There has been a lot of conversation about this topic over the past few years and I thought I would share some of my thoughts surrounding this GMAT/GRE debate, so you can consider the implications it may have for you if any.
First, let’s define an Early Career MBA program. Unlike traditional and executive MBA programs, Early Career MBA programs are designed for students with zero to three years of professional work experience (most MBA programs expect applicants to have spent more time in the workforce). Students are typically recent college graduates. The curriculum, hands-on applications and career services are geared to help students accelerate their careers and re-enter the workforce with a more competitive skill set.
MBA admissions experts from Veritas Prep discuss what research an applicant can do to determine how well he or she will fit in at a top-ranked school, and how this effort shows through in the business school application.
Gaining admission to a top business school requires that you 1) distinguish yourself from the other applicants and 2) show fit with that school. ”Showing fit” is a nebulous concept that many applicants don’t fully understand. Consider admissions consultant Jim Fleigner’s take on fit and how to identify it.
MBA admissions experts from Veritas Prep discuss what applicants with unusual or non-business backgrounds can do to take advantage of their uniqueness and overcome their weaknesses in the admissions process.
Human nature dictates that amid a competitive application process – exaggerated by the pervasiveness of rankings and the chatter surrounding them – some will perceive that they are ahead of others with an acceptance at a top-school and others will perceive that they are behind their peers with an acceptance from a lower ranked school. What is often lost amid all of the worrying is that you, not your business school, are the independent variable. You, not your school, will determine your success.
You have a 720 and a 3.75 GPA. You have solid career progress and glowing recommendations. You have been actively volunteering in your community for years. You worked hard on your application and got your interviews, where you felt you did well. And…. You did not get in. So, you must have done something terribly wrong in your interview, right? You must have unwittingly made a mess of your essays, right? Your profile is strong so your execution is off, right? Not necessarily.
It might seem ironic to some that formal management experience is not a prerequisite for getting into a top MBA program. It is important to keep in mind that an MBA education is for those who aspire to become managers and is not necessarily exclusive to those who already are managers. So, if you are fretting about the fact that you have not had any subordinates to date and feel that overseeing a staff is a prerequisite to getting in to a top program, you are adhering to a myth and should worry no more. Instead, think about how you have simply excelled in your position and made the most of the leadership opportunities before you.
What could be more nerve-wracking than applying to business school without a job? After all, how can you reveal your strong management traits if you are struggling to manage your own career? Well, your internal voice need not be that cruel. Thousands upon thousands of people—and indeed, thousands of MBA applicants—have been negatively affected by the implosion of Wall Street firms, the decline of the automakers, the real estate bust and more. If you had been laid off and unable to find a job during the boom, that might have made a statement about your desirability to employers and thus as an MBA candidate, but this is 2010, and having been laid off now is hardly a scarlett letter. If the top MBA programs were to shun anyone who had been laid off and then gotten back on his or her feet, or anyone who has been laid off and has not yet found his or her new path, then they would certainly miss out on some tremendously talented and accomplished people.
There are dozens of business school rankings out there. In this video, Jose Ferreira, the founder of Knewton, tells you which ones are worthwhile—and which ones to skip. He also points to a fascinating feature behind those rankings: the strong correlation between students’ GMAT scores and their first-year, post-MBA salaries. As Jose explains, a high GMAT score is money in the bank. He’ll show you exactly why the toughest business schools are worth shooting for. Read More
These days, it is common for us to receive panicked phone calls from applicants who are twenty-six years of age, asking if they are too old to get into business school. Why is that? Well, for much of the last decade, several top schools have declared their openness to younger candidates and have even been courting them. Harvard Business School has welcomed “direct-admits” those entering immediately after completing their undergraduate degrees — and started the 2+2 program — to encourage undergraduates to consider deferred acceptance. (Today, 439 members of HBS’s Class of 2011, or about 46% of the class, matriculated at HBS with four years of work experience or less.) Chicago Booth followed suit, launching the Chicago-Booth Scholars Program, granting deferred admission to University of Chicago seniors, and the Early Career Candidate program to attract students with one to three years of experience. While the Stanford GSB does not publish an average age, it does state that its median work experience is four years. So, if you are an “older” candidate at 27, 28, 29, or — dare we even write — 30, should you even bother applying?
Columbia Business School (CBS) recently welcomed Mary Miller as its new assistant dean of admissions. Miller brings almost 30 years of experience in the admissions field. She comes to CBS from the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she managed MBA admissions, student affairs and career services as associate dean from 2002 to 2009. She also served as associate dean of MBA admissions at New York University’s Stern School of Business for several years and as director of undergraduate programs at the College of Business Administration at the University of Iowa.
Miller joins CBS as part of its recent move to combine admissions for the MBA and Executive MBA degree programs. Linda Meehan, who previously headed MBA admissions at the school, will remain active at CBS but will focus more of her attention on alumni affairs, Miller tells us.
Clear Admit caught up with Miller for an interview about her new role and about the overall admissions process at CBS. A transcript of the discussion follows.
You look around your office and think to yourself: “I wish he were not applying to the same school as I am. They can’t take two people who sit at the same desk. Also, his GPA is .15 higher.” On the surface, this reasoning seems logical and it can thus be the cause of anxiety for some candidates, especially those who are in positions where an MBA is virtually a must to move forward (consulting, banking). However, not to worry, there are two significant flaws in this thinking:
You applied once and did not get in. It took a lot of effort and caused a lot of heartache. Now what do you do? You can’t really apply again to those schools, can you? What is the point? They already rejected you once, so they will next time, right? WRONG.
Often, when speaking to a student interested in applying to an MBA program—any MBA program—I find myself doing a bit of psychological counseling when we get to the undergraduate record evaluation. This is not necessarily because the student has a below-average UGPA, which sometimes is the case; no, what I find myself doing the most is arguing with the student as to the validity of their undergraduate major. Oftentimes, the first words out of a student’s mouth will be, “Okay, we need to do some damage control. I was an English major in college,” or “I know this is going to hurt me, but I was a psychology major.” These humanities, liberal arts, and social sciences students start committing academic hara-kiri before I even look at their transcripts. On the flip side, most students with economics, business, or business administration majors soar in to the process with an over-inflated sense of the merit of their academic credentials: “I know my GPA’s a little low, but I was a business major, so I’ve got that going for me.” Of course, this is not the case for all of my students, on either end of the spectrum—but I see this often enough that I thought it would be interesting to do a brief study and actually see if I could pinpoint that ever-ephemeral answer to the age-old MBA question: Which undergrad major or majors actually improve admissions chances—and which don’t?
What I found out was very interesting.
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Online MBA programs are popping up from coast to coast, catering to professionals who want to get an MBA degree on their own time. These online MBAs have sparked a significant amount of discussion and dialogue about the quality of the online education and the acceptance of such degrees among businesses today. Join us as we talk with the experts to explore the educational value of an online MBA, the criteria by which to judge online MBA programs and the reception among recruiters.
