Posted by Clear Admit on November 10, 2005, at 7:14 am
Posted in:  Essay Topic Analysis , School: NYU Stern Following on yesterday’s notion of providing essay guidance to applicants shooting for December deadlines, we thought that today we would weigh in on the topics for Stern’s application, due the first of the month.
1. Professional Aspirations (2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
Think about the decisions you have made in your life. Describe the following:
(a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position?
(b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life?
(c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long-term career goal?
This is your standard career goals essay, with a few interesting quirks. First, note that the initial section requests that applicants reflect on and explain the choices they’ve made to date, placing a bit of extra emphasis on the presentation of one’s career as a coherent and directed whole. While it’s always important to explain the reasons you’ve moved from one company to the next, you’ll also want to think about the less obvious decisions you’ve made. Have you actively sought out more responsibility? Requested an assignment with an eye to gaining a certain skill? This essay is a great place for you to highlight your initiative and foresight in the process of relating your career progression to the adcom.
Within the same theme of deliberate decision-making, the second thing to keep in mind is the prominence of the ‘why now’ issue. A thorough and well reasoned answer to this question will be a must for a solid response. Beyond your career path to date and the ‘why now’ issue, Stern will be looking for a detailed explanation of your short and long-term career plans and interest in the MBA as a means to realize these goals.
2. Fit with Stern (2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)
The NYU Stern community is one of our strongest assets. Please answer the following questions about community:
(a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? What actions have you taken to learn more about us?
(b) How would you contribute to our community as a student?
(c) How will you benefit personally and professionally from the Stern community?
Sensitive to the fact that their program is often viewed alongside Columbia, Cornell and Yale, Stern is essentially asking applicants exactly how much homework they’ve done on the school. Obviously, the more information you can provide about trips to campus, visits to classes and conversations with students and alums, the more sincere your interest in the program will seem. The second portion of this question is similar to Kellogg’s second essay in that the adcom wants to see that applicants have really thought through the ways they could make an impact on the community. Ideally, you’ll connect your ideas about the future to your established activities and stated interests in order to create some continuity and make sure that your claims about contributing are as convincing as possible.
3. Personal Expression
Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative. If you submit a written essay, it should be 2 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font.
When we originally posted Stern’s questions last summer, we offered up a few ideas as to the form that this “expression” might take. Over the years, we’ve found that the written word tends to be the most efficient format for 90% of applicants (as opposed to photos, drawings or some other output). Having said that, it is important to think creatively about how one might use words to convey the message. Will your essay be the opening to a chapter in an autobiography? A journal entry? A newspaper article? A personal ad? A snapshot of a ‘typical day’?
As for the content, you’ll want to think reflectively about your values and personality – as well as strategically about what makes you unique with respect to other applicants. You’ll of course want to communicate your enthusiasm about meeting and working with your classmates, and include a comment about how you would engage them that does not cover the same ground as your first two essays.
Contact Clear Admit to learn more about our counseling services for Stern and other December/January MBA deadlines. You can set up a free initial chat with one of our admissions consultants by emailing your CV/resume to info@clearadmit.com.
Posted by Clear Admit on November 9, 2005, at 6:20 am
Posted in: Essay Topic Analysis , School: Cornell / Johnson With Cornell’s unique five round system coming up on its third deadline at the beginning of next month, we thought we’d offer some tips on the Johnson School’s essay questions for applicants who’ve set their sights on programs with December deadlines.
General Thoughts
The greatest challenge with Cornell’s essays is the fact that applicants are essentially limited to only two required essays (at a mere 400 words each). While this may seem like a blessing to those of you who have had your fill of schools with 4-7 required essays, you may find it challenging to get your message across and share all of your attributes in such a short format. As such, it pays to approach these essays carefully.
