MBA admissions consultants

Yesterday, Manhattan GMAT posted a GMAT question on our blog. Today, they have followed up with the answer:

To ensure that we grasp the four definitions, we might restate them—taking care to preserve the meaning precisely.

O(x) rounds x up to the nearest odd integer, whereas o(x) rounds x down to the nearest odd integer. The two E-functions do the same thing, except that the outcome is even integers.

Now let’s write the terms one at a time and apply the functions.

O(3.2) = 5 (notice that we must round up pretty far)

E(–1.7) = 0 (remember that the 0 is larger than –1.7)

o(–1.3) = –3 (we have to round down pretty far, and –3 is less than –1.3)

e(2.7) = 2

5 + 0 + (–3) + 2 = 4

The correct answer is (C).

Each week Manhattan GMAT posts a GMAT question on our blog and follows up with the answer the next day. Are you up for the challenge?

O(x) represents the least odd integer greater than x, whereas o(x) represents the greatest odd integer less than x.

Likewise, E(x) represents the least even integer greater than x, whereas e(x) represents the greatest even integer less than x.

According to these definitions, the value of O(3.2) + E(–1.7) + o(–1.3) + e(2.7) is

(A) 2

(B) 3

(C) 4

(D) 5

(E) 6

Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

“Is my GMAT score too low?”

In a competitive environment, it is not uncommon for us to hear this question from candidates who have scores of 90th percentile and higher. So, what constitutes a solid GMAT score?

With regard to top MBA programs, an overall score of 700, with an 80th percentile standing on both the quantitative and verbal sections is generally considered “safe”. However, if your score is lower than this benchmark, then this blog-posting should not be a source of anxiety. We have seen many candidates with sub-700 scores and more than a few with sub-600 scores, get into top-programs. As Admissions Officers are at pains to tell candidates, the GMAT is but one metric and must be viewed relative to other indicators – grades, professional experience, community leadership, international experience, personal accomplishments and more.

Candidates who are concerned that they have low-scores should consider them in comparison to a school’s GMAT average and distribution (and again, relative to their own experiences as well). For example, Yale’s website, states that its Class of 2011 has a GMAT average of 715 and the mid-80% of its class had scores between 660 and 760. So, that written, 660 and 760 form a range for candidates with low to average scores to consider. So, taking this range into account and offering a simplified example, a male investment banker with a 640 and limited community experience, might consider retaking the GMAT. A male investment banker with a 710 and significant community experience might be better off working on his her-applications.

The key point and the one that is most often missed amid GMAT hysteria is that candidates must be confident that they can improve their scores, otherwise retaking the GMAT is senseless. If your actual score is higher than your pre-tests, then you might consider that test-day was your best attempt and then focus your energies elsewhere; if you are confident that you under-achieved on test day and can boost your scores by at least twenty points (or more) and that this will not compromise your applications, then you should consider taking the test again.

Last week, we discussed observing limits with your resume. This week, we take a similar approach with your essays, namely your goals essay. Many schools ask you to discuss your career progress first in their classic goals essay.  For example, Kellogg, asks you to…

“Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA. (600 word limit)”

Other schools don’t even ask you for any professional context, for example, Columbia requests…

“What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)”

Many candidates will seize on these broad open ended questions to discuss their career histories in depth, offering far more than mere context for their goals. Such candidates worry that they will miss a crucial opportunity to present their professional accomplishments and will therefore write a complete career history. For a program like Kellogg, some candidates will mistakenly use four or five hundred of the six hundred available words for their career section. While this approach may seem “brief” to the applicant, you will be writing too much at the expense of other crucial aspects of your candidacy.

In such cases, your reasons for needing your MBA and your need to attend this particular school will remain undeveloped if your career progress “hogs” the essay. Your career progress is unquestionably important, but you still need to restrain yourself and balance the different sections of your essay. It is crucial that you develop your goals and your reasons for targeting a particular school, so that you connect with your target, rather than miss it entirely.

Michigan Ross has overhauled its essay this year. Gone is a question about an alternative career path that perplexed many applicants in the past. Still, essay one will no doubt bedevil many others. Michigan Ross’s essays are open ended, which allows you to decide what you want to offer of yourself. You should feel that you have ample opportunity to present your best.  

