2009 July » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

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2009-2010 Clear Admit School Guides to Darden, INSEAD, Johnson, Tuck, UCLA Anderson and Yale Now Available!

We’re pleased to announce the release of the 2009-2010 versions of the final six of our 18 Clear Admit School Guides, our line of informative and time-saving reports about the leading business schools. The Clear Admit School Guides provide detailed information on all aspects of the student experience at a leading MBA program, and compare the schools in such areas as student demographics, curricular structure and employment statistics. The School Guides present an objective view of what each school offers and what makes each unique. They are a must for serious applicants who are investigating target schools, looking for school-specific details for their essays or just getting up to speed on a program in advance of a campus visit or interview.

Available for immediate purchase and download are the 2009-2010 versions of Darden, INSEAD, Johnson, Tuck, UCLA Anderson and Yale. These titles include the most up-to-date information about the programs, including the latest admissions guidelines, class demographics and placement statistics, and insight into year-by-year trends.

Our entire line of MBA School Guides has now been updated for the 2009-10 admissions cycle, and all 18 are available for immediate download in the Clear Admit shop. More information on the Guides’ contents and the online ordering process is available in the School Guides section of our website.

Though Johnson has not yet released its 2009-2010 application or its application deadlines, the school’s admissions office has indicated that the essay topics will remain the same as last year’s set. The three required essays are below:

1. Describe your greatest professional achievement and how you were able to add value to your organization. [400 words]

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]

3. You are the author for the book of Your Life Story. Please write the Table of Contents for the book. [400 words]

Yale School of Management Hosts Inaugural Pre-MBA Leadership Program for College Students

Last month, the Yale School of Management (SOM) hosted 41 college students on its campus as part of an inaugural Pre-MBA Leadership Program designed to help underrepresented minority students gain a better understanding of the benefits of going to business school. For two weeks in June, the students took part in some of the same classes and activities that Yale SOM first-year students experience.

Arriving on campus on June 14th, the students dove into classes and leadership development activities while also learning how to impress prospective employers, meeting with SOM alumni and creating business plans for empty storefronts on New Haven’s Audubon Street.

“This was a real approximation of what it’s like for first-year students here,” said Heidi Brooks, a lecturer in organizational behavior and one of the program’s faculty directors. “We didn’t go easy on anyone,” she continued. “There was a ton of work, and students tackled it with enthusiasm and commitment.”

Top faculty took students through 10 SOM courses – including a three-hour version of State & Society, one of the school’s nine Organizational Perspectives for first-year students. The classes came complete with long reading lists, projects and cold-calling. But activities outside of class were also designed to showcase the vibrant student life and sense of community students can hope to find at Yale SOM, Brooks said.

Brooks developed the program with James Baron, the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management, and several SOM faculty, staff and second-year students. The idea behind the program is to give students who otherwise might not apply to SOM – or business schools in general – a chance to experience management education firsthand.

Program participants were recruited from a variety of colleges and universities around the country with particular emphasis on historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges.

“These were good students and I am sure that we would be happy to see some of them matriculate eventually, but their application to SOM was not the point,” Brooks said. “We don’t view this as a recruiting program, but as a broader public service,” she said, noting SOM’s mission to education leaders for business and society.

“Our plan is to identify potential leaders and help start them on their way,” Brooks said.” The program was a successful and enjoyable experience for the students, faculty and staff involved so we hope to continue to offer it,” she added.

The UT Austin / McCombs deadlines for the 2009-2010 admissions season have been announced. McCombs runs on a rolling admissions system, and candidates can expect a decision 10-13 weeks after submitting their applications (excluding two weeks around the Christmas holiday). The deadlines are below:

Final deadline for all international applications; second deadline for all domestic applications:
January 15, 2010

The McCombs online application for Fall 2010 enrollment is expected to be launched in mid-September.

The UCLA / Anderson deadlines for the 2009-2010 admissions season have been announced. Anderson operates on three rounds of admissions, and all applications are due by 9:00 p.m. PST. The deadlines are below:

Round 1
Deadline: October 14, 2009
GMAT / TOEFL by: September 30, 2009
Decision: January 13, 2010

Round 2
Deadline: January 6, 2010
GMAT / TOEFL by: December 31, 2009
Decision: March 31, 2010

Round 3
Deadline: March 17, 2010
GMAT / TOEFL by: February 28, 2010
Decision: May 19, 2010

And this concludes this week’s triumphant traipse through the trials and tribulations of the many individuals generous enough to share their experiences with the larger world. As the temperatures (at least in the northern hemisphere) continue to climb into August, we hope everyone keeps their cool and remains focused on their goals. Remember, if you maintain an MBA blog and want to be included in Fridays From The Frontline, just email us at wiki@clearadmit.com!

On Tuesday, August 4th, join Clear Admit as we host another of our popular and free webinars focused on business school application strategy. Attendees can join us online as we discuss key topics in business school admissions including what MBA programs look for in candidates, the relative importance of the application components and compensating for weaknesses in your application. Participants will also have the opportunity to have questions answered by Clear Admit’s knowledgeable admissions counselors.

The webinar has a limited number of spaces, so make sure to reserve your spot early!

If interested, please send an email to seminar@clearadmit.com. Space is limited and will be awarded on a first-come, first served-basis, so secure your spot early. The webinar will be held at 7 p.m. EST and will run until 8 p.m.