1. What’s your greatest professional accomplishment and how you were able to add value to your organization? (400 words)
This is your fairly standard workplace achievement question. When selecting a topic, make sure that you are choosing a story that highlights your interpersonal skills and ability to work with others in addition to your capacity to affect positive change. Keep in mind that there are two main points you’ll need to cover: the impact you made on your organization, and the process by which you brought this about. It’s important that you provide quantifiable details and present the reader with a before and after picture in order to really illustrate the significance of your contribution. In addition to this, you’ll want to explain the thought process behind your approach and the steps you followed, as the explanation of your reasoning is really what’s going to show the adcom that you possess the skills and knowledge that would enable you to replicate this level of impact in another job and make a valuable contribution to the business school itself.
2. What career do you plan to pursue upon completing the MBA and why? How will the Johnson School help you achieve this goal? (400 words)
This typical career goals essay requests that you articulate your professional objectives and reasons for your interest in the school, and poses the added challenge of doing so in 400 words. Economy of language will be key here, as you’ll need to provide a very brief overview of your career to date in addition to the requested information, as this will hopefully establish a basis for your goals and demonstrate that you would bring a valuable perspective to the MBA classroom. There won’t be any room for a discussion of the general merits of a business education here – it will be crucial to include a significant amount of school-specific information to prove that you’ve done your homework on Cornell and are sincerely interested in the program.
3. Optional: Complete this essay if there is other information you would like to add regarding your candidacy. For instance, if you believe one or more aspects of your application (e.g., undergraduate GPA or test scores) do(es) not accurately reflect your potential for success at the Johnson School. (400 words)
This essay is set up as a place to address extenuating circumstances or issues with your application, but you might also consider including a brief comment on an important activity outside of work and suggesting that you would be an active member of the student community.
Contact Clear Admit to learn more about our counseling services for Cornell and other December/January MBA deadlines. You can set up a free initial chat with one of our admissions consultants by emailing your CV/resume to info@clearadmit.com.
Posted by Clear Admit on November 8, 2005, at 12:25 pm
Posted in: General The career preferences of MBA graduates tend to fluctuate with the times. Many recall the investment banking and management consultant frenzy of the early 90′s when b-school students flocked to these traditional fields. Of course, the latter half of the 90′s was highlighted by the dot-com boom which made roles with startups and venture capital firms the desired destination for MBA grads.
In recent years we’ve seen somewhat of a return to the fields of banking and consulting alongside preferences for rotational management positions within Fortune 500 firms, media and entertainment roles and work in private equity. This new mix has led to a fair amount of competition as firms battle it out for market share in the increasingly robust MBA recruiting market. One newer area that is clearly on the radar of applicants at leading schools is an off-shoot of the media/entertainment field: Sports Management.
Today’s Career Journal (a free site run by the Wall Street Journal) offers a terrific summary of what schools like Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Ohio State and U. Mass are doing to expand their formal offerings in this field. This typically involves a specific Sports Management track (see Wharton’s Sports Business Initiative), guest speakers (like Dusty Baker and Billy Beane at Stanford) and finance coursework that allows students to value players, stadium leases and more. While a career in Sports Management is not going to surpass banking or consulting on the b-school campus anytime soon, it’s an interesting and growing field for MBA graduates.
Posted by Clear Admit on November 7, 2005, at 12:24 pm
Posted in: Admissions Tips , Interview Tips , School: Penn / Wharton As most of our readers know, Wharton has started offering interview invitations to R1 applicants. The invitation process will continue up until November 17th when the final invites will be sent out. In total, the school will offer interviews to roughly 45-50% of the applicant pool. All remaining/non-invited candidates will be denied admission on November 17th. While it may sound a bit harsh to be so promptly rejected, Wharton’s process is deliberate. The admissions committee’s goal is to ensure that denied applicants have a chance to regroup and make alternative plans for R2 or beyond. This policy offers a stark contrast to those schools that keep R1 applicants hanging on well beyond the R2 deadlines.
As a resource to our readers who are busily preparing for their Wharton interviews, we thought we’d offer a few sample questions from the Clear Admit Guide to Wharton Interviews as well as links to numerous blog archives and forums that touch on the subject. We’ve also created a thread in the Clear Admit/Studylink forums where Wharton applicants can discuss interviews and pose questions to the Clear Admit team.
