post-MBA goals, check out the resources on our MBA Career Change Admissions Advice page.
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HKUST campus in Hong Kong
Thank you to Sherring Ng, Head of Marketing & Admissions at HKUST Business School, and Pimluck Suvitsakdanon, a second year HKUST student, for an excellent admissions Q&A.
The following excerpt offers some HKUST program highlights, a great introduction if you're considering applying to this top Asian business school: Linda Abraham: Sherring, what is new at HKUST? Sherring Ng: There are so many new things at HKUST, but I will highlight a few things. We noticed that more and more recruiters at HKUST expect graduates to speak some Mandarin. In the past, we have only had three weeks of Mandarin training courses for students, just as an exposure. But starting from this year, we actually have a one-year Mandarin training program at HKUST with different levels. So a student would need to pass one level in order to take another level of Mandarin training. But eventually they can take the Business Mandarin, which is credit bearing, to learn Mandarin in business settings; like how to do interviews, how to do presentations, make reports, etc. This is one of the new things. Another thing is that we have started a pilot this past winter. We call it Professional Week. It is a very intensive training that lasts 4-5 days for students, from morning till evening. They need to do a lot of presentations, case analyses, business analyses, etc. The purpose of that is for students to really drill their skills in analyzing the different scenarios in a very short time; to do presentations, to work in teams, etc. And we are very happy about this pilot because the feedback has been very positive. And then after that training, we have sent many students overseas for different kinds of case competitions or business plan competitions. One of the competitions is the USC Marshall Global Consulting Challenge. It was held in Los Angeles, and our students won the first place. Another one is the HULT Global Case Challenge, which was held in Shanghai. Our students also won that regional competition. So it seems quite effective. Starting from our year-one students, we give an iPad to all students. And this coming summer, we plan to have something like a portal or platform for students when they are attending classes. They no longer need to bring all the notes, the package, or books; they can access all the reading materials, PowerPoint, etc. on their iPads. So it really facilitates a learning experience and also is very environmentally friendly. To learn more about this rising Asian business school, please see the full transcript or listen to the audio file here.
To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please check out Accepted's Admissions Podcasts.
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Thank you to the USC Marshall representatives for an excellent admissions Q&A. They covered lots of important topics, offering tips on all aspects of the admissions process. Read the excerpt below to learn more about the culture at Marshall and what qualities the adcom members look for in applicants: Linda Abraham: Art asks, "What strengths do you believe separate your school from some of the other MBA programs?" Grace Kim: There are great programs out there, ours being one of them. Academically, any school that you go to, you will get a great academic education. So it’s really about fit – where do you fit culturally? What sort of experiences are you looking for as you are going to graduate school? I think that makes the difference as far as distinguishing factors from schools. Because when you go to an academic environment – a college, a graduate program – there are certain standards that everyone maintains to give you that type of education. But the other component is – what kind of network do you want to have? What type of culture? What type of experience? And that is what is unique from school to school. So we always encourage our applicants, whether you are starting the application process or you’re thinking about schools, or even during the application process, to really go and visit the schools that you are going to apply to because that will give you a very good idea what the school is about and what the students are about. When we say teamwork and camaraderie, what are we talking about? How do people interact in class? What is the relationship between the professors and teachers? You will be able to get that kind of feeling and sense for the school when you actually visit. So we encourage our applicants to always visit the schools. Most schools have a visitation program. We certainly have one here; it’s called the Ambassador Program. Anyone can come Monday-Thursday. There is a morning class or an afternoon class, and a student will host you and take you around. They’ll give you a tour, answer any of your questions, and introduce you to the professors and other students so that you really get a feel for the school and what the unique characteristics of the school are. So we encourage you to do that. Feel free to call us any time in your application process to schedule an appointment. You can view the full transcript or listen to the audio file here and see our blog post, USC Marshall Application Questions, Deadlines, & Tips, for more advice on how to optimize your USC Marshall application.
Still not sure if Marshall is the best b-school for you? Download Accepted's free special report, Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Right One, now for valuable tips on choosing an MBA program based on your individual qualifications and experiences.
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Thanks to the London Business School Masters in Management representatives, we had yet another successful London Q&A. See the chat excerpt below for important information on the difference between London's MBA and Masters in Management programs. Linda Abraham: What is the difference between the MBA and the MiM? Lisa Mortini: That is a very valid question, and a lot of students actually ask themselves that question. It is absolutely a good question to start thinking about when you start looking at furthering your education and also at your career path. There are very big differences, but I would start by talking about the things that are common between the two programs. What is common is that some of the topics that we cover in the MiM are very similar to the topics that are covered in the first year of the MBA because they are core courses on finance, macroeconomics, and leadership. And these things are the basis of management and they are topics that are covered on the MBA. Another similar point is that if you do your MBA here at the school, you have access to the school community, the school network, and the clubs and events and activities... The main difference really is that for students who apply to the MiM program, they do so at a very different level in their career. There will be students who just graduated from their undergraduate or are about to graduate from their undergraduate studies. And they are really looking to feel more confident, to find the right career path, to change a degree that maybe was a degree in liberal arts like history or philosophy and turn that into a business degree and do a conversion. So they come from different backgrounds, but what they have in common is that they are recent graduates that are looking for a course that is going to help them get in the door of businesses and get their foot in the door of these companies that they have an interest in. So they are much earlier on in their careers. For most of the MBA students at our school, the average is actually about 5 ½ - 6 years of work experience... All students are also in different situations in terms of where they see themselves going. A lot of our students will be very determined on a career path, and they know they want to do this course to get there and have the right connections. But a lot of them also won’t know exactly what they want to do, and so they think, which is quite right, that through doing this course they will get access to a lot of opportunities and they will learn about new careers that they haven’t thought about before. MBAs are already in their career; they are more aware of these things. What they are looking for is generally a change of career. They’d like to convert 4-5-6 years of work experience into a new career. So they are doing the programs for different reasons. Prateik Pothuneedi: One of the major differences is that obviously the MBA program is much longer than the MiM program. It is a two-year program, and they could do an internship and they have a much longer exchange period. But I think at this point it is worthwhile to understand that there is a high level of interaction between the MiMs and the MBA students. In fact, in the clubs we see that the MiMs and the MBA students have pretty much equal standing, and there is a lot of interaction. And the MiM students do get to learn a lot from the MBA students who tend to be a little bit more experienced. Lisa Mortini: Where the students go afterwards is also very different. Our students, once they graduate from the MiM, will be looking at entry level - graduate schemes, whereas MBA students will be at a slightly higher level in their career and looking for slightly different jobs. Daniel Lay: Absolutely. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. If we were to take an investment bank or a financial institution, the MiM students will be going in at the analyst level, whereas an MBA student would be going in at the associate level.