Email us now to participate in this valuable and informative webinar! We will notify you if you have successfully secured a spot.

Today we’ll conclude our series on GMAT test preparation companies with a look at Test Prep New York (TPNY), a unique firm founded by Bara Sapir, a pioneer in the test prep industry. TPNY is the first company to seriously address test anxiety, and Sapir’s tutoring integrates traditional, academic test prep with human potential techniques, such as relaxation, hypnosis and other holistic methods to help test-takers reduce stress and build confidence.

In the interview that follows, you’ll learn more from Sapir about the company she founded and what sets it apart from other test preparation offerings on the market.

Clear Admit: How many of your instructors work with students preparing for the GMAT exam? Who are they? What are their qualifications? What markets do they serve?

Bara Sapir: Our GMAT specialists are very accomplished; Some have PhDs in cognitive linguistics, English or math, and some have MBAs. They all have extensive training and experience tutoring the GMAT. I myself work with GMAT test-takers, and hold a masters degree in education and certification in hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming and Reiki.

While we feature top tutors with stellar educational backgrounds, what is most significant is their ability to communicate information and teach. Our tutors are able to impart information, inspire change and help students be their most high-performing selves. In terms of the markets we serve, we are based in New York City and have tutors in Washington, DC; Boston and Chicago and Los Angeles. We work in other markets, including internationally, through the use of technology that supports distance learning.

CA: Describe the type of candidate you feel would be best served by Test Prep New York’s approach to GMAT prep? What sets Test Prep New York apart from other test prep companies?

BS: Our personalized service, attention to detail and hybrid of human potential methods, along with content mastery, sets up apart. Often those who benefit most through one-on-one tutoring, are those who are serious about study and value their time, since individual tutoring is designed to provide streamlined customized and comprehensive attention as compared with one-size-fits-all classroom courses.

Getting the student into the optimal mindset for the exam definitely differentiates us from other educational companies. We help each student to learn the necessary skills to be their best test-taking self. For some students that’s getting them to relax. For others, it’s fully understanding the language, math and strategy sufficiently. For students who are hindered by anxiety, we might teach them guided visualization, EFT (an energetic system based on Chinese meridians, somewhat like acupuncture without the needles), use sound therapy and biofeedback. Basically, we employ a series of scientifically proven effective tools as needed to get a student fully ready for the exam.

While the test is standardized, each student is unique and needs to follow a different protocol – somewhat like going to a doctor. Some students understand the material but have trouble with performing consistently, so with them we would employ some of the holistic techniques I have mentioned. Other students have many more issues with content, in which case we take a more traditional content-based approach to test preparation.

The other piece we address is recognizing who the student is and where he or she comes from. For instance, if a student isn’t a native English speaker, he or she is going to have some real difficulties with the exam – and these are very predictable. For someone for whom English is a second language, we address particular nuances of the GMAT.

I really believe that all students would be served best by our approach because it is so customized and truly focuses on an individual’s needs. For busy professionals, it’s the best bang for the buck, plus they gain skills beyond the GMAT, which will serve them in business school and life.

I should note that we also get a lot of students who have gone through other test preparation programs. It’s not unusual for us to see a student who has gone through a big course or three, only to find that their scores have hit a plateau. More than 50 percent of our clients have gone through other companies, and many have gone through more than one.

CA: What are the various package options you offer? Who do you think are the ideal candidates for each offering?

BS: Over time we have moved away from package options. Basically, all of our services are offered on an hourly basis. Test-takers sign up for a certain number of hours, and together we determine exactly what techniques to employ to best prepare them for the exam. I would say that the average student benefits most from working with me for one to five hours and then working with one or two specialists for anywhere from five to 20 hours. If the student really knows the content well, she’s probably looking at a total of about six hours. But as you can see, it’s very customized to each student.

BS: We have a two-part intake process. The first part prospective clients complete at home. It’s comprised of a series of questions about how they take tests and how they have performed in the past.

The second part involves taking a diagnostic test – a real test they get from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which administers the GMAT. We look at their results to see how they answered questions and provide an evaluation with a suggestion for an action plan. We assess their strengths and weaknesses.

We also look at the chronology of their right and wrong answers. Are they losing steam at a particular point? Getting the ninth question in every section wrong? This helps us assess their biorhythm. After this initial intake, I then meet with each individual for 30 to 45 minutes and assign them to the appropriate specialists and have a more extensive conversation about their relationship to tests, academics, work, life-balance and more.

It’s clearly not a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather one that addresses each client’s strengths and weaknesses. If the student is excelling on the math and struggling with the verbal, then the majority of our work with him or her will be on verbal – but the student still needs to make sure they keep up with math and not lose steam. They can mostly do that on their own with some guidance and oversight from us. Everything is driven by what the student needs.

In terms of the content-based portion of our test preparation, we use real tests from GMAC as well as materials that we have created to help students build skills. We also utilize an online component that contains about 5,000 questions, including CAT quizzes drills and homework.

CA: Does Test Prep New York have anything new on the horizon? Planned expansion to new markets?

BS: I think that we will respond to the GMAT if the GMAT were to change, but we have a winning formula right now. Our materials will be made public soon, available for no-enrolled students to purchase, and we have a range of audio products dealing the psychological aspect of taking the GMAT and others tests that we are going to make a more concerted effort to distribute more widely.

