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How to Begin Your MBA Application
16 April, by GurufiIt's April, which means that many of you are beginning in earnest the process of applying for MBA programs. Congratulations on making this potentially life-changing decision!
In this video, Brian from Gurufi lays out five things to do to prepare yourself for the challenges ahead.
For more help with your personal statement, check us out at Gurufi.com. Our personal statement editors and consultants have decades of experience helping clients get into top MBA programs. Gurufi editors are consistently ranked as excellent by our clients, and we're proud of our perfect record of verified reviews on GMATClub! Our specialty is helping you craft compelling personal statements that move the needle in your admissions process! For questions, shoot us an email at service@gurufi.com. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The post How to Begin Your MBA Application first appeared on GMAT Club.
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US News MBA Rankings Best Business Schools in 2024
16 April, by stacyblackmanAfter two years perched at the top of the heap, the Chicago Booth School of Business slipped slightly in the latest US News MBA rankings of the best business schools in 2024. This year, Stanford Graduate School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School share the top spot in a throwback to their 2021 positions. Meanwhile, the Kellogg School of Management and Chicago Booth have tied for third place, and the MIT Sloan School of Management nabbed fifth place.
If anyone is wondering what happened to powerhouse Harvard Business School, US News knocked it down to number six this year. US News revealed that a change in the methodology–assessing post-graduate salaries by profession–created some rank changes.
“Schools may have improved or declined a bit in this edition’s ranking depending on how well their graduates’ salaries, especially when controlling for profession, compared with the graduates of other schools,” they explained.
What are your chances of getting into a top business school? Contact us to talk strategy with a free 15-minute advising session with an SBC Principal Consultant.
US News MBA Rankings for the Top 20 Schools
Business School 2024-25 Ranking 2023-24 Ranking Stanford GSB 1 (tie) 6 (tie) Wharton School 1 (tie) 3 Kellogg School 3 (tie) 2 Chicago Booth 3 (tie) 1 MIT Sloan 5 4 Harvard Business School 6 5 NYU Stern 7 (tie) 10 UC Berkeley Haas 7 (tie) 11 (tie) Yale SOM 7 (tie) 10 Dartmouth Tuck School 10 (tie) 6 (tie) UVA Darden School 10 (tie) 14 Columbia 12 (tie) 11 (tie) Duke Fuqua 12 (tie) 11 (tie) Michigan Ross School 12 (tie) 8 (tie) Cornell Johnson School 15 15 (tie) CMU Tepper School 16 (tie) 18 UT McCombs School 16 (tie) 20 Emory Goizueta 18 (tie) 17 USC Marshall School 18 (tie) 15 (tie) IU Kelley School 20 (tie) 22 (tie) UCLA Anderson 20 (tie) 19 UNC Kenan-Flagler 20 (tie) 22 (tie) Vanderbilt Owen 20 (tie) 27 (tie) Source: US News & World Report
Methodology
The methodology used by US News to rank full-time MBA programs focuses on career placement success, student excellence, and qualitative assessments. Half of the ranking formula considers placement and earnings outcomes, while the other half assesses academic metrics and opinions from experts.
There’s a shift towards emphasizing outcome measures like employment and earnings, with a new factor added to assess post-graduate earnings by profession. This change reflects the importance of advanced earnings and better career opportunities for business school graduates. The ranking may fluctuate based on how well graduates’ salaries compare with those of other schools, with emphasis placed on salaries relative to employment.
In response to these latest rankings, Poets & Quants remarked, “Harvard Business School needs to boost pay (or produce a large sample) since it ranks among the very best in nearly every other measure. HBS may be a victim of methodology, but (as the saying goes), no one remembers the score…just the result.”
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Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership and Interview Prep to hourly help with essay editing, resume review, and much more! Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS.
During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS).
During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions.
Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally.
Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS).
In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years.
Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee.
In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB).
Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics.
Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford.
Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise.
During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies.
In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team.
During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS).
During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business.
At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director.
Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants.</sp ...
The post US News MBA Rankings Best Business Schools in 2024 appeared first on Stacy Blackman Consulting - MBA Admissions Consulting.
The post US News MBA Rankings Best Business Schools in 2024 first appeared on GMAT Club.