Our recent Be Smart MBA Admissions Q&A was a huge success with tons of excellent questions asked and detailed answers given by Linda Abraham, founder & CEO of Accepted.com. Here's a particularly good question about the connection between the application essays and the MBA resume: Miriam Berlin: J asks, "How much overlap should there be between my resume and essays? Should I try to cover every major point mentioned in my resume in my essays?" Linda Abraham: The resume is a snapshot and the essays are deep dives. So you definitely do not need to cover every major point made in your resume. That is definitely unnecessary and probably a really bad idea because that would make your essays resumes in prose and prevent your essays from supplementing and complementing your resume. If you think of your application as a great big jigsaw puzzle with every element coming together to clarify the picture of you that is being presented in the application, you realize that you don’t want things to duplicate. Obviously your resume provides context, it provides a certain chronology, but it doesn’t go into much depth—it can’t. Your essays are for providing depth. And occasionally, depending upon the question and your particular experiences, the essays may go into areas of your life simply not covered in a professional resume. So do not in any way shape or form feel compelled to explore every major point in your resume. That is definitely not necessary. Use your essays to go much deeper into really important points on the most important points on your resume to provide your motivations, to provide lessons learned, and to go into greater depth. But don’t have one duplicate the other. For the full transcript, please view the Be Smart MBA Admissions Q&A transcript or listen to the audio file. You can also learn more about how to construct a strong MBA resume and winning application essays by visiting MBA Resume 101 and our collection of sample MBA essays.
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Thank you Jennifer Hayes, Senior Associate Director of Admissions at Kellogg, and Erik Mazmanian, a second-year student at Kellogg, for an excellent Q&A about life and admissions at Northwestern Kellogg. Jennifer and Erik covered a wide range of topics, including the following advice on how to avoid some common Kellogg application mistakes: Linda Abraham: What are the most common pitfalls of prospective students in the application process, and how would you advise candidates to best avoid them? Jennifer Hayes: Very good question. I’ve been at Kellogg for eight years now, so I’ve seen a lot of applications, and I’ve seen a lot of things that aren’t in the best interest of the applicant. I do think that the biggest pitfall is that people do their research on Kellogg, they understand what’s important to us as an institution, and then they frame their experiences, their accomplishments, and the things that are important to them around that. Those are things that are important to us and those are things that you will experience if you’re here. However, you don’t necessarily have to frame your experience around that. We really want to understand what has motivated you, what’s been valuable to you, and what’s been most important to you in your life and in your career. I would really encourage people to set aside that they’re applying to Kellogg and who we stand for as an institution, and really just think internally; really reflect on themselves when they’re starting to answer the application questions. You will look more genuine and more authentic. If you’re really talking about yourself, your values, and your motivations, you will look more diverse and unique as an applicant, instead of trying to do maybe what everyone else is doing by just reviewing the website and telling us those are important to you. For the full Q&A, please view the Kellogg transcript or listen to the audio file. You can also read up on Northwestern Kellogg's MBA Application Essay Tips & Deadlines.
To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please check out Accepted Admissions Podcast.
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If you attended our recent INSEAD Q&A then you know that Kara Keenan, the Assistant Director of Marketing for the Americas from INSEAD, covered a wide range of admissions topics, offering some excellent advice to our INSEAD applicants. Here's an excerpt from the conversation in which Kara discusses the benefits of an INSEAD MBA – if you are thinking about applying to INSEAD, then read on! Linda Abraham: Dine asks, "Why should students choose an INSEAD MBA over other prestigious MBA programs in the States?" Kara Keenan: Again, one of the advantages is the one-year/ten-month nature of the program; a great return on your investment. We cover 80% of the course hours of the two-year program in ten months, so you definitely get the vast majority of the material. It’s certainly an intensive program, so in that regard it might not be for everyone. Especially in the beginning of the program – in your core courses – there’s class Monday through Friday. You’ll spend a lot of time in class compared to a U.S. school where there’s no class on Fridays and things are taught at perhaps a slower pace. I think another advantage for INSEAD is that our students have more experience. The average years of experience for INSEAD students is five years, whereas at some of the other U.S. schools it’s more like two years. So, if you’re more experienced and you would like to be with your peers, I think you’ll definitely get that at INSEAD and you’ll learn a lot from them, as well. Even if you’re coming with two or three years of experience, you might be in a study group with someone with seven or eight years of experience. You can really share and learn from one another; I think, perhaps at a more significant level than at a program where most people have one to two years of experience. I think that’s something nice. Also, if you’re looking for an international career and international experience, I think there’s really no comparison to an international MBA program versus a domestic one. For the entire Q&A, please view the INSEAD transcript or listen to the audio file on our website. You can also read up on INSEAD-related news and advice by visiting the INSEAD B-School Zone and our blog post, INSEAD 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips.
To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA event list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.
