First, are your numbers really so bad? “Low numbers” for the purposes of this article, and for most applicants, are GMAT scores and GPAs at the lower end of or below the mid-80% range for a given school. It may be difficult to find average GPAs for your target programs, but if you have a…
INSEAD MBA Criterion #4: Leadership Potential
This is the last post in a 4-part series that examines INSEAD MBA’s admission criteria. What is leadership potential? INSEAD is not unique among MBA programs in desiring leadership potential in applicants. All do. It is unique in how it characterizes leadership and leadership potential. The adcom has a two-pronged view of leadership: factual (what you did, your…
INSEAD MBA Criterion #3: Academic Capacity
This is the third post in a 4-part series that examines INSEAD MBA’s 4 admission criteria. The operative word in this criterion is capacity. This word conveys the adcom’s perspective on the academic component of the application: it’s dynamic, focusing on how you can grow and perform and achieve academically going forward. The only way for the adcom…
INSEAD MBA Criterion #2: International Motivation
This is the second post in a 4-part series that examines INSEAD MBA’s 4 admission criteria. Sure, international experience is a big plus for an INSEAD applicant. But the website says that they seek candidates with international motivation which, in their eyes, means having “perceptive insights into the complexities of business in an international setting.”…
INSEAD MBA Criterion #1: Ability To Contribute
This is the second post in a 4-part series that examines INSEAD MBA’s 4 admission criteria. The adcom gives, as its first admission criterion, “ability to contribute.” I take the liberty to add: ability to contribute as a person of quality and substance. All the criteria involve factors such as insight, growth, connection with people…
London Business School Masters in Finance Application Essay Questions, Tips & Deadlines
The LBS Masters in Finance essay questions, together, convey the adcom’s interest in two interrelated points: (1) how you envision and plan your future career and (2) your knowledge of and interest in the LBS Masters in Finance program. It’s particularly important because it’s a rare MiF program that targets more experienced finance professionals (most…
London Business School Masters in Management (MiM) Essay Questions, Tips & Deadlines
The London Business School Masters in Management application essay questions indicate that the adcom values applicants who, at an early stage in their careers, already have self-understanding and the ability to reflect and self-critique. Why? For people who are just starting their careers and don’t yet have extensive real-world experience to draw on, these qualities…
Masters in Finance Interviews: What You Need to Know to Ace Them
Congratulations! You received an invitation to interview for a Masters in Finance (MFin or MSF) program. That invitation is usually competitive, so you should feel great that you’ve cleared the first bar! Now, how do you avoid potential interview pitfalls, and how do you make the interview work for you? Let’s start at the beginning…
University of Michigan Ross Executive MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines
Taken together, the two Ross EMBA essays provide both a forest-level (essay 2, goals) and tree-level (professional achievement) view of your career. Both also reflect you as a person and an individual. Each question gives a specific lens through which to focus and shape your answer. Thus, while you address the two questions’ given points…
Backup Plans, Research and Professional Support
I will wrap up this series with a few additional points. Creating a backup plan Think you’re done with MBA goals? Think again… In the current global economic volatility, having a backup plan for your immediate post-MBA goal can be not only good planning for you, but also enhance your goal essay’s credibility. It’s particularly…
Masters in Finance Alternatives to Consider
For some people, it’s the Masters in Finance (MFin or MSF), period. It’s the right type of program at the right time. Yet, the MFin has some overlaps and similarities with several other types of masters programs, and some people’s educational needs may be met by more than one type. In fact, I’ve known and…
Which Applicants Get Accepted to Chicago Booth?
This is part 2 in a series about the “Chicago Approach.” If you missed part 1, check it out here. Introducing 4 Chicago Booth Students: Qi: A female Chinese investment banker (who is also a fashion blogger). Goals: A leadership role in Chinese PE or VC focusing on consumer goods following a stint in private…
How to Edit Your MBA Goals Essay
Short- and long-term goals Before you start drafting your MBA goals essays, work out three levels of goals: short-term, intermediate, and long-term. It helps to have this whole picture in your mind regardless of where you’ll “zoom in” for a particular essay. Short-term applies to the timeframe immediately post-MBA to about two years later; intermediate…
The Chicago Booth Approach – and You
Freedom and culture. These are the two operative factors for Booth’s MBA program. And they are not unrelated: Both forge a connection between the inner person and the outer world. Freedom is prominent in the full-time Booth MBA landing page and is portrayed in 3 facets: “academic freedom, freedom to take risks, and freedom to…
Applying to Regular Full-Time MBA Programs as an Older Applicant
“An MBA? Why aren’t you going for an EMBA?” You’ve probably heard this from friends and acquaintances when they learn that you are planning to pursue full-time graduate business studies, even though you are several years older than the average MBA applicant. This may also be the response of MBA admissions committees – unless you…
UCLA Anderson Executive MBA Application Essay Tips & Deadlines
For its essay questions, the UCLA EMBA adcom is bucking the “less is more” trend in terms of length. The two main essays are both a hefty 750 words, long enough to allow – indeed to require – in-depth exposition, reflection, analysis, and description. These two questions together cover past, present, and future, in that…
Write an MBA Goals Essays that Turns the Adcom into Your Cheerleaders!
By following the advice in the previous post you can create goals that are clear, credible, and convincing, but they won’t necessarily be exciting. They won’t make the adcom reader think as she reads, “Wow, it would be great if he could do that!” And this latter reaction is really what the goals essay should…
Researching the Right Masters in Finance Programs for You
You want a Masters in Finance. And you know that finding the right ones to apply to will take some work, some research. Well, the web makes that research easy, right? Sort of. You’ll certainly find a lot of programs and lots of info about those programs online. But how do you plan your search…
What Exactly Are Goals?
“I want to move from the buy side to the sell side.” “I want to shift from technology consulting to investment banking.” Not goals. An engineer once said to me, “I want to go into either finance or consulting.” Not goals. A goal isn’t something you want, it’s something you do, something you want to…
Why Write a Series About MBA Goals?
A few years ago, in the good old days when Wharton still offered feedback to rejected applicants, I talked with a potential client who was reapplying to Wharton. I asked him whether he’d obtained feedback on his application, and he said yes. Well? “Actually they said they really liked my application. They said I was…
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