Poets and Quants (“GMAT Scores Slip At Many Top Schools”) did an analysis of the median GMAT score at the top 25 US business schools and discovered that median scores are slowly dropping. MIT Sloan, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Carnegie-Mellon’s Tepper School, North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, and the University of Southern California’s Marshall School all reported a 10-point drop in their median GMAT scores.

Poets and Quants analysis also reveals that a larger percentage of students were accepted to some b-schools this year than in 2010. USC’s Marshall School accepted 38% of applicants, in comparison with 22% last year, Georgetown’s McDonough School accepted 49% of its applicants, up from 42% last year, and Michigan’s Ross School accepted 32% of its applicants, up from 25% last year.

Implications for MBA applicants:

This is an excellent year to apply to business school.

While you still can’t slap together a mediocre application and expect to get accepted to a top-tier MBA program, if you know why you want an MBA and where you would like to get it, now is the time to apply. If you are competitive at your target schools, invest the time in your MBA essays, work with your recommenders, and submit for the round 2 deadlines.

You may also want to apply to an additional “reach” school or two. However, don’t get too cocky. This data does not imply that all your target programs should be “reaches” or that the GMAT no longer matters.

There is just a little less competition to enter the MBA class of 2014, especially for those not coming from super-competitive cohorts in the applicant pool.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Look no further – the MBA book of all books is here, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools, written by Accepted.com founder, Linda Abraham, and editor Judy Gruen. And now, for a very limited time only (Monday, Dec. 5 – Tuesday, Dec. 6) you can purchase this must-have book for $10 OFF the cover price by using coupon code SMARTIES at checkout. That’s almost 2/3 off the list price!

In MBA Admission for Smarties you will learn how to:

• Determine “fit” with a program.
• Establish your post-MBA goals and present them in a compelling goals essay.
• Write dazzling, memorable application essays.
• Secure winning letters of recommendation.
• Optimize your MBA application resume.

…and much, much more!

So what are you waiting for?

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(Non-U.S. residents should buy MBA Admission for Smarties from Amazon.com where international shipping is available. Sorry – no coupon available to ship outside the U.S.)

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

• Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business announced that David A. Thomas will become Georgetown McDonough’s new Dean and William R. Berkley Chair starting October 1, 2011. One can learn more about Dean Thomas by watching a video that has been posted on McDonough’s website.
• Fortune.com’s interview with Ankur Kumar, Wharton’s deputy director of admissions, reveals the full story behind the rise in female enrollment at Wharton School of Business. Kumar explains how the school worked hard to get to the point where 45% of the incoming class is women. Kumar spearheaded many new initiatives in the past two years to attract more women to visit campus and convince them to apply.
• The Financial Times describes how the Anderson School of Management at UCLA has restructured its curriculum to help students stay career focused and become experts in their fields of interest. The incoming class in September will have the flexibility to acquire skills early in the program that will allow them to contribute in their specialty even during their internships.
• Businessweek announced that Blair Sheppard will be stepping down as the dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business on August 1st. Sheppard will remain at the school and work in the fundraising and business development department for Duke’s new campus in Kunshan, China.  Duke Kunshan University is expected to open in 2012.
• Fortune.com looks at how China Europe International Business School’s new dean, John Quelch, wants to transform the Shanghai business school into one of the top 10-ranked, research-focused business schools. Quelch plans on changing CEIBS by focusing on what he calls the “Four F’s”: Faculty, fame, fortune and fun. Although he struggles with recruiting faculty, Quelch feels fortunate that the Chinese government has given CEIBS “tremendous scope and freedom when it comes to curriculum design and delivery.”

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This Georgetown McDonough 2012 MBA Application tip post is one of a series of posts providing MBA application and essay advice for applicants to top MBA programs around the world. Check out the entire 2012 MBA Application Tips series for more valuable MBA essay advice. 

Georgetown McDonough 2012 Essay Questions

ESSAY ONE (Limit – 1 page, double spaced, 12 pt font?)

State your short-term career goal immediately following graduation from the Georgetown MBA program.  What skills have you developed on which you will build?  What skills will you need to develop?

Show the reader that your past experience is a logical foundation for the job you want after your earn your MBA. Then acknowledge that there are skills and knowledge you need to acquire. Those items have to be attainable through the Georgetown MBA program. 

The sub text of this question: Are you realistic?

ESSAY TWO (Limit – 1/2 page, double spaced, 12 pt font?)

State your long-term career goal.  How does the position you describe in Essay One serve as a building block for your long-term career goal?

