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

Students will often send us reports to give us an update on how they’re doing with their MBA applications and the GMAT. We love hearing student success stories, so we thought we’d share some of these emails with you!

Hi

I was a student at Manhattan Review and I just wanted to let you guys know – I finally took the GMAT today and got a 720. I could’ve done better on the Math but I found it to be more difficult than I expected. I had to blindly guess on the last 3-4 questions. Made it up in Verbal though!

Q 45 V 44. Overall, I am pretty happy with the score. I want to thank Man. Rev. for the boost.

Keep in touch

– Iris Xu

Hi Henry,

I hope all is well with you. I completed your Manhattan Review course last month and took the gmat yesterday. I want to let you know that I really appreciated your enthusiasm as an instructor, and your gmat tips really helped! You’d asked that we let you know how we did, so here goes:
I scored a 720 (48 in quant and 40 in verbal).

Thanks for your help,
Lauren G.

Hi Tim,

I just wanted to say thank you to you and the instructors at manhattan review for helping me with my preparation for the GMATs. As you know, I did my GMAT last year and got a score that was less than what I had hoped for, but with your help and some improved study skills, I got a 750 on my test on Saturday afternoon.

I couldn’t have done it without your help,

Thanks again,
Priya Pandian

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Older and more experienced candidates have different needs and desires from an MBA. Deciding whether or not to pursue an MBA involves conscious self-evaluation for all candidates and especially for experienced or older ones.

· You should take account of your personal goals. Do you want a family? What kind of life will satisfy you? Who is dependent on you and how can you best help them?

· You will want to analyze your professional goals. Where do you want to be in five years? Would you like to manage people or do you prefer fewer managerial responsibilities?

· It is important to evaluate your financial goals. What kind of salary do you desire? How will an MBA help you achieve it? How will you finance your education? Are you comfortable with educational loans? Can you sacrifice two years of salary in the present? When is your educational investment likely to begin to pay off? Can you wait that long?

The preceding questions may assist you in your evaluation of whether it’s too late for you or necessary for you to begin an MBA. However, it is possible to delve even further into whether an MBA will take you where you want to go. In terms of professional change, determine more precisely where you like to be. What sector, position and even corporation would you like to be working for? Also, in economic terms, where would you like to be? An MBA generally increases earning potential, but consider also where you are now and whether the degree will improve your earnings potential and worth. Recognize, in your evaluation, that an MBA may initially be an economic setback and the salary will start to pay off later down the line. Evaluate statistics on earning averages after completing an MBA at particular institutions.

At the end of the day, after evaluating all the statistics of earnings and worth, your interests in terms of professional growth and flexibility, and your personal desires, success comes down to individuals and what they make happen. It is up to you to determine whether the MBA is the right means to assist you in achieving your desired ends. Companies often claim that they do not privilege an MBA over someone with experience in the field. In both arenas, individuals learn, grow, and improve. Companies hire individuals who have been successful in the past.

An MBA, especially one later in one’s career, is most useful to individuals who would like to change sectors or positions. For example, individuals who seek to move from banking to consulting, or into management positions (in fact, these people often find their MBA most satisfying). The MBA is also useful to individuals who want to rapidly learn and attain skills needed for different positions.

In addition to the two-year MBA program, the other options to consider for individuals later in their careers are the more flexible means of attaining an MBA including online, part-time, and executive MBA programs.

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Recommendations for College Students Eager to Enroll in Business School

If you are in college and interested in entering an MBA program immediately after graduation, getting accepted is not likely to be easy. Since the weak economy has put many young professionals with work experience out of jobs and many of those more mature students are applying to MBA programs, schools are less likely to be filling their classes with the less experienced. Yet, hope is not lost. This may be precisely the time to consider some alternative ways to achieve your MBA goals and bide time in school while the markets recover.

For current undergraduates as well as business school bound high school juniors and seniors, looking into various MBA options early may pay off. Universities as diverse as Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Rochester and Indiana University offer ways for students to complement their undergraduate degrees with an early MBA.

HARVARD

Harvard Business School allows juniors to apply to a program in which they are guaranteed a spot at HBS after they complete 2 years of work. During their junior year, applicants take the GMAT and complete an application. Applicants are notified of acceptance in the fall of their senior year. After completion of their undergraduate degree, accepted 2+2 students enter the work force. The jobs they take need to be approved by the business school. Though the HBS program does not shorten the length of time a student spends in school, both students and HBS are ultimately well served by the 2+2 program. It allows students to be able to focus on gaining work experience and enjoy the comfort of already being admitted to a top-MBA program, and the school is guaranteed a committed and experienced student.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

The Kelley School of Business offers an Accounting program in which undergraduates can earn both an undergraduate degree and an MBA in just five years. This opportunity, open to juniors majoring in Accounting or Finance at Indiana, gives students the possibility of earning an MBA with an Accounting concentration in just one extra year and also relieves them of the GMAT requirement. Indiana has excellent job placement statistics and consistently pumps out solid MBAs with the high level Accounting skills valued by businesses.

UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER

The William E. Simon School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester offers another 5 year option for undergraduates of the University of Rochester. Interested students apply early in the spring semester of the junior year and begin MBA level coursework as seniors. Students will still need to take the GMAT in order to apply. This program is a great option for Rochester students as the University currently does not offer an undergraduate business degree. The University also offers several fellowships geared toward the more youthful aspiring MBAs, those with less than 3 years work experience interested in an MBA at Rochester.

CARNEGIE MELLON

Tepper School of Business also has opened its doors to Carnegie Mellon Computer Science majors that are interested in applying to business school and gaining an MBA and Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science in just 5 years. Applicants still will need to gain admission by submitting an application, resume, GMAT, essays, interview and recommendations, but they are offered the bonus of gaining an MBA from a top school with just one additional year of schooling. Though ultimately the Department of Computer Science determines eligibility, good grades, high scores, internships and maturity go a long way toward gaining acceptance.

Other schools too offer similar 5 year or early acceptance programs for undergraduates. So young applicants, take a closer look at alternative programs that are out there!

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Manhattan Review is proud to announce an industry-first ground-breaking MBA Application Boot Camp. The goal of the boot camp is to help students prepare for every aspect of the MBA Application process. It will also give them the right guidance they need in polishing up their MBA Applications.

The entire admissions process can be overwhelming, especially for young business professionals with full schedules. But with customized guidance, they can navigate successfully from writing their application essays to deciding what school to finally attend.

Manhattan Review will host boot camps on a monthly or bi-monthly basis in New York, London, and Real-Time Online. Students can register for a 2-day weekend Crash Boot Camp or a week-long Intensive Boot Camp. Participants will learn all the strategies, go through practice interviews and start essay drafting after the weekend crash boot camp. Students will complete the essential parts of all applications for three schools of their top choice after the week-long intensive boot camp.

MBA Application Boot Camp will feature programs led by top admissions experts who will share with prospective MBA students their over 12 years of admissions experience. The boot camp will address several topics including Career Goal-setting, Career Planning, Application Strategy Formulation, Preparation for Great Interviews, Crafting of Persuasive Essays, and Solicitation of Effective Recommendation Letters. The boot camp will also provide additional application guidance, such as advice on scholarship or loan applications and strategies on dealing with waitlist, deferral, re-application and dual-degree programs.

MBA Application Boot Camps – Details

-Crash Courses (Selected Cities & Online; 8-Hour One 2-day Weekend)

Cost: Regular – USD500; Promotional – USD450; MR Students – USD400

All attendees receive 20% off Admissions Consulting (AC) services subsequently; 25% off AC and GMAT at the same time subsequently.

-Intensive Courses (Selected Cities; 28-Hour One Week; 3-School Elite Pack Included after the course for complete end-to-end guidance)

Cost: Regular – USD5000; Promotional – USD4500; MR Students – USD4000

More details and registration can be found at our MBA Admissions section.

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Many schools do recruit and encourage younger applicants to apply. Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford Business School and Harvard Business School are among those with a reputation for accepting younger applicants, but many schools admit almost no young applicants (even though they claim to be interested in them). Even those schools that do accept large numbers of young applicants are quite selective in their choices. In both the application process and the experience of business school itself the younger applicant faces special hardships, which are important to be aware of.

Application Process

Young applicants face several challenges in the MBA application process. They have to compensate for a lack of work experience with leadership roles, higher than average GMAT scores, higher than average GPA, even more focused career goals, recommendations showing maturity and preparedness, and uniqueness (in some manner).

Leadership experience is especially important. In essays as well as during the interview process, it is important that younger applicants show admissions officers or interviewers what leadership roles they have taken on, what they have learned in those roles, and explain with concrete examples. Younger applicants will especially want to highlight larger roles, which help to display their unique knack for leadership. Successful younger candidates can show that their uncommon leadership abilities exceed the average college student, through experiences such as being elected College President, internships in fields that recruit few undergraduates, or entrepreneurial experiences.

Business School Experience

At school, younger students sometimes experience difficulties relating to fellow students. Other business school students, who tend to be older and more experienced, come to school with different interests and home lives, as they sometimes have families and different backgrounds. These differences can cause mutual misunderstanding and ultimately limit the forming of lasting relationships and networks that many people go to business school to create.

In the classroom, younger applicants need to continue to show that they do have legitimate and interesting experiences to share and make this clear to professors. Overall, it is important that younger students keep their self-confidence in the face of older students. Younger students must respect older students for the greater breadth of experience that comes from spending time in the “real world,” but remember too that they were accepted because of exceptional ability (however young) and do indeed have things to offer the class and the professional world.

In the job application process, younger students may have difficulties with certain career paths. Venture capital firms, for example, often seek MBAs with greater professional experience. However, consulting firms and banks are happy to recruit younger, more energetic MBAs, though they may hesitate at first to put younger MBAs in management positions.

Overall Pros and Cons

Overall the MBA experience for younger students is not an easy one. Yet despite the difficulties experienced in the application process and in study, the young applicant does have the advantage of completing the degree early—especially important to women, who later, for personal reasons, may want to take time out from the professional world. Also, it is a good path for the over achiever who is used to being among older people. Young applicants who are not so used to it should carefully select the schools they apply to according to their percentages of younger admits. Younger applicants will find themselves jump starting their careers early and may possibly be spending more of their professional lives in unique, exciting roles where they can make a greater impact.

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