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Consortium students at CMU Tepper
Thank you for attending our recent Consortium Strategy Q&As with Travis McAllister and the reps from participating Consortium schools UT McCombs, University of Wisconsin, UC Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, Michigan Ross, CMU Tepper, Indiana Kelley, and Rochester Simon. The school adcom representatives each talked about what's new at their schools and how their programs view Consortium applicants.
Here's an excerpt that covers some info on Consortium member perks: Linda Abraham: Maria asks is, "What is the most valuable aspect of being a member of the Consortium?" Robyn Winstanley: One of the most beneficial aspects is that it does allow you the opportunity to create a whole additional funnel of corporate sponsors and relationships that you can develop for your future career goals. So within each business school that you ultimately choose to attend, of course you can work through the Career Management Center and then networking opportunities available through the alums of that particular business schools, but being part of the Consortium will also provide you an additional set of organizations that can be very useful to you, depending on what your future career goals are.... Obviously another large benefit is financially. We certainly encourage all students who believe that they can fulfill the values and mission of the Consortium absolutely to apply, as we’ve already mentioned the ability to receive a full-tuition fellowship....So a combination of both networking opportunities and the financial advantages are the two key things that I personally would highlight. Jim Holmen: Remember that the Consortium has been around nearly 45 years. So when you join any Consortium member school, you become a member of their family of alums, but you are also part of the family of the Consortium alumni from all the member schools, and that significantly increases the pool of candidates that will be a part of your network of friends and colleagues. Linwood Harris: I wanted to add the fabulous experience that students will actually gain by attending the Orientation program....You will get an opportunity to set your future career path on fire. And it’s a great way to connect with 300-400 students who are actually in the same shoes as you are, coming into this incoming class....Many of the students who actually come to campus in the fall, by attending that orientation program, they’ve already received some interviews and some great offers for internship before they even step foot into any class because of their relationship of being involved in the Consortium. For the entire conversation, please view the transcript or listen to the audio file on our website. (This excerpt is from the second Consortium Q&A event we held. Here's the link to the first.) You can also read up on Consortium-related news and advice by visiting the Consortium Zone.
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Duke Fuqua campus
We hope you enjoyed our recent Duke MBA Q&A with Megan Lynam, Director Admissions, and Catherine Tuttle, Associate Program Director of Career Services from Duke's Fuqua School of Business. You all asked excellent questions, including this one on MBA application mistakes: Linda Abraham: What are the most common mistakes MBA applicants make? Megan Lynam: One is that they really don’t take the time to step back and do some self-reflection before they start the process. As I said before, this is an incredible investment of time and energy and money. It is very important to take the time to know yourself and understand why you want to do this. Why now? What do you want to get out of it? What environments do you flourish in? Each of the top schools has an incredible opportunity for a valuable education, great networks, and any number of other things. It is very important to understand what you want to get out of it so you can evaluate each program and ask, "Do I want to spend two years here? Will I be challenged in this environment? Will it be a place where I will be supported and where I will grow?" What people need is very, very different. You need to be honest with yourself about what you need and also what you can contribute. I think sometimes people apply to schools on a surface level understanding of that community and culture. It really helps if you have done a lot of thinking about yourself and then do a lot of research about the school. Talk to as many people as you can who have gone to the school and people who are going to the school and are affiliated. It gives you a sense of "this is my network, this is my brand." You will find that it is an incredibly diverse group of people who choose to do to Fuqua. At the same time, they have core values which are very similar. If that resonates with you, then this is a great place and we would encourage you to apply. If, however, it does not, then those are the sorts of things you should be looking for in another school. It is very important to know yourself well when you walk into this process. Catherine Tuttle: ...Megan made a great point. This will be the first thing we are going to ask you to do from a career perspective, as well. If you do it in an application process, you are going to be one step ahead for when you start the program. For the entire conversation, please view the transcript or listen to the complete audio file on our website.
There were so many questions and so little time. We'd like to send out a huge thank you to Megan Lyman for addressing some of the unanswered questions and offering more excellent advice in an article posted on the Duke Fuqua blog. Please see that post for additional tips on Duke Fuqua admissions.
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We hope you enjoyed our recent Q&A with Cornell Johnson's Christine Sneva, Director of Admissions & Financial Aid, and Ann Richards, Associate Director of Admissions & Director of Financial Aid – we know we did! The following excerpt offers applicants advice on how to approach the MBA application essays, particularly those that may ask applicants to discuss a weakness: Linda Abraham: "What are your suggestions on how a candidate should approach the application essays?" How would you advise them to approach the application essays, and would you change that approach at all, given this particular weakness [GPA], or some other weakness in the profile? Ann Richards: [Y]ou really want to highlight your achievements and accomplishments. We’re looking for candidates who have drive, who are willing to take initiative, and who are willing to take calculated risks...you want to use your essays to highlight ...the value you brought to your organization, your employer, your extracurricular activities, your university experience. Now, if you do have a weak undergrad GPA, or a low GMAT score, or some gaps in your employment, for us, it’s best to explain that in the optional essay section. You can explain that you’re immature, you’re not a good test-taker, or whatever the circumstances are. Take the opportunity to explain that to us in the optional essay, because we have vivid imaginations. If you don’t explain gaps in your resume, or a bad undergraduate semester, we’ll use our imagination, and it won’t be in your favor. So you want to make sure that you take the opportunity to explain that to us. Christine Sneva: I would also add...we ask obviously why you want to get an MBA. I think everybody has to ask that, because there’s really nowhere else in the application where you can really present yourself, your goals, and your focus, and what’s really driving you to start this application process. That’s something that we’re looking to learn from you. Our second question is for you to write the chapter headings to your life story. We get wonderful feedback that this is an essay that most applicants are looking forward to writing. It’s also probably one of the hardest ones that people have to write. We love to hear that, because it’s one of our favorite essays to read. It’s really the opportunity for people to express themselves in a different way that isn’t a typical essay format. You can be creative. We do encourage that, and it’s just a wonderful opportunity for us to get to really know you... For the entire conversation, please view the transcript or listen to the complete audio file on our website.
