Manhattan Review Blog

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For MBA applicants, it is already well known that obtaining their advanced degree will be costly and most likely require some combination of loans, financial aid and personal investment.

Some employers still fund or at least partially fund their employees graduate business education, however the number of companies still practicing this has dwindled in lieu of the our current economic state. Unlike a lot of private undergraduate schools, the offers of MBA scholarships based on merit are much harder to come by. While many student loan brokers are willing to approve much larger amounts of money for graduate students than undergraduate, it is important to know that there ARE scholarships out there, if you are willing to do some in depth research into a lot of different organizations, both public and private.

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University of Chicago's Booth EMBA Program was ranked #1 in 2011

With the economy in stasis, an increasing number of professionals looking to return to school to get advanced business degrees are unwilling to give up their current positions when finding a new job after their graduation is no longer assured.

Executive MBA programs, offer an excellent alternative to traditional full time MBA educations- where they would be expected to leave their current roles, and then hope that they will be able to find better positions after completing their post graduate education.

Part time programs take about 1-2  additional years to complete versus full-time two year MBA’s. Many believe that the job security they are afforded and ability continue earning an income during the degree, is well worth it.

The diversity of programs offered for EMBA students is growing as well, since an increasing number of applicants for EMBA programs are no longer having their education paid for by their employers. Now they are free to make the decision of where to attend themselves. This means finding new and innovative ways to attract students, like increased offerings of electives in growth areas like entrepreneurship and leadership workshops.

EMBA programs will no doubt continue to gain in popularity as more and more working professionals will be expected to have advanced post graduate degrees to remain competitive in their chosen career fields.

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20111108/top-part-time-mba-programs-of-2011/

Deciding to reapply to a MBA Program from a school from which has previously rejected your application should never be undertaken lightly. There is usually a good reason (or a few) why you were not accepted to a particular business school program.

• Fact: Applying in different years or semesters to the same school will NOT significantly alter your chances of acceptance. While there are slight variations in the acceptance rates from year to year, overall competition to graduate programs is increasing exponentially.

It is also important to keep in mind that merely having been rejected once before immediately puts you at a disadvantage in comparison with other applicants in your pool. Reapplying without making significant changes and improvements to your application and profile, as a student is a waste of time and money.

Admissions boards will often scrutinize a student who has previously applied more harshly than others simply on the basis of precedent. They will want to see exactly how you have improved your candidacy, spelled out clearly, with detailed anecdotes and progress from your last application.

Above all, be sure that you are objectively evaluating your reasons for reapplication. Applications are expensive and time consuming and you ARE at a distinct disadvantage, having previously been rejected.

In order to ensure that you are accomplishing this effectively, stick to these three main rules if you do decide to reapply to an MBA program:

1. Make significant changes to your previous application- in form and content
2. Use only specific examples and anecdotes when detailing your achievements or skills.
3. Attempt to identify the parts of your application that were the weakest (the reasons for your rejection) and address how you have overcome or improved on them.

For more information, please read our MBA Admissions Rejection Analysis.

Applying to MBA programs takes time and money – and it may seem like getting a result of “waitlisted” is just about as bad as receiving a death sentence. That’s not always the case, and knowing the right strategy to undertake in this case may tremendously improve your chances of getting off the waitlist and into your dream school.

Tom Kania, one of our top admissions consultants and a former admissions board member for the Wharton Business School, points out some key tactics to improve your chances of successfully getting off the waitlist and accepted into your school of choice:

