Applying for your MBA? What Matters Most on the Path to Admissions

I'll never forget how nervous I was when I was first started applying for my MBA. The whole process can feel like a terrifying experience when you first start applying to schools, but should you put in the work and time, you'll be accepted to a great program and on your way to obtaining your MBA in no time.

Looking back, I wish I had someone to help me get through the MBA application process. Don't get wrong; the application itself wasn't hard to figure out. The most difficult process was knowing what areas I should focus the most energy on, whether it be my GMAT scores, letters of recommendation, work experiences, or volunteer time. If you're about to start the MBA application process, here are four areas you should focus on the most.

Work Experiences

It's easy to say you have an interest in something; it's an entirely different story to prove that you do. Before turning in your MBA application, make sure to draw attention to any and all work experiences that indicate you have a strong interest in business administration. People with all different kinds of majors eventually decide to get their MBA, but what matters most to admissions is what you did with your degree(s) after college. If you have absolutely no work experience, perhaps it would be a good idea to take a job at an evolving, ambitious company for a while and mention that unique experience when you decide to apply for your MBA the second time around.

Letters of Recommendation

On paper, we can make ourselves sound fantastic, but without people to back us up, we are just spouting a bias point of view. Whenever you're applying for your MBA, seek out those teachers, mentors, and colleagues who inspired you to drive forward in your career and ask them to write your letters of recommendation. It's always best to choose someone who knows you and your work ethic very well, so your letter will sound genuine as opposed to generic.

Essays

I think essays are the most important part of the admission process. Think of it this way: the essay is the only place in the whole application process that you really get to express your passion, creativity, ambition, and enthusiasm. Through your words, you'll be able to emphasize why it is you want an MBA and what you plan to do with it years down the road. Never underestimate the importance of essays because the last thing you want to do is put your enrollment opportunity in jeopardy just because you didn't care enough to write one or two essays well.

Academic Performance

Sorry to break the news to you, but your prior academic performance is one of the most important things to MBA admissions. So if you did extraordinarily well during your bachelor's or master's degree program, that's great; make sure to highlight that in your application. If you didn't do that well, perhaps you should focus more on the areas in which you did succeed, such as work experiences, awards, volunteering, etc. It's not a complete deal breaker if you didn't get straight A's in college, but just remember that an MBA is an educational program, so you'll certainly have to put in the work to do well when and if you do get accepted to a program.

GMAT Scores

Last but certainly not least, the GMAT is one of the most important factors in applying for a good MBA program. The GMAT is a strong indicator of your potential for academic success, so it's important that you dedicate enough time preparing for this required exam. If you've been out of college for a few years, it's probably best you spend a little extra time studying for this exam. Should you not do all that well on the GMAT, however, you can always take the test over again, and although your GMAT score is important, it's only one part of the admissions process. To get into a great MBA program, focus on creating a well-rounded application and don't fret too much over your GMAT scores.

Getting an MBA isn't for everyone, but should you find yourself interested in getting a business administration degree, make sure to put the most work into these four areas of your application.

Katheryn Rivas is a freelance writer and resident blogger at online universities, a site dedicated to distance higher education. She welcomes your comments at katherynrivas87@gmail.com.


Don’t Bend the Truth when Applying to Top B-Schools: 4 Things Admissions Will Always Check

When it comes time to apply to business school, the process of application can often be more overwhelming than the decision about which school to attend. There are so many I’s to dot and T’s to cross, that making sure you have included the correct information on your application can take some effort. And, because all the information in this tiny acceptance packet can either make or break your chances to get into the B-school of your choice, it can be tempting to, shall we say, bend the truth here and there. However, the top business schools in the country are more than prepared to thoroughly vet their applicants. Once your application has been accepted and moves into processing, it will be gone over and verified. Here are the top five areas where admissions will make sure applicants have their facts straight:

1. Undergrad Attendance

The first thing that a business school will check on is that you actually did attend and graduate from the schools that you listed on your application. Make sure that you include the correct dates, and the correct institution names.

2. Grades

You may feel the desire to bump up your GPA by rounding up. But, remember, this will be one of the first things schools will verify. If it looks like you don’t know how to round properly, your business school application may be thrown in the trash.

3. GMAT Score

Business schools will always check up on your GMAT score. Even if you include the correct documents, the admissions department, or an outside company, could be required to make follow up calls to verify that your GMAT scores are above board.

4. Employment Information

If you are thinking about bending the truth about your employment history, you are going to need a long trail of falsified information and collaborators. Business admissions will surely make calls to the past employers listed on your resume, regardless of the amount of time you spent there. They have the power to do as much fact-checking as they like about everything from start and end dates to salary.

