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

Manhattan Review is proud to announce its popular MBA Gate event is now available in New York City, Chicago, Boston and Washington DC! Our unique Business School admissions event, MBA Gate, has been well attended since its launch in 2000. The tour focuses on honing young professionals’ career building skills and providing face-to-face in-depth interaction with business schools around the world.

Why Should You Attend?

• No Entrance Fee to A Popular Event with Nearly 10-Year History
• Career Building Skills Crash Course at a Central Location (Typical Topics – Interview Skills, Presentation Skills, Business Writing, Resume Building, Negotiation Skills, Cultural Sensitivity, etc)
• Face-To-Face Interaction and in-depth Discussion with key recruiters from top schools around the world
• Short-Listed for a dedicated Q&A with admissions officers (Invite Only)
• Learn From Experts And Successful Professionals

When:

• New York (Wednesday, September 9, 09: 6pm-10pm)
• Chicago (Saturday, September 12, 09: 1pm-5pm)
• Boston (Wednesday, September 16, 09: 6pm-10pm)
• Washington DC (Saturday, September 19, 09: 1pm-5pm)

Who Should Attend:

• College Grads (up to 5 years of work experience)
• Young Professionals interested in honing in career building skills
• Anyone interested in MBA (Full- or Part-Time or Executive) program
• Anyone interested in Continuing Education Programs

RSVP

Register here (or call 212.997.1660 directly)

For more information about our GMAT preparation courses and MBA Admissions Consulting services, please feel free to email us directly. Thanks!

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• Manhattan Review Announces New Raffle Winners
• From Seeking an MBA to Seeking Success (Part I)
• Younger MBA Applicants (II)

What do both National and Local Scholarships frequently require?  ESSAYS!

Scholarship Essays must not only be interesting and well-written, but must address the specific nature of the scholarship itself, and answer in a clear, decisive way any question that may be asked in the scholarship application.  Sometimes these questions are very explicit: “Why do you deserve this scholarship?”  To be quite frank, even less direct questions, like “What does being a Polish-American mean to you?” or “What is the most important lesson you have learned as a high school student?” or “How do you think your education has prepared you to enter the field of engineering?” all require you to answer: “Why do you deserve this scholarship?”  Persuasion is the goal of scholarship essays.  Remember: even though there may be fewer applicants for a specific scholarship than for your favorite college, frequently there is only ONE winner.

Some tips to make that ONE winner YOU:

• Use very specific examples from your life experience (this may help you with your SAT writing section as well!)
• Adhere to the length requirements of the essay – your 500-word essay might be great, but will lose out when the word requirement is 1000 – or 250!
• Learn about the organization that sponsors the scholarship, and not just the basics.  You want to appeal specifically to the attitude of the organization.  Read the website, get in touch with employees, or, even better, last year’s winner.
• Make sure your style of writing matches the style of the essay question.  Some organizations ask light, informal, or even humorous questions, and others are deeply earnest and serious.  Don’t mix them up!
• Even if you write one hundred scholarship essays, don’t send out a single one without proofreading and asking a teacher or mentor to read it first.
• Don’t expect to do double-duty with your scholarship essays and win over the deciding committee; they’ll know if you just swapped a sentence or two from your college personal statement!
• Don’t lose out because you didn’t submit a neat, organized, attractive application!

Writing scholarship essays may seem like a daunting task, especially with the busy lives of most students, but remember this: the more essays you write, the easier it becomes.  Practice will not only improve your writing, but improve your chances at winning the scholarship you need to afford college.

Related posts:

• Scholarships 101: Making College an Affordable Choice
• Your College Experience – What do You Want?
• Putting together a Superb Application (Part II)
• PowerPoint vs. Essay: Which Best Conveys Today’s MBA Applicant?
• Interview Preparation

Making a Compelling Application

When your application arrives at your favorite college, the officers are not deciding whether to accept or reject you, but rather your application. Therefore, you need to make your application reflect your abilities, personality, background, interests, and past performance.

Don’t Hesitate – Starting Early Pays Off

Don’t wait until senior year to download the applications you need.  Ideally, you will begin familiarizing yourself with your college applications and their requirements during the spring of your junior year.  You will need time to carefully gather the necessary information and compile lists of activities and honors.  If you can begin writing your essays over the summer, you will save plenty of time; just make sure to ask the admissions offices whether or not they plan on changing the essays in the fall.  

Submitting your application as early as possible is always beneficial.  Close to the deadline date, admissions officers must read close to 100 applications a day, but early in the season, they read only a handful a day.  If the admissions officer has more time to consider your application in a thoughtful way, your chances are greatly improved.  Also, an early submission suggests that you are quite serious about your interest in the school, even when you do not select Early Action or another similar option.

