Craft a realistic MBA application story

Over the past few years, I have received a good number of emails regarding MBA applications – ranging from the really basic “How should I kick start the application process?” to the rather direct “Could you post your essays?”

Having completed the program, I now have a different perspective on how I would have thought through my own applications as well as courses/things I would have done in my school to companies I would have recruited for.

While I will not be posting my application essays, I plan to write a few blog posts covering some important questions before I bid adieu to this blog. Let me start with the first one – Should I do an MBA?

This is where it begins! Some professions require that candidates should have a MBA degree, while others “prefer” MBA candidates. While considering an MBA degree, it is important to have a very good idea about your short term & long term aspirations and whether a MBA degree is needed for those. If so, how a MBA degree could serve as a bridge between where you are currently and how you can get to your goals.

I know of several candidates & friends that have worked in financial services industry and were required to have a MBA degree to move to the next level in their career. At the same time, the MBA program is a strong requirement for candidates wanting to switch into investment banking roles for a few years. These candidates could then move into industry finance positions such as corporate M&A or PE or other.

Given the number of applications pouring in at schools, it is very important to show that you are aware of these career trends and craft a “realistic” application story based on what you have achieved currently and where you intend to go.

While reading applications of some MBA hopefuls, I found that some applications are not necessarily realistic or tangible in their goals or aspirations. For example, one candidate wrote about becoming the “best CEO” in his industry and not more. Its fine to write about becoming the “best CEO”, but it is even more important to show how the MBA program will help you in becoming one, based on where you are right NOW.

To sight another example, one candidate with 4+ years of telecom experience had drafted a very convincing application about they envisioned themselves to be shaping telecom strategies in emerging nations in the future. To achieve that, they wanted to move into corporate strategy roles after spending few years working with a top strategy consulting firm. A realistic and winning app- because the candidate had goals based on where they were - strong industry experience & knowledge in the telecom domain), global projects with strategy experience and working alongside with telecom leaders and a knowhow of moving forward in corporate strategy.

There are exceptions to almost all rules. There are people who haven’t felt the need for an MBA or have not pursued these programs and have achieved unparalleled success in their career. Remember to have a realistic & tangible side to your application story to show that you have really reflected on why you want to do an MBA.

Wharton is really happening to me ....

Time flies ...
I can't believe all the things that have happened since Feb Wharton Welcome weekend. I have completed the employment verification, got the award letter, received my wharton student account and finally even signed a lease this past week for a studio in Philadelphia and soon, I will be quitting my job.

I am all excited to be at Wharton! I have emailed various current students, and each one of them has been super helpful to me in answering all my questions. And I hope I can be the same to furture Wharton applicants/students.

Wharton ! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

I am in .... , can't describe what I feel now :-) .I got the call today from Wharton Adcom first thing in the morning 8amish. Can you believe that? It was really nice talking to Wharton adcom person. I then thanked my stars and checked my email. Yes, the status was updated with an admit letter link.

I really want to thank everyone who helped me get so far , from my family, friends, recommenders, people at work, current MBA students and alumni who have given me helpful hints and the blogging community. I also want to do a braindump of my application experience. But I think that will wait till I get back. I am going on vacation starting this weekend and will be back mid-January. Happy Holidays to everyone. Have a safe and joyous NewYear..

My Wharton Interview experience

I chose the alumni interview option. We met in a cafe. I had already spoken to my alumni interviewer on phone while scheduling the interview. Actually, I must say that that interviewer was very prompt when he received my mail, called me up and fixed the time and day.

He asked me to begin with my story (I had already sent him my resume, and so he wanted to know why I wanted to do an MBA.) I spoke about that. Then was the "Why Wharton" question. I spoke in length here, what I really liked about Wharton, the different things that appeal to me with respect to my goals (nonprofit et al) . After this, he asked about my strengths and weakness. Then came an unexpected question. "What is the worst moment of my life?". I spoke about something personal related to an experience. He really appreciated that aspect and also mentioned to me that it is better to talk honestly than to recite any memorized answer. The interview ended with a very different question "Wharton should admit me because ...." fill in the blank with a oneline sentence. I thought for a bit on that one, and told him something that came from my heart. We spent some time after this , talking about my alum's Wharton experience and he shared some interesting tidbits with me. Overall, I did not feel like I was having an interview. It felt more like a nice conversation, and my alum interviewer was genuinely interested in understanding the person behind me. I felt good about the interview experience. I really want to thank Wharton for such a fabulous opportunity, the alumni seemed great .
Regardless of the final decision, I will treasure this process, because it has helped me understand myself so much better and enrich the learning experience.