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MBA Rankings: How to Use Them Effectively
16 April, by FortunaAdmissionsSpring is here, the next cycle of MBA Admissions is gearing up, and that means it’s also MBA and business school rankings season again.
US News & World Report just released its annual MBA ranking for 2024, reshuffling its list of the best business schools. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Stanford GSB, previously ranked No. 3 and No. 6, are on top once again, tied at No. 1. They knocked the University of Chicago Booth School of Business out of the top spot and into a tie at No. 3 with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Harvard Business School drops a spot to sixth.
The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business broke into the top 10, up from No. 11 and No. 14 respectively. Three other contenders — Columbia Business School, Duke University Fuqua, and University of Michigan Ross School of Business — slipped out of the top 10 again and fell into a three-way tie for 12th place.
This 2024 ranking comes just weeks behind The Financial Times’ Global MBA rankings, where Wharton, which fell out of the 2023 rankings, rocketed back into first place, Harvard Business School fell to 11th place, and Stanford GSB dropped all the way to a head-scratching 23rd.
MBA program rankings garner high interest, clicks, and views, so they seem to be attracting some new players Many publications and organizations — including some business schools themselves, such as Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business — have jumped into this high-profile and potentially lucrative game, trying to quantify the quality of MBA programs based on type, platform, return on investment, and more. Even LinkedIn chimed in with a ranking based on potential for career growth, but with a methodology that Poets&Quants called shrewd but botched.
The appeal of MBA rankings is understandable. You are investing many thousands of dollars in your career trajectory. You’re deciding where and how you will spend the next two years, immersing yourself in a life-changing journey of professional and personal growth. And you’re choosing a network of friends and colleagues, some of whom may be with you for life. It’s nice to have some quantitative and qualitative data to guide that big investment.
But, given the sheer volume of rankings, the large swings in how schools place from year to year, and the multiple ties among closely clustered schools, how can you make sense of MBA rankings? How helpful are they in choosing your target schools — and making sure you know you’re getting your money’s worth?
Here at Fortuna, we’ve been watching the MBA ranking game for a long time, and we have some advice on how to use rankings and the data beneath them effectively.
Read the Fine Print
Wild swings in where schools place might raise doubts about their validity – whether it’s Wharton dropping out of the FT list last year entirely, University of Pittsburgh climbing 39 places from 86th last year to 45th in US News this year, or Brandeis University’s 27-spot drop to 107th place. Universities and business schools are large, complex, well-established institutions that aren’t going to change that dramatically in a year or two. What could possibly have changed to explain those results?
One reason behind the dramatic swings in schools’ placements from year to year is that the publications and organizations behind the graduate school and MBA rankings are often tinkering with the inputs and relative weights from year to year, and that can lead to very different outputs. That’s why it’s crucial to read the fine print behind the numbers, to make sure you understand the methodology and data behind them.
For example, this year US News refined how they factored in graduate salaries, weighting them by profession to control for common salary differences across industries. This makes things more equitable for schools that are not sending most of their graduates into highly compensated finance or tech jobs. This change, combined with reduced emphasis on starting salary at graduation, may have helped boost the Haas School four places into a tie for seventh place with Yale School of Management and New York University’s Stern School of Business. By this new measure, Haas ranked fifth, even though its average salary and bonus was the lowest of any top ten MBA program at $188,343.
At a glance, the FT’s salary data looks like it’s cited in dollars and Euros. Look closer and you’ll see they have adjusted the figures to reflect spending power. That’s a reasonable adjustment that can be helpful – or it can be misleading if you’re not aware.
To be fair, annual methodology changes reflect a continual effort to improve the value of ranked results. But changes in methodology also may mean that rankings are at the mercy of the business cycle. Last year, US News changed its methodology so that job placement rates accounted for a full 50% of a school’s ranking.
That makes sense, because job placement is a factor that students really care about. However, given swings in the economy and employment markets, this factor could have a huge impact in a boom year for recruiting in the finance industry or a downturn in the tech sector. This could really affect middle-ranked schools. “Are you suffering because your school is sending people into tech careers and the tech sector is laying people off?” wonders Judith Silverman Hodara, a Fortuna co-founder and director.
Watch What They Are Ranking
As MBA rankings multiply, they are also specializing. Some are ranking schools on specific outcomes, such as career trajectory or return on investment. It’s important to know what the rankings are measuring, what factors go into them, and what is left out. Some rankings may be based on factors that just aren’t that meaningful or relevant to you. For example, among the 21 factors blended into the Financial Times rankings are the share of faculty with PhDs and data on the composition of the institution’s board. Those may not have a big impact on your professional future.
