Manhattan Review Blog - Test Prep, Admissions Consulting and Career Training

Find the right fit! You have heard of this line often. But what is the right fit? How can you tell which schools value you more and which schools fit you better?

First, think ahead and think broadly. Think like a business school dean. Think like a business owner. What is the status of the current global economy? Which direction is it heading? Will there be a possible boom or recession after I graduate? How is the domestic economy doing? How about the industry or sector I indicated as my career choices on my application? How will those trends impact business schools’ job placement statistics and ranking? These questions should get you to start thinking about the general business school demand for the type of applicants with similar talents and professional backgrounds as yours. To find out more, do some research and talk to some bright people.

Second, think about specifics of each school. What is this business school known for? How are they doing in comparison to other major competing business schools? What are their stated goals for the short- and long-run? Is there any recent personnel change such as a new dean or a new admissions director? How does it influence schools’ direction and emphasis on student recruitment? You can find answers by reading good articles, talking to alums and visiting business schools.

Every organization including any non-profit and for-profit businesses needs to do business planning. The same is true for business schools. They try to forecast the trends and stay ahead of the competition to achieve their mission by admitting “the best and the brightest” students for their schools. A school’s reputation lies in its alums and specifically, their success and loyalty. Finding the right fit is equally as important to them as is to you.

After getting a good sense of the underlying trends and desired student profiles of each school, you need to do some soul-searching. Which schools do I have a better chance of getting into? Which schools does my heart belong to? After you are lucky enough to get a few admissions letters to choose from, then the art rests solely on your decision-making ability.

But before you get there, you need to do all the hard work putting all the applications together. This can be a great self-discovery and self-improvement process without any doubt. You will get out as much as you put in. So your hard work will definitely pay off. Even if you don’t make it into your top schools, you will be a fuller person with more self-awareness.

The next step is to do a good job marketing yourself! Tailor your application and emphasize why you are unique (show your personality, not just your qualifications) and why the school will benefit from having you as a student and an alum in the future. For example, due to the demanding nature of the investment banking business, very few women make it into it. Even for those women who managed to get there during the heydays, many of them, if not the vast majority of them, exited a few years afterwards. To address this issue, business schools have started to favor young female candidates with great potential so that they can make a good career out of their most independent and productive years before dividing time up between work and family. This is good news for new female college graduates. It tells you that you may have a higher chance of getting in now. But you need to tailor your application to make these pluses stand out. As to male applicants, since they traditionally represent more than 65% of the MBA classes, it is instrumental to demonstrate leadership and uniqueness such as entrepreneurialism, untraditional experiences, and international exposure.

Similar conclusions to the above can be drawn based on relevant data such as economy and industry statistics. Many MBA related internet sites only elaborate on the past and proven facts without forward looking insights. But you can do more yourself by developing your own visionary abilities! In reality, those who have a good vision and a sound judgment are the best candidates sought after by business schools.

Related posts:

• Younger MBA Applicants (I)
• Wait Listed?!
• University of Chicago Adds PowerPoint to Graduate Application
• Rejection and Reapplication
• Putting together a Superb Application (Part III)

Based on the most recent data published by the GMAC, approximately 21% percent of GMAT tests are taken by repeat test-takers who have taken the test more than once within a year. If the data is segmented further, it shows that out of tests that score within the mean Total GMAT score range of 500 to 540, the percentage accounted for by repeat test-takers is approximately 28%. The average gain between the first test and the second test is about 30 points. That means repeat test taking may result in either an increase or decrease. An important side fact: about 20% of GMAT tests are taken for the purpose of submitting scores to a non-business graduate program.

Since each person is allowed to repeat the test up to five times a year and most repeat test takers test two or three times within a year, we can make some easy assumptions.

Assume:

1) the total number of GMAT tests taken per year is 135,000 (rounded up from the 2005 data),

2) all tests required for non-business school graduate programs are taken one time only and also account for 20% in the score range of 500 to 540, and

3) all repeat GMAT test takers take on average 3 times a year, the above data implies that the number of repeat MBA-related test takers should represent just 10.6% of total MBA-related test takers or just 15.2% of MBA-related test takers with score of 500 to 540. This equates to a total repeat MBA-related test takers of about 14,310 a year.

This conclusion is in agreement with Manhattan Review’s advice to our own students: We generally recommend you to prepare well, stay focused, and then ace the GMAT in your “once and only” try. That way you can optimize the result without stretching yourself for an extended period. Also that way you don’t need to worry about recovering from bruised “ego”, exhausted soul, tighter purse string, and a swamped schedule. However, if you have taken the GMAT on your own before studying with us, we believe targeting specific weaknesses is most important. Rather than repeating an entire prep course, we recommend private tutoring so that you can customize your sessions.

Related posts:

• Palm Vein Scanning at GMAT Test Center
• The Ins and Outs of Your GMAT Score III – Computer-Adaptive Test Strategies
• Pros and Cons of Computer Adaptative Test
• Palm Vein Scanning (Part II)
• New GMAT Section Due June 2012: Integrated Reasoning

Since most of our team members are MBA graduates with about 10 years of work experience, we have experienced countless rounds of interviews on-campus for internships and full-time jobs. In fact, we are often times the interviewers now. Regardless if it is an MBA Admission interview or a corporate recruiting interview, there are common tips we would like to share with you.

1.) Know your interviewer and the entire interview process! Make a few educated guesses about the interviewer’s personal and professional background such as expertise, rank and experience. Think about the relative importance of each interview in the entire application or corporate recruiting process for the position. Sometimes one person makes the decision. Sometimes, everyone’s opinion counts. In general, modify your answers for each different interviewer and interview process. Try to ace all of them!Typically senior and more experienced people are more interested in finding out your true characters. Read local and, more importantly, national and international news. Make a few remarks or analogies by using your non-work related knowledge. Demonstrate you are well read and a deep-thinker. Creativity, leadership, loyalty are among the traits most valued for any job.Junior and less experienced interviewers are more interested in your current and past achievements so that they can draw comparisons to themselves or their colleagues. They are looking for signs of dedication, good work ethics, easy to work with and reliability.

2.) Remember the basics: be articulate, be energetic and be super prepared! Mock interviews are one of the best ways for you to practice! Practice with your family members, friends from different walks of life. Their questions will prompt you to think further about how you should present yourself.At last, we, Manhattan Review, are always here for additional help.

Related posts:

• Younger MBA Applicants (II)
• Younger MBA Applicants (I)
• Yale B-School – Latest Changes
• Wait Listed?!
• University of Chicago Adds PowerPoint to Graduate Application