What do you want to do five to ten years down the road?  Whatever it is, it should make sense given your goal in #1. 

These are real “connect the dots” questions. Most schools combine McDonough’s #1 and #2 into just one question.

ESSAY THREE (Limit – 1 1/2 page, double spaced, 12 pt font?)

Describe the essence of who you are both personally and professionally.

This is a hard question. It’s hard to boil yourself down to a 1.5 page “essence,” but think elevator pitch. Think of Stanford’s “What matters most to you and why?” Think of something you have done that you are really proud of because it represents you at your best. That’s the story you want to tell. What character traits did you exhibit? That’s the analysis you want to do.

ESSAY FOUR (Limit – 1/2 page, double spaced, 12 pt font?)

Service and community engagement are a way of life at Georgetown, following the University’s tradition of women and men for others. How have you demonstrated service to others?

You only have half a page for this question so pick one service commitment and tie it to Georgetown’s tradition of service.

OPTIONAL ESSAY ONE (Limit – 1/2 page, double spaced, 12 pt font?)
If you are not currently employed full-time, use this space to provide information about your current activities.

Please see “Laid off! How Will It Affect Your Application“

OPTIONAL ESSAY TWO (Limit – 1 page, double spaced, 12 pt font?)

Please provide any information you would like to add to your application that you have not otherwise included.

Please see “The Optional Essay: To Be or Not to Be.”

OPTIONAL ESSAY THREE (Limit – 1/2 page, double spaced, 12 pt font?)

If you would like to be considered for a Georgetown MBA Professional Achievement Scholarship, address your greatest accomplishment(s) in your chosen field and explain why you should be selected for this scholarship. Include any relevant professional awards/recognition received by your employer or industry.

For those of you who are seeking such funding, you will need to make your case in this essay.  Focus on your most impressive achievement in your field. Describe the challenges you faced, what you did, and the results. Quantify your impact if possible.

Georgetown McDonough 2012 MBA Deadlines

Deadlines                Decisions Released

Round One:   October 15, 2011      December 15, 2011

Round Two:   January 5, 2012        March 15, 2012

Round Three: April 1, 2012            May 15, 2012

If you would like professional guidance with your McDonough MBA, please consider Accepted’s MBA essay editing and MBA admissions consulting or our   Georgetown School Packages, which include advising, editing, interview coaching, and a resume edit for the Georgetown MBA application.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

BusinessWeek‘s 2011 ranking report reveals that more than ever, college applicants are seeking a global experience, especially those who plan on pursuing an undergraduate degree in business. Undergraduate business programs are responding by creating more immersion options, overseas internships, and business-related study abroad opportunities. Some schools are even offering business courses that require students to go abroad. Many schools are implementing international experience requirements, maintaining that global exposure is essential in today’s market.

For example, Notre Dame Mendoza, BW‘s top pick for the second year in a row, offers study abroad options in Haiti, Egypt, and South Africa, among many other places, and encourages students to pursue business research projects abroad as well.

Below we have posted BW‘s top 20 undergraduate business schools.

Top 20 Best Undergraduate Business Schools 2011 (Last year’s position is in parentheses.)

1.      Notre Dame Mendoza (1)

2.      UVA McIntire (2)

3.      Emory Goizueta (7)

4.      UPenn Wharton (4)

5.      Cornell (5)

6.      Michigan Ross (8)

7.      Villanova (20)

8.      UNC Kenan-Flagler (14)

9.      MIT Sloan (3)

10.  Georgetown McDonough (23)

11.  Brigham Young Marriott (11)

12.  Richmond Robins (15)

13.  UC Berkeley Haas (6)

14.  Washington Olin (13)

15.  NYU Stern (12)

16.  Boston College Carroll (9)

17.  Texas McCombs (10)

18.  Indiana Kelley (19)

19.  Wake Forest (18)

20.  Babson (17)

You’ll notice there were quite a few significant shifts this year. Three new schools made it into the top 10—Villanova, UNC Kenan-Flagler, and Georgetown McDonough—ousting UC Berkeley Haas, Boston College, and Texas McCombs from their top 10 positions of last year. The only school new to the top 20 list this year is Georgetown, taking a slot away from Miami Farmer.

For more information on methodology, please see BW‘s article, “How We Ranked the Schools.”

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Top executive MBA programs in America are charging an arm and a leg —is it worth it? That’s the topic of a recent CNN Money Fortune/Poets & Quants article, “Executive MBAs: Great, if you can foot the bill,” which reports that if people are willing to pay the sky-high prices for an EMBA degree, they’ll likely graduate with a high paying salary and a positive attitude towards their educational experience.

