MBA Admissions Consulting

Why You Shouldn't Shop Your MBA Application Essays Around Too Early

Why You Shouldn't Shop Your MBA Application Essays Around Too Early

Shopping your MBA application essays around to your friends, family, and colleagues may seem like a good idea - but be careful. For several reasons. You have every right to show your MBA application essay around. Most admissions consultants should want you to do that. But here’s the thing - do it at the end.

7 QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN DIALING-IN GOALS USING LINKEDIN

7 QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN DIALING-IN GOALS USING LINKEDIN

The most important thing what every MBA applicant should know before starting their MBA application journey this year: is to know who your audience is. This includes being aware of the yin and yang element in the application process. Let’s bring you closer to create your competitive MBA application using LinkedIn.

How to Identify the Right MBA Program for You

How to Identify the Right MBA Program for You

Finding the best MBA programs in the world is not a difficult task.  To be sure, resources abound which slice, dice and rank top programs from just about every angle imaginable.  The digital age has made this process even easier.  In fact, there is so much data out there, one can quickly get mired down in “analysis paralysis,” in the absence of a perspective.  Your main focus, however, should not be to find the best programs, but rather to find the best programs for you.  How can you do this?

What is your MBA reapplication strategy?

What is your MBA reapplication strategy?

Many schools show favor to re-applicants.  Some say your odds go up 30% when you reapply.  

Advice on How to Navigate the MBA Waitlist

Advice on How to Navigate the MBA Waitlist

Despite the name “waitlist,” there are several things you can do besides simply wait for your dream school to call.  From a strategic standpoint, sitting in a state of limbo gives you the opportunity to improve your profile or status as a candidate, and such improvements can and should be communicated to the admissions committees. 

MBA Application Advice: Paying for Business School

MBA Application Advice: Paying for Business School

Business school is one of the most lucrative of all graduate degrees in its potential and proven history for embellishing salary.  It’s not just in dollars and cents, either, but manifests itself in sheer employment statistics as well.

MBA Application Strategy & Business School Demographics - What We Call "Demo-lition Derby"

MBA Application Strategy & Business School Demographics - What We Call "Demo-lition Derby"

When you charge people thousands of dollars to help them with their MBA applications, you had better be sure to look in every nook and cranny for an advantage. 

We pride ourselves on doing just that and that mentality has allowed us to come up with incredibly helpful strategies for our clients.  Everything from "structure your essays like a Hollywood screenwriter" to "finish your energy strong with a simple shift in body language" to "add an alternate short-term career goal to your first paragraph on your first Columbia essay" has come from a dogged determination and willingness to constantly find advantages. Obviously, most of those advantages are not for public consumption as it would neither be fair to our clients or terribly bright to reveal every "state secret" we have.  That said, there are some tricks and methods that we find ourselves talking about so often on initial consultation calls that we figure no harm can come from letting the whole world know about it.

Today we've got one of those tricks, which we fondly call "demo-lition derby."  

Monday MBA Resource: Knowledge@Wharton Podcast

Monday MBA Resource: Knowledge@Wharton Podcast

Trying something new for Mondays, which is to pass along my favorite MBA resource that I found that weekend.  It's a good way to start the week, a way to get great tools out into the MBA community, and, quite frankly, a good for me to remember these items myself so I can show them to future candidates and corporate clients.  

Today's Resource is the Knowledge@Wharton podcast

Do you pass Stanford GSB's smell test?

Do you pass Stanford GSB's smell test?

If you read our “How to Apply to Harvard Business School” and "How to Apply to Stanford GSB" guides, you already know that cultivating a real reason for applying to an elite MBA goes well beyond the school's name, rank, and prestige.

But more than any other MBA program in the world (yes, even HBS), GSB looks beyond having a great GMAT score, a summa cum laude GPA and a blue chip name as your employer.  While these are respectable measures of a person’s perceived worth, they are not good enough reasons to apply to GSB.

Why is this?