Your application is a balanced portfolio of your academic and work experience, GMAT score, application essays, recommendations, networking and research. This session will present a step-by-step plan for you to effectively prepare each part of your application in the coming months. You will walk away with a concrete time line that you can import into your calendar of choice.
Date: Monday, January 24, 2011 Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. EST Location: Online Price: Free!
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.
These days, as candidates consider their strategy for the coming MBA admissions cycle, many have a logical question in mind: How many schools should I apply to? The answer, of course, varies dramatically from applicant to applicant, but the golden rule is that you should only apply to an MBA program if you have enough time to make your application the best it can be. So, if you have time to “perfect” only three applications, then you should focus on applying to just three schools—and not consider submitting five “average” applications.
In terms of a target number—assuming that time is not a factor and you can commit yourself to all of your applications—five or six is generally optimal. With five or six applications, candidates can apply to a mix of reach, competitive and safe schools and can therefore truly cover their bases. Of course, each applicant has his/her own risk profile and timing to consider, but for most candidates, too few schools can increase the risk of not being admitted, and too many can be overkill.
Applying to business school in 2011? 2012? By taking action now, you can dramatically improve your chances of gaining admission to a top MBA program in the coming years. Indeed, it is never too soon (and certainly not too late) to take several crucial steps to shape your candidacy. Join mbaMission senior consultant Yael Melamed as she leads prospective applicants through a Long-Term Planning Seminar.
Topics of discussion include the following:
* Creating Your Ten-Month (and Beyond) Timeline
* Maximizing the Impact of Community Activities
* Accelerating Personal Goals
* Building an Alternative Transcript
* Taking and Retaking the GMAT
* Making the Most of Campus Visits
* Understanding the Differences Between MBA Programs
* More…
Date: Thursday, January 20, 2011 Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m. EST Location: 870 Market Street, Suite 1023, San Francisco, CA 94102 Price: Free!
When most business school candidates read an essay question, they interpret it quite literally. For example, when Kellogg asks applicants to “Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at Kellogg. (600-word limit),” many applicants assume that they must answer each subquestion within the broader question in the exact order in which they were asked. However, this is not true. Such questions are indeed quite flexible, and at times, by pursuing your own structure, you can truly engage your reader.
We have found that with regard to overrepresented candidates who have unique professional goals, one strategy that can be quite helpful is to lead with goals instead of professional history. After all, “typical” experience is not as captivating as unusual (but realistic!) ambitions. So, the Indian technologist who intends to open a boutique hotel or the male investment banker who aspires to start a competitive windsurfing circuit can use these bold goals to stand out from the start.
Again, we emphasize that such candidates need to have (and show!) a compelling connection to their goals, and we do not suggest that overrepresented candidates strive to imagine or create “wild” goals just to catch the admissions committee’s attention. However, if you have a profound connection to an unusual goal, then reordering the question and ensuring that your goals are out front can make a difference.
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand, 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 John de Figueiredo from theUCLA Anderson School of Management.
Students call John de Figueiredo, who teaches the first-year core “Strategy” class, “de Fig” for short. Anderson second-year student blogger Shianne Park noted in November 2008, “I was terrified of his cold-calling during our Orientation case discussion … but he definitely knows his stuff, and his methods ensure that you learn.” Before joining the Anderson faculty, de Figueiredo taught at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, in addition to working as a management consultant for Monitor Company in Spain. He has won four teaching awards in his four years at Anderson, including the award for Teaching Excellence in the Full-Time MBA Program in 2008, determined by a vote of second-year MBA students, and the Citibank Teaching Award in 2009.
For more information about UCLA Anderson School of Management and 13 other top-ranked MBA schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
A first-of-its-kind, on-demand MBA application experience that delivers a personalized curriculum for you and leverages interactive tools to guide you through the entire MBA application process.
