A steamer going upstream would cover the distance between town A and town B in 4 hours and 30 minutes. If the same steamer going downstream would cover the distance between the towns in 3 hours, how long would it take a raft moving at the speed of the current to float from town B to town A?

(C) 2008 GMAT Club – m10#4

(A) 10 hours
(B) 12 hours
(C) 15 hours
(D) 18 hours
(E) 20 hours

OA and discussion

Verbal (CR)

Environmentalist:

The use of snowmobiles in the vast park north of Milville creates unacceptable levels of air pollution and should be banned.

Milville business spokesperson:

Snowmobiling brings many out-of-towners to Milville in winter months, to the great financial benefit of many local residents. So, economics dictate that we put up with the pollution.

Environmentalist:I disagree: A great many cross-country skiers are now kept from visiting Milville by the noise and pollution that snowmobiles generate.

Environmentalist responds to the business spokesperson by doing which of the following?

(A) Challenging an assumption that certain desirable outcome can derive from only one set of circumstances

(B) Challenging an assumption that certain desirable outcome is outweighed by negative aspects associated with producing that outcome

(C) Maintaining that the benefit that the spokesperson desires could be achieved in greater degree by a different means

(D) Claiming that the spokesperson is deliberately misrepresenting the environmentalist

(E) Denying that an effect that the spokesperson presents as having benefited a certain group of people actually benefited those people

OA and discussion

• MBA November special ends on Monday November 30. You can save $100 on any order of $2000 or more. Start now to be ready for those January deadlines. (Coupon code MBA100.) But hurry. The coupon code expires on Monday at midnight Eastern Time (GMT -5:00).
• MBA Letters of Recommendation that Rock, November’s featured ebook, is 20% off through November 30. That’s this Monday. It’s back to full price on Tuesday.
• New MBA Interview Reports. Check them out. We have recent interview reports from Harvard, Stanford, and many others. And don’t forget to share your interview experience. Doing so will automatically enroll you in our It’s a 10! contest, making you eligible to win an Amazon gift certificate.
• Consortium Chat. On Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET/1:00 AM GMT, Accepted.com will host an online chat for those interested in applying through the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. Rebecca Dockery, the Consortium’s Recruiting Manager, and representatives of different Consortium schools will be available to answer your questions from application preparation to fellowships and everything in between.
• Stanford video released next week. I was interviewed extensively for this MBA Podcaster TV video on Stanford and the Stanford MBA application. Stay tuned.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com.

The importance of appreciation hit me over the head last week when I received a call from a father whose son is graduating Stanford with a stellar GPA in a high demand field. (I have changed details in this story for confidentiality.)

The father called because his son has 6 job offers and wanted to know which one I thought would be better from an MBA admissions perspective. The job offers were from companies that many would give their eye teeth to work for– fantastic opportunities for growth and professional advancement with “brand” companies or boutique firms. BUT, the job that the son really wanted wasn’t among them. The father lamented his son’s fate, bemoaned how hard he has worked and echoed the son’s profound disappointment. I answered the father’s questions and then as the conversation came to a close
we had the following exchange.

Me: “It sounds to me like you son is a talented young man with lots of opportunities and a bright future.

The Dad: He doesn’t see it like that. He didn’t get the offer he wanted. None of those he received is perfect.

Me: They may not be perfect, but they may be good.

Isn’t it sad that instead of celebrating those six excellent offers in this tough, tough job market, both the son and the father are focused on the one that got away?

Are disappointments discouraging? Yes. Are they devastating? Not if you keep them in perspective by focusing on and appreciating what’s going right.

On this Thanksgiving, I am very thankful for a loving, healthy family and a thriving business. My mother, the subject of that favorite Thanksgiving blog post, is celebrating her 80th birthday this weekend. One daughter is expecting her third child, and one is enjoying her 10-month old baby. Our younger son married in August, and we are preparing for our eldest son’s wedding in March.  We count our blessings and are immensely thankful.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com.

(C) 2008 GMAT Club – m25#2

* 6
* 7
* 8
* 9
* 10

4 professors and 6 students are being considered for membership on a supervisory committee which must consist of 3 people. If the committee has to include at least 1 professor, how many ways can this committee be formed?

(C) 2008 GMAT Club – m25#3

* 36
* 60
* 72
* 80
* 100

First, consider an unconstrained version of the question: how many committees of 3 are possible? The answer is . Now subtract the number of committees that consist entirely of students i.e. . The final answer is .

The correct answer is E.

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I have a dual perspective on helicopter parenting. I have been working in graduate admissions as a private consultant for the last fifteen years, and I also am the mother of five children ranging in age from 21-28. As the article reports my baby-boomer peers, the mothers and fathers of millenials, are playing more and more of a role in the application process.

As a consultant I have no problem with parents calling for information, footing the bill for Accepted’s services, and providing advice and input to their adult children when the children request it.

As a parent, however, I cringe when parents insert themselves into the admissions process and attempt to control it in a misguided attempt to protect their children from possible disappointment or perhaps even perceived failure. While the desire to shield children from experiencing disappointment is understandable, it would be so much more constructive for their children, if the parents selectively support their children’s goals and help them deal with disappointment when it inevitably comes their  way. Parents will neither always be able to prevent their children from feeling pain nor around to kiss the boo-boo and make it better. Kids need to learn how to handle setbacks.

Furthermore, parents who take over the application process are sending multiple negative messages.

