B-School Round 3 vs. Next Year: Which Is The Better Option? - Poets&Quants

Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut answer to this question. However, the chances of being accepted go down as the rounds advance. Therefore, the possibility of acceptance in Round 3 is lower than it is in Rounds 1 or 2. There are also fewer grants and scholarships available in later admissions rounds.

But don’t pack up your application materials just yet. You still have a chance of being admitted if you apply, while your chance is reduced to ZERO if you don’t. Working with an admissions consultant can help you make your application stand out and get you admitted, no matter which round you apply in.

Here are 4 reasons to apply in Round 3:

1. You have your heart set on joining the Class of 2020. If you feel that it’s now or never for you to attend b-school, you should absolutely apply R3, or even R4 if your program has that option.
2. You are an exceptional candidate. If you have the stats, experience, and qualities that the admissions committee is looking for, then you should apply in the later rounds. Since there are, of course, some students admitted in R3 and R4, you may be one of them with your impressive profile.
3. You have plenty of time, money, and energy. If you can handle going through the arduous process now and then again during next year’s R1 (if this round doesn’t work out), then you don’t have anything to lose. Any feedback you get (if you get rejected) can be very useful when you apply next year.
4. You have a plan to improve your chances of acceptance. Our clients sometimes find that they don’t get into their “reach” schools, and decide to apply to programs where they have a better chance of being accepted.

There are also 6 reasons to wait for the next R1:

1. Your essay needs more work. If you don’t have time to perfect your essay before the R3 deadline, wait for next year. Our clients have a greater probability of acceptance by waiting and applying with flawless essays than by rushing and submitting disorderly essays in R3.
2. You’re going to take the GMAT again. If your GMAT score needs improvement, then you should wait until you’ve had time to study and retake the exam. Hopefully, your result will be higher, making your chance of acceptance better.
3. Your recommenders haven’t completed their letters. You want to have the best recommendations possible for R3/R4. You’re better off waiting for next year and have the most impressive recommendations possible.
4. Your work experience is lacking. Taking the extra time will allow you to gain more work experience and chances for things to write about in your personal profile.
5. You’re not sure about your goals. A strong applicant needs to demonstrate clarity about their goals and reasons for wanting to attend a specific b-school. While waiting for R1, you can do some serious soul-searching and will be better equipped to provide well-thought-out responses to application essay questions.
6. You’re an international student. Today’s environment is making it more difficult for international students to receive the visas they need to attend U.S. b-schools. Wait until you have all of your paperwork in order. You don’t want to be rejected because of a missing visa.

Not sure which round is the best round for you? Check out Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an application expert who will help you get ACCEPTED – at the ideal time for you!

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Linda Abraham is the founder of Accepted, the premier admissions consultancy. She has coached MBA applicants to acceptance for over 20 years. The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, and Poets&Quants are among the media outlets that seek her admissions expertise.

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6 Items To Check Before Submitting Your MBA Application - Poets&Quants

You’ve spent hours on your MBA app and are anxious to submit it. Go over it once more to be sure that you’ve checked each of the following items:

 1.  Your app paints a complete picture of you.

Review your application to ensure that every section shows you in the best light. The adcoms want to get a clear picture of who you are and how you will fit in with their other MBA students. Be sure that all of the information in your application is accurate, and that each section matches the others. Each section is a piece of the puzzle that, when complete, shows a picture of the unique person you are.

2.  You have demonstrated to the adcoms why you should be admitted to their MBA program.

Adcoms want to get to know you to determine your fit with their program. Showing what you will gain from the program, as well as what you will contribute to it, will demonstrate your perfect fit. Demonstrating fit is not always an easy thing. Many MBA applicants make use of MBA admissions consulting services to get this just right.

3.  Your letters of recommendation are spot-on.

There are 2 parts to this.

• You need to choose the best people to complete the recommendations. Be sure to select people who you are well-acquainted with and who can provide specific instances demonstrating the characteristics they say you have.
• Be sure that your recommenders have completed the paperwork and submitted it before the deadline. Make sure that their recommendations are what you need and expected.

