Ralph303

I agree with deathfrombelow. MBA application essays are not the place to be cute or creative, except for the specific essay that asks you to show your creativity. In the standard essays you need to answer the exact question that is being asked, but along the way, demonstrate why you need an MBA to accomplish your future career goals, how your career goals will benefit the community, and what you will contribute to your classmates as a student. The essays you linked above come off as just saying, "hey look at me I'm so great aren't I" without showing any introspection or demonstration of the maturity required to succeed in a professional program. You might want to check into some books that collect successful MBA essays such as "65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays", or "Business School Essays That Made a Difference" to see how to deliver what the adcom will respect.

Not sure what you mean by "high time" but if you mean appropriate or best time you are a little late already for admission for fall '09. I would have suggested GMAT by October at the latest. So take these ASAP if that's your goal. Nonetheless, you are just graduating next year and most MBA programs want to see at least a couple years work experience. Your GMAT score is good for five years so if you just want to get it out of the way take it soon and research colleges, build your resume, and work on your profile for the next few years. Then you can position yourself to apply for first round, Mid-November to early December) in a later year, which is the best time to get financial awards, especially for international students.

The school in question should be able to shed more light on the logistics, but if they are asking for a video conference, I really doubt it would need to be anything more expensive than a webcam and a video chat program.

I have spoken with some admissions reps at the Inside the MBA, and they understand the current economic situation, so yes if you are currently unemployed be up front about that. Simon Business School at Rochester is even offering an additional aid package for those who are affected by layoffs due to the downturn.

I'm still in the application process myself but have done a couple interviews already. Regarding your question about the essays, YES the adcoms read them and this is where you need to differentiate yourself from the other candidates. At the top schools this is possibly the most important part of your application because they already have more than enough people applying who have great GMAT scores and undergrad GPAs. It looks like you have a lot of good material here but you will have limited space, so pick the best of the best from what you listed above. Talk to an admissions rep at your target schools before sending photos or scans of awards, but most applications will have a space where you can list your activities and awards.

Hi, I am looking for a site that compares b-schools on things like, how competitive are the students, what is the technological advancement of the facilities, and so on. Basically I am trying to figure out what top school I should apply to as a reach because I don't want to get accepted to an ivy and only find out after the fact the students are all cut throat competitive types who are going into investment banking. The obvious suspects (BW, USNews, etc) don't really talk much about this although if I poke around for long enough I can find this for a couple schools. Anybody know a more efficient route? Thanks

Does anybody know whether there is a standard on how to refer to the MBA degree, as in, "for these reasons, an MBA from XYZ School of Business is the most logical step..." or does that grate on the adcom's collective nerves since if you expand the acronym it would incorrectly read, "...an Masters of Business Administration..."?

You can usually take the GMAT right up to the deadline for your target school(s), although if taking it less than 3 weeks in advance you will probably have to fax your unofficial score printout to the university. Most schools have an FAQ on their website that addresses the latest you can take GMAT for their application. I'd recommend taking it about 3 weeks ahead of time so that you have time to work on your essays without also worrying about GMAT at the same time. Just my preference but sorry if this doesn't work out for your current circumstance.

Josh, Yeah I am just in the process of looking at consulting right now. I didn't realize Manhattan did more than just test prep; I'll have to check them out.

Hokie, It's not that Kaplan's questions are harder, but rather their scoring algorithm is way too conservative. That is, you can be scoring 600-650 on the Kaplan CAT and walk out of the real GMAT with a 700. So the problem with the Kaplan practice tests is that people get unnecessarily discouraged if they go from a 720 on GMATPrep to a 590 on a Kaplan CAT. For last minute advice, work on stamina by doing as many practice sets as possible, but take a day or two off right before test day so that you will be fresh. Focus on reinforcing your strengths and building speed.

Materials: I think the Princeton Review books are pretty good for strategy, especially for where you are right now. You can find the PR verbal workout on esnips. Stick with the OG for practice sets though. There is also a boat load of awesome SC help in this thread: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentence-correction/35481-sc-tips-5.html Score reports: Check the FAQ on your desired schools' websites. Most schools will only consider your highest score though, from what I have read in my own research. Best of luck to you in improving your score!

Hi David, I would like to see if you could take a look at my profile as well. I'll try to keep it short since you help so many of us here. GMAT: 720 Q48 V40 AWA 6.0 UG GPA: 3.7 UG Degree: BA, Philosophy 2002 Professional Work experience: 9 years, 6 since graduation. I have worked primarily in customer support for IT but gradually moved up to engineering. My resume shows a pattern of rapid advancement and drive, but is focused on the IT arena as opposed to being balanced across multiple departments. Why MBA: I want to change my career to finance, but I have little familiarity with the business world. I would also like to be an entrepreneur someday. I think an MBA would both prepare me for a new career field and give me the broad background I would need to eventually run my own business. I would like to know approximately what level I should be targeting. I feel my academics are OK, yet I lack a "wow factor" such as great accomplishments of leadership or community involvement. Personally I am a very introverted person so I think I'd be a better fit at a school where having a big wow factor isn't a crucial piece of the package. Does such a school exist? I was thinking one top-10 school (Sloan or Tepper), two others in the top 50 and a safety school in my local area, but since the current economic environment will lead to stiff job competition among MBAs graduating in 2011, I am not even sure it would be worth it to attend a school that isn't ranked. Thoughts? Thanks for your time.

I need to figure that out pretty quickly. I was just planning to apply to University of Colorado and Denver University, but people are telling me I should be aiming higher with a 720. I'm doing research right now to find one or two top 50 schools where I might fit.

Smalisha, I haven't been able to find any one source that is comprehensive; almost everyone omits things like probability or mixture problems. The forum here is the first place I found out that these concepts would even be tested. West Texas A&M has a good math review on their site. Combine this with a Kaplan or PR math workout book and you should be set. The OGs really have minimal review material, but the problem sets therein do cover everything. Thus if you can do all the problems in the OG relatively quickly, you're pretty set.

The instructions on the MBA.com website are at this link: ASR Request Form Basically you have to contact the customer service for your area to get the postal address. Scroll down to the third paragraph and click the blue text to go straight to the regional service listings. Alternatively, you can login and request ASRs online here: http://www.mba.com/MBA/Service/GMATPVUE/testing?action=orderScoreReports