1. Introduce yourself in 100 words or less.

How many words is 100? This sentence alone accounts for ten percent of that allowance. Because this essay’s word count is so tight, many candidates will struggle with it. Still, in 100 words, you could write a brief vignette/story that broadly represents you—that stands for who you are. Or, you can offer several short/clever sentences that capture your personality. You might even present a theme or two with supporting anecdotes. In short, you still have plenty of room to be creative and reveal what makes you interesting. (We strongly recommend not offering a historical statement that summarizes your biography/resume.)

By the way, the paragraph above is exactly 100 words.

2. Describe your career goals. How will the Ross MBA help you to achieve your goals? (500-word maximum)

Because Personal Statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge, via our online store. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Ross’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Michigan Ross.

3. Describe a time in your career when you were frustrated or disappointed. What did you learn from that experience? (500-word maximum)

In its essay questions, Ross tends to throw a lot of softballs your way—they allow you broad opportunities to write whatever you would like. This essay question, however, is far more narrow than any of the others, requiring you to explain a time when you faced an oppositional force and how you dealt with a minor or major setback. In this essay, you need not be culpable—they are not asking you to admit to or explain a mistake—but you nevertheless need to be honest, and this may require that you explain your responsibility for a frustrating situation. Regardless of the challenge that you choose to discuss in your essay, showing how you navigated the personalities and circumstances is important in optimizing your results. Even if you did not “turn lemons into lemonade,” as the saying goes, your story can still present you in a positive light, revealing your strengths in the areas of diplomacy, persuasion, maturity, ethics, creativity and more. As we noted in our analysis of Kellogg’s essay questions (Kellogg asks a similar question of applicants), the key to writing an effective essay is revealing a certain thoughtfulness and problem-solving ability as you overcame and did your best to advance.

4. Select one of the following questions:

What are you most passionate about and why? (300-word maximum)

We are guessing that because essay one has, to a large degree, already focused on the topic of the applicant’s personality, many will opt not to answer this question, but will defer to the next. Still, in either this “passionate” essay question or the “contribution” essay question that follows, candidates will have an open-ended opportunity to differentiate themselves from the rest of the Ross candidate pool. So, if you choose to answer this question, think carefully about what the admissions committee already knows about you from the other portions of your application package, and be sure to consider a new theme/skill/experience to highlight here.

Once you have determined what it is that you are indeed most passionate about, you should take some time to consider the manifestation of that passion. Simply stating that you are passionate about something will not be sufficient; you need to demonstrate evidence of this passion and truly illustrate how it plays a role in your life. Consider the following examples:

Example 1 (Bad): I love cooking and cook frequently for friends and family, often experimenting with new ingredients.

Example 2 (Good): After intensely searching throughout Chinatown for three hours, I finally found fresh Daikon and could not wait to get home to add it to my soup and be able to taste my newest recipe for the first time.

Although cooking may not be the most ideal/serious passion (unless it becomes a metaphor for a broader theme of spontaneity, creativity, etc.), our point is that your actions need to truly convey and reveal your passion. The reader cannot finish this essay and simply conclude, “nice hobby,” but must get a sense that you are in a comparatively inordinate pursuit and are thus quite purposeful.

We expect that Ross MBAs will not only be effective leaders, but also effective teachers. How will you contribute to the learning experience of your peers at Ross? (300-word maximum)

Candidates need not worry that they must possess proven teaching skills, but should focus on the second part of the essay question: “How will you contribute to the learning experience of your peers at Ross?” Ross is not expecting you to literally teach your fellow students (though if you can, that is great) but instead expects that you will have experiences from which others can learn via your contributions in class and possibly even in the broader community. As you write this essay, you can—and should—simultaneously exhibit your knowledge of the Ross environment by linking what you have to offer to specific aspects of the Ross MBA experience. For example, merely revealing that you possess nuanced knowledge of a particular region of the world would not be as compelling as explaining how you will apply this unique knowledge to contribute to a particular class, MAP Project or club. This essay allows you to distinguish yourself from other candidates and demonstrate connections between you and the school.

