What is the Ideal Age to Get an MBA?
How Much Does Community Involvement Matter?
One of the most contentious components of a business school application is the part where you detail your involvement in activities outside of work. Every year, hopeful b-school applicants face down the ghost of a busy career, one which often haunts them with the fact they have had very little time to do anything other than drive work results in their job since they graduated. But how much does it really matter to the admissions committees whether or not you are engaged in your community?
Can You Get a Second MBA?
Did you get your MBA degree years ago? Or did you perhaps get your MBA from a school that didn’t live up to your expectations? Wouldn’t you like to get a do-over? Every year, we see applicants who already have an MBA degree, but who have decided to try and go back to get the degree again. Some find this to be more challenging than they realized.
Can I Still Hit My Goals With a One-Year MBA?
The Paramount Importance of the MBA Internship
2017 MBA Application Trends
Who is Reading Your B-school Application?
One mistake applicants often make is to misunderstand their audience. When crafting a winning MBA application package there is much to consider, but how much thought have you given to who will actually read your essays? Who is analyzing your resume? Common sense may dictate that an essay about going to a top MBA program should be crafted for an MBA crowd, but did you know that most essay readers at the top schools never attended an MBA program and don’t have an MBA themselves? Remembering this in the application process can help you communicate your story in a much more effective way to the adcom. Read on for tips…
Where Should You Live During B-School
Ok so there’s lots to talk this time of year regarding school selection, application strategy, essay writing, recommendations, and resumes, but let’s daydream for a minute that you have been accepted into your school of choice. Have you considered yet how you will make the move to business school and where you will live? It’s not a bad idea to start thinking about this lifestyle choice early in the process.
Should I Work While Getting an MBA
For most applicants, the thought of quitting a well-paying job and committing to full time graduate school is a scary one indeed. Especially if you have spent a little too much on Starbucks and Spotify since graduating college, you may find yourself a little short on cash—and it takes a heck of a lot of cash to pay for an MBA. With price tags more than $120,000 in most cases, the thought of continuing to work in some way while embarking on an MBA program might be tempting. Not so fast, type-A grasshopper.
The Real Cost of Going Back For Your MBA
For most young professionals considering an MBA, the decision to go back is an easy one. Whether you are stalling out in your current career or are progressing so rapidly, you can hardly be stopped, the appeal of a prestigious MBA degree can be almost too alluring to resist in order to boost the earnings trajectory of your financial future. But at what cost?
The Part time-Full time MBA Jobs Battle
One of the main challenges at the schools with both part time and full time programs has nothing to do with rankings, but rather with job placement. Getting your MBA is mostly about landing that dream job at the end, and the last thing a graduating MBA needs to worry about is whether or not they will be able to land one. But this can sometimes be exactly the challenge at schools with large part time programs. In fact, since these schools often have a far larger part time program than their full time program, there is sometimes a glut of graduating MBAs at these schools who are competing against each other for jobs from both tracks.
MBA Networking Tips
We have established that MBA networking should begin well before business school and that some schools have better networking than others. What we haven’t really covered yet, are the nuts and bolts of networking and how you go about doing it effectively. Below is a baker’s dozen tips for building a network which will pay dividends as you apply to business school, as you attend business school and as you dive into your post MBA career…
The Value of Your Unique Perspective in MBA Applications
I was working on our Michigan Ross Strategy Memo over the weekend, when it occurred to me just how overlooked a "unique perspective" is when it comes to MBA applications. Even here at Amerasia, where we work hard to push our clients away from thinking in terms of "impress the reader" and towards "connect with the reader," we sometimes lose sight of how just what an easy and effective way that can be to frame introspective writing. Because Michigan Ross has the MAP program and everything funnels towards what perspective you bring to the class, it became a good reminder and something that felt worthy of passing along.
How Good is Your Target School's MBA Network?
A business school’s network is usually one of the top reasons someone chooses an MBA program. Leveraging both the b-school and also other alumni from a particular school can pay dividends when advancing your post-MBA career, so wisely considering which school will meet your needs in that area is a critical component of the b-school selection process.
Don't Wait for B-School to Start Networking
One of the best payoffs for attending a good MBA program is the instant network you receive around the world through all the living alumni from your school. You not only obtain access to alumni from the b-school, but also to undergraduate alumni as well. This network can benefit you well beyond landing your first job or two, and will pay dividends throughout your entire career.
Keeping a Journal for MBA Applicants
We can all likely remember our high school days when our English or Lit teacher required us to keep a journal. The painstaking process of writing down what you did every day typically found everyone frantically making up journal entries the night before it was due, since most had bypassed the daily ritual in favor of the other distractions of youth. Your English teacher was on to something, however, and for those who are disciplined enough to keep a daily log of your thoughts and adventures can find it easier to lay the introspective groundwork that is required for a good MBA application. Why?
What Flavor MBA Suits 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?
Advice on Selecting Recommenders for B-school Applications
