We all know that MBA admissions is highly competitive and that outstanding essays are a key part of an effort to gain admission to the top business schools, many of which admit only 15% of all applicants. But, don’t be tempted to plagiarize! Also, if you are using an admissions consultant, make sure that YOU write your essays, not the consultant. You don’t want to question where the content came from.

I agree with Anderson: plagiarism is wholly unacceptable. Indeed, when I was a professor at Harvard, I had a student kicked out of graduate school for turning in a plagiarized paper to me. I have zero tolerance for such matters, and I affirm any graduate school that also has a zero tolerance policy.

Happily, it is believed that only 1-2% of applicants to business school might be plagiarizing content for their essays. But if you are found by a business school to be in that number, you will not likely have another viable shot for admission to the particular business school in question. Business schools take your ethics seriously, and one particular weakness most candidates cannot work around when applying to a top business school is a disciplinary mark on their record for cheating or plagiarizing. A business school does not want to think that in a few years they will open the Wall St. Journal to read that one of their graduates was caught for some egregious business scandal. That is damaging to their brand. They will seek instead to weed out any candidate they think has questionable ethics. So, take care as you compose your MBA admissions essays: don’t plagiarize! If you use someone else’s words, like a quote, use quotation marks and attribute the words to the relevant person.

Here is the link below to the article about this:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-plagiarism-20120129,0,2954802.story

Good luck in your admissions process!

Best wishes,
Dr. Shelly Watts (“Dr. Shel”)
MBA Admit.com
Email: mbaadmit@aol.com
www.mbaadmit.com

PRESTIGE
Prestige is not the same thing as “ranking”. A business school can be ranked as a “top-5” business school in one year and be only a “top-7” business school the very next year. Rankings can fluctuate greatly, even year to year. They can also be notably different based upon which organization provided the ranking. However, the “brand” you pick up from the business school you attend can continue on and on, regardless of ranking.

When considering which business school to apply to or to attend, focusing solely on business school rankings rather than also on the long-term prestige of each school can be shortsighted. For instance, when a student who intends to pursue a career outside of the USA must choose between NYU and Oxford, they must think hard about prestige. NYU is a well-ranked business school, but Oxford’s prestige on the whole is gold, even if the business school could improve its ranking. The prestige of an Oxford degree might outweigh the strong ranking of NYU’s business school for a candidate who will be pursuing their career outside of the USA. For a candidate who will pursue their career in the USA, when considering a choice between a respectable regional school and a nationally ranked school, prestige should also be considered. If you intend to move around the USA during your career, the more prestigious nationally ranked school may serve you better. But prestige is a subjective matter. In the South, for instance, Duke’s name carries far and may open more doors than an MBA from the University of Chicago, because in the South, Booth may not be as widely known in spite of its strong national ranking.

CAREER AND ALUMNI
When applying to business school and also when choosing which business school to attend, you should have a general sense of where you want to take your career post-MBA, both in the years immediately following your graduation as well as in ten or twenty years. Companies that recruit on campus usually have a target list of “core schools” and longstanding relationships with those career management offices. More often than not, your degree is only a stepping stone towards what you want to do later in life. In many cases, you will have two or three job changes in your first post-MBA decade. It is during those crucial moments when your network can make a difference. Many schools offer lifelong career support. Alumni will often favor job candidates from their own school. Your classmates will start companies or rise to senior positions in various industries and offer resources, networks and career advice. Consider the school that will best help to fulfill your career aspirations.

Other significant factors to consider include the academics, culture, student life and financial assistance. I can comment about these factors in a separate posting.

Best wishes,
Shelly Watts
MBA Admit.com

http://www.mbaadmit.com

Write a Letter Restating Your Interest
If the school is your first choice, make it clear to the admissions committee that you will attend if accepted. Schools often use the waitlist to manage enrollment for the coming year, and would like to achieve a high conversion rate when they extend offers of acceptance.

Secure Another Letter of Recommendation
Seek an additional letter of recommendation from someone who can attest to your leadership and character. You can ask someone senior at your work or a key leader at an organization where you provide notable community leadership. You can consider securing a recommendation from an alumni member of the school in question, particularly if the alumni member has gone on to achieve notable success. The ideal additional recommendation letters will shed light on a new dimension to your applicant profile that wasn’t evident in your previous letters.

