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At the end of the day, you will write only three essays for your Yale School of Management application, but you may very well answer as many as eight questions. Yale’s first essay question involves a number of requirements, and among its various essay choices, one option includes three additional choices. So, before you start writing, take a step back and think about what differentiates you as an applicant and what message you want to send to the admissions committee. If you then move forward with a few key stories and attributes in mind, completing these essays should be a lot easier.

Short Answers
Please answer each of the four (4) questions below with a short paragraph of no more than 150 words. This is an opportunity to distill your core ideas, values, goals and motivations into a set of snapshots that help tell us who you are, where you are going professionally, and why. (600 words total)

1. What are your professional goals immediately after you receive your MBA?
2. What are your long?term career aspirations?
3. Why are you choosing to pursue an MBA? (If you plan to use your Yale MBA to make a significant change in the nature of your career, please tell us what you have done to prepare for this transition.)
4. The intentions of our students to engage in a broad-minded business school community and to connect to an eminent and purposeful university greatly influence the Yale MBA experience. How do you plan to be involved in the Yale SOM and greater Yale communities?

These four questions encompass the primary elements of a classic Personal Statement essay question—short-term goals, long-term goals, why you want or need an MBA and “why us”—so we encourage you to consult our mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants address these topics in their essay(s) for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge, via our online store. Please feel free to download your copy today.

The only anomaly in these four mini questions is the last, which requires you to explain how you will engage with the Yale SOM and larger Yale University communities. So, your first order of business is to think about the experience you want to have at the school while also considering the areas where you can contribute (and ideally, contribute something unique!). Then, do your homework on the school, perhaps by reading the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Yale School of Management or by chatting with SOM students or alumni or with those of other schools within the university. A brief list of clubs or activities will not constitute a solid answer to this essay question. Instead, make sure to reveal that you truly understand how a particular club (for example) functions and that you have a clear vision for how you would contribute to the organization.

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Introducing a first of its kind MBA application writing class, led by veteran mbaMission admissions consultant Angela Guido: “Constructing a Standout MBA Application Boot Camp.”

Three-Session Class – 12 Hours of Instruction

Throughout this three-session class, we will guide you step by step through the process of creating a compelling MBA application that reveals your unique character and will inspire the admissions committee to grant you that coveted letter of acceptance. In a classroom “workshop” environment, you will brainstorm for unique ideas, outline and structure your essays, prepare multiple drafts of your essays and construct an appropriate resume for your target school. Further, you will get a head start on your recommendations and interviews, and develop a timeline for completing the rest of your applications. The class is designed to jump-start your application process and get you headed in the right direction with all your applications.

Constant Feedback

During this class, you will complete a series of targeted brainstorming and writing exercises, engage with classmates on your work, receive specific feedback and guidance from your peers and benefit from direct access to the workshop leader to hone your final product. You will also learn the key techniques of effective storytelling, which you can then apply to your future professional communications, including other business school applications and interviews.

Expected Outcomes

In this class you will accomplish the following:

• Understand how to view essays through the lens of the admissions committee
• Learn to identify the characteristics of a great essay and avoid common pitfalls
• Dig deep into your past experiences to reveal your most compelling stories
• Begin constructing your essays/resume for one target school, with feedback and direction from your peers and the instructor
• Benefit from the workshop leader’s deep subject matter expertise on the MBA admissions process and top programs
• Workshop your essays and resume in an online session a week and a half after the formal instruction sessions to enhance your drafts and move your work towards the final draft stage

What Others Are Saying about “Creating a Standout MBA Application Boot Camp”:
“I would say that this class has changed the way I viewed writing a grad school essay. It’s a must for anyone wanting direction on grad school essays.” – Paul K.

“Now that I’ve started writing essays and have a much clearer idea of what the AdCom is looking for, I am much less overwhelmed by the whole process.” – Christine L.

