The GMAT Club Blog

Interview News and Resources

I checked my email this morning and found several informative MBA interview reports that had arrived over the weekend from applicants interviewing at HBS, Wharton, Columbia, London Business School, INSEAD, and other programs. Consequently, I decided it would be timely to post a mini-round up of MBA admissions interview news and resources.

• The HBS blog announced last week that HBS has issued most of its round 2 interview invitations. In Dee Leopold's words, "While interview invitations will continue to be issued up until notification date, it is fair to say that the vast majority have been sent."
     
• Wharton has completed posting its round 2 interview invitations. Those round 2 applicants who did not receive an interview invitation are denied.  Those who have received the precious invitation can jump in the air, dance for joy, and then check out the resources provided later in this post.
• The Darden Student Blog has a post outlining Darden's reasons for going to an "invitation only" interview policy. According to Bill Gray, the student author,  Darden previously required all domestic applicants to interview in Charlottesville, and just this year switched to invitation-only because the previous policy increased costs to  the school and the applicant, and  meant that domestic and international admissions processes differed. He also pointed at global warming, which I found a little disingenuous, but the other reasons make complete sense. A member of the Class of '09 who applied under the old policy,  Bill also wrote " I personally found it helpful to visit Darden before writing my essays.
• Haas presents a great series of tips for MBA interviews in its monthly admissions newsletter. Check out "How to Ace the Admissions Interview", by Peter Johnson, Director of Admissions, Full-time MBA Program

Now for the resources:

• MBA Mock Interviews and Coaching.
     
• MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs MBA Interview Questions and Tips. We can barely keep this ebook in stock, ;-), and we have received fantastic feedback on it, which we haven't even posted yet. Here is a sampling:

"Concise and to the point, great"

"It truly is a great book. I learned so much about different programs in this one book. thank you!"

"The guide provides very useful interview tips, on a school to school basis. Would recommend to anyone preparing for interviews with the top MBA schools."

• MBA Interview Feedback Database. The perfect source for the preparation Peter Johnson recommends in his tip article, the searchable database contains hundreds of interview reports from MBA interviews organized by school. Free.
• MBA Interview Prep. A five-day, email mini-course. Free.

Take advantage of the resources your wallet, sense of confidence, and general interview preparedness dictate.

And finally, a couple requests:

1. After you interview, please share your MBA interview experience so the database will continue to grow and provide value.  Doing so automatically enrolls you in Accepted's It's a 10! contest . Winners received an Amazon gift certificate of up to $20.
2. When visiting b-school campuses, take a few pictures of any school (or its environs) listed in the Accepted B-school Zones page and send them in to Accepted's Beautiful B-School Photo contest . In addition, we will soon add pages for UNC, Notre Dame, Emory, and Georgetown so feel free to send in pictures for those schools too.  All honorable mentions receive a gift, and the three winners will take home up to a $200 gift certificate from Amazon. Right now, we only have one submission, so your chances of winning are outstanding. The contest ends April 30.

2 MBA Degrees From 3 Schools in 2 Years

This is the new MBA math. A new program, S³Asia MBA, started by Korea University Business School (#1 business school in Korea) will enable students to attend 3 business schools (6 months each) as a part of the program. Press Release.

Choices are:
1. Fudan University in Shanghai
2. Korea University in Seoul
3. National University in Singapore

The details are very scarce, esp. about the degrees that graduates will earn and this quote: "Students of the program are to choose two degrees from those offered by the three schools." does not seem to really help. However, sounds like a great choice for students interested in attending more than one school and getting a strongly diversified degree. I assume the program will be built to take advantage of the best programs/classes at each school. More details at Korea Times.

Cutting Time to Market for MBA Education to the Minimum

Q: How to improve the value of the MBA program?
A: Have students up to speed on latest financial/economic issues such as Sub Prime Crisis by using current events as case studies.

That's exactly what MBA programs at Washington University in St. Louis and Eller in Arizona do - both use the Sub Prime meltdown in their curriculum, one focusing on the Countrywide's destiny. More details are available from Business Week article: The Post-Bubble Curriculum.

Consortium Chat Transcript and New GMAT Tip Article

We recently added the Consortium transcript and an additional GMAT article to Accepted.com. Here are excerpts:

• Consortium Student Chat Transcript

mba2008 (Feb 5, 2008 8:10:33 PM)
     What advice would you give us in preparation for returning to (a) the orientation program and (b) returning to school?

  RayHernandezDARDEN (Feb 5, 2008 8:11:37 PM)
School can be overwhelming when you start. If this link still works, this talks about transitioning into the first year http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/sep2007/bs2007096_544524.htm

  AprilTaylorINDIANA (Feb 5, 2008 8:11:41 PM)
     Definitely get some rest before starting school...It goes by fast!

BernieTraywickEmory (Feb 5, 2008 8:14:47 PM)
MBA 2008 -The OP will be a great advantage for you. Make sure you research the companies you may be interested in so that you can have a good interview. It will give you a great head start in your search for an internship. You may have the internship before you start B-School which will make it easier for you to focus on school.

• "Top 5 GMAT Study Tips" by Chris Ryan, Director of Instructor and Product Development, at the leading test prep company, Manhattan GMAT.

1) Go to the source.

Many religions have holy books, right? The Official Guides from the GMAC, in their orange, purple and green splendor, are the holy books of the GMAT religion. Every other book, as good as it may be, is just commentary. Only the Official Guides contain problems retired from the real GMAT. Thus, your efforts must be centered on the Official Guides.

