The GMAT Club Blog

HBS is 100 Years Old

It's Harvard's Business School's anniversary on March 26th. Not bad at all and I think in this case, it is a compliment.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/26/magazines/fortune/hbs_birthday.fortune/?postversion=2008032707

U.S. News 2008 Rankings are out

U.S. News has just published their 2008 rankings. The top 5 are the usual suspects - Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Sloan, and Kellogg. Looks like a little reshuffling, but nothing shocking. See how your school ranks. Link: U.S. News 2008 MBA Rankings

Start Your 2009 MBA Application

Last week I met with a LAMP client who is shrewdly starting now to prepare for his fall application. We went over his profile, and I made several suggestions as to what he can do between now and this fall to improve his chances of acceptance next year. He found the session very valuable. And again, I commend him for starting early to work on his application. I want to be able to commend and mentor and help prepare more of you.

For years I have encouraged MBA applicants to lay the foundation for their MBA application in the months before applications come out. That's why I wrote Best Practices for MBA Admissions, a featured ebook this month. That's why Accepted has hosted MBA Admissions Telethons and teleseminars. And that's why Accepted is introducing a new subscription form of MBA Admissions Consulting: Start Smart ™.

With Start Smart, you can meet up to one hour per month with your adviser, an experienced Accepted consultant and editor who for years has seen what works and what doesn't. Our experienced staff shares my frustration when talented but flawed clients come to us in September wanting to apply in Round 1 and hoping that a magic wand will make them competitive. We don't have that wand. We do have decades of collective experience that we would like to share with you on an individual basis through Start Smart.

With Start Smart, you can have a mentor guide you in:

• Identifying the core stories for your application.
• Focusing on specific schools.
• Strengthening your application and ameliorating weaknesses.
• Choosing recommenders.

We can even help you work out an application time table.

In addition, Start Smart is something that rewards your early-bird-gets-the-worm approach to your applications:

• You will pay less per month when you sign up for more months.
• Your credit card is billed on a monthly basis for the exact number of months you want. You do not pay for the entire service up front so it is more affordable.

Start Smart to propel your MBA application.

Advice from and for Military MBA's

This week BusinessWeek published a special report on MBAs coming  from the military: the challenges they face in b-school and the benefits they offer their classmates, their schools, and their future employers.

Don't think, "I've never been in the military. I'll skip this post and these articles." The articles have lessons for all MBA applicants, at least those of you trying to demonstrate leadership.  And that should be all of you.

Of broadest interest is "Veterans with the Right Stuff," in which executive recruiter Al Chase writes about the strengths of vets in the job market, specifically their leadership skills. Note how he breaks down leadership, an umbrella term if there ever was one.

"Under the broad banner of leadership I see specific strengths: strategic vision, commitment to the mission, accountability, integrity, flexibility, interpersonal skills, communication skills, and a commitment to equip and empower their teams to achieve excellence. A good officer needs to be comfortable throwing on some camouflage paint to lead his enlisted troops on a mission to neutralize a group of bad guys hiding out in Fallujah. He needs to be equally comfortable standing before the commanding officer in the Tactical Operations Center to report on the results of that mission. That kind of flexibility is rare in the business world, and it is part of what makes military officers with MBAs such a prized commodity."

OK. So you didn't neutralize a group of bad guys in Fallujah. When have you worked closely with subordinates and superiors to achieve a goal? When have you set a vision and helped your team pursue it?  When have you communicated with diverse stakeholders? How can you demonstrate your effectiveness?

Probably you can't demonstrate the responsibility shouldered by a man or woman coming from the military officer corps, but these articles give you multiple clues as to the subsets of leadership you want to reveal in your essays even if you never touched an AK-47.

New EMBA Admissions Email Course

Accepted's Cindy Tokumitsu has developed a 6-part, EMBA admissions email course. You can subscribe for free at  "Ace the EMBA."  The curriculum:

1. The Expanded EMBA Profile.
2. Sponsorship & the GMAT.
3. Program Variety.
4. Employment & Career Services.
5. Qualifying Factors.
6. Differentiating Yourself.

MBA Jargon Dictionary

Do you speak the MBA lingo? MBA Dictionary is out and as of 2/27/2008 it is taking user vote counts and contributions. (Hat tip to Seattle PI). The page is decorated with screenshots from Office Space and includes such examples as (though many are serious or maybe I just did not catch the humor):

bring to the table (v. phrase)

Refers to what one offers or provides, especially in negotiations. Personally, I bring a fork.

dialogue (v.)

It's true that Shakespeare used "dialogue" as a verb ("Dost Dialogue with thy shadow?"). But I've got news for ya, buddy: You ain't no Shakespeare. Resist the temptation to use this utterly superfluous verb as a substitute for "talk" or "speak." Usage example: “Let’s dialogue telephonically via land line," meaning "call me at the office." Sigh.

Value proposition (n.)

The unique set of benefits that you offer to customers to sucker them into  buying your product or service. Sometimes shortened to "value prop," as in "What's your value prop?" Word.

Dictionary Link: http://www.johnsmurf.com/jargon.htm