Planning Tips

For those of you who applied in Round 1, your applications are now submitted and you are ideally hearing from some of your target schools regarding interview invites. You should be feeling good about all the work you put in and are perhaps even a bit excited about any upcoming interview opportunities, but something is nagging at you. Ever since you clicked ‘submit’ in the online applications, you feel you now have less control over the process. As one applicant put it: “It’s like a black hole, an emptiness – you race to submit everything and have all this energy Read more

“The hay is in the barn.” Before you start thinking you’re reading the wrong blog, this isn’t about farming or agriculture. The saying means that all of the hard work has been done, and all that’s left to do is execute. Everyone gets nervous and anxious in the weeks and months leading up to test day, but what about the last week or two leading up to test day? If you’ve been sticking to a study plan and schedule, the hay should be in the barn, but you may still be looking for ways to up your test day game. Read more

For all those applicants who have recently opened a calendar to plot out the next few months only to realize they can’t possibly fit in campus visits on top of full time jobs and essay writing, never fear! It’s true that traveling to a school’s campus is the ideal way to learn about their MBA program, but visiting is often not a viable option for applicants who are located remotely or unsure of their level of interest in a given school. The good news is that business schools might very well come to them. Many b-schools are Read more

There are a number of authoritative sources that knowledgeably rank the “top” MBA programs each year.  Because the methodologies of these rankings can differ considerably, however, a given school may well be ranked quite differently across these various lists, making it difficult to decipher which are the “best” schools. For that reason, we'd like to talk today about how b-school applicants can use MBA program rankings to discover which schools truly are the best -- for them.  Although the general merits of each school are important, we also believe that it is essential for MBA applicants to develop ranked preferences for schools based on their individual needs and interests. Here are our tips for using official MBA school rankings: 1. Use rankings to create a consensus. Ranked lists of top schools are seldom identical, which makes it difficult to identify which schools are in the "top five” or "top ten." Instead, it’s best to compile these different sources of rankings to form a consensus regarding the top schools. For example, if your target program is consistently listed in the top 15, regardless of its individual ranking among different sources, you should feel confident that it is regarded as a top school by industry professionals and future employers.  You may not be able to pinpoint the ultimate “number one” school, but you will be able to distinguish between the different tiers of schools. Read more

As many of our readers know, a small number of leading MBA programs offer admissions feedback sessions to applicants who did not make the admissions cut in a given season.  Though we’ve touched upon this subject before, we’d like to use today’s blog entry to underline the importance of these feedback sessions for those of you who are considering reapplication. Read more

Because it’s the time of year when applicants aiming for Fall 2016 intake are just beginning to think about the admissions process, we wanted to focus today on one element of the application that candidates often underestimate: extracurricular activities. In order to understand why this category is important, candidates should keep in mind that the adcom is responsible for crafting a dynamic class each year.  The aim is to admit individuals who will support a vibrant campus community and step into leadership positions.  In other words, as admissions officers consider each applicant, they ask themselves “what’s in it for our school?”  An applicant who has previously demonstrated a talent for writing, for example, by contributing to a nonprofit’s newsletter, will really catch the adcom’s attention if she also expresses her intent to contribute to a specific publication on campus. Read more

Because it’s the time of year when applicants aiming for Fall 2015 intake are just beginning to think about the admissions process, we wanted to focus today on one element of the application that candidates often underestimate: extracurricular activities. In order to understand why this category is important, candidates should keep in mind that the adcom is responsible for crafting a dynamic class each year.  The aim is to admit individuals who will support a vibrant campus community and step into leadership positions.  In other words, as admissions officers consider each applicant, they ask themselves “what’s in it for our school?”  An applicant who has previously demonstrated a talent for writing, for example, by contributing to a nonprofit’s newsletter, will really catch the adcom’s attention if she also expresses her intent to contribute to a specific publication on campus. Volunteering is of course a great way to expand one’s Read more

Each year thousands of individuals begin journeys that they hope will ultimately lead to an acceptance offer from top-tier business schools around the world, and for the majority of these applicants one of the first steps on the b-school path is studying for and taking the GMAT exam. With the 2012-2013 application season wrapping up, a whole new cohort of aspiring MBA students are beginning to get serious about their own school choices and application materials. Most schools won’t be releasing their updated application requirements until later in the summer, so one concrete element of their application that they can start working on now is properly preparing themselves for taking the exam.  We sat down with the founders of the major online GMAT communities (Beat The GMAT and GMAT Club) as well as the Director of Academic Programs at leading GMAT test prep firm, Veritas Prep. These individuals have a combined wealth of experience to draw upon when providing helpful tips and insights to share with anyone contemplating an application to business school in 2013-14. In the article that follows, readers will have the opportunity to learn about common misconceptions many test takers have about the exam, successful approaches to creating a study schedule, specific tips that can help those who struggle with either the verbal or the quant sections, and valuable insights on how to approach retaking the test. We additionally have checked in with the official information provided by GMAC, the organization that creates and administers the GMAT exam. Read more