Top programs, like those at Wharton, offer very similar curriculums to their regular MBA programs, yet are charging almost $65,000 more (for a total of more than $160,000). (Other top 10 EMBA programs charge slightly less, with Booth at $142,000, Kellogg at $153,900, and Columbia at $148,320.)

Studies show that 97% of EMBA graduates are “overwhelmingly satisfied” with their educations, despite the high tuition, and that the programs “met or exceeded their expectations when it comes to impact on their careers and their organizations.” According to the latest Executive MBA Council study, one-third of EMBA graduates received promotions at work; 44% received more responsibilities at work; and EMBAs in general reported an average 11.4% salary increase, from $127,955 to $142,534. And this is just following the great recession!

The article refers readers over to the new Poets & Quants for Executives website that ranks the 50 best executive MBA programs in North America based on a combination of ratings from The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and U.S. News & World Report. You can view a summary of P&Q ranking methodology on the bottom of this page.

You should read the full Fortune/P&Q article and review the full rankings for more information. In the meantime, here are the top 20 EMBA programs according to the new Poets & Quants for Executives website:

Top 20 Executive MBA Programs in North America

1.      Wharton

2.      Chicago Booth

3.      Northwestern Kellogg

4.      Columbia Business School

5.      NYU Stern

6.      Michigan Ross

7.      UCLA Anderson

8.      Cornell Johnson

9.      Texas McCombs

10.  USC Marshall

11.  Duke Fuqua

12.  UNC Kenan-Flagler

13.  Berkeley/Columbia

14.  Washington Olin

15.  Emory Goizueta

16.  Boston University

17.  Georgetown McDonough

18.  Thunderbird

19.  Rice University Jones

20.  Southern Methodist Cox

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

• A Businessweek article reports on the increased phenomenon of helicopter parents…not at preschools, middle schools, or even colleges, but at business schools. “Helicopter parents,” a term used to describe hovering parents, have taken an active role in their children’s b-school application process. And when we say “children,” we mean 20- or 30-somethings who have lived on their own for many years and who have years of experience in the workplace. A survey indicates that 33% of the 35 admissions officers surveyed say that “a pushy or overbearing parent has compromised an applicant’s chance of admission.” Many believe that these over-involved parents are leaving a “noticeable footprint on applications submitted to their schools.”
• A group of social entrepreneurs in India visited Yale SOM earlier this fall to take part in the Global Social Entrepreneurs course, reports a Yale SOM news release. The course, which is in its third year, is intended to encourage Indian social enterprises to address management challenges, while simultaneously affording Yale SOM students with an opportunity to examine the practical issues surrounding these enterprises. While the Indian representatives have already returned to their posts in India, Yale SOM students will continue to work one-on-one with the participants via phone and email through the rest of the semester. 
• Can’t make it to an in-person MBA fair this year? Well here’s your next best option: The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) will be sponsoring the GMATCH Virtual MBA Fair, scheduled to take place on November 22 and 23 online. More than 40 business schools will be participating in the online event including UCLA Anderson, UVA Darden, Georgetown McDonough, London Business School, INSEAD, Nanyang Business School (Singapore), and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The event will last for four hours each day and will enable prospective applicants the chance to speak with admissions directors, chat with alumni and current students, and “learn effective self-marketing strategies.” Best of all, the virtual fair is FREE, but you do need to register, which you can do here.

 Related Accepted.com Resources:

• Navigate the MBA Maze, a free email course
• 5 Fatal Flaws, a free email course

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

This Georgetown McDonough 2011 MBA Application tip post is one of a series of posts providing MBA application and essay advice for applicants to top MBA programs around the world. You can access the entire series at http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/tag/2011-mba-application-tips. My tips for answering Georgetown’s essay questions are in blue below.

ESSAY ONE (Required) - Limit: 750 words

A) What position do you plan to obtain upon graduation from the MBA program? Please include both industry and function in your explanation.

B) How will the combination of your past experiences and the Georgetown MBA position you for this new opportunity?

C) Please describe how you envision your career progression beyond your initial post-MBA position.

This is a goals question broken down into more specific sub-questions. It remains a straightforward, connect-the-dots MBA goals question.  Click on the link for tips on writing an essay that both distinctly reflects You and demonstrates your knowledge of Georgetown.)

ESSAY TWO (Required) - Limit: 750 words

A) What does leadership mean to you? What are the personal characteristics and skills required to be an effective leader?
B) Provide a specific example of when you demonstrated leadership skills. Describe a challenge that you faced and the results that you achieved.
C) What areas do you wish to develop in order to become a more effective leader?

