5 Ways Poets Can Overcome Quant Quandaries

Schools want to see evidence of quant skills. They want to confirm your ability to handle the demands of a rigorous program. For liberal arts majors who haven’t taken math since high school, the quant score on the GMAT takes on greater importance because it can be the only evidence of quant ability.

If you fall into this “poet” category and have received a less-than-ideal quant score on the GMAT, then I suggest you do one or more of the following:

1. Take a GMAT prep course and retake the exam if you believe you can increase your score.
2. Brush up on your math skills by taking online classes like MBAMath, or more traditional courses like calc, accounting, statistics for business, and econ. Traditional classes are preferable if one also has a low GPA. Indicate somewhere in your application that you’re addressing this weakness.
3. Offer specific examples or anecdotes in your application essays that highlight your competent quant skills, despite your not-so-high GMAT quant score.
4. Take advantage of the optional essay as yet another place to boost your competitive edge.
5. Ask your recommenders to vouch for your quant abilities.

If after taking these steps you’re still not a competitive candidate at your first choice schools, consider reevaluating your qualifications – maybe you’re aiming too high with these target programs and should choose schools that will view your scores as competitive.

Your MBA application strategy should address these issues. Please see A Winning MBA Application Strategy and GMAT Prep, Your Score, and MBA Admissions for more information.

This post is part of an ongoing series, MBA Admissions A-Z, that offers applicants insightful tips on every aspect of the business school admissions process. Join us as we explore the ABCs of the MBA!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

IMD campus in Lausanne, Switzerland

Without a doubt, IMD conducts the most thorough MBA interview.  The interview day is divided into four evaluative sections.  When you arrive on campus, you will be introduced to the adcom and faculty evaluators as well as a group of applicants who will partake in the same experience as you.  Since the adcom will evaluate you on your team interactions and most of your peer-applicants will become your classmates, get to know them, have fun with them, and expand your network.

For the first part of the interview, our website’s interview section will help you.  Review the interview questions and prepare response to them, or contact one of our consultants to help you prepare for the MBA interview.  IMD’s adcom is trying to get to know you, your intentions, and your fit with the school.  The questions are similar to those at other schools.  They will ask you about your background and goals, team skills and leadership, successes and failures.  This part of the interview day will take 45 minutes to one hour and is a great way to help you prepare for the rest of the day.

Next you will be asked to present a topic they give you in the morning.  You will have 30 minutes to prepare the topic and 5 minutes to present the topic.  This is what I call a mini-case.  Take a stand on the topic and offer supporting evidence in a cohesive and dynamic manner.  You can practice by thinking about issues you have at work or that are in today’s business news.  For instance, they may suggest that you present your opinion of the European debt crisis or your opinion of the Euro. Should Germany have to bail out Greece? Can countries that have different political systems successfully use one currency? Give it some thought and present a good argument.  They will evaluate your presentation on analysis and delivery, but not on your opinion itself (every business issue has multiple dimensions).

Then you will have lunch with alumni.  Alumni are trying to get to understand how you will fit in with the culture of the school and they will report what they learn.  Let your personality shine through, but be on guard.  Alumni are evaluating your value-added to the school.

Finally, you will be asked to present the “Case”.  Most applicants don’t know how to tackle a case, but from an adcom’s point of view, I believe offering the case is a stroke of brilliance. Much of your MBA education will be case-based and if you know how to tackle a case from day 1, you will have smooth sailing throughout the program.  I suggest you read Mark Consentino’s book Case In Point  or William Ellet’s The Case Study Handbook well before the interview.  IMD will send you the case two weeks prior to your interview day.  You will need to prepare that case and on the interview day, faculty will observe you and moderate the case discussion as you and your peer group dissect and present the case.  They will be looking for your analysis, teamwork, leadership and presentations skills during the case.  Again, Accepted.com’s consultants are experts in helping you with case interview preparation.

At the end of the day, you will be asked to sit in on a class.  This is not part of the evaluation, but more of a chance for you to see the IMD faculty and students in action. Most applicants just observe and don’t participate in class, however, if they are discussing a topic in which you are familiar, I suggest you raise your hand and add to the discussion.  If you are unfamiliar with the topic, you should just observe the students and how they interact with the faculty.

While IMD’s interviews are intense, you should gain a lot from the day. And if offered admission, you will know if IMD is a good fit for you.

By Natalie Grinblatt Epstein, an accomplished Accepted.com consultant/editor (since 2008) and entrepreneur. Natalie is a former MBA Admissions Dean and Director at Ross, Johnson, and Carey.

