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October 2007

October 26, 2007

MBA Chats

On Monday October 29 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT Accepted will host INSEAD's Marketing Manager Cassandra Pittman in an online chat devoted to INSEAD. She will answer your questions about INSEAD's admissions policies, program, and student life. Please join us in the Accepted chat room this Monday.

We have already post the MIT Sloan chat transcript from this past Monday's chat. An excerpt.

khaccuong (Oct 22, 2007 1:08:52 PM)
    Jeremy & Jacklyn, What class or professor is simply not to be missed at MIT in terms of finance?

  JeremyGilbertMIT (Oct 22, 2007 1:10:55 PM)
  Khaccuong, I've only taken a few finance courses so far, but Nittai Bergman's Finance II class has been amazing. He is a very dynamic professor, uses the case method effectively and has really brought to life a lot of the nuances of valuation, pro-forma projections, etc. Stewart Myers is also a rock star here.

   

  JacklynSingMIT (Oct 22, 2007 1:11:51 PM)
Khaccuong: I'm amazed at the quality of teachers here in Sloan -- the author of my book in Finance (Myers) is teaching Finance classes! However, my finance teacher is Jiang Wang -- superb for people who have little background in Finance. I also love Kate Kellogg in my Organizational Processes class.

DavideRossi (Oct 22, 2007 1:10:12 PM)
    Hi Jen, can you shed some light on the acceptance rates for rounds 1 and 2?

JenniferBurkeBarbaMIT (Oct 22, 2007 1:12:27 PM)
Davide, we admit half of the class in each round. Our incoming MBA Class is about 325 students and we do give away half the slots in each round. That said, typically we get fewer applicants in round 1, than in round 2, making the round 1 acceptance rate higher than r2. BUT, it's important to remember that a strong applicant will succeed in either round. Historically the acceptance rate for R1 is about 20% and the acceptance rate for R2 is about 14%.

Cornell's transcript has not yet been posted, but will soon be available on Accepted's Cornell page. In any case, there are some tidbits there that I want to post for you even before the transcript is online:

MBAhopeful2008 (Oct 24, 2007 1:02:47 PM)
Kim: hello there. So far, for R1, how’s the volume of applications? Up? Down?

KimVaughanCornell (Oct 24, 2007 1:03:26 PM)
Hi, MBAhopeful!  We're up 35% for R1 this year -- it's pretty exciting!

MBAhopeful2008 (Oct 24, 2007 1:06:47 PM)
Laurie: I have a twofold question: Cornell’s average GMAT score jumped from 660 to 680 in a 2 year span. Does that mean that, currently, the Adcom gives more importance to the GMAT than in the past? What is the targeted average GMAT score for this year?

LaurieShunneyCornell (Oct 24, 2007 1:07:48 PM)
Our target GMAT score for this year will probably be between 690-700. As the applicant pool increases, we look for students with excellent performance in all areas. The GMAT is one of the many criteria we review. GMAT scores indicate potential for strong performance in the core management courses.

Christopher (Oct 24, 2007 1:07:04 PM)
Kim: Ballpark, what % of R1 will receive an invitation to interview ?

KimVaughanCornell (Oct 24, 2007 1:07:49 PM)
Ballpark, I'd say about half of the applicants get invited to interview, and half of those get accepted. It varies from year to year, of course, depending on the applicant pool.

If you would like to be reminded of upcoming chats, please subscribe to our MBA Events mailing list.

Posted at 03:48 PM in The MBA Application Process | | Comments (0)

October 22, 2007

MBA Admissions Chats This Week

      

Mark your calendar for this week's chats:

  • MIT Sloan Admissions with Jen Burke Burba, Associate Admissions Director at MIT Sloan, and two second-year Sloan MBA students.  The chat will take place on Monday Oct. 22 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM EST/5:00 PM GMT.
  • Cornell Johnson with Director of Admissions Randall Sawyer and additional staff and students. They will be available to answer your questions on Wednesday October 24, 2007 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT.

Both chats are opportunities for MBA applicants interested in these programs to gain insight and ask questions about these particular schools. Please feel free to join us in the Accepted chat room.