Stanford GSB historically has notched the highest alumni satisfaction ratings and gets top honors from the FT for its alumni network and aims achieved, as well as the highest average weighted salary for its graduates. Yet in its latest MBA rankings released in February, the FT couldn’t get adequate alumni satisfaction data from Stanford GSB and zeroed out that factor. Without it, GSB ended up ranking 23rd out of the top 100 schools globally. “I think most people will decide that placement reflects badly on the ranking rather than being a true reflection on the Stanford GSB,” my Fortuna cofounder and director Caroline Diarte Edwards observes.
In another example of paying attention to what’s missing, the Scheller College rankings rate schools based on return on investment, calculating it based on a ratio of just two data points: median graduate starting salaries and tuition. Initially, University of Florida Warrington College of Business came out on top as the school that offered the most bang for the buck. Elite M7 schools did not fare so well, because they are quite expensive, and even strong job placement and high starting salaries can’t overcome that.
However, this measure ignores scholarships, overstating what students may actually invest. It measures ROI only in the short term and leaves out intangibles that may yield benefits over time. How can this ranking put a value on Wharton’s alumni network, or the opportunity to make contacts in New York’s finance or fashion industry if you’re at CBS or NYU Stern?
(It’s of interest that Scheller briefly came out #1 in its own ranking — until they spotted a data issue that misstated tuition and left the University of Texas Jindal School of Management at the very bottom of the list. When the error was corrected, Jindal vaulted to the top.)
Don’t Rely on a Single Ranking
The proliferation of MBA rankings can pay off for you. Because rankings all tend to emphasize different factors measured in different ways, you benefit from looking at more than one ranking. Look at enough, and you’ll see some trends emerge, with schools clustering in the top 20, the middle 50, and so on. If you look at past years, you’ll start to notice if a school popped up to excel one year and then faded back to the middle of the pack.
You can find rankings that rate schools based on their strength in areas that interest you. For instance, the Princeton Review ranks graduate programs in entrepreneurship; so does Poets&Quants, albeit with a more global focus. Other rankings may rate schools based on their ESG focus or on their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Also, look beyond the single rank number to the data that the rankers have conveniently collected for you. That’s the true value of rankings. “The premise of a ranking —the view that there is a single order in the world of business schools that we should all agree with — is false,” says Diarte Edwards. “There is no one-size-fits-all school. Everybody has a different view about what is important in the quality of a business school. It very much depends, for a candidate, on what they are looking to get out of the experience.
“What’s useful about MBA rankings is that they aggregate useful data about schools, and it’s worth digging into that on the dimensions that matter to you.”
Often, there’s only a sliver of difference between schools numerically. “People reading the MBA rankings need to keep in mind that these are great schools; it doesn’t really matter if the school is # 1 or #10, to be honest. It’s a fantastic cohort to be part of,” says Diarte Edwards. Given the wild swings in where schools end up, “I think what matters for these schools are not the headlines; it’s about the more longer-term trends. When you’re looking at rankings, see what schools have been consistent performers.”
Take Rankings with a Grain of Salt
Rankings are hard to ignore, and they can provide some useful frame of reference if you’re new to the business school landscape or just starting your research. However, it should be just a single data point in your school research.
No ranking can adequately sum up the full MBA experience into a single number. Rankings can’t quantify many facets that matter: where you’ll live, who you will learn from and study with, what experiences will be available, how the school’s culture and community feel to you, and so much more.
“A top ranking means little if the school is not a good fit for you and your goals,” says Patty Keegan, a Fortuna director and former associate dean at Chicago Booth. “You’re making a significant investment in your future and spending an intensive two years of your life in school, so the culture and environment matter. The fit of the school should never be overlooked, despite all the ranking noise,” Keegan stresses.
Fortuna cofounder and director Judith Silverman Hodara agrees. While the rankings change their weights to prioritize some inputs, what you value as an individual matters more. “The salary you make when you leave might not be as important as who is in your LinkedIn network in the future,” she says. “Does it matter whether it’s 1 or 6 or 10? What matters is if you feel at home. There are so many other things you should be taking into consideration on a personal level that have nothing to do with rankings.”