Kellogg’s essay questions have changed very little this year, with primarily just a few tweaks to the options offered in essay four. Kellogg is among the most demanding of the top business schools, requiring that applicants write four essays, three of which are 600 words long. A general tip for approaching these essays: keep the admissions committee learning about you. If the demands of the essay questions become too much and you end up telling the same story over and over again, you will not likely succeed in winning over the admissions committee.

1.
a) MBA Program applicants – Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA. (600-word limit)

b) MMM Program applicants – Briefly assess your career progress to date. How does the MMM Program meet your educational needs and career goals? (600-word limit).

Because Personal Statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge, via our online store. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Kellogg’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Kellogg School of Management.  

2. Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experiences (600-word limit).

In this essay, you might offer two simple vignettes that showcase your leadership experience narratively, and then evaluate yourself and denote certain areas for development. Although you are expected to be critical in discussing these areas for development, you should take care not to deride your strengths. Rather than thinking about ways in which you are lacking as a leader, focus on ways you could become a more complete and capable one. In this essay (much as in essays one and three), specific reference is made to your future experience as an MBA student at the school. So, you should seize this opportunity to illustrate a connection between you and Kellogg by showing that you understand how specific resources at the school will directly facilitate your development as a leader.

3. Assume you are evaluating your application from the perspective of a student member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Why would you and your peers select you for admission, and what impact would you make as a member of the Kellogg community? (600-word limit).

No doubt, many candidates will wonder whether they should respond to this question in first person or third person. We would guess that most applicants will choose to respond in third person, but there is really no right answer. What is important is that your content is compelling.

Because this essay is so open ended, we strongly recommend that you outline your thoughts before beginning your first draft and that you avoid reviewing every single element of your profile. Many candidates will fail to write a compelling essay here because they will instead focus on their transcript, GMAT score(s), professional history, GPA, community activities, personal life, etc. You have only 600 words with which to craft your message in this case, so give careful thought to what an objective outsider might think about you, and play to your strengths rather than offering a survey of everything in your profile. In short, we encourage candidates to think in terms of anecdotes for this essay and not default to simply “listing” qualities and accomplishments.

A strong self-assessment will prepare you to do more than merely reiterate experiences and instead effectively bring color to certain events and attributes and then link them to the Kellogg community. By doing so, you will not only present your strengths and place them in a unique light, but you will also show your fit with Kellogg and prove to the admissions committee that you profoundly understand how you will contribute.

(Note: We strongly advise that you not get bogged down in discussing your GMAT score and/or GPA.)

4. Complete one of the following three questions or statements. (400-word limit)
Reapplicants have the option to answer a question from this grouping, but this is not required.

a) Describe an instance where you encountered resistance in a professional team setting. How did you address the situation?

Although the kind of resistance you faced is important here, the real key to mastering this essay is effectively explaining how you dealt with the obstacles you encountered. To do so, you may play on the themes of diplomacy, persuasion, maturity, ethics, creativity and more. Revealing a certain thoughtfulness and problem-solving ability as you overcame the resistance and did your best to advance the team’s cause is crucial to writing an effective essay. You need not “win” (though a win is fine as well)—this is a character piece, and thus your actions need to be “noble” in victory or defeat.

b) People may be surprised to learn that I…..

We suggest that candidates give profound thought to the image of themselves that they have presented thus far in their application, and especially in their other essays, before writing this essay. Many applicants believe that they are offering a unique window into their experiences and personality when they are really only presenting a different side of the same coin: “You know that I am an engineer, but did you know that I also do training?” (This just will not work.)

For this essay, your reader needs to be truly surprised—and pleasantly so—by what he/she learns about you—for example, the former college shot putter now performs in an ethnic dance troupe, or a former drama star now competes regularly in crossword puzzle championships. Of course, your story need not be as over the top as this, but your reader should certainly have the opportunity to get to know a new and ideally courageous side of you that he/she may not have otherwise expected or seen.

c) The best mistake I ever made was…….

Ahh, sweet fortuity. For this essay, candidates may write about a time when they stumbled along the wrong path only to discover or accomplish something new or exciting. Alternatively, candidates can simply admit an error from which they learned something significant and/or that better prepared them for a later attempt at whatever they were originally trying to achieve. This Kellogg essay question takes a different approach to the classic “mistake” question, but this does not mean that you should shy away from accepting responsibility for your error and honestly and critically considering your actions. Any attempt to shirk responsibility will undermine your candidacy. If you are not ready and willing to own your mistakes, then you absolutely should not write this essay!