Sample Wharton Interview Questions:
-Walk me through your resume.
-Describe your short and long-term career plans.
-What do you think makes an effective manager?
-How do you vent work-related stress?
- If you were working on a project with a team of peers late at night and they had an opinion entirely different from yours, how would you manage the situation so that the team completes the assignment the next day?
-When the adcom is evaluating your application, what do you think will be their biggest concern?
-How would you want to be remembered after graduating from Wharton?
Blog Archives on Wharton Interviews:
Wharton Interview Questions (Clear Admit blog, Nov. 2004)
Goal Articulation in Wharton Interviews (Clear Admit blog, April 2004)
Interview Invite Logistics (Wharton Adcom Blog, Oct. 2004)
Insider Info on Wharton Interviews (Wharton Adcom Blog, Nov. 2005)
Interview Report from an MBA Blogger (OnMyWayMBA, Dec. 2004)
Prep Questions from an MBA Blogger (Dest.Wharton, Nov. 2004)
32 Sample IV Questions (Student2Student Forums, Oct. 2005)
We strongly recommend that you use the forums, blogs and other resources listed above as you prepare. We also would like to stress the importance of practicing your interviewing skills in advance of the real thing. You can do this with friends, family, MBA alumni, students or an admissions consultant. Best of luck!
Posted by Clear Admit on November 4, 2005, at 11:41 am
Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline Another week is behind us and with it comes the latest edition of FFF. It’s amazing how time flies when you’re applying to or attending business school (not to mention when you’re counseling aspiring MBAs).
We’ll kick off this week’s column with MBA applicant-blogger Ty Coon, who decided to apply to MIT in R1 after initially having put things off for R2. Of course, after racing to submit, Ty had the typical jitters over whether or not the application was as solid as it could have been (the discovery of a typo did not help his jitters, but our guess is that this minor error will not be a factor). Moving on to further discussion of application deadlines, we find RedWolf‘s posting about freedom from R1 and how he did absolutely nothing over the weekend (this posting initially reminded us of movie about doing nothing – or even a show). RedWolf also offers a plan of attack for R2 as well as some thoughts on interview invites at Wharton and Chicago. Speaking of interview invites, Pragmaticus got the nod from Wharton and is trying to decide whether or not he has a chance (try these tips to get you started).
In other applicant news, blogger Anand posted a full report on his alumni interview for Kellogg and PupStar78 updated readers on his application process and decision to add Wharton to the mix. Meanwhile, RusGirl reports on her experience at the Moscow World MBA Tour and describes the special INSEAD presentation that she talked herself into attending.
Heading into MBA student-blogger territory, we check back with Marquis (a second year at Stanford) who had some puzzling news from Bain as he moves forward in the strategy-consulting recruiting process. Marquis also offers readers an update on mid-terms at Stanford and the pressures in the second year. Moving on to the city of brotherly love, we here from Hella (a Wharton second-year) who is also in the throes of recruiting, coursework and his job in the MBA admissions office (interviewing candidates and reviewing applications). Rounding out the second-year set, we find Mark summarizing his experiences in DIP week at Harvard Business School. Although it was a relatively quiet blogging week on the first-year MBA student front, we did read some interesting postings from MBAwana, who summarized the latest news from Stanford and Ben Dehghan who talked about grading at Ross/Michigan.
We’ll close out this week’s installment of FFF with a look at bloggers attending non-US schools. Anders checks in from CEIBS in China, offering a peek at both the social and academic scenes on campus (as well as the tradition of ‘paper-dancing‘). If you think paper-dancing is interesting, then you will pleased to read TheDivineMissN’s posts entitled “useless facts about LBS” (part 1, part 2). For the more academically minded, KV checks in with an update on mid-terms at LBS. Heading south to Spain, we find IESE-MBA2007 blogging about life at IESE, including the tradition of ‘random dinners‘ between first and second year students. Finally, our last posting comes from Vijay at the Indian School of Business (ISB), where recruiting season is now in full swing.
That’s the blogging news from here. Have a great weekend everyone!