New ScoreSelect option makes GRE even more user-friendly

Following the success of the new GRE revised General Test, ETS announced another step in making the exam more “test-taker friendly,” with a ScoreSelect^SM option.

On the test day itself, once test takers have viewed their scores at the test center, they can either choose the ScoreSelect Most Recent option, so only the scores from their current test administration are released, or the ScoreSelect All option, where all their scores from the last five years are sent off. Both of these options are free, and “test takers can decide which option to use for each of their [four] free score reports.”

For a fee, test takers can release Additional Score Reports after test day and choose one of three options: Either ScoreSelect Most Recent option, and only send their most recent test scores; the ScoreSelect All option, and send all their scores from the last five years; or the ScoreSelect Any option, in which they can “send their scores from one OR many test administrations in the last [five] years.”

These new options will certainly ease the whole test taking experience for students, lessening some of the pressure often felt on test day. And, “the new ScoreSelect option will be available for both the GRE revised General Test and GRE Subject Tests, and can be used by anyone with reportable scores from the last five years.”

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Indian School of Business campus in Hyderabad

The Indian School of Business has become one of the strongest graduate business programs in Asia: it ranks 13^th in the Financial Times’ MBA rankings – only two Asian programs surpass it according to FT, more than 98% of its graduates secure job offers within 3 months of graduating, and the salaries those graduates receive are high – 187% above their pre-ISB earnings! Competition for seats in this esteemed 1-year program is steep and the admissions process is highly competitive for native Indians.

The Admissions Office just released the application deadlines and questions for the 2013-2014 academic year. This year calls for a video submission of 90 seconds in addition to a new first question. My recommendations are in blue beneath each essay question. Unlike most other graduate business programs that allow applicants to exceed their word limits by up to 10% without penalty, the ISB application will not allow even one additional word, so applicants will need to be concise and exact!

Upload Video

Life to me is……………………. ( Please complete the following statement in your own words on Video) 90 Secs/15 MB in the format specified below.  

An increasing number of programs are requesting audio or video submissions from their applicants. These “essays” enable admissions committees to get a strong sense of the applicant beyond the written word – does he make eye contact, have good stature, appear poised, speak clearly, and with confidence? While in the past these qualities were only revealed via an in-person interview, a video submission serves as a simple screening tool for these qualities. Choose a topic and a supporting example that has special meaning to you so that you can concentrate on your delivery in this addition to the application.

Essays

1. Please make a strong case to differentiate yourselves from an exceptional set of applicants applying for PGP 2013-14. You could cite personal/ professional achievements to present your case. (300 words max)

Last year’s essay prompt was to detail your two most significant accomplishments. The difference this year is that the admissions committee is guiding you to tell about accomplishments that most other applicants cannot also describe. This is a tip that we at Accepted.com are always recommending: if someone else can tell the same story, don’t write about it. A team-leader role in a traditional IT consulting gig is probably not going to catch the admissions office’s attention, so if you do find yourself in a highly populated pool of applicants, take yourself out of that box by describing unique situations and impacts. In your essay, focus on the unique challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Do not make the mistake of listing only the awards you received without explaining what you did and how you did it. This error would make your application generic, not genuine.

2. Where do you see yourself three years after you graduate from the ISB? (300 words max)

ISB’s Admissions Director has listed “Clarity of thought in terms of career aspirations and goals” as one of the three most important qualities sought in the ISB application essays. The goals essay is your opportunity to show that you possess that clarity. If entrepreneurship is in your future, it should really appear in your past as well. If you aim for a technology or consulting role, you’ll need to demonstrate that you know what qualities you will need to succeed in these and bring some proof as to your readiness for this career. You do not need an exact map of your future, but you do need to reveal a thought process, reasoning, and evidence of your ability to reach your goals.  

3. Please provide additional information that will significantly affect the consideration of your application to the ISB. (300 words max)

The open-ended nature of this question causes infinite hand-wringing, but it should really be viewed as a gift: here is your opportunity to share whatever makes you special. This could be from your work, community service, education, or travels, so take some time to reflect and perhaps even ask your friends, relatives, or mentors their thoughts on what differentiates you. Then, go the extra step of sharing how this quality has shaped your past and future at ISB and beyond.

Key Application & Decision Dates

These deadlines apply to submission of  complete application. Mere online submission of application by the deadline without supporting documents will not be considered complete. All documents have to be submitted online only. Incomplete application will not be considered.