Extracurricular Activities and Your Application

You cannot fool college admissions officers by presenting an extremely long list of extracurricular activities in your application.  While it is true that colleges want to make sure that you are doing something worthwhile in your spare time, it is not necessary to be a member of 20 different clubs, sports, or organizations.  However, if you spend 20 hours a week at one particular activity, and you have become the mainstay of that organization, that’s impressive. 

Extracurricular activity lists should demonstrate:

1. Dedication and Loyalty
2. Well-Roundedness
3. Social Awareness and Sophistication
4. Leadership Capacity

First Jobs and Student Resumes

As a high school student, it is not expected that you will have a lengthy resume.  However, having a job in high school can impress admissions officers.  It is a good idea include the number of hours per week you normally work at your job, and any leadership positions that you’ve held.  Your job doesn’t need to be unusual, but your dedication is what matters.  Some schools permit additional recommendation letters from job supervisors, and a glowing report of your maturity, work ethic, and problem-solving skills can be a real boon.

Look after your applications! If you apply online, always save a copy of your essays on your hard drive, and also a backup copy on CD or other removable drive.  Take your time, and do your best to present yourself in the best light possible.

Related posts:

• Interview Preparation
• 5 Tips for Getting into Business School
• Tips on College Scholarship Essays
• Scholarships 101: Making College an Affordable Choice
• Putting together a Superb Application (Part III)

Colleges want students that have excellent grades and SAT scores, but these criteria are frequently not the make-or-break factors that influence acceptance, particularly at highly selective schools.  Colleges have to work hard to keep or make their good reputations, just like students, and therefore need to choose the right students.  Unfortunately, sometimes that means that qualified students don’t get accepted to particular schools – but that does not mean that these students are any less qualified than before they got their thin envelope!

Colleges want specific and unique individuals to attend their schools, not walking transcripts!  But since colleges probably won’t come looking for you (you’re probably not worried about being accepted to college if they are!), you need to find your special niche yourself.

Remember, even when you get accepted to the school of your dreams, no college acceptance letter guarantees a good education, a good job, or a happy life.  Even if you make it to Harvard, there’s no guarantee that your life will be perfect.

Who Gets Accepted?

Today, more students than ever are applying for highly selective colleges; more students overall are planning on attending college after high school, and more successful students are seeking diplomas from big-name schools.  This means that many highly-qualified candidates are rejected from the most selective schools.  Can you believe…

-       Students with perfect SAT scores

-       Valedictorians

-       Winners of famous, private scholarships

… all can get rejected from the most selective (and even less selective!) schools?

The Game Plan:

How can you increase your odds of acceptance into a school that is not only prestigious, but that will give you the best shot at an exemplary education?  Research colleges thoroughly; sometimes colleges are just looking for someone very specific – an oboe player for the orchestra, a star quarterback for the football team, a speaker of Korean to help improve the language department, or a student council star to take over campus government.

Use your Interview to find out whether your specific skill set is particularly desired by a specific school.  Your interview is not only a great way to make a good impression on the admissions officers, but also the easiest way to find out about the kind of students that each college needs.  Come prepared, and don’t be afraid to ask very frank questions about the student body.  It will not harm your chances; in fact, your serious interest in finding the best match for you can only reflect positively on your application.

Related posts:

• College Admission – Major Trends
• Scholarships 101: Making College an Affordable Choice
• Interview Preparation
• Your College Experience – What do You Want?
• Tips on College Scholarship Essays

This week we’d like to share some emails we’ve received from students in the UK!

Hi Henry,

I did a weekend crash course with Manhattan Review in London, and found the rigorous practice we did in class very helpful in exposing each of our weaker points. Our tutor gave us lots of useful advice about techniques for tackling specific question types and noting common cognitive errors which would have been much more difficult to gather from studying alone. I also took some private tuition with the crash course tutor, who helped me with areas that I particularly needed to focus on. The tutor gave frank feedback about my weak areas whilst at the same time offering encouragement and showing a good sense of humour. The Manhattan team were also willing to accommodate my availability and quick to respond to requests. I got 720 in the GMAT – many thanks to Manhattan for all their support!

All the best,

Diana Carter

Hello Henry, or as people say around these parts, ‘Howdy’!,

I am e-mailing you in between marketing and accounting classes at the McCombs Business School (University of Texas at Austin), so you could definitely say that I have progressed in terms of my MBA plans!
I took the MR crash course with David Chambers as my instructor. I found David’s tuition to be first-class; and this definitely helped me get a good score first time (710, 5.5AWA) in the GMAT exam that I took about a month after the course.
I was accepted into the University of Texas on a Nippon Foundation Scholarship. I resigned from my job and I haven’t looked back since!

Regards,

Daniel Harrison

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