5. Recommendations

If you list someone to vouch for your character, whether it be personal, professional or academic, make sure that they will be able to verify any of the information you have used as part of your application. If stories don’t match, it could signal a red flag for admissions

This is a guest post by a Houston-based writer, Jane Smith blogs about the importance and difference a thorough employment background check can make. For more information feel free to contact her at janesmith161@gmail.com.

ARINGO: GMAT Below 720? Get Accepted!

Aringo has helped hundreds of people with GMAT scores below 720 get accepted to the top MBA programs by bringing out the real person behind the application. Founded by a former Wharton Admissions Committee Member, we know what the top business schools are looking for, and we will help make sure that your strengths will emerge in your application.

Aringo and a-myjourney.blogspot.com are Admission Consulting Partners now. What does that mean? While signing-up with Aringo, make sure to tell them that a-myjourney.blogspot.com sent you and you would avail discounts.

Aringo Consulting Group Provides you with:

> Aringo helps candidates with GMAT scores below 720 get into the top-10 MBA programs.
> Free initial assessment
> Admission rate higher by 50% on average than normal admission rates for the top programs
> Round Table Strategy

Aringo’s clients have been accepted at Harvard (MBA) with GMAT scores of 580, 660 and 670; at Wharton with GMAT scores of 640, 660 and 670; at Duke with GMAT scores of 600 and 640; at INSEAD with GMAT scores of 630, 640 and 650; at MIT with GMAT scores of 660 and 680; at LBS with GMAT scores of 630, 650 and 660; at Kellogg with GMAT scores of 640 and 680, and many more…

Aringo Video: A top MBA with a GMAT Score < 720.

Ready to get started? Sign up with Aringo, make sure and tell them a-myjourney.blogspot.com sent you to avail discounts, and get started with your admissions process today!

  

How to improve your chance of getting into a business school?

As everyone of you might know, there are two stages of getting accepted into a business school. Your written application in which you need to market yourself and your interview in which you need to sell yourself. Improve on these two and you improve your chance of getting accepted. Simple?

Improving written application: A business school written application has many pieces, some of which you can improve and others you can't. Ideally, to stand qualified and competitive for a top-notch business school, all the pieces should be up to the par, which couldn't be possible for many. So the idea to improve your overall chance is to improve your best on the pieces you can improve to compensate on those which are below average and couldn't be improved. Below listed are the written application pieces:

1. GMAT: Try to score good i.e. 720+. This might compensate for the low GPA.

2. Resume: A good one page Resume could create a lasting impression. Jump to my earlier post to know about resume building in detail.

3. Essays: Your stories are the most important and could set you apart. They must be compelling but at the same time easy to comprehend.

4. LORs (Recommendations): This is also a very important piece and depends on how well you select your recommenders. Your recommenders must know you well and could back up your stories.

5. Professional Growth in both title and responsibilities: The companies you have worked with and the growth curve both in the title and responsibilities are very important. Remember, schools are looking for the leaders both in professional and personal life. Secondly, how many from your company have made into good business schools makes a difference. Means if you are working in company X where 1 of every 10 gets into a business school, improves your chances quite a bit.

6. Extra Curricular and community work: You can't improve much on these except you are planning to apply after a year or two and have enough time to work on these. But don't join just for the sake of the mentioning it your application. Be very serious about it, else they will make out in the interview.

7. University and GPA: Where are you graduated from? If it is a renowned university like IIT and is heard by the admission committee makes a difference. You can't improve these but could compensate.

Improving your interview: Interview is the final but the toughest part of the admission game from your side. No matter how perfectly who have marketed yourself in your written application, but if you can't sell it in the interview, they won't buy you.

You are at the interview stage means admissions committee likes your application and is interested in knowing more about you. Mostly a business school interview goes for 30 to 60 minutes and this is the time where you need to back up your written pieces, most importantly your essays and professional responsibilities, in a very smart and impressive manner, and this requires your soft skills, improving those is not easy and demand a lot of time. Below listed are a few ways:

1. Keep your responses short, succinct and to the point.

2. Rehearse your responses before the interview. You could record your responses for the basic interview questions (like why MBA?) and improve by listening and practicing them time and again. You could also practice in front of a mirror to get more confidence.

3. Take mock interviews with your friends and ask them for the honest feedback.

4. Take mock interview with the experts. There feedback is worth the money.

5. If you have enough time and not good enough communication skills, join a communication course / class and improve your communication skills to the best you could.