BS: The average rate per hour is $225 pending the number of hours purchased. The rate for our holistic piece is more expensive

BS: I think what’s critical is that our approach is customized and thorough: we use the most comprehensive materials, have the best instructors and provide a much needed program in the test prep landscape. TPNY offers a top-shelf service for people looking to be as prepared as they can to take the GMAT.

To learn more about Test Prep New York and the GMAT test preparation services it offers, click here or call (646) 290-7440.

**As a special offer to Clear Admit’s readers, Test Prep New York would like to offer a $200 discount to anyone who signs up for its services as a result of reading this profile. To redeem this special offer, please just mention that you read about it here on the Clear Admit Blog.

Taking advantage of a quiet day before her team returns from vacation next week, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Director of Admissions Rose Martinelli devoted a recent post on her blog to the reapplication process, noting that she’s received several requests for information about it from prospective re-applicants.

First, Martinelli recommends carefully evaluating whether reapplying makes sense for you. For starters, she advises, take a look at your original application, including any additional information you may have submitted through the waitlist process. “The objective is to understand how well you presented yourself in your original application and identify if there are any areas that you can improve upon this year,” she writes. It’s not a bad idea to ask a friend or colleague for feedback as well, she adds.

Second, think about what you learned as part of the initial application process. Have your goals changed or become clearer? Can you provide evidence of greater strengths or progress this year in key areas such as academics, career advancement or community involvement? “In summary, are there things that you would do differently now just because you know the process AND yourself better?” she asks.

Finally, if based on the above considerations you do feel like you’ll make a strong re-applicant candidate, tackle the application itself. Think about the key messages you want to convey and how to do so most strategically through your essays and presentation. Though the Chicago Booth admissions team will include your prior application in your file, you should make sure that your new application presents a complete picture of you as an applicant.

And don’t take shortcuts, Martinelli advises. “My recommendation is that you take a fresh approach to crafting your application this year and avoid adapting old essays or presentations,” she suggests.

Martinelli plans a subsequent post in the near future devoted to more practical reapplication questions, so keep an eye out for it on the Rose Report. Or, if you have specific questions, she invites you to email her directly.

Best of luck! And if you would like help evaluating whether or not you should reapply or preparing a second application, don’t hesitate to contact Clear Admit’s team of admissions consultants by calling (215) 568-2590 or emailing info@clearadmit.com.

The IESE deadlines for the 2009-2010 admissions season are now online. The six deadlines are as follows:

Today we’ll be taking a look at this season’s essay questions for the Indian School of Business. The application requires that candidates respond to three questions about their backgrounds, prior experiences, and professional progress and goals. There’ s nothing out of the ordinary here when it comes to essay topics, though the narrow 300 word limit for each of these responses requires that applicants pack a good deal of information into a mere 900 words.

Essay 1: Give 3 reasons as to why you should be selected to the class of 2011. These reasons should ideally differentiate you from the applicant pool and should be backed with some data. (300 words)
The ISB admissions committee is likely wondering two things in asking this one question. The first might relate to what an MBA from ISB would mean to the applicant, and to the industry or community that is the focus of his or her professional goals. Candidates with professional aspirations that are especially high-impact or unusual with respect to the applicant pool might choose to mention them in this essay. If an MBA would carry great personal significance – for example, if an applicant were the first in his or her family to complete an advanced degree – this could also be appropriate to mention briefly.

The above reading, though, will apply to a relatively small portion of the applicant pool. The second (and more obvious) interpretation of this prompt is: “What’s in it for us?” In responding to this question, candidates will want to highlight aspects of their candidacies that will set them apart from other applicants, and that also translate to some contribution they could make to the ISB community and the experience of their classmates. The door is wide open to all manner of qualities, interests and skills from the professional, academic, extracurricular and personal realms, so take some time to reflect on what truly makes you unique, and what impact that will enable you to have at ISB.

Essay 2: Describe a challenging assignment you have handled (at work or outside) to date. What were the challenges and how did you handle them? What were the personal lessons you derived from this assignment? (300 words)
This prompt asks candidates to recount a time they rose to the occasion to take on a difficult task. There’s a good deal of ground to cover in this situational question, so economy of language will be important. Setting the scene up front and providing all of the context and challenges at the opening of the essay will enable you to take the reader through your actions in the situation and illustrate the lessons you learned.

As you think on examples you might cover in this essay, think about experiences that have led to significant growth or the learning of an especially important lesson. A range of situations could be appropriate, so a focus on a positive outcome and lessons learned could help in identifying the most effective topics.

Essay 3: Briefly assess your career progression till date along with your assessment of your future career goals. Discuss how your career goals will be met by the ISB’s one year program. (300 words)
While this is a standard career goals/why MBA essay in terms of the topics touched upon, ISB requests that applicants respond in s considerably fewer words than do many other b-schools. With so little room to work with, candidates might begin their writing process by devoting 100 words to each of the three topics (career to date, goals, and the preparation ISB will provide). The key may be to keep the focus narrow, zeroing in on the elements of one’s work to date and aspects of ISB’s program that are most relevant to one’s stated goals. Note that the prompt includes the information that the program is one year long; very effective essays will acknowledge this and comment on how the duration of the program has influenced the candidate’s decision to apply and constitutes a fit with his or her career path.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is the latest among top business schools that plan to allow prospective applicants to submit scores from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in lieu of the long-favored Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), according to a recent BusinessWeek article.

