Blog

As an MBA student, you are guaranteed to work in student teams composed of individuals from different backgrounds (professions, nationalities, cultures, orientations, etc.). For this reason, business schools want to ensure that you are equipped to collaborate effectively with people who might hold perspectives different from your own. During the past few admissions cycles, several programs have evaluated applicants’ ability to work across backgrounds by posing an essay question that asks about the candidate’s experience with diversity and inclusion, how they have created or promoted an inclusive environment, and/or how they expect to be an inclusive leader at the MBA program and after graduation.

Here are our tips on how to approach responding to an MBA diversity essay question:

1. First, to identify your essay topic, think about times when you have worked with a diverse group of people, whether on the job or as part of an extracurricular activity or personal pursuit. When some people hear the word “diversity,” they automatically associate it with race, gender, and ethnicity. Although those dimensions certainly are major aspects of diversity, you need to think about the definition of diversity—and about your experiences—more broadly. For example, maybe you worked on a team with members from across functions and/or with varying levels of seniority. Or perhaps you worked on recruiting new employees from a more comprehensive list of universities than you firm has considered in previous years.
2. Next, consider your actions as they relate to diversity. In which of your experiences did you actively cultivate diversity, such as by encouraging more people to participate in an initiative and to share their viewpoints during discussions? Simply writing about a time when you worked within a diverse group is not enough; you have to show that in that situation, you purposefully harnessed the advantages of having different perspectives by inviting the members of that group to express themselves, genuinely listening to them, and taking their views and ideas into account. If you encountered any challenges along the way, acknowledge them. Showing how you worked effectively to reconcile different points of view will lead to a more meaningful narrative.
3. Then, reflect on the result. Based on your actions—including fostering participation and dialogue—how did you and your team successfully accomplish the mission at hand? For example, maybe you won a sales pitch because you were able to tailor your message more closely to your audience. Or perhaps your company’s once-homogenous internship program now represents a blend of students from a range of backgrounds. In addition to explaining the outcome, address what you learned from the experience. Business school admissions committees like to see that applicants are capable of growing as the result of being exposed to different perspectives.
4. Finally, look to the future. If the essay question asks how you will promote diversity and inclusion on campus and in your post-graduate career, describe in specific terms how you aspire to be a leader in this space. Identify a student organization at your target MBA program that you would want to join based on your interests, and explain how exactly you would encourage the cultivation of a diverse membership and the voicing of different perspectives as a way of enhancing the club’s activities and impact. As for your post-MBA ideas, think about diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts you would want to be involved in at work or as a leader in a community organization that aims to foster diversity. Keep in mind that less is more—you will come across as more genuine if you focus on one or two ways that you will be an inclusive leader rather than providing a laundry list of activities you want to be involved in.

For specific essay-writing tips for programs that are posing a diversity-related essay prompt this year, please see our essay analysis for the following schools:

• UVA Darden School of Business
• Georgetown McDonough School of Business
• Washington Foster School of Business
• UNC Kenan Flagler Business School
• Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business

And if you have an especially strong track record of promoting inclusion at school, in your job(s), and/or in your personal life, consider applying to business school via the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. You can learn more about the Consortium in this blog post, and also refer to our Consortium Essay Tips.

Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school. However, the educational experience you will have is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Today, we focus on Roberto Rigobon from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Roberto Rigobon, the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management and a professor of applied economics, specializes in international economics, monetary economics, and development economics. At an awards ceremony in 2005, Sloan students described him as someone who “epitomized the fine line between madness and genius.” Other award-related descriptions of Rigobon refer to him as “serious but hilarious,” “crazy and brilliant,” and “high energy.”

Rigobon teaches the reportedly very popular “Applied Macro and International Economics” course, which is said to be often taken by up to 30% of Sloan students at a time. He has won numerous teaching awards during his time at Sloan (including the school’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000, 2003, and 2005, and Teacher of the Year in 1999, 2002, and 2004) and is primarily recognized for his accessibility. As one second-year student blogged, “The door to his office was always open.”

For more information about MIT Sloan and 16 other top-ranked business schools, check out our free mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

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

In Part 1 of this article, we talked about the five-step process to answer Sentence Correction problems, and in Part 2, we discussed some drills to build the needed skills. Make sure to read both of those before continuing with this third article in the series.

Drill Number 3: Find a Starting Point

Once again, open up your Official Guide and look at some problems you have done before. This time, do not read the original sentence. Instead, cover it up.

Compare the answers, and try to articulate all the things that the problem is testing. Note that you can tell what is being tested even if you cannot tell how to answer. For example, you might see a verb switching back and forth between singular and plural. If the subject is not underlined, then you have no idea which verb form is required, because you literally have not even seen the subject. You do, though, know that subject-verb agreement is at issue.

