My advice for Wonderman is to look into Kellogg School of Management’s MMM program, a dual degree program that integrates management, operations and design, from concept to execution. The program combines the rigors of Kellogg’s outstanding management program with cutting-edge work in operations and design at McCormick Engineering School, a top engineering school.

 “What?” I can already hear Wonderman gasp, “But I’ve spent years trying to shake my engineering label and operations background! And what does design have to do with my future Finance role!”

Well, Wonderman, think a few years down the road. Imagine the head of a VC or PE firm considering dozens of young hopefuls like you who are eager to find companies that their firm can turn into niche players. Undoubtedly, all the candidates understand sophisticated financials and strategy. But what if one in particular can also roll up his sleeves, poke into a company’s every nook and cranny and efficiently manage it, at every level? What if this candidate also understands the role of good design in companies’ products? My crystal ball says that your candidacy might get special attention…

The MMM is fully integrated into Kellogg’s MBA program. It is a shared student experience, and participants have equal access to all resources, extracurricular and leadership opportunities. MMM students earn two degrees, with one set of requirements; the MBA from Kellogg and the Master of Engineering Management from McCormick.

Students major in either Operations or Design, a track co-founded in 2007 by industrial design guru Don Norman. The flexible curriculum allows students to take courses in those areas most suited to their goals, including marketing, operations, finance and entrepreneurship, while also gaining access to world-class experts and facilities in nanotechnology, biotechnology, transportation and other technical disciplines.

According to Yhana Chavis, Associate Director of Admissions at Kellogg, “Currently, consulting is the most popular post-MBA position for MMM students, followed by energy (think ExxonMobil and General Electric) and high tech. We’re also seeing a spike of interest in Private Equity and Venture Capital, due to the operations component.” MMM graduates also go into retail, transportation and finance." Yet others have started their own firms.

In an era of breaking down knowledge into individual parts, the MMM offers a refreshing alternative by arming its graduates with a holistic approach to management. Given today’s business environment in which funds and know-how cross the globe at breakneck pace, this breadth and depth of knowledge can be a formidable tool for a professional investor.

If you are interested in the design aspect of this program, you can also take a look at INSEAD and Rotman, two other top MBA programs that champion good product design via their collaborations with design schools. Stanford also has its own design center.

Tailoring your b-school experience and turning your target schools into potential partners will be the subject of accepted.com editor Tanis Kmetyk’s ongoing series of posts, and a new book, that will help you become not only a better applicant but, ultimately, a better professional.

So what are my thoughts at the end of a hectic week?

• Accepted's editors have noted a rash of bloopers in applicant essays. While these malapropisms (and too many others to list) can make for hilarious reading, they will not add to your chances of acceptance. Please note.

"Message" and "massage" are very different nouns. A "hands-on massage" is not the same as a "hands-on message."

"Morale" and "morals" or "moral" are also very different. "My team's morals sunk lower than low after she addressed us." creates a very different image than "My team's morale sunk lower than low after she addressed us."

Your essays need proofing!

• I listened this morning to the entire MBA Podcaster episode "What Not To Do On Your Application: MBA Application Pitfalls & How To Avoid Them." Please, please, please before you submit your applications, listen to this show with Liz Riley Hargrove, Associate Dean of Admissions, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University; Rose Martinelli, Associate Dean of Student Recruitment and Admissions, University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Graham Richmond, CEO, ClearAdmit; Kellee Scott, Senior Associate Director of MBA Admissions at USC's Marshall School of Business; and myself. It is excellent and could prevent you from making some serious mistakes.

• I received a lovely note last night from a current client. He wrote:

"Natalie has been absolutely terrific! My essays are really coming along -- I really don't know what I'd do without her.

Thanks for all your help. Regardless of what happens with my B-school applications, I honestly think that accepted.com provides a tremendously valuable service. I'd even venture to say that the vast majority of applicants who do not use accepted.com are putting themselves at a terrible disadvantage. (You and Natalie have made me a believer!)

• In addition, I also received several, outstanding feedback reports from clients using other Accepted editors' services.

I don't think it will surprise any of you -- I strongly believe that the overwhelming majority of applicants can benefit from having their applications and essays reviewed before they submit them. You are much better off if we find your mistakes than if the admissions committee does.