1. Have an experienced second opinion to help advise and refine your application materials. This will greatly increase your chances of acceptance, and make the most of the additional time spent on your application.
2. Maintain communication with your school of choice and make it immediately clear, following the notification of your waitlist assignment, that you are serious about your attendance in the program if accepted. IMPORTANT: You may be asked to make a deposit to hold your place in the program that is nonrefundable if you are accepted and decide not to attend. Therefore, be sure that you will absolutely ready to attend should you get accepted off the waitlist.  Also, be aware, that because you are in a holding position, if another previously accepted student declines admission, even only 1 day before commencement and you are selected off the waitlist to fill that slot, you must attend or forfeit the deposit.
3. Decide what supporting materials you will submit to the board in hopes of getting them to select you. Tom warns that, “Applicants should be careful to censor what materials they send to their desired school. Flooding them with additional letters and notifications of small achievements can ultimately work against you, as the admissions board is already attempting to sift through application materials from thousands of students”.
4. Make sure that you are prepared for the additional time and emotional energy that will go into the uncertainty of acceptance for the next few months. Are you willing to put yourself through this? Or, might it be better to move on and make a decision amongst the schools you were accepted to. This is a highly personal decision, but the stress and uncertainty of choosing to pursue a waitlist assignation are not to be undertaken lightly.

For more information, please read our MBA Waitlist Strategy

HBS Culture 

Harvard Business School has been implementing  many new changes that all focus on collaboration.  Every admitted student is given a face-to-face interview with the admission committee to get a better idea who they are as people, and how they work with others.  Collaboration is ultimately the tool to making a difference in the world.

HBS MBA classes are always diverse.  There is no ideal HBS student.  The admissions committee is looking for students from a variety of backgrounds to present a host of perspectives and get students thinking creatively. Sure they will share common traits such as strong analytical skills,and good leadership qualities.  But the important thing is that the students can work well with each other and bring their own unique perspective to the table, ultimately creating a more comprehensive and beneficial program.

New Initiatives at HBS

Harvard is encouraging undergraduate seniors to apply to HBS throughout the year instead of the usual just during the summer now that Harvard 2+2 Program is up and running.  In keeping with these new changes, Harvard has added new course requirements for first year students emphasizing small group collaboration and hands-on application of the material.  The new course series, called The Field Immersion Experience for Leadership Development (FIELD) is detailed in the 3 Modules below.

1) Leadership Module

The Leadership Module emphasizes small group work and close collaboration with the faculty to provide insight into the best leadership qualities.

2) Module 2

Module 2 will place new student in 14 different cities in 11 emerging economy countries to receive hands on experience in product development exercises.  THe 11 countries will include China, South Africa, and Vietnam, among others.

3) Integrative Exercise in Entrepreneurship

In this module, the student start their own companies, focusing on marketing and customer service.

HBS Financial Aid Information

Harvard Business School encourages all undergraduate students to apply no matter their financial standing.  Financial Aid is not applied for until after the acceptance of the student. Further, the Harvard Alumni have been very receptive to supporting new HArvard students and their education.

Some Quick HBS Admissions Facts

• Harvard looks at their prospective student holistically, never using a point system or structured formula to judge the quality of the student
• Harvard Business School class is about 39 percent women
• About one-third of the class members are non-U.S. citizens

For more details, please also read our Harvard Business School Admissions Tips.

Obtaining an Masters of Business Administration can provide you with a world of possibilities in you career. As Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officeer of the Graduate Mangement Admissions Council and a 1965 MBA grad from University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, says,  ”An MBA opens the door,”  ”When you get in there, it gives you a sense of perspective, a balance, a world view that is often different from what you would have had before you took the degree.”

Most student will give credit to the success they have had in the working world, to the material and lesson they learned in business school.  Further, business school gives students the opportunity to really find themselves and learn what they are truly passionate about, ultimately translating this passion into a career. Under this pretense, Bloomberg Businessweek has tracked the growth of the top MBA grad of 1991 and examined what an MBA and 20 years of work has done for them.  We have copied the five examples that they include below.  Their stories show what an MBA can really give and what doors this degree can open.