Want to learn more about Cornell Johnson? Check out our Cornell Johnson b-school zone page, as well as our Cornell MBA Essay Tips blog post for more Johnson-specific admissions advice.
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We had an excellent Q&A last week with Consortium's Kellie Sauls, Libby Livingston, and Shandra Jones. The excerpt below provides advice on what Consortium applicants can do to make their applications stand out: Linda Abraham: Angela asks, “What helps make the application stand out and get the attention of those making the selection? Kellie Sauls: I think what helps an application to stand out is, first and foremost, just making sure that you complete the application to the full degree. It can be a little bit unsettling to review an application and see a lot of blank spaces, and we can get really creative when it comes time to filling in that space.... Then, you dive a little deeper... All the components of the application need to be significantly strong. It’s a competitive process, so if you have some things that you’ve done in your background that really stand out and that are unique, if you bring those things out, it’s a really great way to make your application stand out. It pretty much starts with the basics: just making sure that you get the application completed, and then just making sure that each area is as strong as it possibly can be. I think a really great area that a lot of applicants tend to overlook...is the letters of recommendation. ... it’s a great way for someone who’s not intimately involved in the application process to substantiate all of the wonderful things that you’ve said ... but also call out specific examples in regard to your strengths professionally... Libby Livingston: I think that what Kellie has said is great ... I think you should try to visit the schools that you’re planning to apply to show your interest and that you know a lot about the program. Through the individual school essays, oftentimes you can share information about the program and why you feel it’s a good fit.... I think it’s important to definitely take the time to learn about the program and visit if you can. If you can’t visit, there are lots of webinars and webcasts that you can participate in to get to know the school. For the entire conversation, please view the transcript or listen to the complete audio file on our website.
Want to learn more about the Consortium's unique program? Register for Consortium MBA Application Strategies Q&A which takes place TOMORROW, Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 5:00 PM PT. For tips on submitting the best MBA letters of recommendation, please see Landing Winning MBA Letters of Recommendation 101.
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The UC Berkeley Haas Q&A was a huge success, with Stephanii Fujii, Executive Director of Full-Time MBA Admissions, answering questions on a wide variety of topics. You can read the whole Haas Q&A transcript or listen to the full audio clip online. (You can also catch previous Q&As for other top programs on our MBA transcript page.)
Here is some helpful information about UC Berekeley Haas's unique BILD curriculum (please note how Stephanie Fujii included helpful links to the Haas website): Linda Abraham: [W]here [are] the ten capabilities that make up the Innovate Leadership listed on the website? Stephanie Fujii: There is a section under Curriculum that refers to BILD, or Berkeley Innovative Leader Development that talks about the ten capabilities and how we’re teaching them. Linda Abraham: Great. I think that would be very useful for applicants to review. I know that they frequently talk about leadership in this very general term. If they could hone in a few of the capabilities that they already have – very specific terms – that probably would be very useful for them. Stephanie Fujii: Absolutely. I think one of the courses that I just mentioned that I would really recommend is to learn more about Problem Finding, Problem Solving. That’s now one of the core courses. It’s sort of the gateway to all of our experiential learning courses. It’s really designed to take our students out of their comfort zones. I don’t think there’s a course like this being taught at any other business schools. It’s really teaching our students that, for innovative leadership, it’s not enough just to be able to solve the problems, but they have to identify what those problems are and what the challenges are going to be further upstream. .... It’s gotten a lot of mixed reviews from our students just because it is so different from what they were expecting....I was actually just talking to one of our second-years ... who said that … "This is not at all what I was expecting. It’s very strange. I’m not sure how this is going to relate." He said that over the summer he was using a lot of the frameworks and tools that he learned in that course. He actually e-mailed his professor and said, "Thank you so much. I get it." It was really exciting to hear that type of feedback, that our students are able to take what they’re learning and just apply it immediately, and that it is something very different. View the full Haas Q&A transcript or listen to the MP3 recording of the event now and check out our UC Berkeley Haas B-School Zone.
For more advice on assessing and then writing about your capabilities, please see Accepted's MBA Applications 101 resource page, specifically the free special report, Leadership in Admissions.
We covered a wide range of admissions-related topics during our recent Yale SOM Q&A. Thank you to Bruce DelMonico, Director of Admissions at Yale SOM, for an excellent conversation! You can read the whole Yale Q&A transcript or listen to the full audio clip online. (You can also catch previous Q&As for other top programs on our MBA transcript page.)
Here is some helpful advice for career changers from the Yale SOM Q&A: Linda Abraham: The next few questions are about career change: “How does Yale view career switchers? Does Yale provide opportunities to make that transition? Does it have a wide alumni network in high tech?” Bruce DelMonico: I’ll talk a little about career switchers generally... there are two aspects to it. One is the admissions component, which I know more intimately, and then there are the resources at Yale and the opportunity once you are on campus to make that switch. Many times people do choose to get the two-year full-time MBA specifically because they are switching careers, and they want and need that additional time to make that transition. Because if you are doing a part-time or a one-year program, you just don’t have the space to make the switch as effectively, and you need that additional year, you need some internship, to really make that transition. So it’s not uncommon for people to use a program like ours as a career pivot to make a switch. We are used to seeing that and we are comfortable with that, both on the admissions side and programmatically once students actually get into the program and begin the program... ...And in terms of opportunities to make that transition, we have a full-service Career Development Office that has a range of activities throughout the year to help students understand their opportunities, prepare for their opportunities, and then really design and execute their career search. And a lot of times, it involves a transition to something different than what they thought they were going to transition into when they applied. Linda Abraham: I think probably one key element would be transferable skills and knowledge. Bruce DelMonico: That is exactly right. And a lot of times it’s not really a matter of gaining those skills and knowledge because you have it, but helping recruiters and potential employers understand that you have those skills, that you’ve been able to acquire them in your past experience. But also to the extent that you haven’t been able to in your past work experience, have you been proactive about building your skills set in other ways in terms of your activities, in terms of your professional associations? View the full Yale SOM Q&A transcript or listen to the MP3 recording of the event now and check out our Yale SOM MBA essay tips.
