MBA Application Advice: Time Management
MBA Application Advice: Demonstrating Leadership
MBA Application Advice: Quantitative vs. Qualitative Impact
When it comes to conveying your marketing message to the admissions committees at top business schools, it is important to relate your various profile characteristics in a meaningful way.Often, applicants are naturally very good at doing this in either a quantitative or qualitative way, but it’s actually important to do both.
How to Answer the "What Other MBA Programs Are You Applying To?" Question
Pay particular attention to the question that some b-schools ask during the interview and/or on your application:
What Other Programs Are You Applying To?
Why would they ask this question? The reason is this:
- B-schools are keen to know who they are competing against. They want to know how applicants view the correlation between programs but also if you are using the school as a backup or safe school.
- Note that this question is pretty much asked by MBA programs who have been burned by their "yield" in year's past. That is, the admissions committee extends a lot of invites and only gets a handful of positive replies.
Let's use UCLA Anderson as an illustrative example ...
MBA Application Advice - Be a Community Leader
One of the most stressful moments in an applicant’s trek through the business school due diligence process is when they realize they have done very little engaging with anyone or anything outside of work. Let’s face it—life gets busy, and while you may have been in every club and organization you could get your hands on in college, once out in the real world, you may have found it very easy to simply go to work and come home at night without doing much else.
Applying Round 1 vs. Round 2 — Why You Might Want to Wait.
Applying Round 1 vs. Round 2 — The Epic Battle of Choices.
There is little more debated in the b-school application world than whether it’s better to apply in round one or round two. Most can agree that the third round is the most challenging, but late night discussions have endured and fights started over the topic of whether to submit for the first or second deadline.
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.
Common interview questions asked after the Wharton Team Based Discussion
What should I do during the “in between?”
Advice for Applying to MBA Programs in Round 3
The common myth surrounding Round 3 of the MBA application process is that you can't, or shouldn't, apply late in the admission cycle. "The class is pretty much full" is one refrain. "You have to be a truly unique applicant" is another. "Only European programs admit people that late" is yet another. As with anything, there are bits of truth in these sound bites ... but only bits.
MBA Applicants: Which Round to Apply
As we move through the winter months and host calls with b-school candidates for the upcoming cycle, it's interesting to note that some admissions questions come up a lot more this time of year than they do later. We are going to try to use that as a cue to address these types of issues and concerns here on the blog - and we are starting with a very common question this far out from the process, which is "what round should I apply in?"
THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION DEPENDS LARGELY ON THREE FACTORS.
Do I need to take Calculus prior to business school?
For a good number of years, Calculus was a prerequisite to joining any decent MBA program. There were several good reasons for this, including the fact that rate of change (computed using Calculus from the first derivative of an equation), is a very useful concept and commonly seen not only in finance coursework, but also in other classes where time is a factor (arguably almost any business concept has some component of time). But over the years, we have seen an increasing number of schools drop Calculus from the required list (cue the cheering crowd of “poets!”)
Monday MBA Resource: Behavioral Interview Questions
Time for another edition of Monday MBA Resource, where we share the things we are reading, watching, and listening to that might be helpful to people in the MBA community. Some are more focused on applicants, others are better for students, some for both - but all of them offer great insights that are worth soaking up. Three weeks ago we broke down the Knowledge @Wharton podcast and people seem to really be enjoying it. Two weeks ago it was one of my favorite articles in years: "Happy Ambition: Striving for Success, Avoiding Status Cocaine, and Prioritizing Happiness" by Ben Casnocha. Last week was The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox. Let's hope we can keep it up with this next entry, which is this blog post:
Are You "Unique" ?
The Optional Essay — When to use it, and when to lose it.
Many schools have become extremely restrictive on how many essays they allow you to submit.
The crushing numbers of applicants has forced schools to streamline the evaluation process and they simply do not have the staff or time to read 1000 word essays from everyone. Of course, whether you're applying there or not, you likely know that Harvard, as an extreme example, actually has no required essays as part of their application! They allow you to submit one essay if you like, but it's not technically a requirement for consideration as an MBA applicant. While we don't recommend you submit to HBS without leveraging the essay, this approach from schools highlights the fact that every word does indeed count.
Monday MBA Resource: The Charisma Myth by Cynthia Fox Cabene
Time for another edition of Monday MBA Resource, where we share the things we are reading, watching, and listening to that might be helpful to people in the MBA community. Some are more focused on applicants, others are better for students, some for both - but all of them offer great insights that are worth soaking up. Two weeks we broke down the Knowledge @Wharton podcast and people seem to really be enjoying it. Last week it was one of my favorite articles in years: "Happy Ambition: Striving for Success, Avoiding Status Cocaine, and Prioritizing Happiness" by Ben Casnocha. Let's hope we can keep it up with this next entry, which is the book:
THE CHARISMA MYTH: HOW ANYONE CAN MASTER THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PERSONAL MAGNETISM by Olivia Fox Cabene.
Why I like the Economist MBA Rankings