Tom Anderson

Then: MIT Sloan School of Management Class of 1991, Seley Scholar, the most distinguished of Sloan’s achievement awards honoring outstanding leadership, professional promise, high academic achievement, and contributions to the school

Now: CEO, Education Dynamics

Tom Anderson graduated from Dartmouth in 1984 with a math degree and a plan to go into medicine. But after speaking to some doctors who expressed regret with their career choices due to the HMO mess that characterized the 1980s, Anderson changed his mind. He took a job teaching high school math for a few years and then joined Paine Webber as a stockbroker. He spent three years at the firm, and in that time he found himself drawn to asset management. But to make the job switch, he was going to need an MBA.

Anderson went out on a limb and applied to only one school: Sloan. “Fortunately I got in,” he says. “I went there expecting to go into asset management, but one of the great things about the top business schools is that you get incredible exposure to a bunch of different companies and different fields in different professions.”

After earning his MBA, Anderson signed on at McKinsey & Co. He worked there for the next decade, moving up the corporate ladder and eventually becoming a partner. He left McKinsey and joined Capital One, where he successfully ran, then sold, one of its medical lending businesses. Then, after taking on a similar role at three other businesses, Anderson gained a reputation as a star CEO in the private equity world.

Anderson now fuels a passion for education as the CEO of Education Dynamics, which aims to help adult learners find the right schools and the right degree. “Sloan was a life-changing experience for me on many dimensions,” he says. “If I could have figured out how to get paid and do that my whole life, I would have been a permanent student.”

Martha Blue

Then: University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School Class of 1991, Valedictorian

Now: Co-founder, Real Change Strategies

Martha Blue’s career began in fixed income sales and trading at Goldman Sachs after she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in December 1986 with an accounting degree from the Wharton School. She stayed at Goldman for two years before deciding it wasn’t for her.

Blue took a six-month break in Florence, Italy, then returned stateside with a plan to earn her MBA. After spending a weekend in Chapel Hill, N.C., she knew that UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business was her MBA destination. “The school had so much energy and so many people dedicated to making it a world-class program,” Blue says. “It was the most realistic preparation for a work environment you could get at a business school.”

Upon graduating from Kenan-Flagler, Blue spent four years at McKinsey & Co., while trying to decide which industry she could bear spending the next 20 years of her life in. She ultimately settled on the nonprofit sector. After working for a conservation group for a year, she founded Blue Consulting in 1996, which served a mix of for-profit and nonprofit clients. Then, in 2007, she co-founded Real Change Strategies, which only serves nonprofit organizations.

Two decades later, Blue says her MBA was “crucial” to her career development. “It gave me a broad view that I would not otherwise have gotten,” she says.

Peter Ebell

Then: Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business Class of 1991, Valedictorian

Now: Founder, Bellwood Capital

South African by birth, Peter Ebell earned an engineering degree in 1986 from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He served in the navy for two years after graduation and then found a job at Johannesburg Consolidated Investments, focused on the gold and platinum mining industry.

After a year and a half, Ebell began to wonder what it would take to move up the corporate ladder into a “top job.” It was quickly evident he needed a strong background in finance to get those kinds of positions, so he decided to enroll in a one-year full-time MBA program at Southern Methodist. While there, he became especially impressed with the finance program, specifically the training in derivatives.

Once he obtained his MBA, Ebell returned to South Africa and became an equity analyst, eventually convincing the higher-ups at his firm that derivatives were something important to get involved in. Four years ago he moved back to the U.S. and is now in the process of seeding his own hedge fund, Bellwood Capital, in Massachusetts. “I’m very happy with my career path as it’s turned out,” Ebell says. “I wouldn’t say I learned a lot at Cox. It indicated to me where my interests lay, effectively, and because of that I was able to develop those interests.”

Andrew Grengos

Then: UCLA Anderson School of Management Class of 1991, Edward W. Carter Fellow, awarded to the top 2 percent of each full-time graduating class at Anderson

Now: CEO, Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals

Andrew Grengos graduated from MIT in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering only to find that he didn’t think it would make for an interesting career. He worked for Morgan Stanley for two years before deciding he needed to be more well-rounded, having never taken a business or economics class in his undergraduate studies.