There are several critical elements to this question: Your definition of leadership, your personal example of leadership, the challenge you faced, the impact you had, and how you would like to develop further. Don’t feel compelled to respond in exactly the order given in the questions; just make sure you answer all elements. Please see Leadership in Admissions.

ESSAY THREE (Required) - Limit: 750 words
How will your classmates benefit from your presence in the Georgetown MBA program?

What talents are you going to bring to Georgetown, and where to you intend to contribute them? Do your homework on McDonough before you answer the question. What clubs will you want to participate in? What initiatives will you want to take? This a great essay in which to show both self-awareness and your knowledge of Georgetown. 

ESSAY FOUR: COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS - Limit: one page
A) Please provide a bulleted list of your post-undergraduate involvement in the community. Indicate the nature of the activity or organization, dates of involvement, offices held, and average number of hours spent each month.
B) What motivates you to continue contributing to the community? Limit: 250 words

A is a list and not an essay, but in your description focus on achievement, contribution, and impact. If you were membership chair of a particular organization, don’t just list “Membership Chair.” Also note that membership increased 20% during the year that you were membership chair.

B is a short essay and you don’t have a lot of room. Discuss your motivations and reference your past or ongoing community service.

OPTIONAL ESSAY ONE - Limit: 500 words
If you are not currently employed full-time, use this space to provide information about your current activities.

Please see “Laid off! How Will It Affect Your Application“

OPTIONAL ESSAY TWO - Limit 500 words

Please provide any information you would like to add to your application that you have not otherwise included. Candidates wishing to be considered for a functional scholarship (finance, marketing, consulting, non-profit/government) will address their greatest accomplishment(s) in their chosen field and why they should be selected for this scholarship.

For those of you not seeking a functional scholarship, please see “The Optional Essay: To Be or Not to Be.” For those of you who are seeking such funding, you will need to make your case in this essay.  Focus on your most impressive achievement in your field. Describe the challenges you faced, what you did, and the results. Quantify your impact if possible.

Georgetown McDonough 2011 MBA Deadlines

Round One: November 1, 2010

Round Two: January 1, 2011

Round Three: April 1, 2011 

For help with your McDonough MBA application, please consider Accepted.com’s MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or one of our Georgetown School Packages.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

Next, Dean Blair Sheppard from Duke Fuqua is working to expand Duke’s global footprint by opening Duke campuses in China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. In order to do so, Sheppard must navigate through each country’s rules and regulations, create new, global curriculums, build the campuses, and figure out how to distribute Duke faculty abroad.

According to Georgetown McDonough‘s Dean George Daly, the most pressing concern facing his student is jobs. Therefore, Daly is less concerned with million-dollar building and expansion plans and is more interested in building new opportunities for his students. Typically, more than half of Georgetown graduates found jobs either on Wall Street or in consulting. This past year, only 67% of students received job offers by graduation, a significant drop due to a decrease in available jobs in those two popular areas. Daly’s new goal is to do more outreach to Washington, D.C. employers—”the employers in its own backyard”—including government-related firms. Building new relationships with recruiters and shifting student expectations to a wider range of careers, according to Daly, “will be a tough sell.”

Edward Snyder, incoming dean at Yale SOM, has a different sort of task ahead of him. When Snyder takes the dean position next July, he’ll be faced with the challenge of revamping Yale SOM’s image and building up its brand. Fortunately, Snyder comes with years of experience. As former dean of UVA Darden and Chicago Booth, Snyder knows how to achieve such goals as boosting diversity, improving b-school/university relations, and fundraising. In fact, Snyder explains that what attracted him to Yale is just what had attracted him to Chicago—”the challenge of building another business school within a prominent university.” Snyder’s specific goals include fundraising to complete a $150 million building project, strengthening ties with alumni, increasing class size, and, perhaps most importantly, creating enthusiasm among Yale SOM students, faculty, alumni, recruiters, and donors. “The law school [at Yale] is No. 1, undergrad is No. 1 or close,” he says, “how about making Yale School of Management No. 1, or close to it, too?”

(Sources: “Deans Set Priorities for Tough Times” and “Turnaround Specialist to Take On Yale,” both from the Wall Street Journal)

Related Accepted Articles:

• Duke University Continues to Expand Worldwide
• Duke Fuqua 2011 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
• Haas’ Dean Rich Lyons Unveils New Strategic Plan
• Haas Announces New Dean
• Yale SOM 2011 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips

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