The MBA Admissions Studio

Hey it’s August, and even though it’s definitely, seriously, MBA application season we can still have a little fun, right?

Here’s a video from Comedy Central / The Daily Show, featuring intrepid reporter John Oliver who enlists the “help” of a former convict to convince hold-out MBA students at MIT and Harvard to sign the MBA Oath.

In an interview of the type made famous by Sasha Baron Cohen (and with the same Oxford-dragged-through-Essex accent) Oliver talks to Columbia GSB ethics professor Bruce Kogut (he really exists, bio here,) who has not the faintest idea he’s been set up.

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Of course, ethics is a real and important topic to get right in MBA admissions. For a copy of the oath, and what it means for MBA applications this year, see previous post here.

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Tags: b-school, ethics, Harvard, HBS, MBA Oath, MIT Sloan, top-10 MBA

Stanford’s essays are notoriously “introspective” and give many applicants trouble. Stanford Adcom do really want to get to know the real you through your writing. This year the flavor is the same, but (and possibly to avoid waffle) some important tweaks have been made in the optional essays to shift the focus squarely towards communicating successful results.

Why results? Because successful outcomes are hard to achieve. Anyone can tell a good story, particularly about what great things they may do in the future. That’s important. But if you can twin it with proof of past success, then it sounds like you are likely to hit your targets in life.

Stanford GSB Application Essays

1. What matters most to you, and why? (750 words recommended)
   
2. What are your career aspirations? How will your education at Stanford help you achieve them? (450 words recommended)
   
3. Answer two of the four questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years. (300 words recommended).
   Option A: Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team whose performance exceeded expectations.
   Option B: Tell us about a time when you made a lasting impact on your organization.
   Option C: Tell us about a time when you motivated others to support your vision or initiative.
   Option D: Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected

Here is where successful outcomes results-orientation has been upgraded. In Option A they have added “whose performance exceeded expectations.” Option B used to be “Tell us about a time when you felt most effective as a leader.” Now “the lasting impact” demands a results-oriented perspective. Option D remains from last year: this is a directly results-oriented question.

Stanford GSB Application Deadlines are:
Round 1: October 7, 2009
Round 2: January 6, 2010
Round 3: April 7, 2010

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Tags: Adcom, b-school, communications, essay writing, profile development, Stanford GSB, success record, top-10 MBA, writing style

There’s a heartwarming story in today’s Philippine Star (philstar.com) by Gina Valerie Chua, who tells the story of her March HBS interview and April admission to Harvard. See the full story at this link.

Other than the feel good factor, for admissions purposes there are two takeaways. First is she beat out many apparently better candidates – as she puts it: “those NASA astronauts and genetic scientists who are dreaming of the exact same thing.” She says: “Only 900 applicants are admitted out of 10,000 from all over the world: investment bankers, UN diplomats, cancer-curing surgeons — and little old me somehow found my way through.”

I’m sure she is being modest about her own competitive profile, but the point remains. You don’t need to be a superstar. You just need to be competitive and apply well.

The second takeaway concerns reflections on the HBS interview.

Says Chua: “I remember my interview. They asked me why I insist on writing despite my career in investment banking, an anomaly in this world of perfectly drawn certainties. What I told them is the very reason you are reading this now: I wish to write about possibility. Whether we are meant to find it at home or some 9,000 miles away, there is a world waiting for us, waiting for our courage and our lack of self-restriction. We cannot help but be creators — of books, skyscrapers, wars or dynasties — and the best of who we are can only be found in the hope they leave behind.”

Idealistic waffle wouldn’t you say? Puke? Well, that’s the point. For better or worse most Adcoms like idealism. Harvard perhaps more than most. They don’t want naivete, but they do like world-changing visions. If you are not something of a dreamer at 25, you’ll never be, and they are not looking to put the HBS brand on (more) money-grabbing cynics.

And, reassuringly, they don’t penalize anomalies, nor seek a world of perfect certainties. Be yourself.

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Tags: admissions red flags, ambition, Harvard, idealism, interviews, top-10 MBA

A week or so I blogged about Harvard case method and included the HBS promotional video featuring the case method. Here’s another one, this time from Darden (University of Virginia Business School).

The video “Highlights of a Darden Case Study Class” is here:

First, this shows how widespread the case method is in b-schools. In my experience, applicants think they must show their identification with the case method for Harvard, but tend to overlook it for all their other applications. For HBS it comes across as formula, unless you add a unique perspective. And there’s certainly no harm in mentioning it other places, particularly where a school has publicly featured it in their promotions.