The Australia native looked at graduate schools on the West Coast and settled on Anderson after hearing about its strong finance program. “I truly had these big functional expertise blank spots,” Grengos says. “Knowing those blank spots and filling them, I absolutely think it was very helpful to me.”

After paying for his MBA completely out of pocket, Grengos spent more than six years working for McKinsey & Co., before moving into the biotech industry. He served as the chief business officer and head of corporate strategy for companies such as Chiron, Dynavax Technologies (DVAX), and Amgen (AMGN), before he decided he was ready to try his hand at running a company. He chose Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals based on its work in the neurodegenerative disease space, an area of interest to him because of his father’s bout with Alzheimer’s. “I thought there’d be some good karma spending a chunk of my career working in a place that was trying to help people like my father,” he says.

Scott Moyer

Then: Georgia Institute of Technology MBA Class of 1991, Student of the Year

Scott Moyer graduated from University of California, Riverside in 1987 with a degree in administrative studies, a “fairly generic degree,” he says, that lacked specificity.

After working for an engineer for a short while, Moyer followed his fiancée to Atlanta and enrolled in Georgia Tech’s full-time MBA program in 1989. He tested out of three of his core MBA courses and was able to take electives with the second-year MBAs. “Many of the (second-year students) were seriously trying to get into a full-time job,” Moyer says. “I figured out early on that if I could get straight A’s my first quarter, that would get me an internship.” And he did, with former Big Five accounting firm Arthur Andersen.

Moyer graduated with his MBA and CPA in 1991 and was hired full-time at Arthur Andersen. He worked there for four years before deciding he wanted to do more consulting work. He later worked with Coca-Cola (KO) and Siemens One (SI), where he became chief financial officer in 2001.

A recovering serial CFO, Moyer now works as a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers overseeing consulting projects. “I wouldn’t be anywhere if I hadn’t gone back to get an MBA,” Moyer says. “I was drifting in the wind trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and going to Tech made it very easy for me to focus on an area of expertise.”

“Standing Out” in a Business School Application

The desire to “stand out” (while inherent in all applicants), is not what the admissions committee wants you to be thinking about during your application process.  The most important aspect is to answer the questions clearly, making sure you are doing the best job you can to tell YOUR story; instead of constantly trying to put yourself in a context outside of where you think the other applicants are.

I have heard admissions committee members say numerous times that over-thinking and over-crafting your application can ultimately hurt your overall chances of acceptance.  Often times, students attempt to say exactly what they think the admission committee wants to hear, when what the admission committee REALLY wants to hear is the student’s story told truthfully and thoughtfully.

The Role the GMAT in your MBA application

The GMAT Exam is a chance for the student to prepare for an exam and take on a challenge.  Of course, no student walks into an exam without preparing first. Use your GMAT efforts and scores to highlight the areas that you think may be missing from you undergraduate and work experience. If you do not have much quantitative experience, focus on that area of the GMAT to portray to admissions committee that you can do great work in that area as well. Remember it is still just one piece of the mosaic that is your application.

Essays

Many students get very anxious about the essay portion of an MBA application because they believe that this is the section that they have the most control over (unlike the recommendations, undergraduate records, and your job).  However, it is important to remember that the essay is just another portion of the holistic presentation of your application.  It is not a writing contest, but more so, another tool to present YOU as a prospective business school student. So personalize it. Focus on the areas of your life that you are most proud and passionate about.  These items will ultimately be your strongest point in conveying your growth over time and your ability to succeed.

Recommendations

Try to pick a person to recommend you that you have known for a long time. Admissions Committees look for recommendations that are personalized and give somewhat of an inside look into how the student works and presents themselves.

Diversity on an Application

Diversity is an important factor to consider when applying to business school. However, it must be done so in the right way.  Many times, students think they must emphasize the diversity that they have been exposed to in the workplace or at school.  However, there are many different types of diversity to consider and a very important one is the way in which you lead.  From the student leader who wants to be president of the United States, to the entrepreneur who likes to work in small teams and getting a new business up and running, business schools look for Diversity of Character and want to find student who can lead in effective and creative ways.