4.  Another person has reviewed your personal statements.

Ask someone you trust – a family member, friend, or professional editor – to read your statements and make suggestions. Take any criticism in a constructive manner. You want to correct errors BEFORE you submit your app. It’s much better to have your friend find mistakes than the adcom. Reading your personal statement out loud will also help you catch errors.

5.  You have proofread your whole application.

Your personal statement isn’t the only part of your application that needs proofing. Take the time to go over all the sections of your application for spelling, grammatical, or stylistic mistakes. Be sure that all sections are complete and that your response matches the question asked. Your application should look neat and clean, be easy to read, and is error-free. This is not the place to use your creativity with fonts. Use a font and size that is easy on the eyes. You want to make your application one that is simple to get through.

6.  Give yourself time.

Don’t wait until the last possible moment to complete your application. Rushing through the process will lead to errors and not enough time to do a thorough edit. Give yourself a deadline to submit your app few days before the actual deadline. Sending in your completed, proofread, edited application before the deadline shows that you’re submitting because you’re ready and not because you don’t have a choice. Getting your application in early gives the adcoms the opportunity to spend the time on it that your hard work deserves before the avalanche of last-minute apps descends on them.

If you’ve gone over all of these items, you can submit your application with confidence that it’s the best it can be.

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Do you need help ensuring that each of these items are totally complete before you check them off and hit that “Submit” button? Check out Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an admissions expert who will help you get ACCEPTED.

Linda Abraham is the founder of Accepted, the premier admissions consultancy. She has coached MBA applicants to acceptance for over 20 years. The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, and Poets&Quants are among the media outlets that seek her admissions expertise.

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13 Rules For Writing A Great MBA Admissions Resume - Poets&Quants

Your resume is an integral part of your business school application. It is a summary of your work and volunteer experience, as well as your education.

Your MBA resume is also usually the first thing the admissions committee will look at, and serves as an introduction to you; so it’s imperative to make a lasting, positive impression.

Follow these 13 rules to create a resume that will give the adcom the best first impression of you possible:

1. Unless you have more than 10 years of work experience, keep your resume to one page.  

The vast majority of top-tier business schools prefer one-page resumes. The only exceptions to this rule are having more than 10 years of work experience, or a major accomplishment that requires more space. Otherwise, do as the admissions committees prefer, and keep it to one page.

2. Make your qualifications summary the first thing on your resume. 

This is the first thing the admissions officer will read and should highlight your most notable and remarkable experiences and accomplishments. Be sure that this summary is written in an easy to read format, like bullet points or by using bold text. This will draw your reader’s attention to your qualifications and achievements and make them want to learn more about you.

Things to include in your summary:

• • A brief personal and/or career record. For example, receiving more than the expected number of promotions in a given time period.
  • Highlights of your accomplishments. This may include a project that you initiated and successfully led.
  • Things in your past that relate to the program you’re applying to. You can include anything that will set you apart from others applying for the same program.

3. Emphasize your achievements, not your responsibilities. 

Don’t use up space repeating your job title as a responsibility. Analysts analyze and consultants consult. There is no reason to repeat this. Your resume will be much more impressive when you talk about what you achieved in your position.

4. Quantify the effect you’ve had on the businesses you’ve worked for, and be specific. 

Incorporate information detailing how much or by how many you changed something. By what percentage did you increase sales? How many people did you supervise? Don’t say that you led a team, but let the admissions committee know that you were in charge of a 10-person team that increased sales by 30% in three months.

5. Emphasize your most recent experience. 

You want to give your current position the most space. Remember that you want to keep your entire resume to one page, so keep your information to around four bulleted achievements. If your most recent position is relatively new, emphasize the achievements from the previous one. Hopefully you won’t have to go back more than one year to do this.