The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business made a similar announcement earlier this year, bringing the number of MBA programs accepting GRE scores to more than 250, BusinessWeek reports.

“We are trying to open up a little bit the different types of people that we want to apply to business school and we don’t want to create additional hurdles for them to do so,” Wharton Dean J.J. Cutler told BusinessWeek. By accepting GRE scores, schools are hoping to attract more dual-degree students, younger applicants and international applicants from countries without GMAT access.

Stanford Graduate School of Business and MIT’s Sloan School of Management began accepting the GRE several years ago. And earlier this spring, Harvard Business School announced that it, too, would allow applicants to submit GRE scores for admission to its regular MBA program as well as its 2+2 Program, which accepts students straight out of college who agree to complete two years of approved work experience before beginning their MBA.

“Now that Harvard has accepted it, I anticipate over the summer and into the fall we’re going to see a rapid increase of other business schools accepting it,” David Payne, head of the GRE program for Educational Testing Service (ETS), told BusinessWeek.

Behind the trend toward accepting GRE scores is a change in the relationship between ETS and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the GMAT. On Jan. 1, 2006, GMAC ended its contract with ETS, which had been its partner in developing and delivering the GMAT exam for decades. GMAC moved instead to a new testing administrator, Pearson VUE, which freed ETS from non-complete clauses with GMAC that had previously prohibited it from promoting the GRE to business schools as an alternative exam.

And since then, promoting the GRE is just what ETS has done . “Once they ended the contract with us, we were able to move into this market,” ETS’s Payne, told BusinessWeek.

As business schools move toward accepting the GRE, they are able to appeal to a broader audience of applicants who might otherwise have been dissuaded from applying by the prospect of having to study for and take more than one exam. ETS, which has been aggressively marketing the GRE to business school admissions officers in recent months, has also been promoting its $150 exam as a more affordable option for applicants than the $250 GMAT.

To read the complete BusinessWeek article, click here. For additional background on the growing competition between the GRE and GMAT competition, click here.

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business announced earlier this month the addition of several new MBA courses that will be available to students when the 2009-10 academic year gets underway on September 24th.

The new courses come in addition to previously announced curriculum changes that took effect in the summer quarter for all new students, changes designed to provide even greater flexibility within an MBA program already considered one of the most flexible of top-tier schools.

New courses added for the fall include Analytics of Financial Crises, an advanced course that uses the tools of corporate finance to analyze financial crises; the Firm and the Non-Market Environment, which will examine business lobbying, regulation, environmental issues, corporate social responsibility and other topics; and Introductory Finance, a hybrid class that will cover both corporate finance and investments.

A fourth new course, Business, Politics and Ethics, will help students learn to better analyze business situations that raise moral dilemmas or appear to call for unpopular actions. Also new this fall will be Advanced Microeconomic Theory and Game Theory courses.

Meanwhile, the curriculum changes that took effect this summer at Chicago Booth give students even greater ability to design a curriculum to meet individual career goals. Graduation requirements for students in the full-time MBA program remain the same – nine required courses, 11 electives and a leadership course – but more approved substitute classes have been added to satisfy the nine required courses.

Finally, Chicago Booth also has added a new academic concentration in analytical management and will now require all students in the evening MBA program and weekend MBA program to take a leadership development course similar to the one required of full-time students.

For more on these additions and changes to the Chicago Booth curriculum, click here.

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, where we examine differences in the programs, resources, and opportunities offered by the leading business schools. Today we’re turning our attention to two unique aspects of the academic year at MIT Sloan: the mid-semester Sloan Innovation Periods and the mid-year Independent Activities Period.

The Sloan Innovation Period, or SIP, takes place for a week at the midpoint of each semester. The SIP was introduced to the curriculum to provide an opportunity for all Sloan students and faculty members to explore interests in ways not possible within the standard framework of courses. All classes and activities stop for the week while faculty members organize seminars and other activities designed to provide students with opportunities for hands-on leadership experiences and exposure to the latest research of Sloan professors. Past areas of study include explorations of individual learning styles, social network analysis for managers, value chain roadmapping, and globalization, development & standards. Participation in SIP is required of both first- and second-year students as part of the MBA graduation requirements and most Sloan students report that they appreciate the opportunity to step back and reflect on their learning while exploring topics outside the curriculum.

In addition, while other MBA students are home in January, resting up for the second half of the school year, students at MIT Sloan use the winter break to explore new topics and make new connections on campus. Every winter break at MIT, students, faculty, staff and alumni across the Institute are able to use the special four-week January term to organize or participate in a wide range of activities. Included as part of tuition, the Independent Activities Period, or IAP, offerings typically include workshops, lectures, tours, recitals, athletic events, forums and films. Since members of the MIT community are responsible for proposing and organizing IAP events, the available activities change depending on the interests of the MIT campus at large.

Because the IAP is open to all members of the MIT community, the month-long session gives Sloan students an opportunity to form connections with students and faculty outside of the business school. This kind of extended opportunity for campus-wide interaction is unique to MIT Sloan among the leading business schools. These connections may help create many of the business/science partnerships that underlie MIT Sloan’s reputation as a center for the commercialization of new technologies.