So, take the rankings with a grain of salt and use them carefully. Being the best business school according to US News, the FT or Bloomberg Businessweek can be very different from being the best business school for you.
The post MBA Rankings: How to Use Them Effectively appeared first on Fortuna.
The post MBA Rankings: How to Use Them Effectively first appeared on GMAT Club.
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How to Weave Stories Into Your Personal Statement
15 April, by GurufiIn nearly 20 years of helping people get into their dream schools, I’ve made a point of working with clients to create essays that are both engaging and substantive. This balance is the key to a great essay for graduate or professional school. But, somewhere along the line, people got it in their heads that the only purpose of a personal statement was to let the reader get to know them. This is a mistake.
Over and over, I will read a personal statement for medical school or law school in which the author will tell a story that is highly personal to them, but in which they fail to link that story to their application’s core strengths and themes. When I try to explain that they need to focus on things germane to their application, they will tell me that they want to let the reader know who they are, as if this is a sufficient explanation for a medical school essay that focuses almost exclusively on their love of triathlons or a law school essay that does not ever use the word “law.”
Why does this happen? Essentially, it happens because people get so fixated on writing an *interesting* essay that makes the applicant sound *unique.* I hear these words –interesting and unique- all the time, and while they are important goals, and they will help an essay if used properly, they are a means to an end and not the end itself. The end, the purpose, and your primary motivation in a personal statement are simple: convince the reader that you are prepared and qualified for admission.
Given this, as you write your personal statement, you should keep in mind a simple and well-worn maxim that every salesman has heard a million times: Always Be Closing (ABC). In other words, at every point in the essay, you need to keep in mind whether or not what you are saying is moving the reader closer to believing that you have the requisite knowledge, experience, and understanding of the field you hope to enter.
For every story, for every paragraph, and for every sentence, you do need to ask yourself, “What does this say about the strength of my candidacy?” If the best that you can come up with that it says something interesting or unique about you, it doesn’t pass the ABC test. On the other hand, if it shows that you have an important and germane skill or perspective, then it passes the ABC test.
Now, what I am NOT saying is to be boring or rote, or to provide a straightforward rendering of your CV in essay form. If there is some aspect of your personality that is meaningful to you, then take the extra time to think about how it aligns with your application. For instance, if you’re a triathlete applying to medical school, can you create an overarching frame or metaphor and use the three phases of a triathlon to discuss the three pillars of your preparation for medical school? Or perhaps you’ve learned things from preparation and training that are germane? Did the discipline you found in the pool, track, and open road give you a framework for thinking about challenges? In other words, a great story is wonderful… so long as you connect it to what you’re doing and who you aspire to become.
The story is your way in, but it’s not the sale. Make them interested, then make the sale. Always be closing.
For more tips on how to build a story that moves the reader AND improves your application, check out these two videos we did:
And
For more help with your personal statement, check us out at Gurufi.com. Our personal statement editors and consultants have decades of experience helping clients get into top Masters and Ph.D. programs in STEM, humanities, fine arts, and social sciences. Our specialty is helping you craft compelling personal statements that move the needle in your admissions process! For questions, shoot us an email at service@gurufi.com. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The post How to Weave Stories Into Your Personal Statement first appeared on GMAT Club.
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Sample Round One Application Schedule
12 April, by GurufiSpring is a wonderful time of year for us here at Gurufi. As we hear more about our clients’ success stories, we take pride in helping them earn admission to their dream schools. Just last week, we had multiple clients reach out to us about their plans for the fall, which include matriculating into HBS, Wharton, Stanford GSB, INSEAD, and many more.
Our record speaks for itself, but we also know that not everybody can afford us, so we try our best to provide free information that, if followed, can improve your chances of admission to your dream MBA program.
Thus, over the next few weeks, we’ll but putting out a 12-part video guide about how to approach your MBA admissions journey. Before we start, though, I wanted to provide a quick-and-easy breakdown for people who are just beginning to think about applying for an MBA. Below is a breakdown for people starting now who intend to apply for Round One admissions (due dates in September or October). Obviously, this is a rough guide, and so be sure to check the due dates for the particular schools you’re applying to!