6. List the company name and dates of employment. 

If you had promotions while at a given job, list these as bullet points under the company. Listing each one as a separate job detracts from the impact receiving promotions should get.

7. Stress leadership whenever you can. 

Leadership is usually thought of as being in charge of a project. It can also manifest itself by being able to get others to work on a project that’s important to you. Think of the different ways that you exhibited leadership in each of your positions. Try to express your leadership in ways that benefit the company you worked for.

8. Leave high school in the past. 

Unless you won an important award or had an exceptional achievement, don’t take up important space with high school activities.

9. Put work experience, and then educational information. 

If you have more than two years of work experience, this should go before your education. There is no need to include your academic stats, as they are already on your application.

10. Use verbs to start every bullet point.

Verbs make you think of action and doing things. Use verbs like assist, support, provide, or contribute whenever possible.

11. Make your resume easy to read. 

Sophistication is the key. This is not the place to show your individuality or personality. A traditional font, with a font size of 10-point or larger will be appreciated by the admissions committee.

12. Incorporate things that will set you apart.

Include awards, publications, professional licenses and organizations, and volunteer positions. Remember that your space is limited, so include only the most impressive ones.

13. Proofreading and editing are important.

Misspelled words and grammatical errors are definite no-nos. Don’t count on spell check to find your errors; after you have proofread and corrected your resume, ask a friend or
professional proofreader to review your resume. They may find mistakes that you missed.

Do you need help making your resume the one the admissions committee will remember? Learn more about how Accepted can help you write an outstanding resume by checking out their MBA resume Package.

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Linda Abraham is the founder of Accepted, the premier admissions consultancy. She has coached MBA applicants to acceptance for over 20 years. The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, and Poets&Quants are among the media outlets that seek her admissions expertise.

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3 Tools To Help You Determine B-School Fit - Poets&Quants

How do you decide which of the many MBA programs out there is the right one for you? We will help you discover which schools have the mysterious “fit” that will make them your perfect match.

What is Fit?

Fit is determined by the relationship between your needs and wants and what a program offers. What are the particulars that you’re seeking in an MBA program? Are these available at your target schools? But remember: Fit goes both ways. You also need to be sure that you have qualities that your target schools are looking for.

Preparing and submitting B-school applications uses a lot of your limited resources — time, energy, and money. Sending applications to programs where your fit is not good can be a drain on these resources, and will probably not lead to acceptance at that school. Many students make use of an admissions consultant even before submitting their applications. These consultants will steer you toward schools that are a good fit for you, increasing your chances of admission.

Here are three tools to find an MBA program that’s the right fit for you:

1. Assess your career goals and your academic needs.

Look at the scholastic and research opportunities at your target schools and see if they’re in line with how you envision your future. Contact currently matriculating students and graduates of the programs and talk to them about their experiences at the school, their goals, and work possibilities/careers. Make sure that there are classes or tracks that address areas important to your career goals. If you plan to change careers after you receive your MBA, taking classes in your new area of interest — and letting the B-school know that you got straight A’s in the classes — can make you a better fit.

2. Assess what makes you an outstanding MBA candidate.

Take the time to look at the websites of your target schools, especially at the class profiles. Be sure your stats and years of work experience compare favorably to the school’s parameters. If you have a GMAT score of 620, GPA of 3.0, and two years of work under your belt, you will probably be a poor fit with a school seeking applicants with a 700 GMAT, a 3.5 GPA, and five years of work experience.

3. Examine the intangibles.

Think about your conversations with current students and graduates. Can you envision yourself working, flourishing, and being part of a team with them? If your answer is yes, then you could have an excellent fit with this program. Not all schools have the same attitude and style of teaching. Look at how you learn and see if the way they view education fits with your learning style. If possible, visit the program and sit in on several classes. If you feel comfortable with the school’s teaching methods and philosophy, that’s two more checks in the positive fit column. Other things to consider include the size of the classes, how approachable the professors are, and the environment of the school (the size of the school, location in a big city or more rural area, etc.), all of which will help determine fit.`

Deciding which factors are important to you, and weighing each of them, will enable you to determine each school’s fit for you. Remember that fit is qualitative. Each trait that you’re looking for at a given school has a different weight. There are some that you won’t compromise on, while others may be on a more fluid scale. Determine which schools are most in line with your personality and where you see yourself after graduation.