Best of luck to all those interviewing and then for the final decision.

On another note, looks like Sloan has started interview invites since this week.Stanford invites have started for the past few weeks as well. Buzz according to the BWforums is that these schools sent invites according to region .

Wharton wait

for interview invitation is over ... I received an invite some time back today morning. Guess, the invites do get released till the DAY as they say. I am mostly going for the alumni interview option, because I won't be able to take time off work for a on-campus. But let me see if i can do that. Any suggestions for selecting between alumni interviews in Seattle and on-campus Wharton interview.?

W is for wait

Nothing beats the excitement and anxiousness for this week, the long wait for Wharton's choosy interview invites. Without an invite currently, all I can do is wait and hope to be in the 50% bucket that has some chance of getting in at Wharton. Least I fall in the other half, I will move on. Meanwhile, to all of us, trapped in the Wait, let's be positive.

Wharton Update

Alas, first of my deadline kicks in, and I have submitted my application. Boy! what a sigh of relief. For me, I can say that the application process this year was very different from what I did last year (I am a reapplicant at Wharton). Last year, I started writing the essays in late Oct and submitted them in late Dec before going on a trip to my home country. There was too much going on in my life at that time. At the end , my essays were sloppy, did not have clear goals and surely would not give me an admit despite other good credentials. When I returned from my trip in January and looked at my apps, I knew all my mistakes.

That was it! I began to think about my goals, what I really want to focus on and also on my strengths and weaknesses. After 10+ years of solid engineering (studies included), my mind is trained to think in terms of definiteness (yes/no, boolean values, etc).The process wasn't easy for me and definitely took a long time. I started writing down all the facts and figures from my life, spoke to my family and friends, till I saw something emerge from all of these things.

Questions that i asked myself reflected as early as my childhood, then my teens and now, to see how I have evolved over those years. I reflected enough on some important experiences in my life, to realize what I am good at, what I like to do, and what things I could improve on. I believe this kind of soul searching really helps. Even though, b-schools ask about short term and long term career goals, they want to get to know the real person behind these goals, why those goals matter to you, what makes you tick, what is different about you.

Some people have these answers clearly etched in their mind, while others (like me), may take a bit longer in realizing these things. But, bschool or not,I think this is important. All these things definitely helped me in constructing my Wharton application. As an applicant, I don't think I have anything stellar in my points ( I am not a VP or a manager yet, I haven't won significant prizes, I am not 750+ etc.) . But I have used my experiences to tell why i have done the things that I have and what I have learnt from them. At the end, this process has mattered much more to me. And , I am not worried about the result as I was last year. Because, that surely is out of my control.

Essay Tips

MIT Sloan Essay Topic Analysis ...

1) From Accepted.com
2) From Clearadmit

HBS Essays...

Although the questions look simple, these essays are the toughest of the lot, specially with the word limits and the succinctness that has to go in each essay. As of now, I am done with first drafts of the HBS essays.But still have a long way to go. I might consider pushing HBS to R2, if I cannot make the essays as good as I want them to be.

More on Essay Advice

Reading a very good book currently. Could not help but jot down these excellent points for essays:

1) Why do you want to an MBA?
Think about previous experiences:PAST:
How have they prepared you for business shool?
How have they made you come to conclusion that you would like to pursue an MBA?
What skills have you gained that you could bring to this program?

Think about your current state:PRESENT:
Why now ?
Have you reached a point where you need a degree to advance?
What knowledge and skills do you hope to obtain from the degree?

FUTURE:
What are your future career goals?
How will you use your MBA for your career goals?
How will you use MBA in the future?

Be specific when you describe what you have gained from your workplace.

Q2) What do you bring to the school?

This question requires introspection, some thoughts about what make or break you,. If you described your work experience elsewhere, highlight your other aspects here. Your work experience and what you gained from it is one of the most important factors in business school. Think about the experiences that you have been involved in, experiences that you have had or some of your accomplishments, and the unique qualities that you can use to distinguish yourself from teh rest of the crowd.

Q3) Leadership Essay
In this essay, think about what you want to convey about your philosophy of leadership, your leadership style. Try to think about leadership at work if possible.