For more information on unusual academic opportunities available to MBA students, be sure to visit the schools’ websites or check out the special programs featured in the Clear Admit School Guides!

Today, as we near the conclusion of our GMAT test prep company profile series, we’ll take a closer look at Manhattan Review, a New York City–based test preparation firm that has grown to include locations around the globe.

Manhattan Review was founded in 1999 by Dr. Joern Meissner, then a doctoral student at Columbia Business School (CBS). While lecturing on advanced quantitative subjects to MBAs at Columbia, Meissner received requests from students to assist their friends, who were frustrated with conventional GMAT preparation options. He created original lectures focused on presenting GMAT content in a coherent and concise manner – a departure from courses delivering basic knowledge interspersed with so-called “tricks.” Meissner’s approach immediately proved highly popular with GMAT students, inspiring the birth of Manhattan Review.

The company today provides classes in 60 cities in 10 countries and has developed connections with leading business schools around the world, hosting joint events on a monthly basis.

Meissner is currently a tenured professor at Lancaster University Management School in the United Kingdom, leading a team of eight doctoral students. Manhattan Review is today led by CEO Tracy Yun, a CBS graduate with almost a decade of experience in mergers & acquisitions, turnaround & restructuring and litigation consulting.

Yun, who scored in the 99th percentile on the GMAT and is passionate about education, jumped at the opportunity to work at an educational services company. As the only female CEO among the top test prep companies, she hopes to set an example for female MBAs as a successful entrepreneur and head of a small growing company. A transcript of our interview with Yun follows.

Clear Admit: How many GMAT tutors do you have? Who are they? What are their qualifications? What markets do they serve?

Tracy Yun: We currently have about 75 instructors located across the United States, Europe and Asia. The majority of our GMAT instructors have either an MBA or a PhD. Through Joern’s connections with the faculty of business schools worldwide, we are able to recruit a lot of talent through referrals from various professors, and they bring high-quality instruction to our classes.

Regarding the quality of a test prep program, we believe it depends not only on the effectiveness of instructors but also on the effectiveness of the entire learning process and experience. This includes many factors such as class size, level of interaction between instructors and students, teaching material and method (dynamic lecturing vs. Socratic Q&As vs. PowerPoint presentations vs. scripted teaching), after-class support, the availability of different course and tutoring options for students at different levels and more.

Our founder is a business school professor teaching MBAs. So our business is grounded in adhering to the best teaching practice and principals. The GMAT prep business is not just a test prep business; more importantly, it is a people business since the majority of test takers are young professionals with work experience.

Our philosophy in hiring teachers is not just about high test scores, whether or not they graduated from Ivy League schools, and so on. More important to us is their ability to connect with students and motivate students to increase their confidence level. The majority of our instructors are in their 30s and 40s. Great instructors need to get a good sense of fulfillment from teaching in front of an audience and from seeing the positive impact their teaching has on individuals’ lives. Therefore, they need to be responsible, mature and experienced – not just another young graduate out of school with a top GMAT score. So we pay special attention to an instructor’s life experiences and the stage of his/her life.

We believe if a screening process is well designed with a set of rigorous hiring criteria on all fronts, a very well-trained and highly experienced person can easily narrow the pool to a small number of qualified candidates. We also do not feel it is an effective hiring process if the acceptance rate is very low after all the interviews. Rather, we preset our standards with great specifics to qualify applicants from the get-go. So a good percentage of the instructors we interview work for us and deliver great teaching performance. Some students have left comments on the BusinessWeek forum complimenting on the quality of our instructors. That is because we are very good at finding the right instructors for us and for our students.

We offer very competitive teaching rates, but we do not believe compensation should be the sole or predominant way to incentivize an instructor. Rather, finding a way to make it the best fit for both parties in the long run is more effective. For example, we are able to work with our instructors in terms of their preference of teaching subject, schedule, location, the type of courses and the level of students. Since we offer a wide variety of test prep courses and career skills building workshops, many of our lead instructors enjoy teaching various subjects. Since our instructors are often very senior in their corporate or academic careers, they find this variety more interesting and rewarding. That is why we are able to retain many top-notch instructors. Students can check out their bios on our website. Many of these instructors worked for larger test prep companies but opted to stay with us and found a home with us.

All of these factors contribute to our very low teacher turnover rate. Many of our instructors have stayed with us for years and never left – or sometimes they’ve left and rejoined after trying things on their own. Sometimes they move around the world, and we are able to offer teaching opportunities in their new locations. They love the flexibility!

For locations such as New York and Los Angeles, we also have different math and verbal teachers per course to optimize our students’ learning experiences from two experts.

We do not use PowerPoint slides a lot in our classroom teaching. We prefer for our instructors to develop solutions in real time in front of the students and tailor their answers to each class. Moreover, we believe in the positive impact of technology on effective learning. For example, in New York, we made a significant investment in an interactive whiteboard where students can vote remotely and instructors can see the distribution of the answers with a click. Our teachers do their own preparation while using our teaching guides as a roadmap. That way there is a balance between our standardized material and that individual instructor’s preferred content from all the course books we offer. Teachers take more ownership of their deliverables and take more pride and control in the classroom. That approach has proven to have a more effective result on students.

Our institutional clients include Bain Capital, Boston Consulting Group, Columbia Business School and many others.

