Wharton added: “our 2013-2014 application will become available on our website in early August.”

by

—Dean Robert Bruner, dean of Virginia Darden School of Business, where 17 percent of its graduates change employers within 18 months, but 41 percent stay with their first employer five years or more.

by

What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? Required by all applicants. (100 characters)

Reapplication Essay: How have you enhanced your candidacy since your previous application? Please detail your progress since you last applied and reiterate how you plan to achieve your immediate and long term post-MBA professional goals. (Maximum 500 words).

How do these compare with last year’s questions? They continue the trend, at Columbia and across the industry, toward providing applicants with less real estate in which to tell their stories. For example, the short-answer post-MBA goal statement has been halved by 100 characters. The two-part goal essay (why an MBA and why Columbia) has been broken into new essays (essays 1 and 2), although these remain the same in length as last year (500 words and 250 words, respectively). As last year, Columbia’s Why Columbia prompt is video inspired, though the school has introduced two new videos (viewable from within its online app) that highlight New York City’s diversity, opportunity, and energy both socially and professionally through the comments of Columbia MBA students.

Also shortened is this year’s version of last year’s 500-word personal experience essay. Now Columbia’s essay 3, it has become a 250-word “What will the people in your Cluster be pleasantly surprised to learn about you?” prompt. Finally, the optional essay has remained at 500 words. So, as with any shortening of applicants’ opportunities to present their full profiles, Columbia’s new application means greater weight will fall on your recommendation letters, ‘numbers’ (GMAT, GPA), and resume/application data section. Your essays will need to be models of efficient, concise self-presentation. I can help.

by

Most obviously, there’s the GMAT. If you haven’t taken it, plan to do so by June or July (ideally earlier, so you’ll have time to retake it without interfering with your near-deadline application process). Because a good score is so critical—successful applicants at top schools average 720, with Quant and Verbal scores above the 80th percentile—job one this spring should be GMAT preparation.

But you can also begin to map out your essay material. Count on most schools asking for three basic essay types:
• a goals essay (what are your goals, how has your career thus far crystallized or partially prepared you for these goals, how does an MBA [any MBA] help you achieve them, and how do the resources of Target School X help you achieve them),
• a specific accomplishment or leadership essay (structured as: problem you faced, what steps you took to address this problem, outcome of your action, what you learned from this specific experience), and
• a personal essay, illustrating through some life or community experience or set of experiences what differentiates you from other applicants and will enable you to contribute uniquely to your MBA classmates).
Even without specific essay prompts, you can begin to think about the best examples for these three core topics now. Then when schools release the actual essay topics you’ll be ready to do some serious customizing of these core essays for each school (as well as tackle essay prompts not covered by these topics). You may find that doing all this heavy essay lifting now will enable you to submit applications to more schools in the first round, thus maximizing your odds of admission.

This is also a great time to line up your recommenders. Keeping in mind that business schools prefer to hear from current and former direct supervisors, how many potential recommenders do you have? How many would be willing and able to write a strong letter full of enthusiasm and concrete examples? You should not only draw up a short list of recommenders this spring; you should begin to approach them. If you are targeting first-round deadlines, you will want to have your recommenders working on your letters by June or so. This will give you a buffer zone in case one or more of your busy recommenders procrastinates or one of them drops out, forcing you to find a replacement.

And don’t forget school research and visits. Your GMAT score will give you a clear idea of what programs you’re competitive at, but even without a score you can begin now to put together a reasonable short list of schools. It’s not too early to start exploring schools now (in fact, the best applicants begin thinking of about MBA programs years in advance!). Start with the school websites, of course, but take your ‘due diligence’ further by reaching out to students and alums, attending information sessions and school webinars, and visiting campuses. Remember that many campuses close down for the summer, and you might not have time or opportunity for class visits before submitting your applications in the fall. Exploring schools now will free up valuable time for you to focus on essays (and perhaps apply to more first-round schools) this summer and fall.

Finally, there’s the admissions consultant question—should you or shouldn’t you use one? A growing number of applicants do, and as an admissions consultant myself, I’d be the first to extol the virtues of using a good, experienced consultant with a personalized approach, demonstrated expertise, and proven track record of success. There are definite advantages to starting with a consultant (like me) now:

• he or she can guide you through all the essay, recommendation letter, and school selection prep work I just discussed and even provide you with a timeline/deadlines if you need them
• the consultant may tell you that your profile is a bit weak in ways that you still have time to do something about—ramping up your extracurricular leadership, for example.
• the best consultants tend to get ‘booked up’ as the admission season progresses; signing up now will ensure you have someone in your corner when the deadlines loom this fall.

It’s definitely not too early.

by

• Columbia University (NY)
• Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH)
• Harvard University (MA)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
• New York University (Stern)
• Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL)
• Stanford University (CA)
• University of California—Berkeley (Haas)
• University of Chicago (Booth)
• University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

Source: USNews.com

by

Koh confirmed that a significant motivation behind the new format is frustration with the increasingly well-rehearsed performance of applicants in traditional one-on-one interviews. In contrast, “The group exercise enabled us to get a valuable glimpse into candidates’ interpersonal and communication styles.” Her desire for authenticity is of course commendable, but with the stakes so great (admission to top-ranked schools), even the supposedly incorruptible format of the group-style interview may soon be ‘hacked’ or ‘cracked,’ if it hasn’t been already (see, for example, this recent Poets & Quants piece on the Wharton Team-Based Discussion services that large consultancies like MBA Exchange and MBA Mission have already deployed: “Prepping Applicants For New Wharton Test”).

Koh added: “Candidates may (mistakenly) think that we’re looking for a particular set of behaviors, and that they would do well to exhibit those presumed desired behaviors (e.g., leadership). But we’re not. Really.” Really? This is just not credible. It’s easy to imagine any number of behaviors that would earn an otherwise qualified candidate a failing score during a group interview. And these days the vast majority of applicants are savvy enough to know what those behaviors are—without an admissions consultant needing to tell them.

by

• •  U. Penn Wharton School of Business (US)
• •  U. of Chicago Booth School of Business (US)
• •  IMD (Switzerland)
• • Berkeley Haas School of Business (US)
• •  Stern School of Business (US)
• •  Oxford U. Said School of Business (UK)
• • HEC Paris (France)
• •  UCLA Anderson School of Business (US)
• •  U. of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler School of Business (US)
• •  Emory U. Goizueta Business School (US)
• •  Cranfield School of Management (UK)
• • TRIUM (NYU, LSE, HEC) 
• • Fordham Graduate School of Business (US)
• • IAE Business School (Argentina)
• • Peking U., Guanghua School of Management (China)
• • ESMT European School of Management & Technology (Germany)
• • EGADE – Technologico de Monterrey (Mexico)
• • Swiss Business School (Switzerland)

Source: QS

by