The GMAT Club Blog

This Week at Accepted: Specials, Duke Chat, MBA Interview Teleseminar

Welcome to a busy week at Accepted! MBA Admissions Interview Month ends with a bang this week.

    

• The MBA Admissions Teleseminar. Take advantage of this opportunity to speak to MBA interview experts for free. The Teleseminar is this Wednesday November 28 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT at your local, handy-dandy telephone. Please register to reserve your place and obtain call-in instructions.
• MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs is Accepted's featured ebook this month. With tips and advice on preparing for your MBA admissions interview as well as comprehensive lists of frequently asked questions organized by school, you don't want to walk into an interview without it. It's 20% off through Friday Nov. 30.
  
• MBA Interview Feedback Database. New reports from schools including HBS, Kellogg, Chicago, Duke, and Columbia are pouring into the database. So be sure to check it out before you interview. And after you interview, please contribute your report to share your interview experience. Doing so automatically enrolls you in our It's a 10! contest.
• Beautiful B-School Photo Contest.   If your interview entails a school visit, take a few pictures and submit the best of the best to compete for  one of three Amazon gift certificates worth up to $250. As of this moment, your chances of winning a top prize couldn't be better.

While Accepted has several events this week geared towards round 1applicants and MBA interviews, we are by no means ignoring applicants applying in round 2 or even later in the application cycle:

• Accepted's Round 2 Package special ends on Friday. Save $100 off our Buy-7-Get-1-Free or $50 off your first MBA Program Comprehensive Package.  Start your round 2 applications ASAP and save money with these two specials.
• Duke Fuqua Admissions Chat with Liz Riley Hargrove, Assistant Dean of Fuqua's MBA Daytime Program. The chat will take place on Thursday November 29 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT in the Accepted Chat Room.
• Coming up next week, INSEAD chat on December 3.
• If you are busy crafting, drafting, grafting, and editing MBA essays or plan to do so in December, sign up for Accepted's free email course "Five Fatal Flaws in MBA Essays."  It will teach you how to avoid them.

Haas, Wharton, Consortium Chats

      

During this week's upcoming Haas MBA admissions chat, Stephanie Fujii, Senior Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Haas School of Business, will answer your questions about Haas' top MBA program and its focus on innovation and leadership.  Please join us tomorrow Tuesday November 20 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT for an informative online chat.

We had two excellent and very different chats last week. The first, for the Consortium, was a wide-ranging discussion and included representatives of that organization as well as NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, USC Marshall, Wisconsin at Madison, Simon, and Goizueta. Here are a couple of short excerpts.

Andre Llewellyn (Nov 13, 2007 7:59:34 PM)
Is there any truth to the perception that most Consortium schools will not consider most applicants if they are ranked 2nd in the applicant’s preference?

JacquelineThomas-BellSIMON (Nov 13, 2007 8:00:42 PM)
Hello Andre-- no, that is not true. Schools look at an applicant first based upon admissions criteria for the school itself and then look to Consortium fellowship consideration.

VeronicaHoMARSHALL (Nov 13, 2007 8:01:33 PM)
Andre Llewellyn: No, I don't think that's true. Most applicants list several schools, and we know you must rank them. We look for strong applicants and will give consideration to all applicants who list our school.

fp1982 (Nov 13, 2007 8:02:40 PM)
What types of questions will be asked during the Consortium interview and what is the best way to prepare yourself for the interview?

VeronicaHoMARSHALL (Nov 13, 2007 8:04:24 PM)
fp: Most will ask about your career goals, reasons for wanting an MBA, why that school, challenges, successes, etc. It can be similar to a job interview but for an MBA.

JimHayesRoss (Nov 13, 2007 8:04:32 PM)
fp1982, you should approach the interview just like a job interview. Be prepared to talk about the representations on your resume and behavioral support for the assertions. The questions are not designed to stump you, and anything discussed should be topics about which you should be prepared through your professional and life experiences.

The full Consortium transcript will be available shortly and accessible from our chat transcript page.

