Ask Stacy Blackman Consulting for Ivy League MBA admissions

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

Hi everyone,

Are there any MBA admissions or GMAT questions we can answer?

Best,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team

[ernestcuellar]

Hi, Ashish
You have attended the GMAT,
Although your GMAT score is an important part of your MBA application, you do not need to have a 720 GMAT score to be accepted into a top MBA program. I have advised a number of individuals who earned lower than 700 GMAT scores and was subsequently accepted into top MBA programs. If your score on the GMAT is not as high as you would like it to be, look for other ways to improve your application. Examples of ways to do this include serving in a leadership role at a non-profit or attaining a position of responsibility at work.


There is not a minimum GMAT score you need to attain, although you should aim to score within the GMAT range of the incoming class. MBA admissions officers are looking for candidates who demonstrate leadership qualities and exemplify exceptional characteristics. There are a number of ways you can do this; having a high GMAT score is only one of these ways.

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

SBC SCOOP: LOOKING BEYOND THE TOP 5 MBA PROGRAMS

*Please note that no client details are ever shared in SBC Scoop or otherwise without complete sign off from client.

http://www.stacyblackman.com/2012/06...-mba-programs/

A few years ago, our client Priya was starting to wonder if she should apply to business school at all. Her stated goal was to attend one of the top three ranked schools in the U.S. and was planning to apply only to those programs. However, as her consultant worked with her on her applications, it became apparent that her chances of admission were less than ideal. Priya had taken a few swings at the GMAT and while she had improved, test-taking was a significant weakness for her and her scores topped out at a 640. She had a few years of work experience but promotion freezes had left her stuck at her initial position without advancement. Rather than throw in the towel, Priya and her consultant went back to the start and asked why she wanted to apply to those top three schools.

Priya wanted to work in corporate finance at a specific Fortune 500 firm after graduating, and chose the top schools where that company heavily recruited. Priya and her consultant decided that she had put the cart before the horse, and decided to turn things around. Since an MBA was very important for her to achieve her career goals, she decided to look at schools ranked in the top 50 that would be a better fit. Working with her consultant, Priya emphasized the strengths of her application, like her specific, concrete career plan, in order to de-emphasize her weaknesses.

Priya found a great fit in UNC’s Kenan-Flagler school. Though it was not as competitive for admission as the very top schools, it still frequently ranks in the top twenty lists, and offered a concentration in Corporate Finance that Priya found appealing. She made the most of the academic and networking opportunities and found a job with her chosen finance firm after graduating using the skills and contacts she gained, rather than relying completely on recruiting. Priya is happily moving up the ranks and is encouraged by the fact that her firm’s CEO obtained his MBA from a school that rarely even appears on an MBA ranking list!

If you need an MBA and would like guidance on the right schools for your profile, contact us for a profile evaluation.

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

Hi everyone,

Are there any MBA admissions or GMAT questions we can answer?

Best,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team

[kanikasingh]

Originally Posted by Stacy Blackman Consulting

Hi everyone,

Are there any MBA admissions or GMAT questions we can answer?

Best,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team

Howz Hull for international business?

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

Hi kanikasingh,

Hull has a good reputation. Are there any particular questions you have about the program?

Cheers,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team

---------- Post added at 01:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 PM ----------

NYU STERN MBA ESSAY TIPS


http://www.stacyblackman.com/2012/06...-essay-tips-3/



If you are applying to NYU Stern keep in mind the admissions criteria that will be used to consider your application. As the website states, “we seek students with strong intellectual ability and superior interpersonal skills (IQ + EQ)” The individual components of your application will be academic ability, professional achievements and career aspirations, and personal characteristics. While your academics will be evaluated mainly through your GMAT and GPA, the essays are a crucial tool to communicate who you are to NYU Stern.



Make sure to check the deadlines before you get started.

Essay 1: Professional Aspirations (750 word maximum)

(a) Why pursue an MBA (or dual degree) at this point in your life?
(b) What actions have you taken to determine that Stern is the best fit for your MBA experience?
(c) What do you see yourself doing professionally upon graduation?

Why MBA, why now, is an important question to answer. While many people seek the degree, NYU wants to invest in those who can use it most effectively. Perhaps you’re seeking an MBA for networking or professional credibility, or maybe you want an MBA to learn specific skills to change careers. Whatever your own personal reasons may be, make sure you can point to specific aspects of the MBA education both generally and specifically at Stern that are necessary to achieve your goals. Note that this question specifically asks about your interest in pursuing an MBA at this point in your life. Why is now the right time for you, both personally and professionally? What will an MBA add to your already successful career trajectory to get you to the next level? If you are an older applicant you will need to spend time carefully communicating that you realize what an MBA can and can’t do for you at your professional level, and that you have a plan to leverage the MBA professionally in your next job.