Drill Number 4: Eliminate Answers

Once again, this drill involves problems you have already done. (Sensing a pattern? We learn the most when we are reviewing things we have already done!) This time, though, you are going to get to use the whole problem.

Right after you finish a problem, add the following analysis to your review:

(1) Why is the right answer right? Why is each of the wrong answers wrong?

(2) How would you justify eliminating the right answer? What is the trap that would lead someone to cross this one off?

(3) How would you justify picking any of the wrong answers? What is the trap that would lead someone to pick a wrong answer?

You are probably already doing the first one, but most people skip the second and third steps. The first is important, but you can learn more! When you learn how you (or someone) would fall into the trap of thinking that some wrong answer looks or sounds or feels better than the right one, you will be a lot less likely to fall into that same trap yourself in the future.

Next Steps

Practice these steps until they start to feel like second nature to you. At the same time, of course, learn the grammar rules that we all need to know. Put both pieces together, and you will master sentence correction!

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

In Part 1 of this article, we talked about the five-step process to answer Sentence Correction (SC) problems:

1. Take a first glance.
2. Read the sentence.
3. Find a starting point.
4. Eliminate answers.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4.

If you have not already learned that process, read Part 1 before continuing with this article.

Drills to Build Skills

How do you learn to do all this stuff? You are going to build some skills that will help at each stage of the way. The drills are summarized in this post; if you want the full description of each, check out the original article on the Manhattan GMAT blog.

Drill Number 1: Take a First Glance

Open up your Official Guide (OG) and find some lower-numbered SC questions that you have already tried in the past. Give yourself a few seconds (no more than five!) to glance at a problem, then look away and say out loud what you noticed in those few seconds.

As you develop your First Glance skills, start to read a couple of words: the one right before the underline and the first word of the underline. Do those give you any clues about what might be tested in the problem? For instance, consider this sentence:

Xxx xxxxxx xxxx xx and she xxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxx xxxxx.

I have a strong suspicion that this problem might test parallelism, because the word and falls immediately before the underline. When I read the sentence, I will be looking for an X and Y parallelism structure.

Drill Number 2: Read the Sentence

Take a look at some OG problems you have tried before. Read only the original sentence. Then, look away from the book and articulate aloud, in your own words, what you think the sentence is trying to convey. You do not need to limit yourself to one sentence. You can also glance back at the problem to confirm details.

I want to stress the “out loud” part; you will be able to hear whether the explanation is sufficient. If so, try another problem.

If you are struggling or unsure, then one of two things is happening. Either you just do not understand, or the sentence actually does not have a clear meaning, and this is precisely why the choice is wrong! Decide which you think it is, and then check the explanation.

Next Steps

Spend some time drilling these skills for steps 1 and 2. Then come back here to join us for the third part in this series, in which you will learn two more drills for the later steps of the SC process.

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

Manhattan GMAT has developed a special process for Sentence Correction (SC). Some students and classes have seen it, but here we are sharing it publicly! Read on and let us know what you think.

The Five Steps for Sentence Correction

1. Take a first glance.
2. Read the sentence.
3. Find a starting point.
4. Eliminate answers.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4.

As with any process, you will sometimes decide to deviate for some good reason. For most questions, though, you will follow this basic process.

1. Take a First Glance

The idea here is to take a “holistic” glance at the entire screen: let your eyes go slightly out of focus (do NOT read!), look at about the middle of whatever text is on the screen, and take in three things:

– the problem type (in this case, SC)
– the length of the whole sentence
– the length of the underline (or the length of the answers)

This first glance will help you formulate a plan of attack.

2. Read the Sentence

Next, read the sentence as a complete sentence, not just a collection of potential grammar issues. Pay attention to the overall meaning that the sentence is trying to convey.

3. Find a Starting Point

4. Eliminate Answers

When you spot something you know is wrong, immediately cross off answer (A) on your scrap paper. Check that same issue (and only that issue!) in the remaining answer choices; eliminate any answers that repeat the error.

5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4

SC is a bit annoying in that your initial starting point often will not allow you to cross off all four wrong answers. You usually have to find multiple starting points.

Once you have dealt with one issue, return either to the original sentence or to a comparison of the answer choices, wherever you left off.

What to Do When You Are Stuck

In general, once you get stuck, give yourself one shot to “unstick” yourself. Try comparing different answers to see whether anything new pops out at you. If not, guess and move on.

Half the battle on the GMAT is knowing when to stop trying. Set explicit “cutoffs” for yourself—rules for when to let go—and stick to them!

Next Steps

Got all of that? Good!

In the second and third parts of this series, I will give you some drills that you can use to build the different skills needed to get through an SC problem. Until then, go ahead and practice the overall process until you internalize the different steps. Good luck!