During the Wharton chat, Thomas Caleel and three Wharton students discussed life and Wharton admissions policies with a focus on the Wharton interview. Here again are excerpts:

ThomasCaleelWharton (Nov 15, 2007 12:57:59 PM)
Please note that we do have a different feedback mechanism this year, so if you are not successful, please read your decision letter carefully...

ThomasCaleelWharton (Nov 15, 2007 12:59:11 PM)
Yes. We have a separate email address where unsuccessful applicants can send and email (please follow the instructions carefully). We will then select feedback candidates at random in May.

ThomasCaleelWharton (Nov 15, 2007 12:59:39 PM)
We have done this to level the playing field from our traditional model, which was call-in, and was difficult for some international students.

nicky484 (Nov 15, 2007 1:01:52 PM)
Thomas: What are you looking for at interview?

ThomasCaleelWharton (Nov 15, 2007 1:02:06 PM)
Nicky, the IV, like the app, is holistic. We will look for your motivation to attend Wharton, as well as your goals.  We may ask about leadership or teamwork or involvement as well. I would advise you to re-read your application before the IV, then just go in and relax. Too many applicants seek the "right" answer, and end up not listening and answering the questions asked...

The transcript should be posted by the end of the week and you can access it then at Accepted's Wharton zone. 

          

Consortium and Wharton Chats This Week

We have two great MBA admissions chats scheduled for this week:

• Consortium on Tuesday November 13 at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET. Jackie Olden, the Consortium's Director of Recruiting, and representatives of different Consortium schools will be available to answer your questions about researching schools and the steps you should be taking at this point in the application process. The following schools will participate:
  
  • Marshall School of Business at USC
  • Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan
  • Wisconsin School of Business
  • Goizueta School of Business at Emory University
  • Simon Graduate School of Business
  • Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College
  • Kelley School of Business, IU   
  • NYU Stern
• Wharton on Thursday November 15, 2007 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT. Thomas Caleel returns to answer your questions, joined by three current Wharton students. You will have plenty of opportunity to ask your questions about Wharton interviews, culture, and admissions.

Both chats will take place in the Accepted chat room.

MBA Interview Month

If Hallmark can do it, so can Accepted. Accepted has declared November "MBA Admissions Interview Month." And we have events and resources to help you observe the august occasion -- especially if you are one of the lucky ones on the receiving end of an invitation.

 

First the events:

      

• Wharton Interview Chat with Thomas Caleel on Thursday Nov. 15 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT in the Accepted Chat Room.
• MBA Interview Teleseminar on Wednesday November 28 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT. Sign up for this teleseminar with Maxx Duffy of Maxx Associates, who is a former HBS adcom member, and Inge Miller of Accepted, who is a former Associate Director of Admissions for Ross, and myself. Maxx and I are also the co-authors of MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs. More on that in a minute. The teleseminar will start with a panel discussion and conclude with a question and answer session when you can ask Maxx, Inge, and me your questions about MBA interviews.
• It's a 10! Contest. Provide feedback in the MBA Admissions Interview Database and you are automatically entered to win up to $20 in Amazon Gift certificates.
      

    

Now the resources:

 

• Mock MBA interviews and MBA interview coaching. Practice makes perfect with Accepted's experienced interviewers.
• MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs, our featured ebook this month is 20% off through November 30. Instantly downloadable, it provides advice on interview preparation as well as the questions most commonly asked at specific schools.
• MBA Interview Prep Course: Put your best foot forward after taking our free, 5-day, email course.
• MBA Interview Feedback Database. The granddaddy of MBA interview resources with interview reports going back almost ten years. The database will allow you to anticipate questions and receive advice from those who previously sat in the interview hot seat. You can browse to your heart's content for free. We only ask that you share your interview experience after you interview.
  

So please join us in observing MBA Admissions Interview Month. Take advantage of the resources. Participate in the events. Ace your interviews, and you could really have cause to celebrate.