At this point in time, with the earliest deadlines less than a week away, we still have some availability, but it is very limited before Oct. 1. If you have any plans to use Accepted's services, please either purchase or register ASAP.

Best of luck to all Round 1 Applicants!

For the US, the top 10 is:

1. Stanford
2. Dartmouth (Tuck)
3. Harvard
4. Chicago (Booth)
5. Pennsylvania (Wharton)
6. Columbia
7. Cornell (Johnson)
8. Northwestern (Kellogg)
9. Virginia (Darden)
10. Yale

The lead article associated with the rankings has additional noteworthy data-points:

• Although most graduates at top MBA programs see a significant return on the MBA investment, rising tuition and pre-MBA salaries mean that breaking even (not to mention profiting financially) takes a little longer than it has in the past.
• "Europe is home to the seven best business schools when it comes to a return on your investment, led by top-ranked INSEAD, whose graduates had a five-year gain of $192,000."
• Forbes plans to publish its Best Business Schools report annually in the future, instead of biannually as it has in the past.
• Excellent piece on "How to Get Into Business School" by Matt Symonds.

The rankings also includes articles about the individual programs including a worthwhile piece on entrepreneurship at INSEAD.

If you're curious about my views on rankings, please see The Rankings.

My comments are in red:

JOB ESSAYS

1. Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

Note the emphasis on quantifying results. Numbers speak volumes about the amount of responsibility you have handled. Also, while the description asks for major responsibilities, if you focus on achievements and accomplishments, you will reveal both your responsibilities and those occasions when you really shined.

2. Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

Don't confuse "full description" with "history." How would you characterize your career since college? You also have to answer the second part of the question and you only have 250 words. 

ESSAYS

1. Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)

For a question like this I recommend two strengths and one weakness. If you can choose one anecdote that reveals both the strengths and the weakness, you will have a strong essay. Don't forget to discuss how these qualities influenced your personal development.

A word on weaknesses. Be honest without going overboard. Don't make up a phony weakness. I attended an HBS info session a few years ago. One of the alumni said that he discussed a "phony weakness" in his essays (required for HBS that year) and his interviewer focused right on it, and basically said, "Come on. What's a real weakness?" The applicant had to get real in a hurry. Take advantage of the essay: Give it some thought and respond with the benefit of that reflection. For more information, please see "Flaws Make You Real."

At the recent AIGAC conference one of the adcom members remembered that an applicant in response to a similar question had listed his weakness in "pitching new ideas in a meeting." The adcom member felt that the applicant was specific, real, and showed self-awareness by revealing this flaw. In fact, by demonstrating these qualities in addition to the requested weakness that he was working on, the applicant actually enhanced his chances of acceptance with his response. 

Don't write about "weakness in pitching new ideas in meetings" as your weakness just because you read it here :-) It will become like the swine flu of MBA essays -- an epidemic. However, you all have weakness. Now just  be thoughtful enough and honest enough to reveal yours.

2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)

Try to take accomplishments from different arenas of your life. (But don't go back to high school and earlier to do so.) The accomplishments should show impact, contribution, and for INSEAD at least one should have a multi-cultural flavor.

3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)

In choosing the situation, here's a case when you can go back in time a little -- let's say 2-5 years. You can illustrate how you learned from this situation and were able to meet similar objectives next time around.

4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will
they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)

This is a forward-looking career goals question. Use the past just enough to set context for your future and show that your goals are anchored in experience. Then explain how INSEAD with its intense, one-year, general management program and strong international focus will help you achieve your goals.

5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics:

a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.),

or

b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)

These two have been part of the INSEAD repertoire for several years. Choose the one that is easiest for you to answer and allows you to bring out a facet of your experience not found in the other essays.

6. (Optional) Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.)

Take advantage of the optional essay to give them one more reason to admit you. DON'T use it for a grand summary, a restatement of your other essays, or something similarly boring, superficial, and repetitive. Write a tight, focused essay highlighting something you haven't yet discussed.

If you would like help with your INSEAD MBA application, please consider Accepted's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a INSEAD Comprehensive Packages, which provide essay editing, interview coaching, consultation, and a resume editing for the INSEAD MBA application. And if you purchase before July 31, 2009, you can save 15% on all editing and comprehensive packages.

INSEAD 2010 (Sept) MBA Application Deadlines

Job Essays

1. Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)
2. Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

Essays

1. Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)
2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)
3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)
4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)
5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics:a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)
6. Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.) This essay is optional.