“I just really feel like you’ve given us the tools to write a good essay. I had no idea what it meant to write a good MBA essay when the class started, and although I feel like I’ve still got a ton of work to do, I do at least feel like I will know when I’ve written my best essay. The curriculum has been great.” – Peter D.

“This class has been a self-discovery experience! The class got me to think about aspects of my life and personality outside the professional framework I was always accustomed to…GO FOR IT!” – Latif B.

Class Dates:

The first two sessions of the class will be held in New York City. The final session will be an online workshop.

Friday, August 12, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 13, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (INCLUDES ONE-HOUR BREAK)
Wednesday, August 24, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (PLEASE NOTE THIS SESSION WILL BE HELD ONLINE)

Fee:

$475 for the three-session, 12-hour course on the specific dates listed. Space is limited. Sign up today!

Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they select a business school, but the educational experience itself is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Robert Howell from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Robert Howell (“Financial Statement Interpretation and Analysis”) has been teaching for more than 40 years and is quite accomplished in the field of accounting and financial management, having served as chief financial officer of two publicly traded consumer product companies earlier in his career. In addition to teaching the “Financial Statement Interpretation and Analysis” course, Howell is the faculty advisor to the Tuck Investment Club. A recent graduate told mbaMission, “Everyone takes his class.” For one of the course’s major projects, which occurs near the end of the term, students work in teams to analyze a company and present their recommendation on whether to buy, hold or sell its stock. “Professor Howell has a sense of humor, and he told students that ‘it’s better to be directionally right and not precisely wrong,’” shared another recent graduate.

A second year described Howell to mbaMission as “a character, and a really, really great professor. His classes are very entertaining, and he is strongly opinionated. He makes even diagnosing financial statements fun; he operates on the assumption that these don’t tell you much unless you can unwind them, so it’s a very valuable class. I sometimes see him in the Tuck gym; he’s a really down-to-earth, approachable guy.” Another second-year student likewise spoke highly of Howell, saying, “He is a fantastic professor. The consummate practitioner-scholar, Professor Howell has an unsurpassed ability to simplify and explain complex financial concepts. More importantly, Professor Howell teaches a coherent investment philosophy regarding how to make investment decisions. I believe that the framework he provides will prove useful long into my career in finance. … [He] peppers his class discussions with pertinent anecdotes and examples underlying investment principles borne from his deep real-world experience and through his work teaching executives investment concepts.”

For more information about the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and 14 other top-ranked MBA schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

Several top business schools explicitly ask candidates about the steps they have taken to learn about their MBA program. Via such questions, the schools are testing you: they want to know that you have a sincere desire to gain a place in their next entering class, and so they want to know that you have made a concerted and genuine effort to get to know them. So, when answering such questions, you absolutely must demonstrate your profound interest in the school.

Explaining that you have read the school’s Web site is not sufficient, considering that this resource is available to anyone, and frankly, the MBA admissions committee would expect you to do this. Although you could mention your Web research as a starting point if something very particular or unusual caught your attention, you are better off immediately sharing your a priori experiences with the school instead. By discussing the details of your class visits and particularly of your interactions with admissions officers, students, professors and/or alumni, you will “prove” to the admissions committee that you have truly been striving to learn more and understand your fit with the school. In essence, if you are showing the committee that you have extended yourself to learn, you have surpassed a minimum requirement.

Which MBA program is right for you? How can you find the best fit? In this presentation, Mili Mittal, senior consultant at mbaMission, will help prospective MBAs understand the differences between the top business school programs. Mili will elaborate on areas that will profoundly affect your academic and social lives in business school, including the flexibility of a program’s curriculum, the breadth of core courses, different methods of instruction, varying sizes of the cohorts and more. Start preparing now so you can be sure to make an educated decision when you apply!

A Q&A session will follow the presentation, after which Mili will remain online to respond to any additional inquiries.

Date: Thursday, July 21, 2011
Time: 8:30-10:00 p.m. EST
Location: Online
Price: Free!

To register for this event, please click here.