Hope this helps improving your chance of being accepted into a business school.

Best!

A

Accepted.com wants to interview me!

Today I got a mail from Sarah Pritzker of Accepted.com that they've been following my blog and are enjoying reading about my experience as an MBA applicant. They want me to share my story with them in an interview that they'll then feature on Accepted.com blog.

This mail gave me a very good feeling along with a humble feeling I am having everyday talking to a few new applicants who are interested in my consultation.

Jump to my last post to check out my MBA consultation help offerings.

A

Updates on my journey so far...

I am coming to my own blog after so long. It's a mixed feeling. I am feeling sad that why I didn't blog for so long. I think because my updates are negative, I was hiding from them and from my readers, like a child hiding from his parents after getting flunked. At the same time I am feeling good that, even though a little late, I am back to my blog and writing with a smile on my face. I have had always smiled while writing a post on this blog...somehow I loved this blog and my journey with it. And I deeply apologize to my readers, if they have visited this space with expectations of a new post or my updates.

I have lot of updates on my MBA journey and off-MBA life. Let me start with MBA:

1.      You must have guessed by now that I am not selected in any school. Even though I have a 740 score and a quite decent profile, somehow somewhere I lacked miserably. Even my MBA mentors not able to judge the reasons behind.

a.      One reason could be that I applied only to top-notch schools. ISB R1 (ding post interview), Ross R1 (waitlist post interview), Kellogg R1 (waitlist post interview), Richard Ivey R2 (interview), Harvard R2 (ding w/o interview), Stanford R2 (ding w/o interview), MIT Sloan R2 (ding post interview) and finally, Rotterdam.

b.     Other reasons could be my non-IIT college, IT background and zero international exposure.

c.     Another reason could be just above-average communication skills, which is not enough to compete; I feel so and will work upon it very seriously.

2.     Important: I feel it’s necessary to mention here that I took the services from Kaneisha Grayson of The art of applying and found them totally waste of money. I am in MBA admission process for last two years now (unfortunately though), have worked with many people in this industry, and very well understand the difference between good, bad and worse service providers. And Kaneisha Grayson’s services fall, according to me and my experience, in the last category. I would strongly discourage you to take her services. I will soon write a detailed post about my horrible experience with her. Disclaimer: These are solely my personal views based on my own experience.

3.     My Rotterdam is interview is scheduled for tomorrow and even if I get selected in this last school for this year, I might not be able to attend the school in January 2012. The reason for this I mentioned in my point 5.

4.     Important: After scoring 740 GMAT, having two years of experience in resume preparation and essay writing, working with so many amazing, good and not-so-good mentors, and interacting with many alumnus, students and applicants, I have gained a real good insight about GMAT preparation, and essay writing and reviewing. If you have noticed, I have received the interview invites from almost all the schools. This itself explains the quality of my submitted Resume and Essays. Owing to this knowledge, I consulted two of my friends, in their Resume and essays for Ross and Darden. Both of them had received the interview invites. If you need any help or reference, drop me an email.

5.     I am getting married soon with the love of my life and I am very elated because of this one reason. At least life is on progress for good, if not MBA then MarriageJ.

6.    This doesn’t mean my MBA dream is dead. I am very much planning to re-apply with full enthusiasm and stronger profile in 2012. My love will support me for my MBA, she promised. But that time only to one-year schools. I am grown old for two-years now, and practically won’t be able afford them.

7.      I am getting an opportunity to work in US for a few months. This would give me much needed international exposure and could shine in my resume. I am very much looking forward to it. Also for my honeymoon ;)

8.      I am also planning to join toastmaster to nurture and master communication skills. Hope this would help.

9.      Last but not the least, I have a passion for writing fictions and sketching portraits, which I had never shared on this blog. Follow me on my personal blog and let me know how much you like my work. I will wait for your comments there!

Seems like a lengthy enough mail to compensate my absence!

Never let yourself down by failures, God must be weaving something more pleasant for you!

Love…Cheers!

A

Power Eating For Exam Time - Guest post

Since its a season when many applicants are studying to slay the GMAT, here is a guest post by Lior for some wonderful tips on healthy eating during this stressful time. Hope this helps!

Exam time for students is not only a stressful time because of the extra study time required and the pressure of the exams themselves, but it often centers around a busy season as well such as Christmas for example, or Easter in the Spring. This adds additional time constraints to the student.