Address New Accomplishments
Let the school know if you have been promoted at work or if you have taken on a leadership role with a non-profit organization. You should let the admissions committee know if you received an employee recognition award. Let the committee know if you are shouldering more responsibilities at work or are helping to lead a new company initiative.

Improve Shortcomings
Directly address shortcomings of your application. If your GMAT score is lower than ideal, for instance, consider retaking the GMAT and showing improvement. If you lack an analytical background, take a math class at your local college and earn an “A.” The admissions committee will appreciate your commitment to improving your qualifications.

Visit Campus
Visiting the school can signal to the admissions committee that you’re serious about attending the program. In your letter, explain how the visit demonstrated that you were a good match for the school, how the specific program would help you achieve your long-term goals, and how you can contribute as a member of the community.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shelly Watts
www.mbaadmit.com
email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Whether EMBAs are considering starting their own business or innovating from within an existing organization, the focus of the Berkeley-Columbia EMBA is to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. Award-winning professor Peter Goodson acknowledges “You’ve got to be a pioneer to even enroll in this kind of two-degree program, a relatively new concept . . . [that] draws people who challenge convention, take risks and do things differently.” Although the program emphasizes creative and innovative business thinking and problem solving, students are also taught business fundamentals spanning leadership, general management, finance, accounting, and marketing. These core requirements teach students pragmatic business skills and cover about 60% of the program, the balance of which is covered by electives of students’ choosing. In addition, the program offers a one-week international seminar under the concept of “experience locally, learn globally.” Students travel to a key business center to learn business etiquette and conduct site visits with successful companies.

The Berkeley-Columbia EMBA is noted for fostering an environment of collaboration and teamwork. Most classes incorporate team projects and study groups are formed with four to five students comprised of different backgrounds, working styles, and personalities. Students are encouraged to discuss business problems in the classroom and leverage classroom learning in their workplace.

With an emphasis on intensive learning and a personalized experience tailored to each student’s needs, the 19-month program starts in May of each year and meets every three weeks for five terms. Classes start on Thursdays and end Saturdays cumulating in 25 total weekends. Each class consists of approximately 70 students from a wide range of industries and diverse backgrounds. Most classes take place on the Berkeley campus, although students have the option to spend a full term in New York City. EMBA students gain exposure to world-class speakers, conferences, libraries, cultural events and career resources at both universities.

Columbia Business School’s Executive MBA Program bridges the academic and professional divide through coursework that combines theory with application and faculty renowned in both academia and industry. Columbia’s EMBA program is flexible to meet the needs of professionals seeking to balance their academic endeavors with their workplace responsibilities.

The main EMBA program is based in New York City on Columbia University’s campus. Students gain access to over 500 guest lectures each year and proximity to alumni who are business leaders in the greater New York community. Students can either take five terms of Friday and Saturday classes or six terms of Saturday classes. Classes during the first year follow a core curriculum that provides a broad overview of key business disciplines followed a second year of electives. During the first year, students are divided into clusters of 60 to 70 students and learning teams comprising five to six students foster an environment of learning and development. In the second year, students can take electives of their choosing and enroll in classes offered through the full-time MBA program as well as other graduate programs at Columbia University. Many second year EMBAs also choose to enroll in a one week international seminar. Led by the business school’s faculty and administration, students spend a week meeting with global business leaders and government officials while strengthening their international business network. Recent seminars have taken place in Mumbai, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. EMBAs have access to the same network of over 40,000 CBS alumni in more than 100 countries.

Additionally, CBS has also developed three partner programs specific to EMBA students: EMBA-Global Americas and Europe; EMBA-Global Asia; and the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA. I can highlight those programs separately.

Application deadlines for Columbia’s EMBA programs vary depending on start date. Applications are due in November for the January class; February for the May class; and June for the August class.

Important for those of you who are located on the west coast of the USA, the Wharton Executive MBA program is offered in two locations: Philadelphia and San Francisco. Also known as Wharton West, the new San Francisco campus is the result of a strategic push by the school to extend its reach and alumni network on the West Coast. Both locations offer state-of-the-art facilities at either Huntsman Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus or the Embarcadero Center in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district (Wharton West).