Posted by Clear Admit on November 3, 2005, at 10:39 am
Posted in: MBA News We wanted to call our readers’ attention to several interesting articles that have recently published on the topic of MBA education.
What Women MBAs Want: Role Models
BusinessWeek published this story earlier in the week. The article’s author explores the reasons behind a persistent imbalance of male vs. female b-school applicants (women typically make up only 30% of the MBA applicant pool). The article offers some interesting details about how the leading MBA programs are creating offerings to attract female applicants and suggests that the role of mentors can be critical in guiding female applicants towards the degree.
Can the Full-Time M.B.A. Regain Its Luster?
This article was recently published on the Wall Street Journal’s College Journal (a free site). It talks about the declines in applicant volume that b-schools experienced following the 2001-02 admissions cycle and suggests that despite great news on the recruiting front, tuition costs may be holding off a full comeback.
Recruiters Are Slugging It Out
This interview with the president of WetFeet (a career counseling and recruiting services firm) offers an in-depth look at the current state of MBA recruiting. As we’ve reported in prior posts to this blog, the interview highlights an MBA recruiting scene that is alive and well, citing the invasion of MBA campuses from new players in private equity, boutique consulting, retail and more. Companies like Target are even using scholarship money to lure MBAs.
Berkeley Live Chat
In other news, there is a live chat today with Berkeley’s admissions team on the BW site. It will be held from 12 PM – 1 PM (EST). Tune in to learn more about what Berkeley is looking for in the admissions process. Click here to join the chat.
Posted by Clear Admit on November 2, 2005, at 11:32 am
Posted in: General As the outcry over the new design for BW’s discussion boards continued unabated yesterday, BW Online’s Francesca Di Meglio responded to the onslaught of highly critical (yet constructive) postings from members of the forums. While users called for the frames version of the forums to be re-introduced, Di Meglio initially offered the following advice:
MSG 66566.86
Hi everyone,
I know many of you are still disappointed by the new forums. I can understand. It took me a while to get used to the new look and the fact that the threads were no longer at the left-hand side, too. And I assure you that we didn’t just jump into this decision.
Really, very little has changed for the user. Most of the changes are behind the scenes and don’t affect you.
Here’s what I’ve been doing to adjust. I’ve been clicking on “messages” under the BW B-Schools header. From there you can see all of the threads and scroll down to see the folders beyond Getting Into B-school. If you really want to have the message board threads listed while you read messages, you can open two browsers and keep them side by side.
Some of you have been asking about how to keep track of favorites. If you click on my stuff, which is next to messages, you should scroll down and click on the option that automatically puts threads to which you respond in your favorites.
Of course, you just have to ask me if you have any other questions as you adjust to the new system. I promise that these are the same boards you’ve came to know, trust and love. And I would like to help you all adjust to the new system.
Talk to you soon,
Francesca
When readers continued to complain – suggesting that the idea of opening up two browsers wasn’t a logical long-term solution – Di Meglio responded again:
MSG 66566.105
Hi everyone,
I know it’s been a tough day. But I think I have some good news for you. As I mentioned, I had brought your concerns to the powers that be, and they were considering what they might be able to do to help us out. For a little while, you’ll be able to access the old interface. Here’s what I know:
On the bottom of the forum’s start page at http://forums.businessweek.com/bw-bschools is a paragraph in a box that says: “Business Week is committed to improving the look and usability of its forums, but is offering a temporary alternative for those used to the old look. Please click here to go to the old interface. This alternative gives all the features of the old look, but will not be maintained beyond a certain point. We will continue to explore the best solution. Thank you.”
The link goes to: http://forums.businessweek.com/n/main.asp?webtag=bw-bschools&nav=messages
Our vendor is offering this as an alternative while the staff looks into ways to address some of your concerns within this new interface. I hope this helps. If you have any further questions, please feel free to get in touch through this thread.
Have a great night!