For more advice on applying to b-school as a career switcher, please view our on-demand webinar, MBA: Catalyst for Career Change.
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Our recent admissions Q&A with UCLA adcom members Dean Andrew Ainslie, Jessica Chung and Craig Hubbel covered lots of admissions topics and proved extremely helpful for those applicants interested in applying to UCLA Anderson. You can read the whole Anderson Q&A transcript or listen to the full audio clip online. (You can also catch up on past Q&As for other top b-schools on our MBA transcript page.)
Here is an excerpt from the transcript that highlights the qualities or attributes that the adcom readers look for when identifying future UCLA Anderson students: Linda Abraham: Ronald asks, “If you could boil it down to two or three points, what key attributes do you see from applicants?” ... Jessica, Craig, and Dean Ainslie – if you could just boil it down very succinctly to what are the two or three qualities you would like to see in UCLA Anderson students. Dr. Andrew Ainslie: I think we’ve been seeing a lot of repetition of the question sort of along the line of – If I’m missing this or that, is that a problem? I think the bigger thing for applicants to realize is that what we are looking for are signs of something exceptional. It’s not as though we are hunting for the negatives; we are really hunting for the positives. So I’d hate to categorize it and say that we are looking for this or .. that. If we have some sign of exceptional leadership, some sign of exceptional intelligence, some sign of exceptional business experience, just some sign that you shine in the pack – that is what we are looking for. And we really don’t want candidates to think we are pigeonholing them into just being capable in certain areas. So just show us a sign that you excel. That is probably the single, most important thing. Jessica Chung: I would just echo what Dr. Ainslie just said. And we’re looking for someone who would just bring a unique perspective into the classroom that their peers or classmates can also learn from. And that is someone who is well-rounded. Those are things that really stand out when I look through an application. Craig Hubbell: I would just say in general that we certainly appreciate applicants that understand the power of the MBA to transform them professionally and personally. So the people who have done the homework on themselves and on the opportunity and can make a compelling case in their application, those are the ones we get the most excited about. And just in general, we like to make sure that the people we admit fit with our culture and understand our culture here which is definitely one that is challenging and yet supportive. So it’s friendly, it’s collaborative, and yet it keeps you on your toes. So people who are ready to take advantage of our dynamic location and do the kind of practical projects that are part of our learning, and are ready to contribute to the learning of others as well as being open to learning from people of all sorts of backgrounds, that is the kind of well-rounded, ambitious, ethical, and creative person that we like. View the full UCLA Anderson Q&A transcript or listen to the MP3 recording of the event now and check out our UCLA Anderson MBA essay tips.
For individualized advice on how to identify your exceptional or unique selling points, please consider working one-on-one with an Accepted.com admissions consultant. View our MBA admissions consulting services for more information.
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
Huntsman Hall at Wharton
We had an excellent Q&A last week with Ankur Kumar and Anthony Penna, admissions directors at Wharton. The excerpt below provides an insider look at how the adcom readers approach your goal essays – how you should bridge your past and present experiences to what you'd like to be doing in the future. Linda Abraham: Ritin asks, “How strong of a connection or linkage is a candidate required to demonstrate between his current profile and his long-term goals, or at least his post-MBA goals, at the time of writing his application?” Ankur Kumar: What we are really trying to do is understand a candidate’s thought process and what they’ve been doing to move in the direction that they are headed. And what I mean by that is that coming to any business school, not just Wharton, is not the silver magic bullet to make all your dreams come true in two years and do all the hard work for you. It is a fantastic and incredibly transformative vehicle for you to get exposure to people and employers and industries and ways of thinking, and to test and refine it. I truly believe that the best candidates and the best business school students are those that have started this process of moving towards their goal well before they have come to business school, and for whom actually business school isn’t going to stop or start them from what they want to do. In terms of linking what you are currently doing to your goals, we certainly want to understand how they link and what the thought process is – why you have an interest in pursuing a certain field...what is it about your field or your experiences that excite you that make you want to stay in it? How do you want to develop in it? Or if you are looking to shift careers, where did that thought process come from? How did that come about? And of course, how have you been moving towards achieving those goals? ....So I would think about it more from that context than any, in terms of helping us understand what you’ve been doing and how that may link to what you want to do in the future. For the entire conversation, please view the transcript or listen to the complete audio file on our website.
Do you need help demonstrating that "link" between your experiences and your goals? Check out MBA Goals 101 or our admissions consulting services to get the assistance you need to establish your goals and create a winning goals essay.
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We had an excellent Q&A last week with Jean-Marie Winikates and Nita Sinsick, admissions directors at IE. The excerpt below summarized key differences between the international IE experience and the typical US b-school experience: Linda Abraham: IE obviously is a leading international business school. It is located in Spain. What distinguishes the IE experience from the typical US business school experience? Jean-Marie Winikates: If you look at IE being a European school versus the US schools, there are a few things that really differentiate all programs. I would say it comes down to professorship, participants, and the actual program itself. So I would say from a professorship standpoint, one of the unique things that we offer that most US schools do not offer as extensively would be the number of international professors that we have. 50% of our professors are actually international and they are of 23 different nationalities. And we have over 500 different professors that teach at our school, and all of them work on applied research or some kind of consulting. In terms of our participants, we are 89% international even though we are based in Madrid, Spain. We have offices located throughout the world, more than 25 of them now, and we are able to recruit people from all over the world. So 89% of the participants are international. We represent 75 nationalities in the course, and most of them are multi-lingual in some way. So you have a unique experience from that perspective. And the last thing would really be the program. The format is accelerated, so most of our programs are 13 months in length, so it’s faster than the typical two-year program that you see here in the US. And those are probably the biggest things that differentiate our school from the US schools. For the entire conversation, please view the transcript or listen to the complete audio file on our website. For more information on IE, please check out our IE B-School Zone.