This essay also offers an opportunity to demonstrate your fit with NYU Stern and describe why NYU Stern is the right place for you to spend the next two years of your life. Certainly personal experience of the campus through visits or student touch points would be ideal, but even if you are halfway around the world you can illustrate the many ways in which you learned about the NYU Stern experience. The activities that most excite you academically should be logically related to your career goals explained in essay 1. The activities you are involved with might be professional, or could be personal hobbies or interests. This essay is your opportunity to describe who you are outside of work, and discussing the hobbies and extracurricular interests you have pursued thus far will be an important data point.

Your post MBA goal should be both achievable and demonstrate the need for an MBA. An MBA from NYU Stern will open professional doors for you, and you should demonstrate that you are ready to take advantage of those opportunities. Think about your past work experience, MBA education, and immediate post MBA goal as a logical sequence. Ideally your goal pulls from both your current work experience and the skills you will gain in the NYU MBA program.

Essay 2: Your Two Paths (500 word maximum)

The mission of the Stern School of Business is to develop people and ideas that transform the challenges of the 21st century into opportunities to create value for business and society. Given today’s ever-changing global landscape, Stern seeks and develops leaders who thrive in ambiguity, embrace a broad perspective and think creatively about the range of ways they can have impact.

(a) Describe two different and distinct paths you could see your career taking long term. How do you see your two paths unfolding?
(b) How do your paths tie to the mission of NYU Stern?
(c) What factors will most determine which path you will take?

New this year, Essay Two asks you to exercise a thought exercise about your future career goals. After identifying your immediate post-MBA career goal in Essay 1, where can you see your long-term career evolving? Again, both trajectories should be logical. For example, if you worked as an analyst in finance prior to your MBA, and plan to work in private equity post MBA, perhaps you see yourself as a partner in your PE firm as your first path, or operating a company as your second path. Each could unfold depending upon the choices you make or opportunities you see as you engage actively with your career.

The second part of this question asks you to tie both paths to the NYU Stern mission, which is to “develop people and ideas that transform the challenges of the 21st century into opportunities to create value for business and society.” Almost any career goal can reflect this mission, though infusing an element of leadership into your plans can help maximize your impact beyond the career of one individual. Developing people who can transform challenges could multiply your impact and create tremendous value.

In the third section of the question you should consider all of the factors you might use as criteria to evaluate future career goals. This is a great time to consider what has motivated you in the past – do you thrive on achievement? Accomplishing a difficult goal? Or helping others? This question is one that demonstrates your ability to evaluate your own decision-making process, as well as revealing the values you hold most closely. Answer this question strategically to ensure you are intentionally revealing personal attributes that are most representative of your values and potential.

NYU Stern Essay Questions

Essay 3: Personal Expression

Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative. If you submit a non-written piece for Essay 3 (i.e., artwork or multimedia) or if you submit Essay 3 via mail, please upload a brief description of your submission with your online application.

Open-ended essays like this one can be intimidating. You are allowed any method to introduce yourself to your classmates, and you’re probably wondering what the best medium for your message is.

However, your content is king in this essay. As advised for a similar essay, the Chicago powerpoint question, the best first step is to brainstorm the information you want to convey. Reflect upon your unique personal qualities and what is valued most by your friends and family. How would you want your classmates to see you? What are some of the personal stories you would share with a new friend?

Once you have established the content you want to use for the NYU Stern essay 3, it’s time to consider the medium. If you are a visual person you may chose a drawing, painting or photo series. If you are a creative writer perhaps it’s a poem or short story. If none of the “creative” approaches feel right to you, feel free to write a standard essay where you explain who you are and introduce yourself to your classmates. The medium is not the most important aspect of this essay, rather the message and content of your composition will demonstrate who you are to the admissions committee.

Essay 4: Optional

Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. This may include current or past gaps in employment, further explanation of your undergraduate record or self-reported academic transcript(s), plans to retake the GMAT, GRE and/or TOEFL or any other relevant information.

If you are unable to submit a recommendation from your current supervisor, you must explain your reason in Essay 4.

If you are a re-applicant from last year, please explain how your candidacy has improved since your last application.

NYU Stern is quite clear about who should use the optional essay and who should not. Like many other schools, NYU Stern provides this opportunity for you to explain a low GPA, GMAT or TOEFL. If you are in that situation, avoid excuses. Focus on the facts, and explain why this performance is not indicative of your future performance at NYU Stern.