Hope these tips help! For more tips, please visit our MBA Admissions Advice.

In face of the increased competition from GRE, administered by the ETS, and the changes in admissions processes preferred by business school worldwide, Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) has decided to add a new section, Integrated Reasoning, to its challenging Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).  This new section of the exam is designed to test advanced reasoning skills and is separately scored from the total 800 score of verbal and quantitative sections. It is to launch in the 10th edition of the GMAT on June 4, 2012, less than two years away from now.

In spring 2010, GMAC piloted the new section with current MBA students and plans to pilot it again with thousands of students this fall.

GMAC states: “The new section will replace one of the two writing sections currently on the exam.  It will be scored separately and have a new audio component for some questions.  The test’s current verbal and math sections will remain unchanged.”  The new changes in the exam are the following:

• Test takers will need to interpret charts, graphs, and spreadsheets, and answer interactive questions that will test their analytical skills.
• Test takers will be asked to analyze information, draw out conclusions and determine relationships between data points.
• Test takers will wear headphones while taking this portion of the test.  The use of headphones is a new feature that will help schools assess students’ auditory learning style.
• Rather than just multiple-choice questions, test takers will drag-and-drop data points, as well, as write mini-essays.

GMAC has released a sample question similar to questions that will appear on the new test. Students are asked to look at a table that sorts like a spreadsheet and detail the number of passengers and airline movements at 21 airports around the world. They are then presented with a list of statements about the information in the table and asked to determine which of the statements are true based on the data in the spreadsheet. Other exercises include using the same table to evaluate the reason for or likelihood of certain outcomes, or to use the table to determine where other airports rank.  Some other possible questions may be to determine a country’s plans for a road.  This would include looking at maps and government data.

Below is a sample question with the data tables and charts test takers will see in the new version of the GMAT. To view the data table and graph click on the link below!

Sample Question Data Table/Graph

1. Of the models with Gasoline Engine Type, the model with the greatest ratio of City MPG to Highway MPG is also the model with the greatest difference between Highway MPG and City MPG.


2. The minimum City MPG for a Toyota make is less than the maximum City MPG for a Volkswagen make.


3. A model chosen at random from those models with a Highway MPG greater than 30 miles per gallon has a 50% chance of being a Toyota.


4. The median carbon footprint for all models is greater than the mode carbon footprint for all models.


5. The standard deviation of the Highway MPG values for all BMW models is lower than the standard deviation of the Highway MPG values for all Toyota models.

Integrated Reasoning Answers: Statements 1 and 4 are FALSE; Statements 2, 3, and 5 are TRUE.

Why the new changes?  These changes are due to the evolving trends seen in business school classrooms.  This is a way to distinguish between those students who will adapt well in the classroom rather than just score a high score on the GMAT, making it easier for business schools to select who to be admitted. This new change is welcomed with great enthusiasm by business schools. GMAC created the section after b-school faculty members expressed a preference for proof that students could read, synthesize and reason well from a set of data within a limited amount of time without relevant in-depth knowledge and any memorization.

The addition of 30-minute Integrated Reasoning in replacement of one of the Analytical Writing Assessment sections is the biggest change to GMAT since it became a computer-adaptive test in the late 1990s. Other recent year changes occurred in 2006 after the switch over of the test administration from the ETS to Pearson. However those changes are more in rules and format, less in content.

Some students may fear that with this new section added to the GMAT, their score may not be as high than with the old exam.  Fear not.  GMAC is planning outreach and educational programs for business school faculty and students.  These programs will include information sessions and details on the new tests.

To get a better sense on the new integrated reasoning section click on the title below:

 Next Generation GMAT Question Demonstration

We at Manhattan Review wholeheartedly support such a constructive change on the GMAT and are prepared to incorporate the teaching of the new section into our curriculum. We strongly feel that without changing the existing verbal and math questions and one of the writing sections, the new Integrated Reasoning section will make the test much improved and effective while minimizing implementation costs. A win-win solution for all parties involved! However, this new section does seem to put more emphasis on extensive data analysis, which might be a challenge for students who are not used to seeing a large amount of data in a spreadsheet format. 