We also have posted transcripts from last week's two informative chats:

Here is an excerpt from the Yale chat.

John W (Oct 10, 2007 1:03:06 PM)
Bruce and Michelle: Hello. I am curious of course about the new curriculum. Do you find it drawing more students interested in certain industries? And how do you think it fits with someone interested in investment banking?

BruceDelMonicoYale (Oct 10, 2007 1:04:47 PM)
John, that's a great question. I don't know that the industries represented in either the class itself or the applicant pool have changed greatly, but there does appear to be a much more entrepreneurial bend to many of the applicants we see.  I think, too, that the new curriculum does fit in quite well with people interested in IBanking. About half of our graduates go into finance after they graduate, and the largest portion of them go into IBanking, so I think Yale is strong in that area generally, and the new curriculum has only strengthened that. This past summer, we had 18 students intern in IBanking for the summer, and all of them got full-time offers, which was great.

MichelleVitaliYale (Oct 10, 2007 1:05:32 PM)
Hi Rogan, we've heard lots of positive feedback from recruiters about the new curriculum. In fact, many companies were consulted before the change was made to get their thoughts on what they're looking for in a successful post-MBA candidate.

Linda Abraham (Oct 10, 2007 1:18:11 PM)
   Bruce: Why did you add Question #2 this year? What do you hope to learn from it?

BruceDelMonicoYale (Oct 10, 2007 1:21:16 PM)
Linda, we added the second essay topic because we felt that it would help us in our evaluation of the candidates. The mission of the school is to educate leaders for business and society, so we want to make sure that leadership is something that is central to every student here on campus. We felt that adding this question was a good way to get at that quality.

An excerpt from the London Business School chat:

Margaret (Oct 15, 2007 1:06:50 PM)
   Zoe: What's the minimum year of working experience?

ZoeMcloughlinLondon (Oct 15, 2007 1:11:27 PM)
Margaret: One of the requirements of admission is that all of the students are able to contribute to the classroom discussion and the learnings of their class mates through imparting their professional experiences. This obviously requires some level of post-graduate work experience. How much that is however will vary depending on the individual and what they have been doing. The average experience for the current class is 5.5 years, and it ranges from 2-17 years. It is quite unusual to be admitted with less than 3 years however due to the sheer competition of highly experienced applicants.

Dips (Oct 15, 2007 1:14:38 PM)
David Simpson: Is it ok to be not sure of what one wants to do after an MBA, like in my case I'm looking to weigh a few options and is it ok to mention the same on the application - essays.

DavidSimpsonLondon (Oct 15, 2007 1:19:21 PM)
Dips: We hope that everyone coming into an MBA has some sense of direction, but recognizes that there will be a lot of opportunities placed before them - that balance is important. You should always be honest in your application - so do not invent desire to pursue any particular role unless you have a desire to go after it. Showing that you recognize that there will be choices, and showing some evidence that you've researched post-MBA choices should be ok.

I had a lot of trouble deciding which excepts to display here;  If you are interested in these schools, please read these transcripts. The LBS transcript is a little difficult to follow because it was so well attended (over 200 people) and active. But it is well worth the trouble. The Yale transcript is easier and very meaty.

          

Posted at 09:17 AM in The MBA Application Process | | Comments (0)

October 16, 2007

Round 1 and Round 2 Resources at Accepted

Accepted offers MBA applicants so many forms of assistance, I thought it would be a good idea to review what we have for MBA applicants at different stages in the process.

For Round 1 applicants: Hopefully you are almost finished now with your MBA essays and soon will receive MBA interview invitations. You may want to consider a round 2 application to a safety school, especially if you do not soon received one in which case you will be a round 1 & 2 applicant. But for now, let's assume that you will be one of the lucky ones, meeting with alumni in your city or jetting off to top b-school campuses for interviews.

