Your grades show whether you previously performed well in an academic setting. If your college GPA is low, then you need to provide evidence that even though you may have faltered back then, now you’re A-game and are capable of academic excellence. But how can you demonstrate that you’re b-school material, even with your low stats?…
MBA Admissions A-Z: E Is For Essay
4 Common MBA Application Essay Mistakes Here we are going to focus on 4 critical MBA admission essay mistakes. Make sure that your essays DON’T include any of these: 1. Buzzwords Try this on for size: “I plan on penetrating the B2C e-commerce bubble by starting my own synergistic company. Additionally, I want to lead…
MBA Admissions A-Z: U is for Undergrad Grades
3 Steps for Handling a Low Undergraduate GPA Grades show whether you previously performed well in an academic setting. If your college GPA is low, then you need to provide evidence that even though you may have faltered back then, now you’ve got you’re A-game and are capable of academic excellence. But how? The following…
MBA Admissions A-Z: E is for Essay
Next up in our MBA Admissions A-Z series is E for Essay, a topic on which we could very easily write an entire book. (Hey – we DID write an entire book. Scroll down for details.) Here we are going to focus on 4 critical MBA admission essay mistakes. Make sure that your essays DON’T…
MBA Admissions A-Z: U is for Undergrad Grades
3 Steps for Handling a Low Undergraduate GPA Grades show whether you previously performed well in an academic setting. If your college GPA is low, then you need to provide evidence that even though you may have faltered back then, now you’ve got you’re A-game and are capable of academic excellence. But how? The following…
MBA Admissions A-Z: Z is for ZZZZZZ – Don’t Put the Adcom to Sleep!
You want to create a compelling, memorable, colorful MBA essay. One that excites the adcom readers, not puts them to sleep. Use the following five MBA essay writing techniques to help you keep the adcom as far away from dreamland as possible: Start with a story or anecdote. Launching your essay with brief story or…
MBA Admissions A-Z: Y is for You
MBA Application Tip: Keep the Focus on YOU Your MBA application is intended to introduce the adcom to YOU. It highlights what’s special and unique about you as a professional, as a community member, as an individual, and as a future business leader. Here we’re going to talk about how to keep the focus on…
MBA Admissions A-Z: X is for XXX – Keeping it Clean
Top 6 Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Accounts Back in the olden days (like 15+ years ago), the adcom saw your MBA application…and that was it. Now, with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the popularity of blogging (especially among MBA applicants), the adcoms have access to a whole lot more than the professional file…
MBA Admissions A-Z: W is for Waitlist
5 Secrets to Advancing from Waitlist Limbo You probably have mixed emotions about being waitlisted. On the one hand, you weren’t dinged and you still have a chance of gaining acceptance to your top choice school. On the other hand, you haven’t been accepted yet, which means as of now, you still don’t know what…
MBA Admissions A-Z: V is for Visits
4 Tips for Better B-School Visits First, let me begin by saying that if you have the time and money to visit the schools that you’re thinking about applying to, then you absolutely should. And the reason isn’t because of the imaginary “brownie points”; it is because visiting a school will transform you into a…
MBA Admissions A-Z: T is for Techniques and Tools
MBA Essay Top Technique: Creating a Rough, Rough Draft Trust me when I tell you that the hardest part of writing your MBA essay will be the beginning. Getting started – actually typing out those first few words – will prove the most daunting task. It gets easier, though. Really it does. So while you…
MBA Admissions A-Z: S is for Story
All You Need is a Story You’re writing an application essay that you hope will grab the attention of your admissions readers and convince them that you are top b-school material. Which of the following do you think is the most effective MBA essay strategy? Construct a theoretical analysis of the importance of leadership. Create…
MBA Admissions A-Z: R is for Resume
7 Fatal Flaws that Will Doom Your MBA Resume Your MBA resume is an often overlooked component of the b-school application – that is, overlooked from the perspective of the applicant, not the adcom. The adcom readers actually read it, and read it carefully, to whet their appetites for what’s to come in the rest…
MBA Admissions A-Z: Q is for Quantitative Skills
5 Ways Poets Can Overcome Quant Quandaries Schools want to see evidence of quant skills. They want to confirm your ability to handle the demands of a rigorous program. For liberal arts majors who haven’t taken math since high school, the quant score on the GMAT takes on greater importance because it can be the…
MBA Admissions A-Z: P is for Proofreading
You want to make sure your MBA application essay has no errors, so you run spell check on your computer, get rid of all those squiggly red and green lines, save your essay as FINAL, and then submit. But wait! Your essay isn’t really complete until you do a solid job proofreading…with your eyes and…
MBA Admissions A-Z: O is for Overrepresentation
You’re an Indian male with an IT background, or a consultant from New Jersey who majored in Econ, or a Chinese bank manager who also dabbled in engineering. In short, you are an applicant who comes from an overrepresented background – what can you do to prove that you are a unique candidate despite your…
MBA Admissions A-Z: N is for No Lies!
You’re a grownup – you don’t need to be told that lying is wrong…or do you? This kindergarten precept often needs reviewing when MBA applications roll around. Even the most honest of applicants sometimes fall prey to the sinister temptation of the Little White Lie – “Okay, so I worked there for ALMOST a year…
MBA Admissions A-Z: M is for Motivation
A good application essay is comprised of both anecdote and analysis, the what and the why of your personal experiences. Telling a straight story (anecdote without analysis) will leave your essay flat, with no depth or insight into your character or motivations; on the other hand, an essay that rattles on about the why but…
MBA Admissions A-Z: L is for Leadership
What does it mean to be a leader? Can leadership be measured by the number of awards you accumulate? Do you need an official job title (like Head of X or VP of Y) to prove you can lead? Here are some of my thoughts on what it means to be a leader and the…
MBA Admissions A-Z: J is for Jigsaw Puzzle
Let’s take a look at all the elements that go into creating an MBA application: There’s your GPA, your transcripts, your GMAT, a resume, your letters of recommendation, all those boxes and forms on the actual application page, and finally, your MBA application essays. Creating Your Unique Puzzle One way we like to view all…