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Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
If you attended our recent conversation with INSEAD's Kara Keenan and Melissa Jones, Assistant Directors of Marketing, then you know what a success it was. You can review the Q&A by reading the whole INSEAD Q&A transcript, by listening to the full audio clip online, or by subscribing to our podcast in iTunes and catch as many of the MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.
Here is a particularly noteworthy clip from the INSEAD Q&A about the method of instruction at INSEAD:
Linda Abraham: Visalakshi asks, “Does INSEAD follow the case study method, or are professors free to choose their method of instruction?” And I’ll add a follow-up question -- Is there a dominant method of instruction?
Kara Keenan: They don’t have to follow the case study method. It really is at the discretion of the professor how he/she would like to instruct the course. Having said that, there are certainly quite a few case studies, but there is also mix of lecture and group discussion, so it really varies depending on the nature of the course. I would say maybe in the core courses when you are doing more of the quantitative stuff, it would be more case studies and maybe a bit of lecture. And then when you move into electives, maybe it’s an elective on entrepreneurship or social media, then there is probably a bit more of discussion and group work and that sort of thing. So it really depends on the professor and the subject of the course.
Melissa Jones: I just want to add that there are lots of interesting ways that the teachers can teach. There are some business simulations. There is a lot of role playing that can be done and game theories. One course that I think is great, and it’s probably one of the most popular, is an entrepreneurship course called “Your First 100 Days”. You are actually managing a company with four or five other people for a total of two weeks. You are managing that company seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. So you might be the CEO of the company, your group-mate might be the Vice President of Marketing or the next person in operations or what have you. And then it’s up to you how you manage that company. So you might get just a random phone call in the middle of the night from someone from your company that your factory is burning down asking what they should do. These real-life scenarios can take place in courses too so it makes for a really fun environment as well.
And here's another question on INSEAD's focus on international experience:
Linda Abraham: Abhisek asks, “INSEAD invites a lot of emphasis on international experience. What counts as international experience? If someone goes to graduate schools and works outside of their home country, is that counted as international experience? Or do you have to work in many different countries?”
Melissa Jones: Any and all international experience counts. Go to the website and download your application. You’ll see that on the application there is a section there where we ask the applicant to list out all international experience. So if you’ve travelled outside of your home country for a couple of weeks for fun, with friends, or with family, put it on the application. If you took a two-week language course in Spain, you can put it on the application. Absolutely having done your graduate degree outside of your home country is great experience. Certainly immersion experience is always great to have. And international work experience is ideal but not required. As far as what counts, any and all international experience counts. We certainly have a lot of people in the program who were born in one country and were raised in another. Any part of your profile that is international, you want to include on the application.
View the full INSEAD Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now or subscribe to the Apple iTunes MBA Admissions Podcast. If you like the podcast, please leave a 5-star review.
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
We'd like to extend a hearty thank you to the London Business School representatives who helped make our recent Masters in Management Admissions Q&A a huge success. We discussed a wide range of topics, including London Business School admissions policies, the differences between the MiM and the MBA programs, student life, scholarships, and more. You can read the whole London Business School Q&A transcript, listen to the full audio clip, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, where you'll be able to catch up on as many MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.
We urge you to read the full transcript, but in the meantime, here's an excerpt from the LBS Q&A:
Linda Abraham: Richard asks, “What makes LBS’s MiM programme different than other programmes around the world? In other words, what course functional area do you specialize in?”
Lisa Mortini: Obviously when you are looking to apply to a programme like this, it’s a big decision. It’s a big investment of your time and your money and you want to make sure you are choosing the right programme. And there are quite a few really good Masters in Management programmes around the world, especially in Europe because that is where they originated. What we have that might be a little different from other programmes is that we are a one-year programme so it is quite an intense experience, and we are very much focused on the practical aspects of the programme. There are lectures obviously, but it’s a lot of work around the topics that you are learning. It’s not just receiving information; it’s putting it into practice. And we very much focus on careers as well, so it’s really a great programme if you want to get your first corporate job at the end of year. We are probably less tailored if you would like to do a PhD at the end of year because it is not a research-based programme. There is a very practical focus. It is very focused on career services and developing our students’ softer skills as well as their knowledge of general management.
Saira Ansari: I look at this question in the perspective of why I chose this programme in this school, and there are a number of reasons for that. First of all, I thought it’s quite a healthy mix of academics and practicality. And second of all, this is a core business school and there are MBAs and executive MBAs, etc. on campus. It provides great networking opportunities, not just on-campus and off-campus; it makes you very comfortable in a corporate environment, especially when you are going in for interviews. You can get advice from these people -- just have a chat with them over coffee. They are very helpful and you learn a lot. Thirdly, I think the location is a big plus. Being in London, it’s the core financial commercial area. You have access to a lot of opportunities, not just from a professional perspective but also from a personal perspective. And lastly, for me it was the fact that it is one-year long programme because I wanted to get into the work environment after a maximum of one year. Those are my reasons for choosing LBS and it’s been a great decision.
