Help needed for defining "Goals"

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Help needed for defining "Goals"

by rjain5 » Wed Apr 04, 2012 7:18 am
I applied for B-schools this year and received a rejection letter from all of them! I am sad, but wiser now.

I did not jump onto the bandwagon until late September in 2011 and didn't realize that applying for an MBA is much more than choosing a school, going through its website, getting in touch with a couple of students and/or attending webinars hosted by schools and admission consultants. I missed the most important thing...visiting schools and letting the adcom know who I am. Instead of being just an anonymous application, I should have made efforts to provide the adcom a face and personality to go with the application. ANYWAY, I have a strategy now and I would like to get everyone's input as I plow through this strategy.

#1: define my GOALS, post MBA and long term
#2: find schools that can complement my goals
#3: visit the schools and show my face
#4: apply to the schools

In the meantime - strengthen my profile
#1: add WE that will match my goals, either at work or as a volunteer
#2: add extracurricular activities that show leadership potential
#3: enroll in quant course to augment my liberal arts background

So, here is my first post asking for help on 'Defining my Goals!'
(I will follow up with more posts asking for advice on other items.)

Me: I am an urban planner working at the City of Lincoln (municipality) in the U.S. My undergraduate degree is from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and I have a Master's from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. I have about 3-4 years of full-time experience as an urban planner. A snapshot of what an urban planner does or what I have done - we create plans, strategies, policies and general guidelines for how a city should grow; based on its people, culture, society, politics, economics, and the expected future. At the same time, we also create zoning/land codes that uphold the plans we made. I didn't work for very long in India so I am a little low on what urban planners do in India, but from what my friends tell me, it's a lot similar, except people work in more niche subjects like transportation or environment etc.

Now my reasons for an MBA are - use my experience of strategies and plan creation for ground level economic development. I am however, having trouble framing it as a sentence that makes sense in the business world. It can probably translate as general management in high-level government or public-private entities that are involved in economic development.

HELP: How can I define my goals, both short term and long term, which will be easy to read for the Adcom?

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by Jon@Admissionado » Fri Apr 06, 2012 2:33 am
The best way you can help your goals is to BE SPECIFIC. If the AdCom is to gain access to your goals and your vision as a leader they need to SEE what you want to do. So that means that "I want an MBA to join my Urban planning knowledge with business" will NOT make the cut. BUT if you write something, "I plan on building on my four years of Transport infrastructure planning, and applying it to India's pressing transport needs (give some growth statistics here) by becoming CEO of Planning Board of India" then I say "aha! this dude REALLY knows what he wants!" And this really the first key to defining your goals - make it unique, specific and related to YOU.
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by money9111 » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:58 am
I'd also be curious to see your essays/recommendations. Did you get interviews from any of these schools? Crafting a proper b-school essay is a very arduous process and there's definitely a way to word things that you've already done in such a way that it catches the adcom's eyes - as evidenced by precision's example.
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by money9111 » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:59 am
I'd also be curious to see your essays/recommendations. Did you get interviews from any of these schools? Crafting a proper b-school essay is a very arduous process and there's definitely a way to word things that you've already done in such a way that it catches the adcom's eyes - as evidenced by precision's example.
My goal is to make MBA applicants take onus over their process.

My story from Pre-MBA to Cornell MBA - New Post in Pre-MBA blog

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by myEssayReview » Wed Apr 18, 2012 4:06 pm
I absolutely agree with Jon- you need to be specific and realistic about your goals. Your goals should have a logical connection with your past work-experience and your need to do an MBA from your target school.

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