November will be MBA Interview Month at Accepted. You will hear more about it when November dawns, but here is a preview of what's available and coming:            

For Round 2 applicants, Accepted offers a rich menu of MBA application advising and editing:   

And whether you are a Round 1 or Round 2 applicant, please accept my invitation to:    

  • MBA Admissions Chats. Accepted hosts 1-2 admissions chats almost every week from Sept ember through January. If you can attend, participating in a chat is an easy way to ask questions and learn about your target programs. If you cannot attend, review the transcripts. If you don't want to miss any future events, please sign up for our MBA events email list.
  • The Beautiful B-School Photo Contest. Just for fun. Accepted hosted it last year and we had such a good time, we decided to do it again. It's easy too. When you visit business schools that are listed on our MBA Zone page, just take pictures and submit them. You will be eligible for prizes including a $200 Amazon Gift Certificate if you can take pictures as good as last year's winners. For details please see the rules page.

Posted at 07:21 PM in The MBA Application Process | | Comments (0)

October 12, 2007

Dr. Pausch's Last Lecture and Your Essays

In my last blog post I discussed some of the ways Dr. Pausch enlivened his lecture and engaged the reader, but his presentation was not just a collection of spiffy techniques; it has profound content and substance.

Let's look at the substance, not in the context of his tragic circumstances -- he has cancer of he liver -- but in an admissions context. On p.5 of the transcript Dr. Pausch describes a high school coach who was just all over him one day during practice. At the end of the day, the assistant coach came over to him and asked:

""Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he?' I said, 'yeah.' He said,'that’s a good thing.' He
said, 'when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave
up.'
   
 

Dr. Pausch took those words to heart and concludes "When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care."

Have you participated in an extra-curricular activity and had someone critique your efforts from top to bottom, A-Z? Or perhaps you had a demanding, but fair boss... Did you respond by improving? What concrete steps did you take? In what ways did you improve? Did you learn from the experience? Can you also derive a lesson, as Dr. Pausch did above,  that has more to do with who you are as a person than the actual task at hand?

This kind of approach can be very effective in responding to to a question like Tuck's #3 or any interview question that asks how you handle criticism. It can also allow you to highlight specific skills or interests.

Another element that repeatedly appears in Dr. Pausch's lecture: "brick walls. Dr. Pausch describes rejection letters, obstacles, and setbacks of all kinds throughout his life. Many would call them his "failures," but he doesn't bemoan them. He doesn't even bemoan his prognosis. He describes these setbacks as brick walls and specifically in talking about rejection letters, or in his words "the damned nicest go-to-hell letters I have ever gotten" he says.:

"But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people."

What strength of spirit! He then goes on to describe how he got other jobs and eventually the job of his dreams from the company that sent him one of those nice letters. When have you traveled around, climbed over, or dug under a brick wall in your life? When have you failed, picked yourself up, dusted yourself off, and gone on to achieve more than you initially dreamed of doing?

Those occasions are the ones that you can use to illustrate your responses to failure, or brick walls, whether you are responding to Wharton's #2, Fuqua's 1c, Tepper's C1 and many other program's essay questions.

When you look at the lessons and the anecdotes in Dr. Pausch's life, can you find parallel incidents in your life that taught you hard-earned lessons? You can use Dr. Pausch's techniques -- combining anecdote with analysis, vivid description, and an incredible strength of spirit to write essays that are winners.

Posted at 03:13 PM in The MBA Application Process | | Comments (0)

October 08, 2007

Yale Chat Upcoming; Columbia transcript posted

Accepted is hosting its first-ever Yale School of Management chat with its Director of Admissions, Bruce DelMonico,  on Wednesday Oct. 10, 2007 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/5:00 PM GMT. Please join us to learn about Yale's highly innovative curriculum, which has earned high marks from recruiters according to The Wall St. Journal. If you are interested in an integrated approach to management with a strong international component in your MBA education and you have the qualifications for Yale, please join us at this chat.

We also posted the transcript from the recent Columbia chat with Michael Robinson. Here is an excerpt:

mba08 (Sep 26, 2007 1:11:14 PM)
Michael, where in the admissions process does an invitation to interview place you?  Does it mean someone has a good chance of making it , if they interview well?

MichaelRobinsonColumbia (Sep 26, 2007 1:13:04 PM)
We interview about 40% of our applicants. Receiving an invitation for an interview is a positive development in your application, but keep in mind we do admit some people without an interview every year.