Lisa Mortini: I’d like to go back to another aspect of the question. The students here all take core courses together so there is no specialization at the moment. We are introducing a new course in entrepreneurship next year, but apart from that the students cannot specialize and they are all doing core courses together. What happens though is that we realize that the students tailor their experience at the MiM depending on their interests by joining the clubs. The student clubs on campus are extremely active. You learn a lot from them. You have the opportunity to network, to organize guest speakers, events, conferences, and forums. Our students have been able to look at areas of interest such as energy or pharmaceuticals or consulting, and really devote a lot of their energy through the clubs.
Linda Abraham: The clubs are open to all.
We hope you enjoyed our recent Q&A with Sherry Wallace of UNC Kenan-Flagler. During the session we discussed a number of important topics related to UNC admissions, student life, scholarships, and more. If you missed this informative event, or if you'd like to review, you can read the whole UNC Kenan-Flagler Q&A transcript, listen to the full audio clip online, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes and catch as many of the MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.
Here is a section from the UNC Q&A on the role interviews play in the admissions process: Linda Abraham: Fred asks “I'm interviewing on campus next week -- How much will my interviewer know about me, my application, resume, et cetera?” And then I would like you, after you answer Fred's specific question, to just address the whole issue of interviews; what can people expect, what's the role of the interview in the admissions process, et cetera? Sherry Wallace: Oh great! I'm going to answer the specific question for a person who is going to interview. Kenan-Flagler tries to do interviews relatively blindly, which means that your interviewer will have your resume and little else. Sometimes, depending on where we are in the admissions cycle, it's possible that your interviewer may have also read your application, but in general they have not and we would prefer that they have not because we want the interview to be just another input. We're going to have input from the people who read your applications, we're going to have input from your recommenders, we're going to have your test scores -- we're going to have all of those things to consider, and we'd like to have, in addition to that, someone who's spent about 30 minutes with the candidate to tell us what he or she was like in that 30-minute window. So, you should assume they'll only have your resume. Linda Abraham: Are the interviewers usually students, alumni, or members of the admissions team? Sherry Wallace: All of our interviewers are members of the admission team. We do not currently have students serving in that role, although we certainly would have many capable students, but we prefer to have our students be your advocates. When you visit Kenan-Flagler or you reach out to a student, we want you to feel very comfortable that this is someone who's going to answer my question, who's going to be all about me, and is not necessarily evaluating me and passing that along to the admissions committee. We do have alumni that we have trained as extended members of the admission committee, and generally the alumni are only doing interviews outside the US where we just would like to be able to offer more face-to-face opportunities than we, as a staff, have the ability to travel. Whether you interview by phone with a member of the committee, by webcam which has become very popular, or face to face with an alumnus or one of us on campus, they all carry the same weight. We have no preference, whatever is most convenient for the applicant to do the interview in the time they need to do it. Usually our interviews last about 30 minutes, maybe as long as 45 minutes, depending on how much question and answer there is. Linda Abraham: Okay, great. And what is the role of the interview in the evaluation process? Sherry Wallace: Despite what most people think, I don't know anyone who interviews their way into a program. Linda Abraham: Usually you interview your way out of a program. Sherry Wallace: Yes. I probably have known a few people who have revealed a little something more in an interview that may not have been for us. And I appreciate the sensitivity because I know I personally feel like if I could just get in front of somebody and talk to them, I can be more compelling. But the truth is, and this is why we are currently interviewing by invitation only -- and that is because there are some candidates that no matter how engaging, no matter how well they articulate themselves,
If you attended our recent conversation with UT McCombs's Vicki Duran, Director of MBA Admissions, Jolene Ashcraft, Senior Associate Director, and Jaryn Creasy, a second-year student at UT, then you know what a success it was. You can review the Q&A by reading the whole UT McCombs Q&A transcript, by listening to the full audio clip online, or by subscribing to our podcast in iTunes and catch as many of the MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.
Here is a particularly noteworthy clip from the UT McCombs Q&A about the MBA Investment Fund:
Linda Abraham: Juan asks, “How hard is it to intern for the MBA Investment Fund? What is the application process and do you evaluate work experience or education primarily?” I’m assuming that at the moment he is referring to the Investment Fund selection process.
Jolene Ashcraft: For those of you who don’t know, the MBA Investment Fund is actually a completely student-run investment fund that we have here on campus. It is managed by the students. It is great hands-on experience for those of you who are interested in getting into investment banking or investment management, private equity, or anything in the finance world. There is an application process for that, and it is a pretty competitive organization to be a part of. But basically they will look at your previous work experience, your GMAT score, and at how you are performing in your first semester core classes like accounting, finance, and statistics. There is also an application that you will have to fill out and an interview process. There is usually some sort of finance stock-pitch competition. So there are several different components of the application process. But they do take people from all different backgrounds, so you don’t necessarily have to have had previous finance work experience, just a commitment to learning more about it, wanting to go into it in the future, and then going through the application process which includes a lot of different components.
Vicki Duran: And as Jolene said, it is pretty competitive. It is also the largest student-led fund in the United States. They manage more than $15 million in assets. And typically, they will take about twenty new students each year onto the fund. And this process that Jolene talked about, it is actually the second-year students who are conducting the interviews, reviewing the applications, and making decisions, with support from the faculty liaison that works with the fund, Professor Sandy Leeds. So it is one of the student-led organizations, but it is one of the few organizations where you do have to go through an interview process.
And here's another question on recommended pre-MBA coursework:
Linda Abraham: Daniel asks, “For those of us who didn’t study economics or business or math in college, what classes do you recommend we take before starting at a school like McCombs?”
