| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
B-School Success
(Admitted to Wharton, Kellogg, Fuqua) |
"I hope that you are doing very well! Though not all schools have released their decisions, I have received the first batch of good news. I am in at Wharton, Kellogg, Duke, Tuck, UNC and still waiting for Cornell, Michigan and Yale. I am very excited about the good news and wish to share it with you."
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Admissions:
Admit One
By
Robyn Gearey; Content provided by mbajungle.com
6.6
percent, 10.6 percent, 12.6 percent. Those are the acceptance rates at Stanford,
Columbia, and Wharton, of course, and if you're a prospective MBA student, you
probably know them by heart. With numbers like these, getting into business
school is difficult for even the most qualified applicants, and there is no
magic formula that guarantees you'll be accepted. Still, even the top schools
have to admit someone, and it might as well be you.
So what does it take to stand out? In a word, knowledge. Know yourself:
Be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Know why you want to get an
MBA and what you plan to do with it. Know the school you're applying to, how it
can help you achieve your goals, and where you stand with regard to the rest of
the applicant pool. Last, know the process. Understand how you can maximize your
chances of landing in the accept pile. Fortunately, we can help you figure some
of this out. Just read on.
Where to Apply?
The best schools for you are not necessarily the top three in the Business
Week or U.S. News & World Report rankings. The top-tier schools
have many advantages, of course -- higher starting salaries, more prestigious
alumni, and elite recruiters among them. But even an elite school may not
satisfy other important criteria, such as geographic location, specific areas of
study, or flexibility.
Research is key to determining which schools fit your needs. School Web sites
are probably the best resource, as is Jungle's
School Compare tool, which lets you see how up to four schools stack up against
one another. Embark.com's Matchmaker feature quizzes you on the importance of
factors such as location, areas of study, selectivity, and placement
information, then spits out a list of schools that match your criteria.
Even if you're set on attending a top-five program, it pays to get to know the
ins and outs of each school thoroughly. Admissions officials' biggest gripe is
generic applications -- cookie-cutter essays and recommendations that don't
speak to the individual school.
If you're looking for--
-
Great
schools for women: University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University
of California at Berkeley, Northwestern's Kellogg, and the University of
Virginia's Darden are Working Woman's top picks.
-
The
best schools for technology: Computer World singles out Northeastern,
University of Texas at Austin, University of Maryland, University of
Alabama, and University of California at Irvine.
-
Top
programs for e-commerce: MIT's Sloan, Carnegie-Mellon, University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton, Stanford, Kellogg, and UT Austin all made Business
2.0's list.
-
Great
schools for budding entrepreneurs: The best include Wharton, Harvard,
Stanford, the University of California at Los Angeles' Anderson, and Sloan.
-
Programs
strong in finance: Take a look at Wharton, Chicago, New York University's
Stern school, Stanford, and Columbia.
-
Nonprofit-focused
programs: U.S. News & World Report cites Yale, Harvard, Kellogg,
Stanford, and Case Western Reserve University as the top five.
-
Unusual
programs: Check out Chicago's international MBA, Kellogg's media-management
major, and Columbia's January-entry option for people who prefer to skip the
summer internship and graduate in 16 months.
When to
Apply
You'll notice that many schools have three or four application deadlines with
drop-dead dates as late as March or April. Don't be fooled into actually
applying that late, though. Nearly every admission director gives the same
advice: Apply early. In the early rounds, the field is clear and every space in
the class is still open. That isn't likely to be the case a few months later.
This is especially true at the most competitive schools, where the vast majority
of the applicants are qualified. Would you rather be the two-hundredth applicant
with 720 GMATs, a 3.9 GPA, and five years at a top consulting firm or the
two-thousandth? The director of admissions at Dartmouth's Tuck School confessed
in a Business Week interview that in 1999, just four people were admitted in the
fourth round. And smart candidates know to apply early to Stanford, where the
acceptance rate in the first round can be as high as 10 or 11 percent (much
better than the average acceptance rate of 6.6 percent).
The Application
Admissions directors will say this until they're blue in the face, and it's
true: There is no formula for acceptance. While policies vary from school to
school, of course, business schools are very committed to evaluating the whole
package an applicant presents. Want proof? Chicago has accepted applicants with
GMAT scores in the 300s; Darden one year rejected five out of six applicants
with perfect GMATs.
Think through the picture that your application will present, and try to balance
out any weaknesses. For example, if you majored in philosophy or fine arts in
college, make sure to prepare thoroughly for the quantitative part of the GMAT,
and consider taking a statistics, economics, or calculus course at a community
college to show you can handle the work. If your work experience is in a
nontraditional field such as teaching or journalism, use your essays to
highlight leadership roles you've taken on and specific projects you've tackled.
The Breakdown--
Undergraduate
grades: Schools are going to pay particular attention to your
performance in quantitative courses like calculus, statistics, accounting, and
economics -- especially if you majored in a nonquantitative field like English
or philosophy. The overall difficulty of your course load and the school's
reputation will also likely be factored in. Unfortunately, you can't go back
and change your transcript, so what can you do to overcome a less-than-stellar
college career? Strong GMATs and solid work experience might be enough, but
your essays are powerful tools here. Use them to discuss circumstances that
might have affected your GPA -- perhaps you had to work your way through
school, experienced a personal tragedy (steer clear of whining here, just talk
about how the experience changed you), or were just young and too focused on
having a great time instead of on academics. Whatever the reason, a
well-thought-out essay discussing what you learned from the experience can
work wonders. Read through the EssayEdge Essay
Help Course
and consider submitting your essays for editing.
