First, bear in mind what you need the recommendations to say – that you are a great performer and you have key strengths in areas such as leadership skills and analytical skills. Make sure that some people superior to you at work are aware of your strong professional performance, know you reasonably well, and feel positively enough about you to support your applications. They should be willing and able to comment about your leadership strengths, analytical strengths, and overall strong performance.

Some candidates fail to get to know their superiors well enough to have this sort of strong support. So, begin cultivating strong relationships early. Whether this involves taking on extra tasks for a superior, meeting up for coffee or arranging informal opportunities to talk, try to develop the relationships so that you can draw on them later.

Candidates should also take steps to keep relationships with prior superiors alive. If you have switched teams, divisions or companies, make efforts to stay in touch with those who were superior to you and thought very well of you, because you may need to ask them also for a recommendation.

For those of you who are wondering about what happens if a candidate has failed to take such steps: well, if they are lucky, they have naturally performed so excellently and have worked so closely with multiple superiors that multiple superiors see them as a star and will be willing to write strong letters of support. But, unfortunately, sometimes when this is not the case, some candidates are left feeling that only peers will recommend them strongly, and generally it won’t look good if a candidate is only submitting recommendations from peers.

The moral of the story: the earlier you begin thinking about which superiors might recommend you and begin to develop strong relationships with them, the better off you should be in the MBA admissions process.

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

In the case of the top-5 MBA programs, the admissions committees want to see recommendations that indicate you are the best among your peers, you have strong analytical and leadership skills, you have some creativity and you are headed for great future success. If the recommendations simply indicate you are “pretty good” or “second best”, your application may be perceived as having a weakness, which could have an adverse impact on your outcomes.

Think about who you want to recommend you. Take early steps to cultivate a strong relationship with your recommendation writers, making sure they are aware of your successes and goals, so that they can reflect this information in their references for you.

Recommendations can serve as game-changers!

Candidates frequently ask me whether there are instances when a candidate can still get into a top MBA program in the United States and Europe with a low TOEFL or AWA score. Yes, of course. I have worked with candidates who had poor TOEFL or AWA scores, but were such attractive candidates that they were accepted at schools including Harvard and Wharton. In one example, an East Asian foreign national I worked with had poor English skills and a relatively low TOEFL score. He had terrific work experience at a Fortune 10 multinational company, however, and his business experience was a great asset. We at MBA Admit.com worked with him extensively and he was able to highlight the strengths of his overall candidacy in his application, and as a result he gained admission to Harvard Business School. Upon acceptance, Harvard simply asked him to enroll in an English program before beginning.

From Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
MBA Admit.com

http://www.mbaadmit.com

Email: mbaadmit@aol.com

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