If you are not submitting a recommendation from your current employer, this is the place to explain the situation. A few valid reasons may include a brief tenure working for your current boss, that you are not sharing your MBA plans with your supervisor, or that you work more closely with other members of the team.

If you are a re-applicant it will be important to establish what has changed from last year. Have you earned a promotion? Improved your GMAT score? Whatever you have been able to develop since last year, highlight why you are a stronger candidate now.

If you are looking for guidance on your NYU Stern application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly and comprehensive consulting services. Contact us to learn more.

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

Hi everyone,

Are there any MBA admissions or GMAT questions we can answer?

Cheers,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

Map Out Your MBA Timeline


This post originally appeared on Stacy’s “Strictly Business” MBA blog on U.S.News.com


http://www.stacyblackman.com/2012/07...-mba-timeline/


Once you’ve decided to pursue an MBA, you’ve got your work cut out for you. MBA applicants need to fit studying for the GMAT and developing essays in with other personal and professional commitments. If you’re planning to apply to business school in the fall, now is the time to come up with a game plan for completing the admissions components within a schedule that doesn’t necessitate sleepless nights and a jumbo bottle of Maalox. The best way to do this is to put together your MBA application timeline months before your target deadlines.

Allot time for essays and the GMAT: We’re slightly more than three months away from Round One at most schools. If you haven’t started your applications and are wondering if you still have time, it depends. Among the factors you should weigh: how much time you have in your schedule, how difficult it is for you to write essays, and how focused and motivated you are. In general, three to four months is enough time to submit several applications in the first round. You’ll be working hard, but that is a realistic timeline.


The amount of time MBA aspirants will spend on their applications will vary, depending on writing abilities and general work efficiency. That said, plan to spend between 40 and 60 hours preparing four to eight applications. Non-native English speakers will also likely need to allot more time on their applications, particularly on writing, revising, editing, proofing, formatting, and inputting essays.


The other piece of this puzzle is, of course, the GMAT. Have you completed the GMAT and are you satisfied with your score? If you still need to take the GMAT, you may have a lot of work ahead of you, as applicants typically devote at least 100 hours to test preparation. Depending on where you are in the process, you may have to take a prep class and perhaps take the test more than once. If this is the case, Round One may not be a realistic option.

Structure your work sessions: Some people work most efficiently when they can break up tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces, while others prefer to devote several hours to their writing in one sitting. MBA applicants should be aware of the way they work most effectively and structure their writing and editing sessions accordingly.


I’ve had candidates call me a week before applications are due, planning to take the week off of work, deprive themselves of sleep, and devote all of their time to writing essays to submit in the first round. They figure that 100 hours of work should do the trick. While that may be plenty of time, I’m a big believer that the time should be spread out. Because this is such a personal, soul-searching process, sometimes you just need to call it a night and sleep on it—tough to do when you only have a week.


I typically recommend that candidates allocate two to three hours each time they sit down to work on their essays, particularly for the first few drafts. Essays should be approached holistically; you won’t have a compelling final product if you snatched 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there to cobble together that “knowledge into action” essay for the
Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.


Conversely, most applicants should also avoid the “marathon session.” Few people are still sharp or creative eight hours into a writing and editing session. If you need to make up for lost time, try breaking it up with a session in the morning and another in the evening.

Allow some distance: Applicants should also build several weeks for reflection and feedback into their MBA timeline. If you can come back to your essays days later with fresh eyes, you’ll often think of a better example or more inspired language to illustrate a certain point. This won’t happen if you’re forced to work at warp speed.


Distributing your writing and editing over a reasonable period also makes it easier for friends, family, or colleagues to provide feedback. It’s unfair to ask someone to turn around comments in a 24-hour period, so provide them with a few days to give you their critiques. Leave yourself adequate time to reflect upon and incorporate their feedback.


We’re just getting into the thick of things for most schools. If you’re planning to apply this year, now is the time to get started: on GMAT prep, writing essays, selecting recommenders, or just generally piecing together your strategy. The b-school application process is stressful, but careful planning will make the experience manageable and help you channel your energies into continually improving your candidacy until the moment you submit your applications.

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

Are you studying for the GMAT? Make sure to check out the SBC GMAT Overview, where we provide free GMAT advice and tips:

http://www.stacyblackman.com/gmat-overview/

Cheers,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team

[Stacy Blackman Consulting]

Hi everyone,

Are there any MBA admissions or GMAT questions we can answer?

Cheers,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team