We have our proprietary Turbocharge Your GMAT series, which consist of four books, two for math and two for verbal. We have included a math glossary and cheat sheet to make things handy for students to re-familiarize themselves with the high school math concepts, which may seem distant to them now.

CA: Describe the type of candidate you feel would be best served by Manhattan Review’s approach to GMAT prep. What sets Manhattan Review apart from other test prep companies?

TY: Our main goal is to provide high-quality content and time-efficient education. We understand that nobody who is balancing a full-time job with MBA applications has 200 hours to spend preparing for the GMAT. We look to replicate the exceptional teaching style and fast problem-solving approaches.

Generally, our techniques and strategies work well with students looking to score in the highest percentiles of the GMAT. Nonetheless, our classes and proprietary materials are extremely accessible for all student levels. A student who has not worked with math for several years, though, would want to take a long course so that they will have more time in between classes to use our materials to brush up on the basics.

I believe three things set us apart – the quality, the full spectrum and the flexibility of our offerings.

We pride ourselves on the superior quality of teaching, course materials, management and student support services, along with our global presence. We recognize that the GMAT is part of the larger process of applying to business school, which is why we also offer TOEFL and GRE preparation, as they could also be an application element. In addition, we help students with admissions advice and offer pre-MBA training in corporate finance, communication skills, etc.

Again, the most limiting factor in GMAT preparation for most people is time. It takes significantly more teaching experience and techniques to prepare a student in less time. Our preparation is tailored for busy professionals. We will teach students what they need to know in the least amount of time. Meantime, we also offer 100+ hours of online library access to our students for their self-paced study to reinforce their learning outside of the classroom.

CA: For your classroom courses, what is the class size? What opportunity do students have to interact with instructors?

TY: At Manhattan Review, we believe that a smaller class size will foster better learning. In the United States, we typically host classes with around 12 students, much like a college seminar. This provides a classroom environment that offers a perfect interaction between the instructor and students but still affords the teacher the opportunity to connect with students on a personal basis. As I said before, teachers encourage students to contact them before and after classes if they run into problems so that the support really extends beyond classroom hours. In addition, we have staff on hand seven days a week to answer questions via phone, email, chat, forum posts or in person.

CA: In terms of your online courses, do students have an opportunity to interact with one another? With instructors? If so, how? Is there a class size limit?

TY: We keep the online classes small as well, around 12 students. Our WebEx Training Center online classroom software creates an environment where students can chat and discuss problems among themselves and with instructors. They can also share whiteboards by writing their solutions, thoughts and questions on the board in different colors. There is also a voting system where they can submit their multiple-choice answers within a time limit, just like in a real GMAT test. Our online courses are conducted by our lead instructors. Each has a different way of engaging students and explaining solutions, which means that our 100+ hours of online live recordings can prove to be an effective way of assisting students study in depth at their own pace.

CA: Evolution of the curriculum? Offerings? How does the curriculum differ from one offering to the next?

TY: Joern created the original syllabus and lectures with time-efficient preparation on his mind. Our team of master test-takers and experienced business coaches continually expands and improves on his original work to assure that Manhattan Review offers the most time-efficient and cost-effective preparation available for the GMAT. We update our course books each year to ensure continuous improvements and relevancy.

Our course consists of a mix of lectures and exercises in each session, with ample time allotted for answering sample questions and receiving personalized attention from the instructors. We purposely minimize the use of PowerPoint presentations because we have found that they can never be as dynamic as the actual development of a solution in front of a student’s eyes.

The course is structured so that both the novice and expert test-takers will learn valuable techniques for eliminating wrong answers and choosing correct ones. Each question is discussed in depth with a step-by-step analysis of the thought processes required to arrive at the correct solution.

TY: The best offering for each student depends on several factors: their strengths and weaknesses, when they plan on taking the GMAT, how quickly they absorb information and how much practice for each topic they require.

To best determine which program is the best fit, we first ask the students to answer some questions regarding their work schedule and when they plan on taking the exam. Then we ask them to take a diagnostic test to determine their initial level.

In general, we offer Long, Intensive, and Crash courses. Each course covers both the math and verbal portions of the GMAT exam.

Our 1-week Intensive course is great for the student who has limited time to take the exam and can handle an intense workload. Our weekend Crash course is designed for extremely busy working professionals and others who can benefit from intense preparation over just a weekend in four 4-hour sessions. Our six- or eight-session in-person Long courses and nine-session online Long courses are great for the student who wants more in-depth, hands-on work and an extended study schedule. Due to the duration of these courses, students can come to every class with more questions for the instructor, allowing them to receive more answers. We also offer in-person private tutoring at a very competitive rate of US$125/hour. Students can request a set number of hours, and our tutor will work around their schedule and their strengths and weaknesses.

CA: Is there anything new on the horizon? Expansion to new markets? New services or tools for students?

TY: Yes, to round out B-school applicants’ experiences outside of the GMAT, this year we have also brought our successful MBA Gate school fair from Germany to four U.S cities.

Our unique MBA Gate event has been well attended since its launch in 2000. It focuses on honing young professionals’ career building skills and providing face-to-face in-depth interaction with business schools around the world. Students can join our fairs at no cost and take our complimentary Job Interview or Presentation Skills workshops and sit down at a round table with business schools for an in-depth Q&A. In addition, we offer complimentary GMAT Strategy seminars.