The first thing to suffer during this time is a healthy diet. Yet this is the time when proper nutrition is needed most. Extra energy is needed to be able to cope with the additional time constraints, and lack of sleep means their resistance to colds and flu are dropping. Here are a few hints to help keep you on the right track with your eating habits.

Pre-prepare

Take a bit of time to do some shopping for some quick healthy snack foods. These will come in handy when you are really pressed for time. Items such as granola bars and some veggies and dip pre-prepared are good choices. You can quickly grab them while you are on the run, or are studying. These will give you at least part of your daily quota of vegetables even though you are not able to sit down and eat a proper meal. If you prepare these at the start of exam week you should have enough to carry you through the week. Be sure to carry a few of the granola bars with you as they will carry you through as a quick snack when needed.

Health drinks

Try to stay away from the caffeine laden energy drinks. Instead, replace these with vegetable and fruit drinks. You will be replacing some of the vitamins you are missing as well as not stressing out your body with the caffeine. There are some great combo drinks available that are a blend of fruit and vegetables.

Meal Replacements

If you have to miss a meal, try to be sure it is no more than one meal a day. In this case drink one of the liquid meal replacement drinks. These contain a high quantity of minerals and vegetables.

Have a fortified breakfast

There are some excellent cereal on the market that are fortified with extra vitamins and nutrients as well. Make use of these and replace your sugar coated cereal with these at least during exam time, although they are good to be used on a daily basis and not just during this stressful period.

These are some tips on what to eat to help you get through exam time, but you also want to be sure you pay attention of what not to eat. Loading up on high caffeine drinks and chocolate only provide quick but temporary energy boosts, and are really hard on your body. Grabbing a bag of potato chips to stop the hunger pangs, is not a healthy move either.

With some careful planning and preparing some healthy meals ahead of time, then freezing them is also a great step to take. This way when you are pressed for time during your exams, you can quickly and easily heat up one of these meals and still be eating healthy.

This was a post by Lior who works for an MA in Israel program and also for the MA in political science program in Tel Aviv university.

Why do you want an MBA?

April is over and with that the last deadline of almost all the schools. While many applicants are busy through the complicated process of arranging visas and hefty loans, a few are making every possible strategy to win the adcom's heart and flip their tedious waitlist to refreshing admit. And while many others are trying to figure out their mistakes and deciding their next moves in life, many are on their high to start this journey fresh.

I congratulate the first many, wish the second (including myself) but my this post and the upcoming ones would be for the last two manys.

You must be knowing or will learn soon that is essential to have a plan throughout the application process. So, whats the plan and how to make it?

1. You want to apply for 1 year or 2 years or the mix of both?

2. How many schools you want to apply?

3. How to select schools and so on...???

You need to answer these and many more similar questions before you make a plan but before that you need to answer the utmost important question, which most of us take lightly or think only at the time of writing essays in bschool applications. - "WHY DO YOU WANT AN MBA?"

Most of the applicants think that MBA is some magic which will change their life, provide them cool status and make them rich. And, without even knowing what MBA actually is they start preparing for the GMAT. I did the same, and it was the biggest mistake. Indeed, MBA could change your life but only when you know exactly how it will change your life.

Ponder very very seriously over this. Think what you really want to do. What kind of work you really enjoy and what kind of companies or jobs you want to see yourself in after some years. Then, connect to the people (esp. alums or senior managers) who are already in those companies or jobs and try to understand how they reach there. Start reading blogs of MBA students. Research getting an MBA online. Start visiting sites of your dream companies. This would help you understand the whole MBA thingy. And you might also learn the alternate routes to reach there without spending thousands of dollars.

So, as the fresh season starts, put on your thinking caps to answer this question. And believe me, it would not be easy to find the honest answer. So, don't try it alone. Talk to as many people as possible. And when you would find your honest answer, the rest of the path would seem a little clearer.

Dedicate the month of May to get an honest answer for yourself.

All the best,

A

Beat The GMAT Practice Questions - Premium accounts available

In my last post, I mentioned about the Beat The GMAT Practice Questions. Check them out: http://practice.beatthegmat.com/

I have some premium accounts left with me; if anybody interested please email me using the button on your left.

Hurry up! Else you are missing an important part in your GMAT prep!