GMAT: These scores are rarely the sole determining factor for
admission, but don't take them too lightly, either. At top schools, you'll be
competing against people with very high scores, and many of them won't get in.
So it pays to make sure that you can hold your own. Aim to get a GMAT score
within 50 points of a school's average; if your score is lower, consider
retaking the test. Schools don't generally notice or care how often you take
the test -- they only see the three most recent scores. However, unless there
are extenuating circumstances, you aren't likely to raise your score much from
test to test, though prep courses can help a lot. Be sure to read Getting
Through the GMAT
for some great tips for taking the test.
Work experience: In the 1980s, over half of MBA students had
just two years of work experience or less. Now the vast majority of applicants
have worked for at least four or five years. What admissions committees are
looking for here is evidence that you've made progress in your career, taken
on increasing responsibility, and demonstrated leadership. Strong
communications skills and a proven ability to work well in groups are also
important. Highlight these experiences throughout your application.
Recommendations: Almost every school will want to see one
recommendation from your current supervisor. If that's not possible for
whatever reason, one from a former supervisor is also acceptable. Choose your
recommenders carefully -- a big name won't help you as much as a thoughtful,
positive letter from someone who knows your work well. The kiss of death is a
recommendation where the person just checks off the boxes and doesn't make any
personal comments, so make sure to give your recommenders enough time to do a
thorough job. Give them a copy of your application and résumé and brief them
on how you believe that you can best contribute to your particular school. The
more informed they are about the school and your application as a whole, the
better the recommendation will be. A little-known tip: If given the option to
provide an additional recommendation, think twice. Unless the recommender can
really add something to your application, an additional rec can hurt you more
than it can help you.
Essays: In the essays, you must clearly articulate your career
goals, your potential for success in high-level management, and your ability
to handle the academic challenges of the institution. Only your essays can
convey the important facets of your work experience and the attractive aspects
of your personality. Without nailing the essays, no matter how high your GMAT
score is or how high your college GPA is, you will never be admitted to a top
business school. More so than with undergraduate admissions, business schools
absolutely require that you clearly demonstrate your ambition, confidence,
maturity, passion, creativity, and career-focus. You can only communicate
these qualities through your essays. Read through the EssayEdge Essay
Help Course
and consider submitting your essays for editing.
A
significant pet peeve of admissions officers is the generic essay that doesn't
answer the particular question asked. Don't try to reuse the essay you wrote
for one school for another -- admissions personnel can spot them. Take the
time to make sure that the essay serves a purpose. It should highlight
something about you that the rest of your application doesn't show. Anecdotal
information is the most effective -- be careful that you don't fall back on
simply regurgitating your resumé. Essays that address a failure and
demonstrate how you overcame it can often be the most notable, but pick your
topic carefully. Not making the soccer team in high school is probably not the
best choice.
Wherever
possible, use the essays to differentiate yourself from the other 3,000
applicants. One Wharton hopeful went so far as to include with her application
a product she had invented. It worked: She got in, and two years later, the
admissions office still remembered her application. But make sure to check
with the school in question before you take extreme measures -- some
admissions offices have strict policies against sending any additional
material and will just toss your offering straight into the trash.
Most of
all, understand what the school is looking for and be able to articulate why
you want to attend that particular program. Wherever possible, draw parallels
between who you are and what you've done and the characteristic values of the
school. And don't be afraid to let your personality show -- that is what will
ultimately make your application memorable.
Now that
you've gotten your application ready, how can you get it to the schools of
your choice? Most schools encourage applicants to submit their applications
electronically, either through the school's own Web site or through a service
such as Embark.com or Multi-App (the latter requires a fee to use the software
-- $12 to apply to a limited number of schools, $59 for unlimited access).
The Aftermath
Your applications have been sent, so now what? You may be asked to come in for
an interview, or you might request one, but be sure to research each school's
policy. Some schools conduct interviews by invitation only, some will let anyone
who wishes schedule an interview, and some don't interview at all. At
invitation-only schools, it's generally a good sign if you are asked to
interview, but again, know the school's policy. Some schools interview all
candidates who are under serious consideration, while others use the interview
to make a call on a borderline application.
Your interview might be on campus, or with an alum or campus representative in
your area. In either case, unless you're told otherwise, dress professionally
and treat it as you would a job interview: arrive promptly, don't talk
negatively about your boss or your coworkers, and make sure that you are
prepared to talk about why you want an MBA, why that particular school is the
one you want to attend, and what you can offer.
The Decision
If you've followed our tips, you should get fat acceptance envelopes (and with
some schools, congratulatory phone calls) from every school you applied to. But
even the best-laid plans go awry. On the off chance you're waitlisted or
rejected, what's the next step?
If you find yourself waitlisted, be patient and don't flood the admissions
office with pleas from your grandma and your cousin Sue about why you should be
admitted. It's okay, however, to follow up with any supporting material that
adds something new to your candidacy -- maybe you got a promotion at work, or
you took the GMAT again and received a higher score. If you haven't had an
interview (at an interview-optional school), request one.
If -- and we truly hope you're not reading this far -- you didn't get in, think
through your application to see where the weaknesses are and spend the next year
addressing them. It may be that taking (and acing) a calculus class will help,
or perhaps simply another year of work experience will do the trick.
Some schools, including Tuck, Fuqua, Kellogg, and the University of Michigan,
will give you feedback on why you weren't admitted if you ask. You should
definitely take advantage of this and follow their recommendations. You can then
reapply the next year and have a much better chance of admission.
|