International applicants are granted much more time to submit their applications: ISB conducts rolling admissions for them until January 15^th, and liberal scholarships have been awarded to international applicants who choose to attend the program.

Resume: There is no need for submitting a separate resume.  The online application module will generate a resume in the  format that we require, with the details you have filled as part of the application.  It includes your Academic details, Employment details (along with responsibilities/achievements) and awards & activities.

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

Jennifer Bloom has been helping applicants to the top MBA programs draft their resumes, application forms, letters of recommendation, and essays for 13 years. If you would you like to work with Jennifer on your application, just fill out an inquiry including any information you think will be helpful. Jennifer will contact you ASAP.

After You Get Feedback on Your First Draft…

Using the responses you got and took notes on, go back to the beginning of your essay and rework what you think needs reworking.  Do the best you can. If something sounds awkward but it is the best you can do, leave it in for now.  If something sounds silly to you but is just the information a trusted reader asked for, leave it in.  If you can’t think of the right detail exactly, think of something close that will do for now. Just keep fixing the draft — don’t worry about word limits yet. Get a story on the page that compels readers to keep going so they can learn more about you, and to exit the essay feeling like they’ve been on a reflective journey with the speaker and know more about life and the speaker at the end of the essay. You don’t have to take on weighty subjects for this to be true — we can learn a lot about someone and life from an essay about taking care of a sick cat or resolving to do better in a physics class or losing two front teeth.

Get More Response

You know the drill. Go back to your first trusted reader or readers or find new ones and read them this second draft. Get response in exactly the same three steps. You will figure out if your revisions worked or if you need to keep working on them. Most likely, you have done a lot of good work. but may find that some of what you have introduced hasn’t done what you want it to yet.

Remain quiet as you hear the responses. Take notes to use when you sit down to rework your draft.

Rework Your Second Draft

After you read this one to trusted readers you should be pretty close to having the essay you want. But you might have exceeded the length, character or word limit.  Using your outline should have helped you find a focus from the get-go so you didn’t have to use space with too much set up and meandering around for your entrance into your topic.  However, many of us write in “loose” sentences. We use more words than needed to convey information.  Sentence tightening is a bit of an art, but you can get the hang of it.

Start by checking adverbs and adjectives — are the ones you used really necessary, or do words you have modified already contain the meaning you are emphasizing by using the modifier? For instance, many people write “very unique” when, if something is unique, it is one-of-a-kind. How much more one-of-a-kind can it be?  Often the word unique is not needed either — the details show rather than tell.

In fact, the next thing you can do in tightening is look for sentences that retell what the images already showed and therefore the reader knows:  “We came out of the ocean shivering with 30-degree water dripping off our skin. We were very cold.”  It’s obvious, isn’t it? You may find you have done a lot of this kind of writing — the design part of your mind is working in images and the logical side wants to sum up what the images already said. Not necessary.

Next find out if you used a phrase when one word would have said the same thing — i.e. the phrase “in order to” can usually be replaced by the single word “to.”

Look for ways to use verbs instead of nouns:   The phrase, “I decided on vanilla ice cream” uses fewer words than “I made the decision to have vanilla ice cream.”

Look for ways to make dependent clauses instead of using all independent clauses. In other words, the lines “My father became a dentist and he used his small motor dexterity to make model planes with me” can become “Using his small motor dexterity, my dentist father made model planes with me.” The second sentence represents a five-word savings. It doesn’t seem like much, but if you do this throughout the essay, the deleted words can add up.

Then you start seeing that some sentences merely repeat what the reader already knows just because it sounds good. Keep the sentence that comes first or the one you like the best and chop the other one.  Here’s an example:  “When Kelly and I came around the corner, our mouths opened in surprise. We were so surprised!  We could hardly talk or even laugh. It was awesome.”  How about stopping after the first sentence and getting on with the story? There is no need to build suspense and keep the reader, who wants to charge ahead, waiting. And there is no need to remind the reader that you know the whole story and the reader doesn’t yet.

Finally, you’ll see that some of the words you’ve used, thinking you had to connect events, aren’t necessary because the reader intuitively relates them: “I went into the kitchen and when I heard a loud noise in the living room, I quickly walked toward the kitchen door and into the hallway that leads to the living room.” This can be: “When I heard a loud noise coming from the living room, I ran to see what had happened.”

Thanks for joining us as we continue with Staying Sane through the College Essay Writing Process, an ongoing series that offers college applicants and their parents advice on how to stay on track for completing Ivy-worthy essays…without flying off the handle. We hope you enjoyed this next part of the series, and STAY SANE!