Using these three tools and determining the schools with the right fit before completing your applications can save you time, energy, and money during the application process and will assure that you don’t spend two years in a program that’s wrong for you. The goal is to find the program that is an excellent fit for you, and where you are an excellent fit.

Do you want the help of an expert admissions consultant to guide you through the crucial steps of evaluating your profile, researching schools, and determining fit with your target programs? Check out Accepted’s MBA Admissions Services to see how you can get ACCEPTED to the B-school of your dreams.

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How To Define Your Post-MBA Goals - Poets&Quants

Why is the MBA goals essay so vital to your B-school application? Because it helps top schools determine which candidates have a real vision of their future and how an MBA will help them achieve these goals.

Where does this leave you if you don’t know what your post-MBA goals are? What are you to do if you want to change careers and have the skills that a B-school program will give you, but don’t know precisely what career you want after graduation? Lastly, should you spend valuable time trying different jobs or observing people in various professions in order to apply with a definite MBA goal? Or should you risk applying to B-school with an undefined goal?

Understanding Your MBA Goal is Not Optional!

Your post-MBA goals are what should guide you during the MBA application process, especially when choosing schools to apply to. Knowing your post-MBA direction is not just useful, it’s mandatory. You must clarify why you want to spend your time and money pursuing an MBA prior to applying. Not having a definite goal could turn your MBA investment into a huge expense that leaves you only marginally better off than before you started. Many applicants turn to an admissions consultant. These experts can help you define your goals and express them in ways that will make your application stand out.

Here are four things you can do to help you determine your goal:

1. Spend time evaluating your current and past jobs. What did you like and dislike about each one? Write down what you would like more or less of.
2. Have a conversation with individuals in jobs that are appealing to you, as well as with people whose jobs are in different areas than yours. Find ways to connect with people you know who have jobs that interest you and ask questions about those jobs.
3. Think about hiring a career counselor. This person will interview you and point you in the right direction.
4. Once you have eliminated unrealistic goals, check out career listings at large companies in the fields that interest you. Study the profiles of some younger employees hired for positions that are attractive to you and use your networking skills to make an appointment to talk to them.

Not having a clear goal will leave the admissions committee wondering why you’re so interested in getting an MBA. They will also be worried that you will have a difficult time locating an internship and eventually a full-time position once you’ve started the program, since you don’t have a direction to follow. While they understand that goals can change over the course of your studies, you need to be flexible, but not oblivious.

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Do you need personalized help defining your post-MBA goal and writing your essay? Accepted’s expert admissions consultants can help you determine your goal and write an essay that will get you ACCEPTED. Get started by exploring our catalog of MBA Admissions Services.

Linda Abraham is the founder of Accepted, the premier admissions consultancy. She has coached MBA applicants to acceptance for over 20 years. The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, and Poets&Quants are among the media outlets that seek her admissions expertise.

The post How To Define Your Post-MBA Goals appeared first on Poets&Quants.

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What Should You Do If You Belong To An Over-Represented MBA Applicant Group? - Poets&Quants

I recently received a question — more of a complaint — from a client who was concerned with his status as an Indian IT male. This individual was considering changing his location on his application; he was born, raised, and still lived in India, but his family had lived in Zurich for four years, starting when he was six, and he wanted to focus on that. He also wanted to highlight his job as a restaurant manager, rather than his extensive experience and education in IT.

I get questions like this all the time, so I thought it would be appropriate to post the answer that I gave this particular young man:

B-schools have been known to “group” applicants in ethnic, gender, and professional categories for administrative purposes, but that certainly does not mean that they are accepting and rejecting candidates based solely on those labels and groupings.