A

A new approach to practice GMAT from Beat The GMAT

Beat The GMAT has launched a brand new product for GMAT practice, making it more interesting and effective to practice for GMAT, including more than 700 brand new maths and verbal questions. Being an official reviewer, from last four days I am reviewing some of these questions and found each one of them testing and teaching a new concept. The best feature of this product according to me is that every practice question features a video explanation for the given question, written/produced by a veteran GMAT instructor. I wish I had these explanations when I was struggling for my GMAT last year; my 740 could have been 20-30 points up ;)

Some other useful features:

• Its classifies the practice section wise, so you can concentrate on your weak sections first.
• Its supports completely online practice, so you can study at work or at home.
• It provides the ability to customize your preparation based on subject area, with just a few clicks.
• Performance reporting to identify your strengths, weaknesses on GMAT subject areas.
• Adaptive practice algorithm that mimics the real GMAT - the better you do, the harder the questions become in your practice session.

If you are preparing for GMAT and need to know more about this product, please don't hesitate to mail me using the link on left. I have a few accounts of this product specially for my blog readers, so let me know if you are interested.

Hope this helps,

A

Free Essay workshops from BTG

Sometimes it happens that you come back home so tired from office just to crash on bed. And when the door bell rang 100th time, it disturbs your sleep a little, making you get up from bed perplexed - when I slept? Did i have dinner? Is it mid-night? Why I'm alone, where is my brother? Is it morning? Am I late for office? It just happened to me. Thinking all this I walked to the door, opened it, and realised it was my dinner delivery boy, and it is evening, and I just slept 1.5 hours back.

Rubbing my eyes, I opened my mail box, and there was this mail waiting for me straight from the CEO of Beat The GMAT, David Park. I liked it because of three reasons:

1. David liked my blog and some posts in it. I liked his digital sign, dp.

2. He mentioned about few free B-School Essay workshops coming up. Must be very helpful. Details below.

3. He offered me some apps related services for free, now who doesn't like it :)

BTG in association with similar others big names in mba world are coming up with free B-School Essay workshops starting from next week. Over the next 4 weeks, they're going to have 9 sessions where an admissions consultant walks through every single essay from the top b-schools. Each of the 9 sessions will be devoted to a single school - the HBS session is next week. I encourage you to check it out. I've already enrolled myself to few of my choices.

I'm in total senses now!

A

Last year MBA Rush

Before blogging why, what, and how for my next year MBA application process, it's better to retrospect the last year MBA journey, which didn't turn out to be as expected but undoubtedly made me more informative about the process.

1. GMAT: I took my GMAT in mid November of 2009, when December 1st was ISB last deadline. First mistake, I didn't plan my GMAT properly. Plan your test dates smartly.

2. ISB R2: Given the days left, I'd to rush for ISB application. The good part was that my career goals were clear. Second mistake, I didn't get chance to get my essays reviewed by anyone, not even a single person. Submitted in just 6 minutes before deadline, phew. a. Read essays of admitted students to let your creative juices flowing. b.Get your application reviewed and re-reviewed by friends, mentors, or consultants.

3. Schools shortlist:  Third and biggest mistake, I didn't shortlist the other schools in advance and I'd to rush in that as well. The better route is to clear your career goals and shortlist the schools before writing GMAT. I believe very few applicants follow this route. Research thoroughly about the schools, not just by website and brochures, but by talking with current students and alums. They could provide you their valuable insights no web portal could provide.

4. Safe schools: Fourth mistake, I didn't applied to any safe school (admissions chances above 90%). Schools safe for one profile might not be safe for another. So, depending on your profile quality and school's ranking and statistics, you need to decide which ones fall in safe category for you. Always apply to at least 2-3 safe schools.

5. Interviews: Rejected from Nanyang R1, Fuqua R2 and Judge R3 w/o interview invites, yet even with all this rush and mistakes, I grabbed the interview invites from ISB R2, Ross R2, and Tepper R2. Might be because I was clear about my career goals, though I am much clear now. I managed to put a decent interview show everytime but got dinged from ISB, and wait listed from Ross (gradually dinged) and Tepper (awaited as of now). a. Look through the interview reports published by accepted.com and clear admit wiki. b. Prepare your answers well but don't memorise them. c. As many mock interviews as possible, preferably by that school student or alum.

So, these are my mistakes and lessons from my last year journey. I'm much more informative and prepared for next year applications and looking forward to get into one of the best schools.

Hope to help,

A

My GMAT Story

Although its been more than 5 months now to my GMAT, but as today I've featured my blog on Beat The GMAT portal, I think I should publish/link my GMAT experience on my blog.

Though my GMAT success story is a little long but there were many personal factors which made it that way, ofcourse I'm not going to discuss them...but I would say I was a bad planner, and thus had to rush with my applications. I'm much improved for this year :-)

Be a thorough planner, to become a good leader...this is the lesson I learnt and here it is My GMAT Story.

Keep dreams alive,

A