By Sheila Bender, former Accepted.com editor and founder of Writing it Real, a “community and resource center for writing from personal experience.”

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET.

Get the advice you need to ace your AMCAS applications and gain the med school acceptance of your dreams when you register for Writing for Your Medical School Application today!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

In response to overabundance of law students, Hastings Law cuts incoming class size

Bemoaning the overabundance of law schools and law students, Frank Wu, the chancellor and dean of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, is putting his words into action. Beginning in the fall, Hastings will admit “20 percent fewer students than in years past, a decision that required the college to eliminate several staff positions. No faculty members lost their jobs,” Inside Higher Ed reports.

While Hastings still receives a flood of applications, despite the drop in overall law school application volume, this “reboot” will help ensure that those accepted will have a better chance of finding work post-graduation, instead of swimming in debt with no prospects. As Wu puts it, law school shouldn’t be a “refuge for the bright liberal arts student who didn’t know what he or she wanted to do.” His plan could be a win-win situation: Hastings’ rankings could increase due to higher job placement stats, and those “underqualified” students will avoid years of struggling through and after law school.

Hopefully, more schools will take their cue and downsize their classes, since “by keeping class size constant while job opportunities and application numbers fall, the college[s] would be doing a disservice to [themselves] and [their] applicants.”

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Huntsman Hall at Wharton

Vice Dean of Wharton Business School, Howie Kaufold, spoke to The Wharton Journal about the new MBA curriculum. He noted that in reviewing their curriculum, the MBA Review Committee focused on four main principles: Rigorous, Innovative, Flexible, and Brand-Strengthening.

Regarding flexibility, some of the required courses will be offered in more than one format, and it’s up to the students to choose which format they prefer. They can also take more electives in their first year, if they’ve fulfilled the pre-requisites, and move some of the required courses to their second year. Plus, “students will be offered two pathways through required core areas, so will have more opportunity to tailor their course of study to their long- and short-term goals.”

A committee has been working on a new course auction system that should be first used in the fall of 2013. The goal of this system is to enhance the curriculum’s flexibility, as well as students’ chances to get the classes they really want.

There has also been a strong focus on community, which is bolstered by the strengthening of clusters, the largest building block in Wharton’s community, which consists of clusters, cohorts, and learning teams. In Kaufold’s words, “we’ve invested a lot of time and energy in thinking about our community next year, and we hope this new structure will further enhance the outstanding student community we already have at Wharton.”

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

MBA applicant blogger TheSenator2014

Next up in our series of featured MBA bloggers is Selemon Asfaw, otherwise known as TheSenator2014, the author of the blog, Road to the MBA Class of 2014. Enjoy the Senator’s thoughtful answers and use them to help you make your way through the MBA admissions process.

Accepted: First, can you tell us a little about yourself – where are you from, where did you go to college and when did you graduate; and what prior degrees do you hold?

TheSenator2014: Born and raised in inner city Detroit to a pair of hard-working, do-anything-for-our-children parents, at a young age I was always attracted to business, especially entrepreneurs. In my teens, my folks had enough with the rampant crime and we moved out of the city. Years later, after being isolated in high-brow suburbia, the virtues my parents had instilled in me shifted from the blue collar mentality to a “not-so-humble” value system as I entered the University of Michigan at the age of 18. After experiencing an identity crisis in college I took time off from school to recalibrate. I spent a lot of time in my father’s homeland of Ethiopia as well as working for a fledgling small business in Detroit. My mission trips to Ethiopia caused an epiphany and I took a selfless approach to life. I transferred to the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management to finish my Bachelor of Science in Business in 2009 instead of continuing on at Michigan because I wanted to pursue my passion for Entrepreneurship in an environment that I felt best supported that dream.

Accepted: When do you plan on applying to business school? Which schools will you apply to? Do you think you’ll apply to a “safety school”?

TheSenator2014: I applied to business school in the fall of 2011. Admittedly I applied to too many, including a few reaches and safety schools that in hindsight I would have ditched all together. Going through the process once has brought some key lessons though. First of all, limit your schools to four or five. I had ten and went broke on application fees and flying to interviews. Second, make sure you only apply to schools you actually want to go to, not just because they have a shiny crest and their name starts with an “H”.

Accepted: How many years of work experience do you have? Doing what?

