Much is happening on Accepted and in the MBA admissions world  these days. Here goes:

• Birthday Ebook Sale. May 9-13  In honor of my birthday, I am giving you all 50% off all MBA admissions ebooks including:

Best Practices for MBA Admissions: Take advantage of the super advice captured in this transcript of a one-of-a-kind teleseminar.  Find out what are the 4 Pillars of a Successful Application, and most importantly, discover the concrete steps you can take to strengthen your pillars.

MBA BlastOff: 45 Terrific Tips to Launch Your MBA Application to Acceptance: Learn how to create a winning MBA application package including advice on writing your application, crafting your resume, working with recommenders, and preparing for your interview. 

The Consultant's Guide to MBA Admissions: Invest in the one resource written for YOU. Transform yourself from "just another consultant" into a distinctive, exciting prospect. Learn to mine your experiences and project the qualities schools value. This ebook has sample HBS essays.

The Finance Professional's Guide to MBA Admissions: If you are in investment banking, corporate finance, venture capital, or any financially related field that sends oodles of applicatants to top business schools, this ebook can teach you how to distinguish yourself from your competition and improve your chances of admissions. 

The Techie's Guide to MBA Admissions: Attention Techies: Are you afraid of being just another IT applicant. If so, The Techie's Guide to MBA Admissions is for you! Learn how to highlight your individuality and unique qualifications to create a distinct, exciting MBA application. 

MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs -- MBA Interview Questions and Tips: Invest in an ebook that provides the questions that have been frequently asked during recent MBA admission interviews at the top business schools as well as the advice you need to prepare for your interview. Exactly the information you need to ace your interview.

The Nine Mistakes You Don't Want to Make on an MBA Waitlist: Discover how to avoid the mistakes that doom so many on an MBA waitlist and make the right moves that increase your chances of acceptance. 

Create a Better Sequel: Reapply Right to B-School: Determine what went wrong and how to change the outcome. Get the information you need to navigate the MBA admissions maze and transform those thin rejections into fat acceptances. Buy this 28-page ebook today to propel your reapplication.  

• MBA Admissions Telethon on Tuesday May 13 at  10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT/1:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET (5:00 PM – 7:00 PM GMT). Sign up for FREE 15-minute consultations. Ask your most important MBA application questions.
• IMD admission chat with Janet Shaner, IMD's Director of MBA Marketing, and with an IMD participant. They will participate in this online chat where you can learn more about IMD's outstanding, international MBA program.
  
• Chicago GSB's monthly admissions newsletter has two timely articles: "Stay Engaged this Summer," on using the summer months to prepare for fall applications, and "Getting the Most Out of Your Campus Visit." For more on these topics, please see "Visiting Schools: Myths and Reality" and Best Practices for MBA Admission.
• MBAPodcaster's last two segments are winners. Check out "One Year MBA Programs," which focuses on Cornell's, Kellogg's,  and USC IBEAR's one-year MBA programs, and "Business School Admission's Panel: Top Schools Answer Your Application Questions," which presents admissions directors from  Columbia, NYU Stern, and Wharton discussing their respective admissions processes. If you are interested in any of these programs, you owe it to yourself to either listen to the podcast or read the transcript. 

  

Accepted editors were recently debating the full-time versus part-time MBA options. I thought the brief discussion was quite interesting and am excerpting  the comments of Cindy Tokumitsu and Sachin Waikar.  Cindy has worked with many, many successful applicants to part-time and full-time MBA programs since she started with Accepted ten years ago.  Sachin, a former McKinsey consultant who has a Ph.D. in psychology, has received rave reviews from clients during the two years he has been part of the Accepted staff. Both Cindy and Sachin draw on both their broad professional experience and specific illustrative personal anecdotes.

They were responding to these questions:

• What is your overall feeling about the value of the part-time MBA?
  
• Does the networking/brand pay off reasonably well? Is the quality of education  well considered?
  