The EMBA program is structured similarly to the full-time program. EMBA students spend the first year taking the same core curriculum as full-time students and the second year taking electives across 11 academic departments. The faculty that teach full-time students also teach the EMBAs, giving EMBA students access to the same teaching quality and cutting-edge academic research. EMBAs receive the same leadership development and training as full-time students, have access to the same career resources and alumni network, and are conferred the same degree, leading to what the school calls a truly “undiluted” experience. Many of the innovative elements that distinguish Wharton as one of the best business schools in the world are incorporated into the EMBA curriculum, including the cohort system, learning team, leadership course, and experiential and simulation-based programs. For example, Professor Michael Useem teaches a popular Leadership Development Workshop based on the battle of Gettysburg each year to both MBA and EMBAs. In keeping with Wharton’s tradition towards developing global business leaders, EMBAs are also expected to complete a one week International Study Seminar abroad before graduation. Students have taken global seminars in locations such as China, Russia, Brazil, Australia, and Mexico.

Unlike the full-time program, EMBAs do not declare a major but take a diverse set of course offerings to both broaden and deepen their business knowledge as general managers. Each EMBA class votes on 25 elective classes out of 200 offerings, and students are expected to take 8 electives of their choosing prior to graduation, with the option to complete some coursework through Independent Study. With roughly 200 students per year, the EMBA class is much smaller than the full-time program and allows for a truly immersive academic experience.

The EMBA program begins in May each year and lasts two years. Students attend classes on alternate Friday and Saturdays for three terms a year. Admission is highly competitive and application requirements are similar to the full-time program. For the latest EMBA class, the average GMAT score was 700 and the average work experience was 10 years. The deadline to apply is early February of each year.

Some of you may have received disappointing news regarding your Round 1 applications. But, you should try to keep your spirits up. Success can be possible in Round 2. Read my prior posting about important steps to take when composing a Round 2 application following a Round 1 rejection. Equally important, find some inspiration in these success stories:

CANDIDATE 1:
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Citizenship: India
Industry: Manufacturing/ Technology
Job: Senior Engineer
GMAT: 700
GPA: First Class Honors

Situation: This engineer had applied on his own to many top business schools in Round 1 and had been rejected without interview by most of the schools. He had interviewed with only two of the schools before receiving rejection notices from them also.

Assessment of Rejection: After reviewing his qualifications, I believed this candidate could have had good outcomes to the schools to which he had applied in Round 1 if he had put together a stronger set of essays and recommendations. Granted, the nature of his work was pretty boring (I don’t say this of most engineers – it had to do with his particular sector of manufacturing). But with great editing, it would be possible to make his work look much more exciting. His Round 1 applications also suffered from a lack of business-relevant content. They came across as applications from an engineer, not from business person who happened to be in the manufacturing/technology field (big difference!). There was far too much tech talk in the content. His recommendations were good, but not great. Given how competitive the general profile of “Indian male foreign national engineer” is when applying to top U.S. and European business schools, my opinion was that this candidate needed to put forward a much stronger application in order to fare well. The candidate chose to move forward with a Round 2 application.

Main Improvement in the Application: MBAAdmit.com helped the candidate to put together extremely strong essays and garner excellent recommendation letters, and we guided him in presenting a very compelling long-term goal, which helped distinguish him from other applicants.

Outcome: This candidate gained admission to INSEAD in Round 2.

CANDIDATE 2:
Gender: Female
Age: 28
Citizenship: Country in East Asia
Industry: Real property
Job: Director
GMAT: 720
GPA: Strong

Situation: This candidate had applied without the assistance of MBA Admit.com in Round 1 and was rejected from all top schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and Columbia.

Assessment of Rejection: After reviewing her qualifications, it was clear that the candidate was highly qualified and must have put forward a poorly crafted MBA application. The candidate chose to have us assess her rejected application and we conveyed to her in great detail – including essay-by-essay and recommendation-by-recommendation – what we would have done differently. There was a tremendous amount of room for improvement. This candidate had, unfortunately, received advice about what to put in her essays from an unreliable source, and the results were disastrous for her essay content. Her essays presented extremely ill-chosen content and squandered the opportunity to highlight her most important strengths and achievements. My opinion was that this candidate was fully qualified to gain admission to the same schools from which she had been rejected, and I urged her to wait until Round 1 of the next year and to re-apply with excellently crafted applications. However, for personal reasons this candidate wanted to go to business school immediately, and so she asked us to work with her to prepare Round 2 applications for five additional schools.