Certain terms came up in almost every presentation. Co-author with me of MBA BlastOff: 45 Terrific Tips to Launch Your MBA Application to Acceptance and MBA I.V.: Mainline to Top MBA Programs MBA Interview Questions and Tips, Maxx Duffy, has a useful term for words that tend to be overused in admissions because they represent important values: "umbrella words." As a consequence of this overuse, qualities like leadership are best broken down and demonstrated than talked about in their umbrella form.

Similar treatment is appropriate for umbrella-words-in-training -- the terms that came up over and over again in connection with almost every school at the conference. It's important for you to know how to relate to the latest and greatest buzz on the MBA scene. Merely parroting it won't do. Like the school representatives, you need to go deeper. Let's examine the most common of these terms:

• Experiential learning. Almost every school touts its experiential learning opportunities. So don't write or talk about "experiential learning." Discuss how each school's particular experiential program is right for you. Reveal how Haas@Work will help you achieve your goals in your Haas application; or why Stern's Industry Mentoring Initiative is the perfect program for you because you are a career changer committed to a particular direction; or how Columbia's Master Classes represent the ideal opportunity to put theory into practice, a process you have enjoyed on a previous, specific occasion. Understand the nuances and points of difference between these programs to show that you have done your homework and really belong at your target schools.
• Sustainability. Green is the color of the day, and I'm not just talking about Twitter avatars in sympathy with Iranian demonstrators. Don't write vaguely about "sustainability." Will you participate in INDEAVOR, The Energy Club, The Africa Initiative, or all the above at INSEAD to further your interest in renewable energy and entrepreneurship? Which of the almost twenty courses that study sustainability at Darden are you most interested in? How will you take advantage of the Batten Institute's resources as you dive into sustainable development in emerging markets?
• Global. Global everything was everywhere at the conference. Ross sends roughly 50% of its MAP projects outside the US to roughly 30 countries. Yale has a required International Experience in its core and hosts a Global Leadership in Healthcare Conference with other professional schools at Yale. Which aspects of your target schools' global offerings are relevant to your goals and interests? If they are relevant, don't talk about study abroad or international projects; talk about the particular programs that are attractive to you, and why they appeal.
• Flexibility. Several programs emphasized the increased flexibility of their programs. Both Tuck and Columbia have decreased the number of required courses and introduced mini-courses or seminars. Stern gives you a wide range of options in terms of designing your program. Yale allows you to take almost all second-year electives outside of SOM. How does your school's flexibility assist you in reaching your MBA goals? What level of flexibility is important to you?

These terms reflect important concepts in graduate business education today, but if you write about them superficially, you will appear .... superficial. Don't reflect merely the shallow buzz in your application. Study and understand the points of difference by scouring school web sites and attending presentations. Just as the AIGAC presentations went beyond the superficial to the substantive, so will your receptions and presentations.  

Ensure your applications reveal a profound grasp of the distinctive currents among outstanding MBA programs, like those that presented to and hosted AIGAC last week. 

An international MBA is the springboard to open professional doors in Europe, the Middle East or Asia. With their typically shorter programs (the majority of international MBAs are one year), business schools in Europe offer an ROI that attracts candidates who would have otherwise have opted for top US business schools.

Back in 1998 BusinessWeek gave only a glancing acknowledgement to business schools outside the US. Ten years later, the rankings testify to the strength of the international MBA market. So who are the contenders to the European MBA throne?

Not surprisingly IMD, INSEAD, and London Business School fare well in the major rankings, and are a familiar trio to applicants around the world. But Cambridge-Judge, ESADE, HEC, IE, IESE and Oxford-Saïd are catching up fast. In fact, by combining the results of the most recent full-time MBA rankings from the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and BusinessWeek, the combined scores show these schools moving ever closer. 

The new elite of European business schools all outperform in different ways:

Cambridge-Judge and Oxford-Saïd in the UK are relative newcomers to business education (their MBAs began in the mid-Nineties), but the earnings power and employability of their graduates continues to propel them. And amidst the dreaming spires of the 800 year-old universities the business schools are developing reputations for international management and entrepreneurship.