All the best,
Francesca
The “solution” is essentially a temporary roll-back – allowing readers to revert to the old look and feel of the forums. In any event, for those of you who are dying for original, more user-friendly format, here is a link that will take you there:
http://forums.businessweek.com/n/main.asp?webtag=bw-bschools&nav=messages
As a convenience to our readers, we’ve also offered a direct link to the original format at the top of the right column of this blog, under “active discussions/blogs”. Unfortunately, it sounds like this may not be a permanent offering, but we’ll have to see how the debate continues to unfold…
Posted by Clear Admit on November 1, 2005, at 11:11 am
Posted in: General Many of our readers witnessed BusinessWeek’s introduction of a new interface for the MBA discussion forums yesterday. Needless to say, the redesign of the MBA applicant world’s most popular discussion boards has kicked up quite a stir. Before we analyze what’s taken place, it is worth offering a bit of background.
Background on BW Forums
The BW Forums rose to fame in the late 90′s as the place for MBA applicants, admissions officers, GMAT instructors, admissions consultants and students to meet, greet, debate and discuss. Although the Princeton Review’s discussion board had previously been the only serious game in town, BW quickly built a strong community for four main reasons:
1) Ease of use. Thanks to a new type of discussion software from Prospero, BW’s forum was really the first one that made it incredibly easy to post, respond, track and generally participate in a terrific community. Although the message-drafting interface was much like other offerings on the market, the key advantage to the BW forums was that the user could simultaneously view recent discussions in a narrow window on the left, while browsing actual postings in a larger window on the right. At the time, this interface mirrored MS Windows’ File Manager or MS Outlook and would have been familiar/comfortable to anyone used to searching for files or reading emails on their PC. Interestingly enough, this sort of interface can still be seen in the popular iTunes software from Apple. Simply put, people seemed to like the idea of clicking on a list of discussion topics at the left and seeing actual discussion posts display in the large frame on the right.
2) Relevant Content. Given the ties between BusinessWeek’s editorial content, rankings and great online resources, the site was a natural place for students and applicants to chat. In other words, the online magazine already had a faithful audience reading their articles with a great deal of frequency. Adding discussion forums merely allowed this group to create two-way dialogue in the same location.
3) Great Moderators. In addition to providing visitors with the means to debate, BusinessWeek’s editorial staff kept a close eye on the forums. Journalists like Mica Schneider stayed active in the forums, ensuring that discussion was productive and that questions were answered. This prevented excessive off-topic discussion or inappropriate content and made the forums a valid resource. The caliber of the forums was also aided by informal moderating from admissions officers, current students, admissions consultants and alumni who had been readers of BW content and found the forums of interest.
4) Reinforcement. As BW’s forums rose in popularity, leading schools took notice. The Wharton school switched their ‘e-talk’ system over to the same interface/software as BusinessWeek and unveiled the incredibly popular student-2-student forums. Anyone with a BW account could instantly use the Wharton forums without any need to get up to speed. This phenomenon worked in both directions, sending many Wharton forum members into BW’s discussion as well. Most recently, the University of Chicago has adopted the same software for their discussion forums.
The New Look
The new version of the BW Forums has abandoned the frames/windows style format of old. Users can no longer view discussion threads at the same time as they read actual posts. This has caused tremendous outcry on the part of the forum’s most faithful users. Oddly, it seems that much of the new space gained from the elimination of the frames/windows is largely being used for banner advertising on the right hand side of the screen.
Another element worth noting is that the new look is also more graphically intense, with all sorts of icons to indicate popularity of discussions, etc. These icons take more time to load, making things a bit less speedy than before. One of the prior advantages of the BW Forums, beyond the intuitive interface was how sparse the forums looked. A great metaphor here is Google vs. Alta Vista. In the mid-90′s Alta Vista was the leading search engine with all kinds of graphics, bells and whistles. Then along came Google, which had an almost amateurish look and feel – with classic hyperlinks and not much else. It just so happened that along with the bare-bones look came unmatched speed and accuracy. We all know how that battle turned out (ironically, Alta Vista’s current look is now much like Google’s). This was in part the same appeal that the BW Forums brought to the table in the late 90′s (and until yesterday).
We’ll keep our readers posted as this story continues to develop…
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