   

The other "holy" source is GMAT Prep, the free practice-test software that you should download from mba.com. This software has its drawbacks, but it also has two unique benefits: it uses the real GMAT algorithm, and even more importantly, it contains retired GMAT problems, many of which aren't in the Official Guides. There are two tests offered on this software; you should consider 'saving' at least one of them for later in your preparation to use as a measuring stick. The GMAC folks have told us that they plan to release more products soon; these should also become part of your GMAT preparation depot.

Though the GMAC sources are the best, don't ignore third-party resources. Not surprisingly, I believe that the ManhattanGMAT resources are great. For instance, our computer-adaptive exams supply crucial explanations and analytics that GMAT Prep lacks. Our Strategy Guides break down the core principles and give you lots of relevant practice.   

But one way to measure the greatness of any third-party product is the degree to which it reflects the content of the GMAT. And when it comes to the content of the GMAT, GMAC products have no equal. (This is why ManhattanGMAT's curriculum is built around the Official Guides, which all of our students receive.)

For the remaining tips and a 10% discount on Manhattan GMAT courses and tutoring, please click on  "Top 5 GMAT Study Tips."

How will you use your MBA degree?

Some use it to get a better job, others for a raise, but some especially talented individuals use it as a source of income. MBA arrested for conning students.

I have heard of a similar but more effective scheme run by an admissions official of a school in the third world - he would offer students help with admission to the University for a flat fee of $10K. Students had to pay upfront but would be refunded money if they were not admitted. Interestingly enough, the official did nothing to help them and instead just sat back and waited for the admissions results to be posted just as eagerly as the applicants. It was his paycheck. As a rule, 30% of students would get admitted just by their own abilities; for the other 70% he would issue refunds, which was not a big problem - the result was never promised and dependent on the student. Afterall, this official could only help so much influence the decision of the admission committee. The whole plan, of course, caught up with him at the end. The insiders who were rigging admissions were losing money and they turned him in. It was not right what he did, though I still think it was a great idea - he basically sold confidence, something that's not cheap.

MBA Clones?

Just found an interesting book or at least a book with an interesting title: Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding. $40! Released Jan 7th. It is currently sold out on Amazon (I believe I purchased the last copy - sorry), but a very provocative title (at least for me). All reviews on Amazon seem to be positive, so looking forward to reading this one and sharing my impressions. Apparently it only takes 200 pages, twice as short as another book with high reviews I recently purchased. I will be commenting on both very soon. If you have a Business Education book you have recently purchased and enjoyed or hated, please post your comments on the forum in this thread: http://gmatclub.com/forum/18-t60320. I think many of us here would enjoy a good rewarding read.

Specialized Mini MBA Programs - Next Big Thing?

Not sure how new the idea of "specialized MBA degree" is, but University of Connecticut's Business School's dean, P. Christopher Earley, thinks it should not be taken lightly. As a matter of fact, Mr. Earley wants to pretty drastically reorg the program to say the least. He wants to keep the MBA program limited to the elite set of execs and boot everyone else into a set of specialized MBA programs. Big Plan? Yes. Good Plan? Don't think so.

Still Interested in Investment Banking?

There is a credit crunch in the US and banks are in a tough spot. Investment Banks are very much in the middle of it. Financial Times posted a good article that looks into investment banking careers today in regards to expectations of the industry, strategies for applying to MBA programs (or possibly PhD if you are interested to apply for a quantitative specialist), and interestingly some requirements for the candidates.

According to the article, here is what I-Banks are looking for in candidates:
"good academics; a clear career progression at a prestigious firm; language skills (increasingly important); and, for some special teams, strong knowledge of a particular industry. But ideally banks want to see something exceptional. Investment banking is an intensely competitive and increasingly commoditised business and banks look for people who will give them an edge."

If you have that edge - that may be a good door opener. The question is, can you position your edge properly to get it enough attention...

Link to the Full Article

More Undergrads Apply for MBA Right After School

Interesting article published by The Tufts Daily - not so much the part that's promoting Tufts but the one with facts and data - it seems the trend among undergrads to apply for MBA right after school is continuing. Link to full article. And it appears that there is a number of programs that cater to these applicants. Does this mean that work experience is worth less these days?
 

"According to a recent article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required), some business schools have begun programs aimed at attracting recently graduated students in an effort to diversify their student bodies. Hoping to draw more women, minorities and ambitious young students, business schools such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of Texas at Austin have taken such initiatives."

GMAT Tip

No, Accepted is not going into the test-prep business, but we are building a GMAT section on our site that will expand over time.

Our good friends at Manhattan GMAT have written the first article,   "Top 5 GMAT Test-Taking Strategies," Here is the first of the five tips.

1) Turn the page.   

Imagine you've just clicked "C, Next, Confirm" on a tough Data Sufficiency problem involving two overlapping triangles and lots of labeled angles. One of the statements was utterly baffling. You spent too much time deciding between C and E, and now you think you probably chose wrong, with your luck.    

Forget all that. 

You are facing a new problem. This is the only place your mind should be. Take out a "blank sheet of mental paper" and dive in.    

Now, as you get into this new problem, a whisper in your head tells you that the problem is too easy, so you probably got the last problem wrong, and by the way - you're doing poorly overall.

Turn that whisper off.       

You should not spend an instant of your time wondering about the past or about "how you're doing." You truly have no idea how you're doing - and if you did know, it wouldn't help you anyway.

The only opportunity you have to affect your fate is THIS problem. Forget about one minute ago. Focus on the here and now, and do the problem as best as you can.

For the other four tips and a special Manahattan GMAT offer exclusively for Accepted.com's visitors and clients, please take a peek at "Top 5 GMAT Test-Taking Strategies."