• Do participants really have the chance to build their skills?
  

Cindy Tokumitsu wrote :

It's hard to answer those questions in the abstract -- for a person who really wants a regular MBA, [part-time] might not be a great option, for various reasons.  For such people, it's a compromise they make because they can't get into a top school's full-time program (and they'd rather have the name than a lesser ranked full-time degree) or because their life just doesn't allow them to take off 2 years.  For some people, on the other hand, it's the exact right fit for their needs -- often these are people working in a company or industry they want to stay involved in and who would benefit from being able to apply classroom lessons "as they go."  Such people also often are on the cusp of advancement into business manager role, and the MBA studies boost their credibility/profile internally.

This anecdote may be relevant: my daughter's good friend (and a Princeton grad) is completing the top-ranked NYU part-time program; he values the actual education  but is disappointed that he does not have access to the recruiting he'd hoped for -- not so much that NYU prevents it but that top finance companies simply aren't recruiting from the part-time program (and he's atop student in his class and also serves in leadership roles).

Overall I think the quality of education varies depending on the part-time program -- for some it is equal to that of the full-time MBA; for others it may be less rigorous.

Also anecdotally, from clients/former clients I've heard that (a) it's harder to handle the school + work than they expected, (b) it's really interesting to apply the concepts/learning on the job, and (c) it's stimulating to interact with classmates engaged in all kinds of interesting work while frustrating to lack the time to really interact as much as they'd like.

Not a black-and-white picture -- but hopefully it helps!

Sachin Waikar responded:

Cindy raises a lot of good points, especially the recruiting challenges that part-timers face. For example, a ton of people enter McKinsey, BCG, and other consulting firms from Kellogg's full-time program, but those in the part-time have to really fight/network their way to such opportunities. Banking is probably even tougher.

Full-time is more immersive, not surprisingly, so students get to know each other better and leave with a more cohesive network. My wife's best friend started in Kellogg's part-time program and then transferred to full-time, so through her we got to see both. The cultures, diversity, and recruiting opportunities were the biggest differences. You have people from all over the world in the full-time program, and people from all over the world who now live and work in the Chicago area in the part-time program (though I know more people are commuting to it now, especially the Saturday program). The full-time program was more like a second set of college years, with late-20-somethings partying their way through late-night team sessions (and ill-fated romances; though some get married!), while the part-time program was more serious, with late-20-somethings struggling to even make it to class and team sessions between work and family obligations.

Bottom line seems to be that career-changers are best served (by far) with the full-time program, and those looking to advance within their general career track benefiting from the part-time, especially the financial aspects (no lost income; work sponsorship, etc.). There are always exceptions (e.g., the part-time student who ends up at Goldman Sachs or McKinsey), but as I always say to clients, "Why aim to be one of those?"

The key here is that part-time programs are best for some; full-time are best for others. In deciding which is best for you, consider both the questions that triggered the discussion and the issues Cindy and Sachin raised in the course of it.

From my base in the Middle East, I work with many applicants throughout Asia who have excellent English but use a few phrases in ways that depart from the strictly correct. In this, my first blog post, I aim to help applicants improve their use of these phrases.

There are two words in particular that applicants frequently employ using an incorrect preposition: leverage and comprise. "Leverage" is most often used to indicate that you made use of one thing to obtain another. Most applicants understand what leverage is; the mistake only comes in how they phrase it. The correct way is without a preposition, for example: "I leveraged my knowledge of marketing to champion my idea throughout the department." Remember, you can leverage credibility, loyalty, and even debt, but the key is to do it alone, don't use a preposition (like the frequent error "leverage on").

The other word that frequently trips up my clients is "comprise." Everyone knows this word, but for many people for whom English is a second language – even those who spent their entire lives studying in English in school -- this term comes with another prepositional complication. "Comprised" can be used in two ways:

1) A team can be "comprised of" certain members, or

2) Certain members can "comprise" the team.