TheSenator2014: Depending on how you look at work experience, I have three years of experience post graduation and an additional year of work experience in my last year in school when I launched a successful start-up with nine colleagues. I also currently own my own small educational consulting practice and maintain a handful of loyal clientele. In my full-time roll as Administrator, Youth Entrepreneurship and Leadership for the University of Minnesota I founded and designed an interconnected set of experiential-based programs for high school students to incubate micro-ventures and get exposure to college opportunities. I consider myself an education designer more than anything and I find my job personally fulfilling. As one of the adcoms at a school I was accepted put it, “Your background is so unusual.” That made me smile knowing that I’m miles away from being cookie cutter even in comparison to ‘non-traditional’ candidates.

Accepted: Does cost play a factor in where you’re applying? Do you plan on applying for financial aid or scholarships? Has your current job offered to pick up part or all of your b-school tab?

TheSenator2014: When I began this process, cost was at the bottom of my consideration criteria, but as time has progressed it’s loomed over me like a grey cloud. I applied for scholarships and financial aid because work is not paying for it, and I, like most, am in no position to fully finance my own education. Generally I’m pleased with the success I’ve had in receiving scholarships, however at present I’m conflicted with the choices in front of me. A month ago I was sure of where I wanted to go to school and now I’m experiencing some very serious reservations. My reasons are not driven by the desire to get the most money, rather, because of the career path I want to pursue. As an entrepreneur being hampered with student debt can severely curtail your aspirations – with a loan balance of $160,000 or more will you really have the ability to take the risks you need to in order to be successful? Right now I’m in a mental holding pattern considering my options – which range from fully funded (including expenses) to unfunded. At the end of the day the question I have to answer is: which scenario is going to get me closer to my post-MBA desire?

Accepted: What courses or experiences or people have motivated you to go to business school? How?

TheSenator2014: The LEAD Program in Business, a summer program which I attended at the Carlson School of Management in high school (hence, the choice when I transferred), was a defining moment where I solidified my desire to be an entrepreneur. When I returned to Minnesota I got the chance to launch my first business with the help of a mentor; the experience confirmed what I hoped would be true. I had a talent – I could start up just about any business and get it to a point of relative stability. My strength, however, exposed my management challenge; building a substantial organization. The latter is why I need my MBA. My pitfall is while I know I’m a good entrepreneur and leader I’m not a very good manager and I’ve come to realize getting an MBA rather than spending several years developing that skill set will bring me closer to my post-MBA goals.

Accepted: How many times did you take the GMAT? Are you happy with your score?

TheSenator2014: I took the GMAT once, scored a 700 and was not exactly happy with my score. Had I retaken it I believe I could have bumped myself solidly into the 700′s and been much more confident about my overall candidacy. Unfortunately I decided to settle because my job and my business are extremely demanding, and I felt like I could use the extra time developing stronger essays rather than burying my head in GMAT study guides.

Accepted: Why did you choose to blog about the MBA application experience?

TheSenator2014: Therapy. Inside of all of us who are applying to business school we experience episodes of schizophrenia and lunacy. I blog to check the stress and try to cure my biggest weakness, over-thinking, by beating up my keyboard now and again. My personal life intersects a lot of my blog postings and I write from the heart. I credit my wonderful fiancé for helping me open up about my life and application experience and I hope my followers find a piece of themselves in me. This has been a roller coaster and I know there are millions out there who are riding the rails with me. Someday we will retrace memory, take a sigh of relief and say, “I did it.”

Do you want to be featured in Accepted.com’s blog, Accepted Admissions Blog? If you want to share your MBA/EMBA journey with the world (or at least with our readers), email us at mbabloggers@accepted.com.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Huntsman Hall at Wharton

Are you interested in learning about the Lauder Institute and what the advantages are of gaining a Wharton MBA through the Lauder program? Do you want to hear more about the Wharton-Lauder connection, as well as the program’s focus on international business and integrating management? If so, then you won’t want to miss Accepted.com’s upcoming Q&A on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 10:30 AM PT/1:30 PM ET/5:30 PM GMT with Wharton and Lauder representatives Meghan Ellis, Coordinator for Admissions & Student Affairs, and Marcy Bevan, Director of Admissions & External Affairs at the Lauder Institute. The Wharton-Lauder team will be available to answer all of your MBA admissions questions, helping you apply successfully to this prestigious program and top b-school. So join us on May 14th as we learn more about Lauder!

Register now to reserve your spot for the Wharton-Lauder MBA Q&A!

What time is that for me? Click on the link to find out the exact time for your location.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best