MBA Admissions Advice: The Criteria

So I promised I would start posting more, so here we go! Barring any major setbacks, I will be taking my GMAT on Saturday August 23rd, so in a little over a month (YIKES!) and applying to all 4 of my schools in Round 2 (I’ll elaborate more on this decision in a later post). Most R2 deadlines fall around the first one or two weeks in January, but my goal is to have everything submitted by the beginning of December so I can at least attempt to enjoy my Christmas and New Year holiday in peace. I’ll be posting a breakdown of my application preparation schedule in the next week or so.

Now that I’ve started doing marginal essay brainstorming, I put together this list of criteria that adcoms look for in a b school application and have made notes in a spreadsheet on my strengths and weaknesses (will provide in a later post), and how I plan to either leverage, strengthen or combat them in the next 4 months. A lot of the weaknesses my current application has, such as undergraduate university and years of work experience, I can’t do anything to change, but this exercise has given me the opportunity to start thinking of ways to turn them into somewhat positives if asked via the essay and/or interview.

MBA Admissions Advice: Getting the Behind the Scenes Info

Now that I’ve narrowed down my school selection (see: The Decision) I’ve decided to shift my focus to generating essay ideas while I continue to study for the oh so lovely GMAT. Common themes that I’ve noticed schools ask you to write about have been: short term and long term goals, and most importantly how an MBA from a given program help achieve those goals. An important tip for tackling this type of essay question is using information that goes beyond the school website so my goal for the rest of this month is to gather as much information as I can about the programs I’m applying to and in August start contacting current students and alumni as well as looking for information sessions to attend. If you’re not sure of the essays required for your target schools, GrantMeAdmission has a great comprehensive post for most ranked programs as well as analyses by top consulting firms.

How’s that Checklist Coming…

Okay so is it just me or is the month of June flying by? I swear just a few days ago I was writing my “Goals for June” post. That tells you just how far I got to checking things off of the list… Not far 😦  I tend to be a task oriented person so doing several things at once kind of blows my mind and I like to stay focused on one thing, but with June nearing its end in less than 2 weeks, I plan on doing some serious checking off the next few days. Yay for multitasking.

Travelling all last week really cost me some valuable checks I must say. When I’m in the office, it’s just so much easier to manage my time, but when I’m at the client site, we have so much to do in so little time that I work way longer hours than normal so I hardly had time to do anything but work and eat.. and occasionally sleep. I was able to get alot of GMAT studying done though in the airport thanks to several flight delays. And of course I made time for a few quick workouts in the crappy hotel gym (I had to train for a 5k I was running Saturday morning), but everything else.. not so much. Thank goodness I’m back in the office and in a routine again.

MBA Admissions Advice: Admissions Consulting

Before I seriously considered applying to business schools, I honestly had no idea the amount of applicants that used the services of admissions consultants. It’s reported that at least 1/3 of applicants to top 10 programs admitted to using some form of consulting. When I saw the costs of how much these services cost, I was even more surprised. But I guess, to achieve your goals, you have to be willing to do whatever (or pay whatever) it takes to get there. The more I start to mentally prepare myself for everything I have to do to apply to each of my target schools, the more I realize just how helpful these consultants probably are. If only I had access to an unlimited supply of money to pay them. I have already taken advantage of several free profile evaluations and plan to do so again once I narrow down my school selection and take the GMAT, but I am still unsure whether hiring an admissions consultant is extremely necessary for me at this point. While I can definitely see the pros, especially because I am a young applicant and the guidance would be extremely helpful, I feel like the first time around, I should try it out on my own and if I am unsuccessful, reevaluate my mistakes for next year and then decide if a consultant is necessary.

Goals for June

Ahhh 2 months from today i’ll be sitting for my first (and hopefully only) GMAT exam. I know it’s wishful thinking to believe i’ll only have to take it once and will be extremely satisfied with my initial score, but hey a girl can dream right!?!

As far away as 60 days sounds, when it comes to the b school admissions process, as we all know, there’s so much to do…and then re-do… that no amount of days really seems like enough time. I miss the age when summer meant absolutely nothing to do all day everyday, but alas, those days are far behind us. Below is my checklist of things to accomplish or at least start this month. My initial admissions plan was to completely focus on GMAT studying until the test, but the more i look at advice forums.. and the calendar for that matter… i realize that I don’t want to have only 2 months to start and finish the rest of my admissions applications for my first round choices.

MBA Admissions Advice: Young Applicants

Oh Sundays… The most bittersweet day of the week. There’s church, brunch ( i LOVE breakfast foods), football (during NFL season anyways… hurry up Sept) and just complete relaxation; yet you can’t help but have the thought that tomorrow’s Monday on the back of your mind.

I spent pretty much the whole day procrastinating and studying, but now that my brain has decided to shut down for the night, I have shifted to perusing the internet for B school admission tips. I came across this article on http://www.accepted.com/mba/younger.aspx that is very relevant to my current situation and just thought I would share if anyone else is also planning to apply to top programs with less than 4 years of work experience at matriculation.

Let’s Get Started…

I created this post to blog my journey to applying to MBA programs this fall…

I feel like this is normal for most people in this situation but with all the GMAT studying, B school researching, career mapping, forum reading for tips, and application prepping.. I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed. I’m the type of person that hates being scatterbrained and feeling like i’m being pulled in all different directions and that’s exactly what’s going on right now so i hope this blog helps me and maybe even you organize my thoughts.