The broader value in watching videos like this – and this blog will feature more of them over time – is they are absolutely valuable (and free!) insights into what goes on in a b-school classroom. This gives a good idea of the kind of applicant MBA Adcoms are looking for. Particularly not how much the emphasis is on discussion, communication, questioning, argument, thinking. Most of business school is not about absorbing facts or calculating answers.

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Tags: Adcom, case method, communications, Darden, Harvard, HBS, Leadership, top-10 MBA

Harvard Business School has a promotional video up at http://www.hbs.edu/mba/academics/

The video can also been seen here.

It’s an ad for HBS of course, highlighting its main point of distinction: the case method, which, according to HBS creates “special moments that pull everything we have learned into focus. When theory, practice, experience and talent all come to one sharp point — a decision.” And so on.

For the MBA admissions applicant this is a worthwhile watch for a few reasons

1. It is good insight into how b-schools work and think. It is good background on the culture and attitudes at play, including overall assumptions and ethics, and therefore what would be expected of the next class too.

2. It is good insight into the dynamics of the business school classroom, and the requirements of individual and group-based learning. The applicant positioned well to work in this way, is well positioned to be admitted.

3. It is good insight into the case method of teaching. HBS is “ground zero” of the case method, but actually almost every school uses cases to a significant degree, so it is useful for understanding all schools.

By the way, the case method has been under a bit of scrutiny, and voices have been raised that Harvard did not adequately prepare its graduates to assess risk / business failure (the credit crunch and fallout). See example stories in Forbes and Bloomberg News. But, to me it doesn’t look like HBS did worse than anywhere else …

Note also how HBS focuses on its distinctive marker – the case method – in branding and advertising itself. Same principles apply to MBA applicants.

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Tags: Adcom, case method, ethics, Harvard, HBS, team player, top-10 MBA, working in groups

These are the reasons to choose us for your MBA applications support and admissions coaching:

Verified past successes: Our admission rate for all applicants to all schools is close to perfect (over 96%). On average our clients tell us we improved their prospects by 3x. But don’t just take our word for it – where they’ve given permission we’re happy to let you talk to them.

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Superior communications: Avi Gordon and anyone else who touches your copy is a qualified, proven English editor with a strong writing background. These are people whose professional job it is to construct persuasive messages, create unique, memorable stories, and edit copy for grammar and stylistic polish.

Clear, structured, thorough feedback: Some will take a stab at your copy and leave you to pick up the pieces. We give you a structure to write to, and then a line-by-line, easy-to-follow review and clear next-steps as to how to add ideas or address problems. We don’t just say “fix-it,” we lead you through the process.

Real personal attention: Beware of essay supermarkets. The MBA Admissions Studio is not one of them. We believe that to do MBA admission right we have to build relationships where we actually get to know you and think about your case. And, hey, you can call us anytime and actually speak to a live person!

Unlimited access: Some admissions shops limit the number of times or the number of days during which you can access your consultant. What’s with that!? At the MBA Admission Studio you have unlimited e-mail/ phone access to us.

Balance of capacity and clients: We have enough capacity to give each client 100% attention all the way through the process. If we can’t, we’ll turn work away. Beware of providers who you suddenly find “impossible to reach” when you need them the most – as deadline day draws near.

Genuine SOS service: We’ve done this before so we know (sigh) that some applicants write their essays days before the deadline. No problem. We’ll flip your text back to you over the weekend or inside one working day, if you are up against it. Sometimes this costs more, but it’s there: dawn patrol, midnight fixes, whatever it takes…

Genuine quality assurance: All admissions strategy and all editing passes through quality assurance supervision you can rely on. If we mess up (it can happen, we’re human!) we make it right or your money back.

Real international applications experience: We don’t just claim to be able to help international applicants. We have also lived in cross-cultural situations and experienced every key issue international candidates face. Some of our most memorable successes have involved Americans going abroad, or foreigners to the US.

Verified integrity and standing: We’re an accountable, minority-friendly, foreigner-friendly company with seniority you can rely on. We’ve been independently verified by media and industry partners and have been the official admissions partner to the World MBA Tour. We’re not a bunch of Internet jocks out for a joyride.

Confidentiality and security: We will never disclose your name, email, or anything you say or write, to any person, company, school, or institution. We never sell essays on. Payments are handled by a third party and we never see your card number.

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Tags: b-school, international MBA, mba, profile development, profiling, top-10 MBA