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I have leaned over the last past year applying to various EMBA schools a few lessons...

(1) It is all about work experience and career progression (for most schools). Unearth all your successes and stories in these areas and most your essays and interviews will come naturally.

(2) If you visit a class, do the interview in person, go to an open house or two...you help yourself by learning the school, but also by getting to know the admin staff.

(3) When studying for GMAT, we are all busy....just focus on quant if you think that is an issue. If you are a English as second language applicant, focus on verbal. EMBA AdComs, mind less to the overall score and watch where parts of the score could compliment your profile.

(4) Ivy leagues will spend more time on undergrad and GMAT scores....and often very little on WE. Not sure if it was a posture thing or what, but it seemed weird with IVY's (Wharton and Cornell for sure)...exception was may Columbia, which seemed to frown upon non-NYC finance backgrounds (which was not me). My advice.....avoid IVY's.

(5) It had originally seemed to me that the "sponsorship letter" was a simple, binary - my company pays for me or they do not - question. I found that schools were very insistent in having whatever your company's position's be, having signed in ink and mailed. I suspect this due to the economy. Plan on getting your superior to read sign regardless if they are paying or not.

(6) Duke Fugua has by far and away the best pre-applicant quantitative assessments and remedies resources (including access to Fuqua Math professors). And for their admitted submits, probably the best prep and pre-requisite programs I have seen.

(7) I had visited 5 of the top 5 programs and 7 of the top 10 (according to BW) and overall, the two campuses that seemed to have it all together were Kellogg (not surprisingly being #1 for so many years) but also SMU, who has gone from #15, to #13, to #11, to #9 in the most current ranking. It felt like a top 5 EMBA program to me without a doubt.

(SMU Cox is my sleeper school to jump into top-5 with in 5 years).

(8) Is it an off year? I read somewhere on this site that EMBA applications are down 38%. If you ask admissions staffs, they will admit that aps are down. But no where near 38%. The best guess I got from one of my Open House hosts, was that company-sponsored EMBA applicants were down around 38%....but overall aps are down 10-12%....but also coming in later than usual.

(9) The most important I think: the most telling indicator of my success of getting in or not was my interview. Bar-none. Nail the interview people.

Thats all I can say on my process. I hope someone somewhere can take something from this....pls post if you have.

Best,

FB


Since I am sure I will be asked for my stats

Schools:


Cornell: Wait-Listed
Kellogg : Accepted
Duke Fugua: Accepted
SMU Cox: Accepted
Pitt Katz: Accepted, then withdrew
Columbia: Accepted, then withdrew
Georgetown : Wait-Listed, then withdrew
UNC Kenan Flager: Accepted, then withdrew
Chicago Booth: Withdrew
Wharton: Got OK to apply late, but eventually withdrew

accepted 6/10 wow. Its great to see such kind of fellas on BTG . Thanks mate for sharing your lessons-learned.

Great post. Thank you Favin.

Hi Favin-- Great post. Would you be able to clarify which Cornell EMBA program you had been waitlisted to? Is it the Cornell-Queens program or the Cornell EMBA based out of Palisades, NY. I believe that the latter of the two no longer has a GMAT requirement. Based on your "lessons learned, " I was surprised to hear that the Ivy EMBA programs would tend to only hone in on GPA/GMAT as opposed to work experience.

Also, if you don't mind sharing, what are some stats of your background? Thanks in advance!