Many high school seniors try to ease the uncertainty of applying to schools by applying early admission.  What is early admission, you might be wondering?  Early admission binds both the student and the college into admittance months earlier than the regular admission deadline is due.  Even in this touch-and-go economy, early admittance seems to be increasing, not decreasing.  Here is a list of several schools which have published their early admittance increases, thanks to The New York Times.

Duke: 31% increase

Northwestern: 11% increase

Cornell: 4% increase

Dartmouth: 3% increase

Occidental: 40% increase (Note: Occidental has a very small program, not totaling over 157 applicants this year.)

The Times goes onto say that Wesleyan, Emory, Pomona and Grinnell were colleges that saw no increase or decrease, but were about even with their early admittance percentages compared to last year.

Some colleges have a non-binding early admittance program, like Stanford, where you have the choice of whether you want to attend the school or not when applying early.  Stanford saw its early admittance rate go up by about 4% this year.  Yale, on the other hand, with a program very similar to Stanford’s, saw its applications drop 5%, along with Amherst, Swarthmore and Hamilton.

Is it good to know your statistics of early admittance before applying to schools?  The Times brings up this important question, ultimately saying “yes” – that even though the reality can be somewhat grim in terms of the freshmen seats being given away to early admittance applicants, it’s still important to be aware of your changes of getting in.  For example, Cornell offered binding acceptances to 1,167 applicants, which totals to about 40% of its freshmen class.  This is a good percentage to know when waiting for those acceptance or rejection letters to come in.

However, early admittance students should be careful when applying to schools with binding programs.  Counselors often discourage early admittance because it decreases your chances of obtaining stellar financial aid in the bargaining process.  Should you decide to apply early with binding or non-binding agreements to colleges and universities, make sure the agreement is the right one for you.

For any college admissions help, consult with our experts at Manhattan Review.

Do you ever wonder which is more important to high school seniors: the ACT or SAT?  It appears they are both equally important as some admissions offices even consider both tests to be cut-off points for a certain percentage of students.

According to the New York Times, there was a report published through the National Association of College Admission Counseling, where researchers asked 250 colleges whether they used either the SAT or ACT as a cut-off for admission.  Of those who participated in the report and accepted the SAT, 1 in 5 said they used certain scores as a “threshold” for admission.  Those who claimed to use the ACT for admission purposes used 1 in 4 said they used a similar cut-off, too.

There is good news, though, for students not in the top percentile of both tests.  According to the study, three-quarters of the colleges report using scores “holistically.”  What does that mean?  Typically, that means the tests are just one factor out of many in how a candidate is evaluated.  After-school activities, recommendations, GPA and their curriculums are taken into consideration, as well.  Also, according to the study, “strength of curriculum” and “grades in college prep courses” appear to matter most when reviewing a candidate.

The colleges and universities that said they use SAT and ACT grades as cut-offs chose not to disclose their names.  However, the New York Times claims that using SAT and ACT grades as cut-off points might be at odds with the highly venerated “Principles of Good Practice,” which states they “cannot use test scores as the sole criterion for admission.”

In essence, what’s the difference between the SAT and ACT?  Here are some quick facts about both tests that might give light to any confusion.

SAT: Originally, the SAT was designed to democratize admissions and has been around for more than 80 years.  In 1999, the SAT was more popular amongst test-takers by about 10%, but now both the SAT and ACT are even.

ACT: The ACT was created more recently than the SAT and was initially aimed at measuring classroom achievement rather than internal ability.  For a number of years the test was only popular in the Midwest and states in the surrounding area, but has branched out nationwide as of late.

Looking to take the SAT or ACT in the near future?  Contact Manhattan Review to find yourself a tutor right away!