Moving beyond labels — if you can do it, so can the adcom

The purpose of the admissions process is to allow the admissions committee an opportunity to get to know you as an individual — beyond labels. It’s your job to show the adcom that you are not simply another face in the crowd of Indian (or American, for that matter) IT males, but that you are a unique, category-less group of ONE. You are not Indian, not American, not American Indian, not Indian American, not IT, and not male; you are YOU.

Don’t get hung up on the group or the label. Instead, focus on ways you can draw out your individuality. It is true that you will need to work on this harder than, say, an entrepreneurial woman from a village in the Himalayas, but that’s not to say it can’t be done.

Come to life with a strong, passionate essay

By constructing killer essays that come alive with your personality, your diverse interests and talents, and your not-to-be-overlooked strengths and passions, you’ll prove that your candidacy is equal in competitiveness to our Himalayan applicant.

That was my response to our Indian IT male friend, but it can be applied to anyone who is getting bogged down in the labels and losing focus on the process of individuating. Think about what sets you apart from your group.

Highlight your uniqueness

Highlight your uniqueness in your essays, and the adcoms will get a clear look at how you — not your group — will contribute to your chosen MBA program or profession.

Here are some suggestions of how you can achieve this:

• Talk about some of your non-work hobbies/volunteer work/passions and how the experience you’ve gained from that involvement has led to your interest in a graduate business degree. For example, in addition to your IT day job, you volunteer in an inner-city public school, and your passion in that work has led you to explore the field of management and edtech.
• Discuss some of the less-obvious skills that you may have acquired from your field. For example, you may be in IT, but in designing an online trading platform, you’ve learned a whole lot about finance.
• Focus on the stability of your “typical” background, and how your mastery of the industry has inspired you to test yourself and push yourself to new heights. For example, you’ve been working in your family business since you were a teenager, and are ready to make real waves and disrupt the status quo with the skill that you’re seeking in business school.

Last but not least, don’t stress. Just because you are an Indian IT guy (or a member of some other common subgroup in the applicant pool), doesn’t mean that you don’t possess other unique qualities that will make you an attractive candidate at top B-schools.

You are unique, whether you realize it or not, and Accepted’s expert admissions consultants can help you identify your individuality and highlight it in your applications. Check out Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services to learn how we can help you stand out from the crowd and get accepted to business school!

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Linda Abraham is the founder of Accepted, the premier admissions consultancy. She has coached MBA applicants to acceptance for over 20 years. The Wall Street Journal, US News, and Poets & Quants are among the media outlets that seek her admissions expertise

 

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How To Secure Excellent Letters Of Recommendation - Poets&Quants

Some applicants have this idea that if they can just get their company CEO, whom they have never met, to write their business school recommendation, then the admissions committee will be in awe and immediately accept them. But this is really not the case. You want your letters of recommendation to stand out, and to make admissions committees sit up and take notice. At Accepted, we always tell our clients that letters really only stand out (in a good way, at least) if the person who writes your recommendation knows you well and is able to speak honesty. This is why we also suggest to our clients to waive their right to access the recommendations. The waiver makes the recommendations more credible to the admissions committee.

What are Some Elements of a BAD Letter of Recommendation?

Before we look at what makes an excellent recommendation, let’s consider what makes a bad one. A bad LOR is one that is:

• Written by someone that does not know you well (like a CEO),
• Full of assertions about what a good person you are, but gives no evidence to back up those assertions, and/or,
• A generic write-up full of platitudes that does not seem genuine.

If your recommender doesn’t know you well, they’ll be more likely to write generic letters that lack details about your professional achievements and wonderful personality.

What are Some Elements of an AMAZING Letter of Recommendation?

A great recommendation, on the other hand…

• • Is written by someone who knows your work very well,
  • Includes examples of impressive contributions that provide evidence of your leadership skill, teamwork ability, and business acumen, and,

• Incorporates great stories of your work that you had completely forgotten or taken for granted.