Briana Pompei (Sep 26, 2007 1:13:54 PM)
Lauren, I assume you diligently researched the "fit" of several MBA programs before you decided to attend CBS. What, if anything, surprised you about the curriculum, your cohort, or the general milieu of the program?

LaurenSicklesColumbia (Sep 26, 2007 1:15:38 PM)
Briana: I was surprised at a couple of things. First the numerous opportunities available in almost every facet of student life- academic, social, extra-curricular, and professional. There is just simply no time to do everything. Second, I was surprised at how diverse, talented, and down to earth my classmates are.

DP (Sep 26, 2007 1:19:54 PM)
     Michael: How much weight is put on the extra-curricular activities in the application?

MichaelRobinsonColumbia (Sep 26, 2007 1:21:10 PM)
DP: We admit well rounded and multi-dimensional candidates. Extracurriculars are important because we want students who have interests and passions outside of the workplace and academics.

Linda Abraham (Sep 26, 2007 1:21:49 PM)
Michael, is there any particular aspect of Dean Hubbard’s article that you would like applicants to focus on in responding to the new question, #2?

MichaelRobinsonColumbia (Sep 26, 2007 1:24:16 PM)
No, there is no particular part we would like applicants to focus on. The speech is a communication of Dean Hubbard's view regarding the value of an MBA education, and we are looking for the applicants' reactions to that. There is no right or wrong way to approach the essay.

  to_be (Sep 26, 2007 1:24:18 PM)
Michael: How does CBS view older applicants? Is there any age criterion and are they required to do some explaining on that count?

      

  MichaelRobinsonColumbia (Sep 26, 2007 1:25:31 PM)
By law a school cannot discriminate based on age. Regardless of your age, it is important for you to express why this is the right time for you to get an MBA. As an aside, the oldest applicant we ever admitted was 64.

I wish I could have bottled what was in the the air during this chat. The questions were clear and direct, which is not always the case. The answer were equally clear and informative. Check it out if you are interested in Columbia.

Posted at 01:40 PM in The MBA Application Process | | Comments (0)

October 01, 2007

What Should You Ask in an MBA Interview?

      

In the recent BusinessWeek chat, "Make Your B-School Application Stand Out," Cassidy asked me "I've done my homework on a school and I am preparing for an interview. Any suggestion as to a good question I might be able to ask?" I thought I had a blog post that addressed this question. It turns out I didn't, so here goes.

   

It is difficult to provide general advice on questions you should pose because the best questions will reflect your individual knowledge of the program and your background and goals, but let me give you some guidance or at least a place to start.

   

First prepare yourself to ask intelligent questions:

   
  1. Review the school's web site and literature thoroughly. You don't want to ask a question that's answered on p. 2.
  2. Review your application.
   

As you conduct your review, jot down questions that come to mind. The questions about those programs, clubs, and activities that are most relevant to your goals, educational preferences, and life style are the creme de la creme. Those questions are going to be very individual and I can't give you samples, but here are a few more general questions that may trigger queries in your mind:

   
  • Is it difficult to register for popular classes such as yadda yadda? (Give examples of the classes you are most interested in.)
  • What are the criteria for participation in a business plan competition? (if you are interested in entrepreneurship. Substitute another program if entrepreneurship is not your goal.)
  • How are interviews given out for internships and full-time positions? (The latter can be a critical question if you are a career changer. Do students bid for a portion of interview slots or is it entirely recruiters' choice?)
   

If your interviewer is a second-year student or recent alum, ask about his or her experience at School X. For example:

   
  • What were your favorite classes? Professors?
  • Any activity that is simply not to be missed?
  • What do you wish you had done differently before or while at School X.
     

BTW, we have been receiving absolutely terrific feedback on INSEAD interviews and IMD interviews in the MBA Interview Feedback Database (MBAIFDB). The MBAIFDB is a free, searchable database with feedback from MBA admissions interviews at all the top MBA programs around the world. You can use it to prepare for your interview, and please also to remember to share your interview experience after you interview.

Although most schools have not yet started interviewing, let me remind you of a few additional Accepted MBA interview resources:

          

Posted at 02:31 PM in The MBA Application Process | | Comments (0)

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