Main Improvement in the Applications: We helped the candidate put together extremely strong essays and garner excellent recommendation letters. She was a simple case because she had excellent qualifications and simply had not put together a set of great essays.

Outcomes: She gained admission to all of the schools to which we applied in Round 2 and she chose to attend Yale.

Success is possible!

From: Shelly Watts, MBAAdmit.com
www.mbaadmit.com
mbaadmit@aol.com

Keep your confidence up. As you approach your Round 2 applications, it may help to know that many candidates have good outcomes and gain access to great business schools in Round 2. While you may want to add in more sure-shot schools if you are intent on attending business school this upcoming fall, try to avoid selling yourself short. Following a rejection in Round 1, your odds of getting good outcomes at other business schools in Round 2 can be enhanced if you take some important steps, as identified below.

Learn from your mistakes: identify the problem. If you did not get into the business schools you were aiming for in Round 1, you will want to identify the primary reasons for the rejections. Sometimes you need an objective pair of eyes to look at your old applications and help you identify the problem(s). Did you present weak essays? Was your long-term goal reasonable given your qualifications? Did you present an attractive long-term goal? Was your GMAT score too low? Was there a problem with your recommendations? Were there a lot of glaring typos in your application form? Do you have sufficient work experience? A key first step is to identify the problem.

Fix the problem. Try to improve your next applications. If your GMAT score was too low, take meaningful steps to improve your GMAT score or select a range of schools that are not as sensitive to the GMAT score. If you presented weak essays, consider working with someone to strengthen how you are presenting your candidacy through the essays. If you believe there was a problem with your recommendations, try to secure copies of your previous recommendations and, if necessary, choose different writers for your new applications – writers who will support your candidacy fully.

Take care in choosing business schools. Part of your challenge in Round 1 may have been that you did not pick ideal business schools. Were all of your schools reach schools, given your profile? Did you apply to business schools where the admissions committee may not have perceived a “fit” (i.e., the finance candidate applying to a heavily technology-focused business school). Did you apply to a school that is known to have a bias that does not favor you given your profile (i.e., the 33-year old candidate applying to a school known for favoring much younger candidates). As you apply in Round 2, make sure to try to select schools where you have a strong “fit” and where you are reasonably within range in terms of your basic profile (stats, experiences and background). Also consider schools that are less sensitive to “Rounds”. (Some schools admit candidates more evenly by round, rather than “filling up” with candidates of a particular profile in Round 1.)

Learn from others. Take advantage of the fact that in Round 2, you will have access to a wealth of information in reputable MBA and GMAT chat rooms, where candidates share insights about things such as the questions they were asked in MBA interviews in Round 1. Consider drawing on this information if you find it credible.

Success is possible!

From: Shelly Watts
MBAAdmit.com
www.mbaadmit.com
mbaadmit@aol.com

Hopefully, many of you applying candidates are beginning to get notified that you have received Round 1 or other MBA admissions interviews. Here is one quick tip I wanted to pass on for your interviews. This is something that candidates often do wrong (when conducting mock interviews, I am actually surprised how many candidates make this mistake). When speaking about your college experience, try to avoid the negative. Some candidates had college experiences they did not like. Some candidates found fault with the quality of education at their college. Some candidates wish they had attended a more prestigious college. While some of your misgivings may be very legitimate, speaking poorly about your college experience in an MBA interview can leave a poor impression. The interviewer can sometimes be left wondering how you will speak about their MBA program should you not like it. Similarly, if you begin apologizing for the college that you attended, as if your college was not of a high enough caliber, you will likely undercut your achievements at that college. For example, if you received an A average from a third-tier college and then in the interview you speak about your college as if it was not a good enough place for you to choose to attend, the college-related accomplishments you should be seeking to showcase as assets will be undercut.

Think carefully about how you will talk about your college experience if you are asked about it and try to stay positive.  I hope to share other tips with you from my book published with McGraw-Hill, entitled How to Interview Like a Top MBA.

Best wishes, Shelly L. Watts

MBA Admit.com

http://www.mbaadmit.com

Email: mbaadmit@aol.com

One main difference between the application resume and a job resume is that the admissions resume might have an expanded extracurricular activities section in which you annotate your most important extracurricular activities.