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

With the 2016–2017 MBA application season moving along at full speed, we thought we should explore an issue that brings endless paranoia to business school candidates: when to schedule interviews. Many programs will give applicants a significant window in which to schedule their interview. Does scheduling an interview early convey that you are being too aggressive and do not have any other irons in the fire, or instead that you are eager to act and impress the admissions committee? Does scheduling an interview later imply that you are less interested in the program, or rather that you are highly sought after and are interviewing at multiple schools?

The reality is that scheduling your interview to occur early on in the school’s set time frame is really no different from scheduling it near the end. Neither option, nor any day in between, confers any advantage or disadvantage. The MBA admissions committees recognize that you, like all candidates, are busy and that your schedule is in flux as a result of work, community, and personal commitments. The committees focus on the interviews themselves, not on when they are scheduled. So pick a date that works for you—a time when you know you can be comfortable and relaxed, not distracted—and start preparing!

With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.

What are the Dos and Don’ts to get the most out of your CATs? Learn more in this three-part series.

Know WHY you take CATs

Practice CATs are very useful for three things:

(1) Figuring out your current scoring level (assuming you took the test under official conditions)

(2) Practicing stamina and/or timing

(3) Analyzing your strengths and weaknesses

The third item is the MOST important—this is how we actually get better at this test!

Practice CATs do not help us to improve while taking the test. If you have been training to run a marathon, you will not learn how to get better while running the marathon itself; at that stage, you are just trying to survive. Rather, you learn how to improve in between races while doing all kinds of training activities and analyzing your performance.

DO take a CAT at the beginning of your study

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In this new blog series, our mbaMission Career Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, click here.

As you build your network, you will need to connect people by making introductions. Sometimes the connections you facilitate for others are the ones that end up helping you the most.

Potential options could include quickly crafted emails containing text such as “Hey, Laura! Here is Jake’s email address. He is expecting your email. Follow up at whim!” or “Hi, Laura and Jake. As promised, I am connecting you two. Enjoy!” But we can suggest some even better ways of doing this.

Three Samples of Introductory Email Language

Option 1

Subject Line: Intro: Jake and Laura

Jake, I would like to introduce Laura, a friend and colleague of mine from work. Laura is a strong management consultant and a tremendous young leader. Having completed her undergrad degree at Harvard and working in consulting for three years, she is interested in transitioning into an operational role within a health care company. Aetna is one of her target firms, and I thought you could give her some insight based on your experience there.

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

Many MBA candidates will work painstakingly on their essays, prepare rigorously for their interviews, and endlessly contemplate their choice of recommenders. However, applicants tend to leave the short answer section of their applications to the last moment, and some simply paste in information from their resumes or from their applications to other schools.

The short answer sections—meaning the actual questions within the application about your work and community experiences, hobbies, etc.—should definitely not be ignored or hastily completed at the last minute. They should be approached with the same spirit of diligence that you bring to all the other aspects of your application(s). We advise candidates to refrain from just pasting bullet points from their resumes into the short answer section and to instead take time to truly contemplate the questions that are asked and write out the answers in full sentence form. Further, bullets from a resume often lack the necessary context, so they rarely make effective answers for this portion of the application. Although the information conveyed in the short answer section is important, we believe that what is really crucial is that candidates give care and thought to all aspects of their applications.

As a general rule, “etc.” should never appear in the text of your MBA application essays. Consider the following sentences:

1. I helped draft prospectuses, analyze key company data, value companies, etc.
2. I look forward to courses such as “Small Business Management,” “Leading Teams,” “Multiparty Negotiations,” etc.

In the first example, “etc.” replaces information that the reader values. The reader cannot make the leap and just assume where the writer’s experiences lead and what they include. In the second example, “etc.” trivializes the school’s resources and may even suggest to the admissions committee that the applicant is just too lazy or disinterested to properly do his/her research.

We are at a loss to think of one instance in which “etc.” could be used appropriately in a business school essay. Very simply, ensure your essays do not include this term.