MBA Chats: Michigan, USC Marshall, Tepper, Johnson, INSEAD

We have a great chat scheduled for today. Michigan's Ross School of Business with Soojin Kwan Koh, Director of MBA Admissions; Doug Thomas, Assistant Director of Admissions, and a Ross student on today November 7 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT.

Both chats will take place in the Accepted chat room.

We also posted several chat transcripts last week, and I am providing brief excerpts:

• CMU Tepper with Laurie Stewart

PR (Oct 16, 2007 1:07:34 PM)
Laurie: Could you talk a little about the application review process. Do current students read the application? How many reviews does the application go through before a decision is made?

 

LaurieStewartCMU (Oct 16, 2007 1:09:32 PM)
PR--all of our reviews are conducted by members of the admissions staff members and we do 3 reviews; 2 by admissions committee members and one by me before a decision is made.

Linda Abraham (Oct 16, 2007 1:09:55 PM)
   Jeremy, why did you choose Tepper?

JeremyHastingsCMU (Oct 16, 2007 1:10:25 PM)
I chose Tepper for a few reasons: 1 - a small program: I wanted to make sure I had a group of friends I would know when I left, not just be 1 of 600.
2 - pushing my own skill set: I had very non-quant work experience, and I wanted to challenge myself to learn how to analyze data and make decisions based on it. 3 - change the trajectory of my career: going to Tepper meant no one was ever going to ask me if I could do the work. It's a given. You go to Tepper, you can run and interpret regressions, you can do data analysis, you can build models. That is a statement only a few schools can make, Carnegie Mellon is one of those schools.

LLU (Oct 16, 2007 1:12:05 PM)
Laurie: The optional essay is a great way to feed in bits and pieces about one's profile that may not have been represented in it's entirety in the other essays. It is likely that one may want to dwell on 2 or 3 rather disconnected areas in the optional essay - a kind of "catch all". Is such a thing frowned upon- i.e: would you rather want all applicants to focus on just one aspect in the optional essay or is it OK if one covers a 2 or 3 disconnected areas as well?

LaurieStewartCMU (Oct 16, 2007 1:14:47 PM)
LLU--great question--we really look for the optional essay to do one of two things (or both): highlight areas that candidates think are strengths that they didn't have a chance to address elsewhere in the application and also to address anything they are concerned might be perceived as a weakness in their application--as such, it isn't uncommon to have the optional essay cover more than one topic, although you do want to make sure to make decisions about what is really important to cover.

Cornell Johnson MBA with Randall Sawyer

MP (Oct 24, 2007 1:29:41 PM)
Randall: I won't be able to visit campus because I have to be at work on weekdays (when classes and info-sessions are held). Are applicants who have not visited campus at any disadvantage as far as admissions decisions are concerned?

RandallSawyerCornell (Oct 24, 2007 1:32:52 PM)
Hi MP--I don't think applicants who have not visited campus are at a disadvantage. However, all admissions directors care about your choosing the right place to go and many times "fit and feel" of the school and campus are vital to making the right decision. I would urge you to visit all schools you apply to or are accepted at before you attend. We would hate to see you head to a school for your MBA that you feel uncomfortable at--it will be a long two years for you if that is the case.

INSEAD MBA with Carolilne Diarte Edwards

  jerex (Oct 29, 2007 1:29:00 PM)
     Do you have any numbers on the number of applicants in the January vs September intakes at INSEAD?

  CarolineDiarteEdwardsINSEAD (Oct 29, 2007 1:29:19 PM)
The level of competition is the same for both intakes, but we don't give out application figures. We are seeing an increase in application volume, but we don't give out the statistics.

  goenka (Oct 29, 2007 1:30:36 PM)
Guess, you missed my question....How good would INSEAD be for someone who wants to make a career change into Finance; Consulting being the strength of INSEAD.

  CarolineDiarteEdwardsINSEAD (Oct 29, 2007 1:31:28 PM)
It's a misperception that we prepare our class for consulting more than finance. We have rougly 1/3 of the class going into consulting and 1/3 going into finance.