Give examples of how you led
Explain why you made the decisions that you did, especially of they were difficult decisions
Outline your approach to leadership and what skills you try to exhibit when you are a leader
Show how you have been a leader, how do you perform as a leader
Also, describe the results of your leadership - did your project complete successful, did your team work well together, provide tangible outcomes from your work however do not exaggerate your achievements

Q4) Achievements
(Most important achievement in your life etc) - could be personal or work related
Think about what you want to convey through this essay?
If you write about a non work related work experience, be sure to emphasis how that has helped you prepare for business school, either directly or indirectly

Q5) Overcoming obstacle or failure
Share your thoughts so that the bschool understands your motivations and why you are able to overcome a challenge , describe the strength that you gained from this and how you will continue to use this strength
If you made a poor decision, communicate what you learned and how you will apply that in the future

Q6) Team work
Explain the team interactions that you have experienced
How did you keep the team functioning and even pitfalls to avoid

Q7) Extra curricular activities
What do you enjoy, why, and what do you gain from the experience?
Whether you have learned perseverance from running marathons or something else, business schools need to know how you have developed through this activity.

Q8) Optional essay
Use this to write anything else that will add to your personality, a strength or a weakness

Excerpts from ACCEPTED! 50 successful bschool admission essays !! Tanabe & Tanabe

Struggle

What have you done so far?--Where are you going? -- Why MBA? ---Why now? --What that university's MBA?

Time and again, many applicants, MBA students, admission committees have emphasized these key questions. A compelling story to these questions , filled with one's sweat and tears and smiles, will make a winning application. As I have put effort into understanding these questions for myself over the past few weeks, I have realized the part that I struggle the most with. "How do I link my "specific goals" to that university's MBA program offering? Points that come to mind are:
1) Core program curriculum - BUT , most B-schools have more or less the same type of courses in the core areas (finance, accounting, marketing, etc)
2) Clubs, Activities - BUT, most B-schools have more or less the same type of clubs (ASIA club, Enterpreneurship club)
3) Programs - Chances of some difference arise here. Most top schools offer a global practicum, b-plan competitions, case competitions etc
4) World Class Faculty - Hmmm, every school has its own cream
5) Commitment to Community - So many b-schools have started emphasizing this lately.
6) Student Culture/Personality - THIS one begs to differ. Each b-school has its own persona, that projects itself into the dynamic community that the school represents.

Are these the only elements to use to link one's goals to university X's MBA program? Also, what does it mean by "linking one's goals to MBA program"? If one of my goals is to learn about marketing high tech internet consumer products for start-ups and small businesses, is it sufficient to "link" this goal with the "Marketing for entrepreneurs" course at the university?

Thoughts on this very much appreciated.

My Haas and Stanford Visit experience

My Haas and Stanford Visit experience

Overall I am impressed by both schools. I have been to SF, Berkeley, Palo Alto. I don't want to write text on why those areas are popular. :-) . Also, I don't intent to compare these 2 vists or schools , each school has its own personality. So here goes visit experience:

Stanford : I started the day with a visit to Stanford GSB- class visit. I had picked up a class at 10.00am, arrived 10 minutes before the class started. (the traffic in that area on a monday morning can really get to you). Anyway, I soon met up with my class visit buddy, who gave brief about the class. (Organizational changes).

In the class, I get a brief intro (name, place where I come from). There were couple other visitors as well. This class session had case studies related organizational behaviour for (1) a steel company (2) eco tourism company. I haven't read the case study myself, but what was amazing what the amount of class participation and interaction that happened. The students even quoted their personal experiences to analyze and draw conclusions. Not to mention, that the prof also cold-called some students to share their viewpoints. The class size was small , may be around 60 students. The prof raised different points to discuss, the students followed with their viewpoints. Even though I am not a student of GSB, I could understand a few things, and derive a few conclusions. I spoke to my class buddy at the end of the class, asked him a questions about how are the rest of the classes are. His response: class are usually small and there is a lot of learning from the students in the class. I proceeded to a tour after this.

Stanford has great courses in leadership, management, amzing resources for areas that I am aiming for -high tech entrepreneurship , strategy.

Haas experience:
At Haas I started with the school tour and then proceed to the class visit - Global Marketing . This was a second year elective , the class strength was therefore about 20 students. The prof had already given a class case study in the previous class. So this was more of a presentation slide lecture, which describe some marketing facets. What was interesting is that the prof was linking all those factes to his previous case study. The students discussed their view points amongst themselves, drawing on examples from different courses. Haas also has unparalled resources for high tech enterpreneurship (including the Haas business plan competitions)

Overall, the classes at the bschools are very interactive, dynamic and require prep work on part of the students.