1. To the school they are saying, “We don’t have enough confidence in our children to let them manage the application process (or their affairs) on their own.”
2. To the child they are saying “We don’t have enough confidence in your ability to handle your affairs so we are going to take over this critical part of your life.”

Regarding #1, if parents don’t have the confidence that their adults children can manage their own affairs, why should school have confidence that they will be the leaders of tomorrow?

More concretely, I spoke today to an admissions officer at a top business school. She told me of parents and other older relatives coming to pre-application information sessions and to post-acceptance admit weekends. The older relatives were asking more questions than the accepted student.

That makes a bad impression.

If you are an applicant reading this post, then just as the NY Times says, set limits for your parents and older members of your extended family.

• All communication with the school should be between you — not your parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents — and the school.
• Consider carefully your parents’ advice on school and professional options. They want wants best for you. However, parents are human too and they are not infallible. You are going to live your life, work in the profession you choose, and attend the school you go to. Not your parents. The decision is yours and you will bear the consequences — good or bad.
• Never take your parents to an admissions interview.

Parents, if you are reading this post.

• Your child is an adult. Demonstrate confidence in his or her ability by letting them run their life.
• Offer advice when sought and occasionally even when not, but respect your adult children’s ability to run their life. It doesn’t reflect well on your parenting skills if they can’t make important decisions.
• Help you child deal with disappointment — be it a rejection or poor score — by helping them to explore alternatives and examine the factors they can change to improve the outcome in the future. Don’t play the blame game.

For more on these themes, please see:

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dr. Carol S. Dweck
• Raising Resilient Children by Dr. Robert Brooks and Dr. Sam Goldstein (More for parents of younger children, but the principles still apply.)

By Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.

1.  Discuss your professional and personal accomplishments. Why do they make you an ideal candidate for the Columbia Executive MBA Program at this point in your career? Explain how the Program will help you contribute to your sponsoring organization and/or your career goals. (1000 words maximum)

This is truly one of the most difficult EMBA or MBA questions around.  It’s important to give yourself time to think about and put all the parts together.  Let’s walk through it:

• Your personal and professional accomplishment: Ideally you’ll discuss one personal and one to two professional accomplishments.  For the personal one, select something that reveals qualities or learning/growth that you can apply professionally.  For the professional one(s), select experiences that are impressive, that show you making an impact, and that have some relevance (direct or indirect) to your goals.  If you follow this approach, you will have a natural answer for that tricky part of the question, how these accomplishments “make you an ideal candidate” for the program.
• The second part is a more conventional goals question – what are your goals (including how you’ll contribute to your organization) and how the program will help you do so.
• A relatively natural and manageable way to structure this essay is to start with a short introductory paragraph, then discuss the accomplishments in chronological order, from there segue into your goals, and finish by discussing how the program will help you accomplish those goals.

2.  (Optional) Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.

By saying “an explanation of any areas of concern” the adcom is indicating the optional essay is not an open invitation to enhance your application with any new information.  It is seeking explanations for factors that need explaining, such as a low GMAT score, a gap in employment, etc.  Be straightforward in your tone and succinct.

By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author of The EMBA Edge, and author of the free, email mini-course, “Ace the EMBA.”

Ahh, you ask, “What is the MBA Admissions Telethon?” Good question. It is a free, innovative Accepted.com program providing direction and advice to 2010 applicants.

“Nice-sounding buzz, but what is it?”

Two hours when 12 MBA admissions experts will be available to answer your individual questions via telephone. Free. Prior to calling in, you will receive a brief, 6-question questionnaire and submit it along with your resume to a designated email address. (No essays, please.) When you call in, your consultant will review the information you provide, and you will have 15 minutes to discuss with him or her your most pressing MBA admissions questions.

It’s free, easy, and requires only a telephone. Oh yes, you do need to register. You can do so and obtain additional details at 2010 MBA Admissions Telethon.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com

34,449 GMAT exams were taken in Asia in 2009, up 75% since 2005. North American test-takers totaled 21,376, up 30% since 2005, Europe lags behind at 5,291 exams taken (up 25% since 2005), followed by the Middle East and North Africa at 4,713 (a 43% increase over the last four years), and then Latin America at 1,661 test-takers (up only 18%).

There are a few things that account for the increase of international MBA applicants and the decline of those applicants’ interest in the U.S. First, the decline of the global economy has made it harder and harder for students—both stateside and abroad—to afford graduate programs, let alone American programs that tend to be on the more costly side. Second, international business schools have taken strides to beef up the quality of their programs, making staying local more appealing to students who would otherwise travel for a good education.

Other Business School Trends

• Business school students are getting younger and younger. There was a huge representation of under-25-year olds at testing centers this year, up 161% from last year.
• Overall, women make up 40% of the world’s GMAT testers. The number is higher in Asia, at 51%, and lower in India and Pakistan, at just 24%.
• American MBA programs continue to embrace diversity: There was a 36% increase for Asian-American applicants, 26% for blacks, and a 20% increase for Hispanics.
• Part-time and executive MBA programs are becoming smaller, in part due to a 3% decrease in students receiving full reimbursement.
• The increase in MBA applications leveled off last year. 66 percent of programs received more applications this year than last year. A year ago, 77 percent saw increases.

Let Accepted.com help you increase your chances of admittance to your dream MBA program, whether on home soil or abroad. Since 1994 Accepted has helped applicants like you improve their competitive edge by strengthening their application strategy, polishing essays, and assisting in the taxing quest for financial aid. These numbers all say one thing: MBA are still in high demand and with hard work, the degree could be yours in a just a few years from now!

By Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.com.