April - Establish Your Strategy
- Research MBA programs: Research MBA programs to determine which schools align with your career goals and personal preferences. Rankings are a good place to start, but don’t end there! A good tip is to make a list of three strengths in a business school, three areas of emphasis, and three “miscellaneous” factors (geography, cost, length of program, etc.) and use that list to inform your Google searches. Remember, in this initial phase, you want to create a fairly extensive list that you can then pare down.
- Connect with alumni and current students: Reach out to alumni or current students from your preferred MBA programs to understand their experiences and the school's culture better. View this as an opportunity to being ranking and even eliminating some candidate schools.
- Identify your recommenders: Think about who you could ask for recommendation letters and inform them about your MBA plans. Be smart about your strategy here. Select people who know you well, and think of the recommendation process as an interactive one, where you provide the letter writer with as much information as they need to write you a great letter. For additional insight, check out these videos.
May - Prepare for GMAT/GRE
- Study for GMAT/GRE: If you have not taken these tests or want to improve your score, now is the time to start preparing in earnest. Every candidate’s GMAT process is different, and it often comes down to how much time you need to earn the score you’re looking for. I’ve known candidates who’ve prepared for 18 months because they were never very quant-heavy in their educations so they needed a lot of help. Others only need a few weeks.
- Register for the exam: Make sure to register for the exam to give you enough time to retake it if necessary.
June - Take GMAT/GRE and Begin Applications
- Take the GMAT/GRE: Aim to take your GMAT/GRE in June. This leaves enough time to retake the test if you're not satisfied with your score.
- Start drafting essays: Begin working on your application essays. Be sure to customize each essay to the specific MBA program.
July - Refine Your Applications
- Continue refining essays: Spend this month polishing your essays, ensuring they reflect your experiences and ambitions accurately. If you need professional help, we can certainly help with that! When you get help, though, be sure to remember that you should retain active ownership of your essays. What that means is that you shouldn’t just passively accept whatever changes and advice they give you. Ask questions, and be sure that the final polished version sounds like the best version of what you had in mind, and not somebody else’s essay. Here is a useful primer on how to get great advice on your Personal Statement.
- Prepare your resume: Update your resume to highlight achievements, leadership roles, and skills relevant to an MBA program. Similarly, we can also help you with your CV revisions!
August - Finalize Your Applications
- Review applications: Thoroughly review your application, checking for any errors or inconsistencies.
- Get feedback: Have a mentor, friend, or family member review your essays and overall application.
- Finalize letters of recommendation: Remind your recommenders about the upcoming deadlines and provide them with any necessary information about your achievements and goals.
September - Submit Your Applications
- Final review and submission: Give your application a final review and submit it well ahead of the deadline.
- Prepare for interviews: Begin preparing for potential interviews by practicing common interview questions and formulating questions you would like to ask.
- Thank your recommenders: Send a follow-up ‘thank-you’ note to anybody who wrote you a letter of recommendation. A short, sincere, hand-written note is the gold standard.
October - Interviews and Follow-ups
- Attend interviews: If invited, attend the MBA program interviews. Remember to ask thoughtful questions and demonstrate your interest in the program. Here are some quick tips for your MBA interview.
- Send thank you notes: After your interview, send a thank you note to your interviewer expressing your appreciation for their time. Again, the ideal way is a short, sincere handwritten note. If that’s not possible, an email will do.
Remember, applying for an MBA is a process that requires meticulous preparation. It's important to give yourself plenty of time to reflect on your career goals, research potential programs, and craft a compelling application.
Month Activities April 1. Research MBA programs 2. Connect with alumni and current students
3. Identify your recommenders
May 1. Study for GMAT/GRE 2. Register for the exam
June 1. Take the GMAT/GRE 2. Start drafting essays
July 1. Continue refining essays 2. Prepare your resume
August 1. Review applications 2. Get feedback
3. Finalize letters of recommendation
September 1. Final review and submission 2. Prepare for interviews October 1. Attend interviews 2. Send thank you notes
Again, do remember to tailor this grid to align with specific school deadlines and your personal schedule.
For more help with your personal statement, check us out at Gurufi.com. Our personal statement editors and consultants have decades of experience helping clients get into top MBA programs. Our specialty is helping you craft compelling personal statements that move the needle in your admissions process! For questions, shoot us an email at service@gurufi.com. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The post Sample Round One Application Schedule first appeared on GMAT Club.