HEC Paris shines among the top schools in France – in fact the alumni reads like a Who’s Who of European business. Ranked #1 business school in Europe by the FT for the last 3 years, and recognized by Princeton Review as the strongest business school outside the US for marketing, HEC enjoys a partnership with Apple that is setting new standards for technology in the MBA classroom.

ESADE was #1 in the last WSJ international ranking, and is recognized by the Aspen Institute as the second most innovative MBA program in Europe, incorporating corporate social responsibility into the curricula. And if you are going to spend 12 to 18 months getting your MBA (ESADE offers a flexible structure so candidates can choose), Barcelona is surely one of Europe’s great cities in which to study. The city is also home to IESE, created with the assistance of the Harvard Business School. Graduates rate the school as amongst the best for new career opportunities. In neighboring Madrid, the IE Business School draws nearly six applications for every available spot in the class and the Centre for Eco-Intelligent Management is an example of the school's forward thinking.

Hidden gems

As well as its cultural aspects, Europe also boasts a growing number of outstanding business schools that are leaders in particular fields, and whose international partnerships provide new opportunities in fast developing economies. Below is a round up of some of the schools to watch out for:

EM Lyon is one of the continents leading schools in entrepreneurship, and has recently launched a Global Entrepreneurship Program with Babson College and Zhejiang University from China. A campus in Shanghai, and plans for Dubai give students privileged access to two of the world’s most dynamic economies.

Nyenrode Business University is one of two stellar business schools in the Netherlands. Set in a medieval castle in the outskirts of Amsterdam, the school has long been the European partner for Northwestern - Kellogg, and enjoys strong corporate ties whilst placing a high value on social awareness and sustainability. Down the road at the Rotterdam School of Management, environmental, social and governance issues feature strongly at one of Europe’s top research universities. New Dean George Yip has ambitious plans for this top European school.

In the heart of the European Union, graduates of Belgium’s Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School seem to be doing better than many on the job market, benefiting from the multinationals and IT / biotech cluster around Brussels. Ranked #7 in Europe by The Economist, the school is now taking its blend of innovation and entrepreneurship to St Petersburg and Beijing.

And if finance or luxury brand management is a focus, you can’t do much better than SDA Bocconi in stylish Milan. The leading Italian school has one of the largest alumni networks in Europe, and of course some of the best coffee.

Warwick Business School was the first business school in the UK to gain triple accreditation, from AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, and ranks #6 in the world for graduate salaries. The renowned faculty has written many of the textbooks now used at other business schools, and the new Global Energy MBA underlines the schools commitment to relevant global industry.

As candidates around the world question the ROI of an MBA, and look for ways to distinguish themselves in an immensely competitive job market, the affordable international MBA experience could provide the answer.

By guest blogger, Matt Symonds. Matt is co-founder and former director of the QS World MBA Tour and is co-author of the ABC of Getting the MBA Admissions Edge.

You will find in the special report articles on:

• Applying while or after a layoff.
• The series "MBA in Finance: Forget It?"
• The disappearance and reappearance of financial aid options.
• The wisdom of applying during times of financial uncertainty.

Please feel free to download and share Applying to Business School in Times of Crisis.

Please also use the comments to share your thoughts on the topics discussed in this special report.

• An MBA With Savoir Faire from The Wall St. Journal.
• BusinessWeek's Special Report: "B-Schools in Europe 2009." Several of the articles profile specific schools, but the headline article is "European B-Schools Thrive in Down Times."

The WSJ's "Executive M.B.A. Programs Bulk Up Overseas" is not really about increased demand for European MBA's. It focuses more on American business schools improving their global programs.

For those of you interested in learning more about one of Europe's premier business schools, Accepted is hosting a chat with London Business School on Monday March 23, 2009 at 11:00 AM PT/2:00 PM ET/6:00 PM GMT.  Representatives from London's MBA and Masters in Finance programs will be available to answer your questions. Please mark your calendar and join us in Accepted's chat room.

Some interesting job recruitment statistics from around the world:

• The number of job offers in the U.S. is down 10-20%.
• At CEIBS in Shanghai, 40% of students had signed offers at this time last year, compared to 27% this year.
• At HBS, job postings are down by 25%; 77% of the 2009 class still have job offers.
• At Chicago Booth, approximately 66% of students have job offers, down from 70% last year.
• At INSEAD, asking alumni about MBA-appropriate job vacancies, produced 200 job postings.