Jolene Ashcraft: For those of you who haven’t had a lot of quantitative classes previously and want to do something to really prepare yourselves before starting an MBA program, first-off I would recommend just getting some undergraduate level textbooks for finance and accounting and going through those and just familiarizing yourself with the terminology and some of the basic principles. And then also if you want to enroll in some classes at a local community college or extension program, we would either recommend finance, statistics, economics, or accounting. Those are the classes that students sometimes have problems with if they’ve never experienced those types of subjects before, especially accounting. And then prior to orientation, here at McCombs we actually have a Boot Camp as well that you can take part in that can help you prepare yourself for the first semester, for finance, accounting. And you can go through that Boot Camp to really help get better prepared for the first semester before you even start the classes.
Jaryn Creasy: From a student perspective,
We covered a wide range of admissions-related topics during our Dartmouth Tuck Q&A last week. Thank you to Dawna Clarke, Director of MBA Admissions, and Pat Harrison and Amy Mitson, Associate Directors at Tuck, for an excellent conversation! To review, you can read the whole Tuck Q&A transcript, listen to the full audio clip online, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes and catch as many of the MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.
Here is some helpful advice on applying Round 3 (the April round) from the Dartmouth Tuck Q&A:
Linda Abraham: Jonathan asks, “What advice would you provide to an April applicant?” Is there anything different that an April round applicant should be doing?
Amy Mitson: My response to that would be that whenever you are applying, you should always explain your candidacy. But a question is always raised in my mind when I read essays or see information from an April round applicant who says that Tuck is their top choice and they definitely want to go here. You are putting your all into it, but then I wonder why you waited till the last round. So just with that, don’t leave any question unanswered. If Tuck is your favorite place, why did you wait till the last round? There is probably a reason; maybe there was a job change, maybe you were out of the country and now you are back in the US so you had time to interview on campus, whereas in an earlier round you didn’t because your work took you out of the country. Is there a reason why? Don’t forget to add that in so that we can see the entire context. Answer all of the “why” questions.
Linda Abraham: So if somebody applies in your April round, something goes through your mind wondering why the applicant didn’t apply earlier. In some ways it calls into question commitment; it’s not just that they decided to apply a little later.
Amy Mitson: If an applicant is very enthusiastic about the fact that this is their top choice and they have been thinking about it for so long…
Linda Abraham: If they said they wanted to do this since they were in kindergarten, I would certainly agree with you.
Amy Mitson: The later rounds are fine, but give me the follow-up; provide the detail as to why. I would have loved to see your strong application in the earlier round and offer you admission then, and then you wouldn’t have had to wait any longer.
Dawna Clarke: To build on Amy’s point, I think we are pretty transparent. We do have an April round, but I think we are also very transparent in saying that it is a very competitive round, and our advice to applicants is to try to apply in one of the earlier rounds. There are circumstances sometimes why somebody would apply in the last round; a change in a job situation may necessitate it -- you didn’t think you could go this year, but now something has changed and you could go this year. And I think Amy’s point is that to some extent it’s better to let us know those reasons rather than leave some of those questions blank. Certainly come up for an interview; show your interest in other ways.
View the full Dartmouth Tuck Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now or subscribe to the Apple iTunes MBA Admissions Podcast. If you like the podcast, please leave a 5-star review.
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
Last week's conversation with Hima Bindu, the assistant director of admissions and financial aid at the ISB, and current ISB students Atma Shivalanka and Chandrasekhar Ghoda, was yet another Q&A success. If you missed the ISB event or if you wish to review it, you can read the whole transcript, listen to the full audio clip online, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes and catch as many of the MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.
Here are a few questions and answers about the ISB to get you started:
Linda Abraham: Arun asks, how is an application evaluated? Hima, this is for you. Could you please elaborate on the steps and stages an application goes to after submission? What are the key attributes that ISB focuses on or wants to see in an application?
Hima Bindu: An application primarily is evaluated on five parameters: one is the student's academics, second is the GMAT to check on how his quantitative and verbal abilities -- how will he able to take the rigor of the program. The other three aspects; the third one is the number of years of work experience and the quality of this work experience. The fourth one is extracurricular activities as to what a student has done outside his work, what are his passions and interests, and how far and to what extent does he pursue them? The fifth one is leadership potential based on the student's initiatives he's taken, the challenges he faced in life, and what did he learn from them. These are gleaned from various parts of the application like the essays, the recommendations that the students submit, as well as, of course, his academic achievements and extracurriculars and awards that he lists down in the application. Basically these are the five factors in which we evaluate an application and once shortlisted, of course, there's an interview that goes on where we are testing our students' communication skills and depth of his work experience.
Linda Abraham: Great, thank you very much. This is from Abhishek. He asks, I have a question regarding the one-year program at ISB. Do you think the program at ISB is robust enough for a career change? How do recruiting companies at ISB look at career change? Can you suggest some data? And there's a very similar question from somebody else here also asking about how well does ISB support career change as opposed to career enhancement, especially since it doesn't have an internship opportunity?
Hima Bindu: Yeah. Around 60% of students at ISB manage to make a career shift. There are two types of career shifts you're talking about; one is an industry shift and one is a function shift. Eighty percent of students at ISB manage to make either a function shift or an industry shift. It's only 20% who manage to make an industry, as well as a function, shift. That's how it works at ISB. And that being said, it is difficult to make a career shift, but the onus of the shift lies a lot on the student. For example, in the case of technology, if a person wants to make a shift into finance or banking, it is going to be all the more difficult. But we've seen shifts like this being made in the school where the student has worked hard on it, has aced all the finance papers, become the finance club president, networked extensively through the club with finance professionals, and managed to make a shift. And we can quote quite a few examples like this where a dentist became a venture capitalist, where a public servant has become a Novartis strategist -- that way. They are difficult to make, but they have been done, and the school brings the recruiter onto campus, gives you the opportunity, the learning, and the window to do so. It is up to the student to swing it.
View the full Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now or subscribe to the Apple iTunes MBA Admissions Podcast. If you like the podcast, please leave a 5-star review.
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best