Every year many of my applicants mistakenly use the preposition "of" when it isn't needed and drop it when it is necessary. So remember, when team members comprise a team, they do it alone – without a preposition. Feel free to write those two sample sentences out on a sticky note to put on your computer screen. These words come up all the time, especially in the plethora of leadership and teamwork MBA admission essays.

So when you want your essays, personal statements, and statements of purpose to present your skills, knowledge, and individuality well, remember: you don't have to do it alone.  Professional writers have editors for a reason. Contact an Accepted.com editor to guide you through these and other subtle English issues and make sure that your qualifications are not buried under prepositions!

I visited Yale SOM last week during a visit to the East Coast. Yale’s admissions office graciously arranged for my husband and me to participate in a tour, attend a class, and meet with Bruce DelMonico, the Director of Admissions at SOM.

I can’t tell you how much such a visit adds to one’s understanding of a school. I just drafted a four-page, single-spaced memo for the Accepted staff with impressions and insights gleaned from the visit. And I already knew a lot about the program. I strongly urge you to visit schools you are interested in, if possible when classes are in session.

I want to focus on one part of my discussion with Bruce. (I am using quote marks and dialogue, but please realize that I am writing from notes and memory, not a recording.)

Yale’s stated mission is to “educate leaders for business and society.” Bruce emphasized that SOM wants “principled leaders who will make a difference.”

I asked him how he reacts when he reads essays from applicants who have dual goals of going into Wall St. and then going into sustainable development, micro-finance, rural development in poor parts of the world, or fill-in-the-blank cause-of-the-day, but have not participated in any related activities.

His response: “Our antennae go up. We view such essays as a red flag. We suspect that the applicant is writing what he or she thinks we want to read. Frankly, we would rather hear from the applicants whose professional commitments haven’t allowed community service that they intend to follow Bill Gates’ example and turn to philanthropy later in their career, or that they intend to provide financial support to Cause X throughout their career.”

We discussed Yale’s core curriculum and its focus on stakeholders in the business world. I observed that this focus highlights the conflicting interests inherent to business. Bruce agreed and added that because the core is infused with a values-based approach, there is no separate ethics course at SOM. Furthermore, the ability to recognize and balance clashing priorities is part of “principled leadership.”

Bruce concluded this part of our discussion by saying that Yale wants to see commitment plus action. That combination makes values real. (Please see “Passion in Admissions.”)

So does the Bill Gates comment mean that if you want to apply to Yale you should not make time for community service? Not at all. Yale wants sincere, credible applicants. If you want to save the whales and have never been to the ocean, your commitment sounds hollow. It lacks credibility, and so do you.

You will be much better off if your application reveals actions that reflect your values than if you just say you will support your favorite cause financially. But the last thing you want is to flunk a credibility test by claiming noble goals that do not align with your past behavior.

Furthermore, principle-based leadership is not just about fine social goals or even actions you have taken in support of worthy causes. For Yale it also means recognizing and navigating the conflicting interests intrinsic to business. Through its curriculum, SOM displays a profound understanding of and concern with that clash. You may find it advantageous to present your understanding of the colliding currents in business as well as your ability to navigate those currents when you apply to Yale SOM.

I would like to invite all 2009 MBA applicants to sign up for the second 2009 MBA Admissions Telethon on Tuesday, May 13th between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM PT (1:30 PM ET - 3:30 PM ET; 6:00 PM GMT - 8:00 PM GMT). What is the MBA Admissions Telethon?

Two hours when 6 MBA admissions experts will be available to answer your individual questions via telephone. Prior to calling in, you will receive a brief, 6-question questionnaire and submit it along with your resume to a designated email address. (No essays, please.) When you call in, your consultant will review the information you provide, and you will have 15 minutes to discuss with him or her your most pressing MBA admissions questions.

Oh, by the way, the 2009 MBA Admission Telethon is free.

You can learn more details and sign up at 2009 MBA Admissions Telethon.