After another round of unprecedented success for my clients, including an over 80% interview invite rate at HBS, GSB, and Wharton for Round 1 (still waiting on admits), I wanted to share a few details on what we know is working in the application process at these top programs:
1) Show an Understanding of the Schools and MBA Programs You’re Targeting
Due to varying cultures, curriculums, perspectives on leadership, etc., every school and MBA program you plan on targeting values different skills and qualities in their MBA candidates. At Amerasia, we call this the DNA of a school. So, if you make the effort to understand and embrace the unique qualities of each program and allow those qualities to help shape your essays and application, you can begin to elevate your candidacy from being “qualified” to being “ideal.” Contact one of our Admissions Consultants for more detail on how to approach the individual DNAs of each school you’re interested in.
2) Reveal Your Emotional Intelligence by Picking the Right Goals
Admissions officers often want to know about who you are and what you value, not just what you’ve accomplished. Often the best way to do this is through the passion behind your career goals. When you think about a passion, it often stems from a person’s background and values. And a person’s background and values… well, that provides a pretty good window into who you are as a person.
So, you want to pick career goals that reveal who you are, what makes you tick, and shows your values. Here are a few quick tips on picking your MBA career goals:
Avoid something too boring (i.e. I want to get promoted over the years and become an executive – this is a waste of precious essay real estate as it says nothing about you and rather describes a generic path to prosperity).
Avoid something “ripped from the headlines” or otherwise pie-in-the-sky (another way to think about this to borrow from a legal concept that you can only argue “facts found in evidence” – don’t talk about a LT goal in social media or clean tech or something else “buzz worthy” unless you have existing passions and experiences that support those claims).
Instead, land on something interesting that comes from your own life. Nothing is better for an admissions officer than to truly learn about you through your long-term goals. Make sure that whatever you pick connects to who you are as a person.
Make sure that your ST goal will give you skills and/or perspectives necessary to reach this LT goal (otherwise, the bridge starts to break down).
Overall, your LT goals should connect to both your ST goals and your existing life in big, swooping arcs – it doesn’t have to be a tight line from one to the other, but it should make a big circle that reveals who you are through your passion when all is said and done.
3) Show How You Stepped Up as a Leader During the Pandemic
Many current applicants were in college or just starting their career during the COVID pandemic lockdowns. You can show increased leadership, initiative, and passion by sharing how you stepped up during this time. Did you volunteer and raise money to secure PPE for a local hospital? Did you lead an effort through work to impact your community during this crisis? Did you make efforts to increase team moral while working remotely? To differentiate yourself from a competitive field, show that you did SOMETHING, ANYTHING to step up to serve and lead others. While these top programs are not directly asking you “what you did during this crisis,” they want to know that your answer is better than, “I watched a lifetime’s worth of shows on Netflix.”
If you're interesting in discussing your MBA candidacy and working with with an Amerasia Admissions Consultant, Click Here to get started!
Why MBA Programs Love Family Business Applicants
Your first instinct may be that mentioning your family business on your MBA application is irrelevant, if not detrimental to your prospects of admission. But not entirely. In this blog post, we will examine why family business candidates make excellent MBA students and how to approach your application if you come from a family business background.
What are Transferable Skills and Why Do You Need Them?
Transferable skills are skills that are needed independent of a professional role. These abilities enable you to be successful in any position. Furthermore, they enable you to enter positions, sectors, or departments for which you may not otherwise be fully qualified. There is one universal truth that we have discovered that appears to be largely ignored by the rest of the MBA admissions landscape, and that is the critical importance of adhering to what we call the Art of Transferability. In this blog post, we discuss what transferable skills are, why they are so important, and how to include them in your MBA application.
MFA/MBA Dual Degree Programs: A Rundown
Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) dual-degree programs come in a variety of forms depending on your interests. These dual-degree programs often enable you to complete both degrees more quickly than if you pursued them separately and train you for positions of leadership in your respective fields. In this blog post, we'll go through what to expect and what your possibilities are.
WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER WRITE YOUR OWN LOR’S
For one, it’s unethical. But even if you don’t care about that, you run the risk, of looking like a newb, as somebody who does not write a lot of recommendations. Secondly, you run the risk making your LOR's sound similar to each other. Thirdly, you run the risk of the LOR’s sounding very similar to your essays.