These recommenders write about what’s important to them, and therefore give great third-person points of view about your candidacy to the admissions committee, which is exactly what the committee wants.

The Who, When, What, Where, and How of Scoring an Excellent Recommendation

Who?

Who are the best people to address the questions the schools are asking? Who are the best people to affirm what you say and also add information that you don’t have the chance to include in your application essays?

Your recommender should be a supervisor, a colleague, or a client. Be sure that you have developed a strong relationship with your recommender prior to “the ask.” Don’t choose someone who simply has a big title or happens to be an alumnus at the school, thinking that this will carry weight with the admissions committee, because in our experience reviewing these types of letters, that person will likely write something generic that will not help you.

Also, try to select a range of recommenders – ones who have seen you in different situations – so that they don’t all end up saying the same things about you or using the same stories. For example, choosing your supervisor and that person’s supervisor is rarely a good strategy, because they’ve seen you work on the same projects from the same point of view. The admissions committee wants views of you from different angles; they don’t want the same point of view given two or three times.

When?

When should you ask your recommender to write your letter of recommendation? You should make your request at least six weeks prior to your anticipated date of submission. Everyone will face delays, so allow for them. Six weeks should give your recommender enough time to:

• Review your preparation materials (see What? below)
• Meet with you for the request (in person if possible)
• Meet again to give the packet of information that you will provide (see What? below)
• Meet again to ask any questions they may have for you

 What?

What the recommender submits should be on the unique e-form each school provides the recommender and needs to answer the questions each school asks. You will add the recommenders’ contact information on your application, and the school will send your recommender a link. Many of these documents can be written in Word and then uploaded.

Regardless of how the letter is delivered, you need to give your recommender a packet of information to use to help them answer the questions. Often the questions will ask about your leadership in relation to your peers or when your recommender offered you criticism and how you received it. The latter question has been problematic for many recommenders. We suggest that the recommender think about the question in a different way: rather than thinking about a weakness, think about the time the recommender “offered the candidate advice and how the candidate acted on that advice.”

Your recommender may ask you to write the letter, and they’ll sign it when you’re done. Put aside the likelihood that the admissions committee will recognize your writing style and discount the recommendation accordingly; the problem is that if you write your own recommendation, you’ll just write things you already know about yourself, or repeat things from your essays, and it’s a recommendation that brings out new things about you that works well. You need to stand your ground and say, “the school really wants your honest perspective, and I would be so grateful to you for your original work.”

However, you can coach your recommender by providing the following:

• A list of the schools you are applying to and why
• A copy of your resume
• Your goal statement
• Additional items you want your recommender to cover, like achievements or items you can’t cover in your essays but that the recommender can elaborate on
• A request to highlight achievements that may counteract a negative – like your communication skills if you have a low verbal score or a quantitative achievement if you have a low quant score

All of the statements a recommender makes should be backed up with evidence (a story) to make it more interesting and hammer home the point of the recommendation.

Many recommendations also offer grids where the recommender ranks the applicant in different areas. Your recommender should be honest.

Where?

Where your recommender writes the recommendation is only important in that it is in a quiet place, with at least an hour to dedicate to it. If your recommender says they don’t have the time to write the recommendation, try booking a one-hour appointment with them (after you’ve given them the packet of materials needed to write the recommendation) and then tell the recommender you’d like them to use this hour to write the recommendation.

How?

How does your potential recommender respond to your request for a recommendation? If they say that they can’t write a strong letter for you, you need to find another recommender. If they enthusiastically say “yes!” you’ve got a winner.

Do you or your recommender need advice? Accepted’s LOR services aim to guide both the applicant and the recommender to create the strongest possible letter of recommendation for your target program. View Accepted’s Letter of Recommendation Services for more information.

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Linda Abraham is the founder of Accepted, the premier admissions consultancy. She has coached MBA applicants to acceptance for over 20 years. The Wall Street Journal, US News, and Poets & Quants are among the media outlets that seek her admissions expertise

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