Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.
If you are having trouble negotiating with your supervisor to ensure that he/she is putting the proper thought and effort into your application, you are not alone. Because of this asymmetry of power, a junior employee can only do so much to compel his/her supervisor to sit down and write thoughtfully. So, before you designate your supervisor as a recommender, you must first understand his/her level of commitment to helping you with your candidacy. In particular, your recommender needs to understand that he/she cannot create a single template and must personalize each letter and answer each MBA program’s questions using specific examples.
If your recommender intends to simply write a single letter and force it to “fit” the school’s questions, or if he/she plans to attach a standard letter to the end of the school’s recommendation form (for example, including it in the question “Is there anything else that you think the committee should know about the candidate?”), then your recommender is not helping you—in fact, he/she is hurting you! By neglecting to put the necessary time and effort into your recommendation, your recommender is sending a very clear message to the admissions committee: “I don’t really care about this candidate.”
If you cannot convince your recommender to write a personalized letter or to respond to your target school’s individual questions using specific examples, you will need to look elsewhere. A well-written personalized letter from an interested party is always far better than a poorly written letter from your supervisor.
How can you write essays that grab the attention of MBA admissions committees? Jeremy Shinewald, founder of mbaMission, will use this simple but often perplexing question as the starting point in a workshop for prospective business school applicants. Attendees will complete a series of exercises that challenge them to uncover their personal and nuanced stories, craft compelling opening statements, develop meaningful goal statements, connect their goals to their target school’s resources and more.
A Q&A session will follow the presentation, after which Jeremy will remain online to respond to your additional inquiries.
Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 Time: 8:30-10:00 p.m. EST Location: Online Price: Free!
What have you been told about applying to business school? With the advent of chat rooms and blogs, armchair “experts” often unintentionally propagate MBA admissions myths, which can linger and end up undermining your confidence as an applicant. For example, some MBA candidates are led to believe that schools want a specific “type” of applicant and expect certain minimum GMAT scores and GPAs. Others are led to believe that they need to know alumni from their target schools and/or get a letter of reference from the CEO of their firm to be successful in gaining admission.
Join Jeremy Shinewald, the president and founder of mbaMission, as he debunks these and other myths, strives to take the anxiety out of the admissions process and helps you refocus on your applications.
A Q&A session with Jeremy will follow the presentation. Join us for this valuable event that will be essential to your business school planning!
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 Time: 8:30-10:00 p.m. EST Location: Online Price: Free!
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 Founder Jeremy Shinewald as he leads prospective applicants through a Long-Term Planning Seminar.
Topics of discussion include the following:
* Creating Your 10-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: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 Time: 8:30-10:00 p.m. EST Location: Online Price: Free!
Recently, we were fortunate enough to be able to speak one-on-one with Liz Riley Hargrove, Associate Dean for Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Here are some highlights from the conversation, as well as the full transcript below:
Fuqua is focusing on expanding international diversity and has grown application volume in its daytime program by 21%, with increases in international applications for all programs
Ms. Hargrove suggests that candidates apply as early as possible without sacrificing quality
Ms. Hargrove explains Fuqua’s unique approach to interviews—sometimes by applicants’ request and sometimes by the school’s—and discusses how to prepare for one
mbaMission: The first question I always ask the admissions office when I do these interviews is what do people not know about Fuqua that you believe they should?
Liz Riley Hargrove: Hmmm, interesting question! I think it would be our recent work in defining and developing an education and research strategy based around industry verticals in consulting, finance, energy/environment, IT/media, health care and consumer goods. Fuqua has nine research centers now, and if you include the new research centers we launch this year, we will have a dedicated research presence in each of our industry verticals, allowing for a greater depth of access to the most important leaders and firms in these industries.
This is quite an innovative approach and will allow us to identify cross-disciplinary opportunities to broaden students’ exposure to the industries and firms that are driving the global economy of the 21st century. The centers support the students’ academic and career exploration, and the focus on industry verticals really differentiates Fuqua from other business schools.
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.