You can find more details about our MBA Gate tour in New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC.

TY: Our course and tutoring prices vary by country and package. They generally range from $675 to $1650. We also offer promotional prices for early booking and institutional clients. More details on cost can be found on the Course Program page.

CA: Is the fact that Manhattan Review offers test preparation for a full range of exams other than the GMAT an advantage in any way? Do instructors who teach GMAT classes also teach other test prep classes?

TY: We absolutely believe that it is an advantage. Knowledge of one standardized test can be transferred to another. For example, Logical Reasoning and Logic Game on the LSAT can train a GMAT test-taker’s logical thinking ability and make the person score very high on Critical Reasoning. To excel at any standardized exam, one must be able to balance superb time management with thorough analytic skills. These are obviously a transferable set of strengths that can be utilized in the instruction of various tests.

Some of our instructors are master test-takers who have scored highly on all the standardized tests they have taken. Hence they do teach other subjects when the need arises.

CA: Is there anything I haven’t asked about that you think is critical to understanding Manhattan Review and its offerings?

TY: A potential student will find a lot of hype on the Internet with regard to various prep offerings. We feel that the best way to understand whether a course or a service is right for you is to talk to the people you will be studying with and find out if you are comfortable with them and whether they can inspire you to learn. To that end, we offer monthly free “GMAT Strategy” workshops. They are conducted by our instructors. In a nutshell, we are small, focused and flexible. We offer more personalized attention and higher quality than our larger peers.

To learn more about Manhattan Review’s GMAT preparation services, click here.

The Tepper School of Business at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University earlier this month announced the addition of nine new faculty members for the 2009-10 academic year. The new hires include seven tenure-track faculty and two visiting professors in the fields of economics, finance, marketing, accounting and information systems.

“We are certainly proud of our faculty at the Tepper School and the contributions that their academic research continues to make for the global business and finance communities,” Kenneth Dunn, dean of the Tepper School, said in a statement announcing the new hires. “We welcome our new faculty members who bring international experience from other academic programs and who will continue the tradition of world-class academic research here,” he continued.

• Timothy Derdenger, assistant professor of economics. Derdenger received his doctorate this summer from the University of Southern California. His research interests include industrial organization, strategy, empirical industrial organization, competition policy, high technology and media/entertainment strategy.

• Jeffrey Galak, assistant professor of marketing. Galak holds a PhD from New York Stern’s School of Business, and his research focuses on consumer behavior and understanding the types of experiences that lead to consumer enjoyment.

• Anisha Ghosh, assistant professor of finance. Ghosh, who will complete her doctorate this summer at the London School of Economics, has completed research in the areas of asset pricing, financial econometrics and macroeconomics.

• Jing Li, assistant professor of accounting. Li will complete her PhD from Columbia University this summer. Her research interests include analytical and empirical research in financial accounting, including accounting conservatism, fair value accounting and regulation.

• Emilio Osambela, assistant professor of finance. Osambela holds a doctorate in finance from the Swiss Finance Institute and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and his research interests include asset pricing, international finance and risk management.

• Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, assistant professor of economics. Petrosky-Nadeau will complete his doctorate in economics at the University of Quebec at Montreal this summer. His research focuses on macroeconomics, labor market dynamics, capital market imperfections and international macroeconomics.

• Stefano Sacchetto, assistant professor of finance. Sacchetto will complete his PhD at the London School of Business this summer, and his research focuses on industrial organization and corporate finance.

• Jung Pil Hahn, visiting assistant professor of information systems. Hahn will serve a one-year term at Tepper as a visiting professor from Purdue University, where he serves as assistant professor of management. His research interests include knowledge management, human-computer interaction, business value of information technology and systems development.

• Nachiketa Sahoo, visiting assistant professor in information systems. Sahoo will serve a two-year term at Tepper as a visiting professor from Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III College, where he is earning a PhD in information systems. His research interests include social networks, information retrieval, recommender systems and collaborative filtering.

The Columbia Business School essay topics for the 2009-2010 admissions season have recently been announced. The three required essays are the same as last year’s questions. The essay topics are below:

Essay 1
What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)

Essay 2
Master Classes are the epitome of bridging the gap between theory and practice at Columbia Business School. (View link below) Please provide an example from your own life in which practical experience taught you more than theory alone. (Recommended 500 word limit)

Essay 3
Please provide an example of a team failure of which you’ve been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently? (Recommended 500 word limit)

Required for Reapplicants
How have you enhanced your candidacy since your previous application? Please detail your progress since you last applied and reiterate your short-term and long-term goals. Explain how the tools of the Columbia MBA will help you to meet your goals and how you plan to participate in the Columbia community . (Recommended 750 word limit).

Haas is sticking with its tried-and-true formula for its essays this admissions season, requiring applicants to respond to a series of prompts in just 250 words before exploring two further topics in more depth. The first of these short answer topics is a new addition for this year, focusing on the candidate’s greatest passion and replacing last year’s focus on a regret. The rest of the questions remain the same. Let’s take a closer look at each:

Short Answer 1: What are you most passionate about? Why? (250 word maximum)
A candidate’s foremost passion is a popular essay topic among business school admissions committees, and understandably so; it gives a reader a sense of an applicant’s values, priorities and interests, and has implications for an applicant’s future plans and potential involvements while in school. As you reflect on potential topics for this essay, remember that the adcom will be expecting your response to line up with your stated professional goals to some extent, and that professing a deep dedication to family or an obscure hobby isn’t going to do much for your candidacy. Think broadly about themes in your background and the forces behind your decisions and involvements, and arrive at a topic that is true to your passions, allows you show the adcom a side of yourself not covered in your essays, and ties your goals and previous experiences together to some extent.