Required essay for reapplicants only – Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (400-word limit)

Whether you have improved your academic record, received a promotion, begun a new and exciting project, increased your community involvement or taken on a personal challenge of sorts, the key to success with this essay is conveying a very deliberate path of achievement. Kellogg wants to know that you have been actively striving to improve and that you have seized opportunities during the previous year to do so, because a Kellogg MBA is vital to you. This essay question will vary greatly from one candidate to the next, because each person’s needs and experiences differ. We are more than happy to provide one-on-one assistance with this highly personal essay to ensure that your efforts over the past year are presented in the best light possible.

Because of its proximity to Silicon Valley, Haas benefits from an entrepreneurial halo-effect and thus applicants  consider it to be a location from which to launch careers in venture capital and private equity.  That written, in its Class of 2009 only 1.7% of Haas graduates went entered these fields. Regardless of the small numbers (and it should be noted that this is consistent with many peer schools) opportunities abound for students who are targeting this field, via the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. One unique opportunity for a small number of students is the Haas New Venture Fellows Program, which offers three to five first year students and one to two second year students the opportunity to perform actual project work for local venture capital firms for academic credit. Students in this highly selective program have completed projects with such firms as Bessemer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures. The New Venture Fellows also participate in the program’s Pitch Lab, in which budding entrepreneurs from within the UC Berkeley community can practice their pitches for feedback and advice. In addition, the program organizes events to facilitate networking between its fellows and practicing venture capitalists in the area. While entering VC post-MBA can be quite challenging, it certainly helps when your school can get you  in the door.

Yesterday, Manhattan GMAT posted a GMAT question on our blog. Today, they have followed up with the answer:

Since we are only dealing in fractions, let’s pick a simple number for the total number of students: 8. Thus, 3 students are in all 3 clubs. 4 students are in A, 5 students are in B, and 6 students (3/4 of 8 ) are in C. Since every student is in at least one club, then we know that the total number of club members, appropriately counting people in two or three clubs, must be 8.

We can use the following idea: suppose there were no overlap in the club memberships at all. Then we could just add up the club memberships, and there would have to be 4 + 5 + 6 = 15 students. Now, we know that this is overcounting; we counted 3 students 3 times (for all 3 clubs), when we should have only counted them once. So we overcounted them twice, meaning that we should subtract 2×3 = 6 students from the 15, leaving 9. We still have an extra student in the count, since we really only have 8 people. Now, let’s think about the people in exactly 2 clubs: we counted those people twice, when we should have counted them just once. So we overcounted them once, and we should subtract their number once from the total. Representing this number by x, we get 9 – x = 8, so x = 1. The fraction of people in exactly 2 clubs is 1/8.

An easier formula for this process that captures the same idea is this:

Total people in at least one club

= Total of separate memberships of each club,

MINUS the people in exactly two clubs,

MINUS TWICE the people in all three clubs.

Plugging in numbers, we get

8 = 4 + 5 + 6 – x – 2(3)

8 = 15 – x – 6

8 = 9 – x

x = 1

Again, the fraction is 1/8.

This can also be solved by a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles and placing numbers to ensure that the circles total properly (A = 4, B = 5, C = 6), that the central overlap has 3 people, and that the overall total is 8. Trial and error reveals that we will need to place 1 person in one of the “leaves” (indicating membership in exactly 2 clubs).

The correct answer is (A).

Candidates often struggle with the demands of the Haas application. Our advice to you? Do not just start writing. Instead, brainstorm extensively and map out your strategy for each essay and for your entire application as a whole, so that you avoid redundancies and give a complete picture of who you are as candidate.

Short Answer:

1. What are you most passionate about?  Why?  (250-word maximum)

This essay is your opportunity to grab your reader’s attention and interest, so think very carefully about how you want to introduce yourself. Most likely, you will want to reveal a side of you that is separate/different from your professional life and can serve as a metaphor for a broader theme. For example (albeit a clichéd one), mountain climbing can be a metaphor for facing challenges. Once you have determined what it is that you are indeed most passionate about, you should take some time to consider the manifestation of that passion. Simply stating that you are passionate about something will not be sufficient; you need to demonstrate evidence of this passion and truly illustrate how it plays a role in your life. Consider the following examples:

Example 1 (Bad): I love cooking and cook frequently for friends and family, often experimenting with new ingredients.