Start B-school Apps in Order of MBA Application Deadline Date
You have that list of five business schools you really want to apply to. Now, list your five target MBA business schools in order by the application deadline date. The earliest date should be the first MBA application to be worked on. You may be tempted to work on similar essays in parallel, but this is not advised.
The MBA vs. MF debate
Michigan Ross Waives GMAT GRE TOEFL Test Requirement for MBA Applicants Due to Covid-19
Due to the COVID pandemic hardships candidates have been facing, Michigan Ross now offers GMAT, GRE, and English language proficiency tests waivers, including TOEFL, to candidates who request them. Soojin Kwon, managing director for Michigan Ross's full-time MBA program also stated that no round 1 applicants will be denied on December 4 (all round 1 applicants will be either admitted or waitlisted), and that any waitlisted applicant may request a test waiver after decisions are released.
The most difficult thing about getting an MBA is getting in (admitted).
Thinking Ahead
The MBA Round 2 Advantage
It's the time of year where I start having the "Round 2 conversation" a lot with individual clients. Basically, the idea is that Round 2 might be offering a slight advantage, based on theories of market inefficiencies and so forth. For years, the prevailing belief is that Round 1 is the best round to apply to business school. While there is no hard-core evidence to suggest otherwise, some common sense may point to a different result.
Should You Care That an MBA Program is Good at Marketing Itself?
This post is going to feel like its about Wharton, but its not - not really. I'm prompted to write it because of Wharton, but it is about a larger issue, which is whether or not you should have a takeaway when you see that an MBA program is going all in on its marketing. Should you read into it or ignore it? And if you do search out some meaning, is it is good or bad thing when a business school suddenly seems to have hired a new marketing whiz who knows how to game the headlines? Let's dive in.
MBA Application Advice: How to Build a Compelling Work History
One of the most important profile characteristics for any b-school applicant is their work history.
Unlike Law School, Medical School and just about every other terminal degree or master’s level program, business school requires students to come with some kind of work experience under their belts in order to “qualify.”
Business School Culture, School Fit, and Your MBA Experience
When applying to business school, one of the most reliable questions you will get from just about any institution deals with how you feel you will fit within that school’s culture. While it’s fairly easy to see if you have an academic fit or a professional fit at a school (by researching their curriculum and statistics for admitted students), it’s far more difficult sometimes to ascertain the “culture” of a school.
Why I like the Economist MBA Rankings
The latest MBA rankings from The Economist are out and people are understandably freaking out about some of the odd placements that you can find in their list. Poets and Quants has already done an impeccable job running all this down, so I am not going to try to repeat all the great work John Byrne already did. But you should definitely check out the P&Q piece on it. What I want to talk about is why I am happy P&Q ran that extensive post on those rankings (rather than dismissing them) and, indeed, why I am happy these Economist rankings even exist.
5 Pieces of Advice for MBA Reapplicants
Applying Round 1? This Year's MBA Deadlines Are Earlier Than You Think.
Normally, once the fireworks go off on the 4th of July, that's our signal to start digging into the apps in earnest, as "October" Round 1 deadlines are a few months away. However, in recent years, the deadlines keep getting earlier and earlier. I know I had to really reset my own calendar given these changes, so I figured I'd do a public service and list them out here, calling special attention to the front-loaded nature of the deadlines.
Always Waive Your Right to View Your MBA Recommendation
I tell my clients up front that they have to waive their right and that it is not really an option to not do so. Not waiving your right could tell the adcom that you don’t trust your recommenders. It could tell them that you are paranoid or overly anxious.
It could tell them that this applicant is a liability. What happens if he doesn’t get in? Is he going to go after his recommenders for throwing him under the bus? Is he going to create more headaches for all involved? Is the applicant going to create reputational risk for the school?
The adcom would rather just not deal with it.
Round 3 Strategies: UCLA Anderson Beckons
We've been running a lot of Round 3 strategies on this space the last few weeks. Why? It is timely, obviously. But also, Round three is just so misunderstood that we find every conversation leads to new epiphanies for our clients. In turn, we pass along the broadest and most helpful of those pieces of information to the general public. Today, we're talking about a specific school that you might want to consider if you are firing off Round 3 bullets.
Must Read for Reapplicants - A Word of Advice