Short Answer 2: Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)
This is a very tall order for a 250 word essay, so brevity will be key here. You’ll clearly want to select an impressive achievement to discuss – ideally one in which you had a positive impact on a person, group or organization (as it would reflect well on you to say that you consider it significant that you improved something for others). It will be important to comment not only on the results, but also on the actions and thought process by which you brought them about. Note that the question does not limit you to the professional realm, so feel free to think of examples from your outside activities in selecting a topic for this short response.

Short Answer 3: At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe a time when you created positive change in a group or organization. (250 word maximum)
With this topic, the Haas adcom is explicitly guiding applicants to answer the question by telling a specific story about one experience rather than inquiring generally about demonstrating these principles in one’s professional and personal life. In addressing the full scope of this question, applicants should most likely discuss an experience in which they used innovation and creativity to foster positive change in a group or organization. While outlining this experience, you should clarify the beneficial and significant results of your actions. You should also take the reader through your thought process as well as your actions, as demonstrating your ability to create positive results through your innovative intellectual capacity will show how you would contribute to the Haas community and find success in the future.

Short Answer 4: What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)
This is a rather transparent test to determine whether you’ve done your homework and are making an informed decision in applying to Haas; though most schools look to the applicant to demonstrate his or her knowledge of the school, few come right out and ask how a candidate has gone about familiarizing him or herself with the program. Because some applicants treat this school as a backup to Stanford and other programs, it will be to your advantage to convince the adcom that you are sincere in your interest by explaining the appealing elements that are unique to the Berkeley MBA. Obviously, the more specific knowledge you are able to demonstrate, the better; the adcom would love to hear that an applicant has been in touch with students, is familiar with the campus and understands the Haas culture and program.

Essay 1: Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)
Though the adcom will already have learned a few interesting things about the applicant from the short essays above, this is the first real chance a candidate has to really develop a story in which he or she shines. It would be ideal to provide a solid professional example here, but an example from an extracurricular activity would suffice as well if you have made a more significant impact on an outside organization than you have in the workplace. To an extent, your topic choice may depend on how you’ve answered the earlier questions (since you’ll want to achieve balance across the essays). Another thing to note about this question is that it does not specify that you should have a formal leadership role – any time you exhibited the characteristics of a leader to effect positive change is fair game here. Essentially, you should aim to use this essay to highlight your interpersonal skills and ability to direct the efforts of others toward a constructive end.

Essay 2: What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? How will an MBA from Berkeley help you achieve these specific career goals? (1000 word maximum)
This is a fairly standard career goals essay asked by virtually all MBA programs, requiring applicants to provide an overview of their career to date, describe their short- and long-term objectives and explain their reasons for seeking an MBA from Haas in particular. As a general rule, specificity of career goals is of the utmost importance. Given the wording of Berkeley’s question, it will also be beneficial to draw explicit links between your previous experiences and future objectives in addition to touching upon the skills you’ve gained and lessons you’ve learned over the course of your career.

As the subject of the final short essay suggests, demonstrating an understanding of the unique merits of Berkeley’s program is crucial to an effective response to this question. Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities – whether through a visit to campus, conversation with alumni or reading the Clear Admit School Guide to Haas – will pay dividends here.

Interestingly, Haas chooses to end its essay section with the typical career goals essay, whereas most schools lead off with this topic. Rather than providing an overview of and introduction to your candidacy, as is the case with the career goals essay for most schools, this essay will instead be the culmination of your message to the adcom. Make sure to tie together the themes that you’ve introduced in your other responses, and end on a note of enthusiasm about the program and the timing of your application.

Four members of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville this week have been named to Diversity MBA Magazine’s list of the “Top 100 Under 50 Diverse Executive and Emerging Leaders.” The complete list will appear in the magazine’s August issue.

Martin Davidson, associate dean and chief diversity officer; Erika Hayes James, Bank of America professor of research; Peter Rodriguez, associate dean of international affairs and director of the Tayloe Murphy International Center; and Gregory Fairchild, associate professor of business administration and executive director of the Tayloe Murphy Center Virginia, each were honored by the magazine in recognition of their positions, advanced degrees, scope of responsibility and/or community service work.

“Engaging diversity is a key objective of the Darden strategy, which is why we are so delighted to be recognized by Diversity MBA Magazine,” Davidson said in a statement. “This is an important milestone in our ongoing vision to be the best business school in the world at attracting, incorporating and leveraging diverse perspectives.”

In other faculty news, Darden has hired Melissa Thomas-Hunt, an expert in the fields of leadership, organizational behavior and negotiations, as a tenured associate professor. Thomas-Hunt, who earned her PhD from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, was most recently a tenured associate professor at Cornell’s Johnson School of Management.

Her research focuses on the impact of status, the perceptions of teams by outsiders and information exchange between negotiators. She has taught negotiations electives to MBA and executive education students and core and elective classes in leading organizations and teams.