Example 2 (Good): After intensely searching throughout Chinatown for three hours, I finally found fresh Daikon and could not wait to get home to add it to my soup and be able to taste my newest recipe for the first time.

Although cooking may not be the most ideal/serious passion (unless it becomes a metaphor for a broader theme of spontaneity, creativity, etc.), our point is that your actions need to truly convey and reveal your passion. The reader cannot finish this essay and simply conclude, “nice hobby,” but must get a sense that you are in a comparatively inordinate pursuit and are thus quite purposeful.

2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250-word maximum)

Your most significant accomplishment can be from any sphere—professional, community, academic, personal—but be sure to maintain a balance and represent as many dimensions of your candidacy as possible as you respond to these short-answer questions. In other words, whichever aspect of your profile you choose to highlight here, it should be one that is not represented elsewhere in your application. This means that you will have to exercise judgment. The key to this essay is to choose an experience that is simple but powerful—one that speaks for itself and draws the reader in, allowing him/her to draw a clear conclusion about your capabilities. Even with just 250 words, you can sufficiently recount a story that accomplishes this goal.

3. At Haas, our distinctive culture is defined by four key principles—question the status quo; confidence without attitude; students always; and beyond yourself. Give an example of when you have demonstrated one of these principles. (250 words maximum, Review Berkeley-Haas’ Defining Principles)

This question offers you incredible flexibility and is essentially an open opportunity for you to share a strong story from your past. However, take care to not get distracted. Remember that the experience you discuss must relate directly to one of the four key principles, though we strongly suggest avoiding an introductory sentence like, “The key principle that I displayed in X circumstance was ‘confidence without attitude.’” Instead, you should launch right into your story and let your actions reveal themselves—and their connection to one of the tenets of Haas’s culture. In 250 words, you can still write a clear narrative with a distinct beginning, middle and end that shows the admissions committee your strengths, rather than simply stating that you possess certain characteristics.

4. There are many ways to learn about our program; what steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA? (250-word maximum)

Quite simply, Haas wants to know that you are applying for the right reasons—for the program’s “brains” (academics, environment, etc.), rather than its “beauty” (rankings). You need to explain your connection with/interest in the program and show that you have engaged in a thorough process of discovery and self-evaluation that has lead you to the conclusion that Haas is the right school for you. The more personal and detailed you are, the more compelling your answer will be.

A good way to test whether your sincerity is evident in your essay is by deleting any reference to Haas and inserting the name of another school in its place. If your essay still makes sense with another school’s name inserted, it is too generic and does not include enough Haas-specific detail. If, on the other hand, your essay becomes nonsensical because you have another school’s name relating to Haas-specific resources, then you have successfully done your job (and should take care to reinsert Haas before submitting!).

Required Essays:

1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500-word maximum)

You might feel relieved to encounter a 500-word maximum at this point, though by now, your depth of experience might be challenged; some candidates have difficulty offering a strong answer to this question, because they have already discussed their most significant accomplishment in their essay for short-answer question two. You should therefore reserve a more complicated experience for this essay, one in which your actions were methodical and thus may require slightly more explanation. Whereas short-answer question two demands an impressive “blast” of experience, in this essay, the admissions committee is more interested in understanding your leadership style and process orientation. The results of your selected leadership experience are quite important, but the characteristics that you display on the path to these results are equally significant.

2. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? How will an MBA from Berkeley help you achieve these specific career goals? (1,000 word maximum)

Because Personal Statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge, via our online store. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Berkeley-Haas’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Haas School of Business. 

Each week Manhattan GMAT posts a GMAT question on our blog and follows up with the answer the next day. Are you up for the challenge?

3/8 of all students at Social High are in all three of the following clubs: Albanian, Bardic, and Checkmate. 1/2 of all students are in Albanian, 5/8 are in Bardic, and 3/4 are in Checkmate. If every student is in at least one club, what fraction of the student body is in exactly 2 clubs?

(A) 1/8

(B) 1/4

(C) 3/8

(D) 1/2

(E) 5/8