GMAT Tip of the Week: Critical Reasoning the Bart Stupak Way

To become the most famous of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, at least for a short time (no need to worry, Nancy Pelosi -- your longer-term celebrity status is assured), is an impressive feat. For Michigan representative Bart Stupak, however, that ascension to celebrity was a painful one -- his family received death threats, fellow congressmen hurled verbal insults at him publicly during sessions, etc.

While Stupak asserts that his decision to not seek reelection was one that he had considered long before the debate on healthcare that led to these unplesantries, an argument can be made that such notoriety and controversy has led him to abandon his career in politics. And it's all because Stupak understands the cardinal rule of Critical Reasoning: you must stay true to your objective.

The controversy surrounding Stupak centers around the notorious, recently-passed federal healthcare bill. Stupak, a staunch supporter of public healthcare, created a stir by insisting that such a bill not allow for federal funds to be used for abortion. In the end, after a series of meetings with President Barack Obama, Stupak agreed to vote in favor of the bill, with Obama issuing an executive order to protect against such funds for abortion. Such a position put Stupak in an interesting spot -- during his presidential negotiations, he was criticized by the left for not aggressively supporting the healthcare bill, and by the right for softening on his pro-life stance. In the end, however, it can be argued that Stupak executed the tasks of his office perfectly by holding true to his stated objective.

Stupak was elected to represent his constituency, and his election platform included:

- a pro-life stance against abortion, nearly essential to be electable in rural, northern Michigan
- a pledge to aggressively work for a national healthcare program

Just as Critical Reasoning questions require you to either draw a conclusion that is perfectly consistent with the facts, or strenthen/weaken a conclusion using only an answer choice that is perfectly consistent with its terms, Stupak made the only choice that was consistent with his objective. You can turn his decision into a compelling Critical Reasoning question:

A congressman has promised his constituents that he will oppose abortion and support public healthcare.

Which of the following healthcare plans will allow the congressman to fulfill his promise to his constitutents?

(A) A public healthcare bill that includes insurance coverage for abortions

(B) A public healthcare plan that includes an executive order prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion

(C) No public healthcare plan at all

On a question like this, the correct answer must strengthen the ability of the party in question to accomplish its objective (at Veritas Prep we consider these to be the "plan/policy" subset of Strengthen/Weaken questions). Here, the objective is to represent a district that opposes abortion but desires public healthcare. Choices A and C are inconsistent with that "conclusion" or objective -- choice A violates the constituency's pro-life desires, and choice C violates the constituency's healthcare needs. Only choice B is consistent with the objective, and is therefore correct.

Much like Stupak, you'll face pressures in making your decisions on the GMAT -- time will be a factor, your own biases or assumptions may come in to play, and the true objective can often become blurred as you read multiple passages in succession and internalize the generalities but not specifics of your task on the exam. However, the best way to solve Critical Reasoning problems is to focus on the specifics of your objective, and only choose answer choices that are consistent with each term of the conclusion/objective of the question.

The GMAT has an uncanny knack for replicating the pressures and distractions of business or political decisions, but rewarding the types of decision-making that leads to effective execution of objectives. In a world of Bernie Madoff, rogue traders, etc., the business world could use some more leaders who act accordingly to their mission statements and stated objectives. Stupak, though heavily criticized in the partisan media, acted that way, and if you can replicate that same process on the GMAT, you'll succeed in demonstrating to business schools that you have what it takes to be an effective leader.

Getting ready to take the GMAT? Visit our site to and find a GMAT class near you. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and to follow us on Twitter to keep receiving GMAT tips!

Read More >>

Duke (Fuqua) Admissions Essays for 2010-2011

Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has released its admissions essays for the 2010-2011 season. They've made some pretty interesting changes this year, so let's dig in. Our comments are in italics.

By the way, note that Fuqua doesn't provide specific word limits, but rather asks that applicant limit each essay to no more than two pages, with a font size no less than 10-point and 1.5 line spacing. They ask applicants to "respond fully and concisely" to each essay.

Duke (Fuqua) Application Essays

1. Describe your vision for your career and your inspiration for pursuing this career path.
   
   This question starts off the same as last year's first Fuqua essay prompt, but it strictly asks about you, whereas last year's question also asked about "the role of The Duke MBA in achieving your goals." (That latter part is addressed in Question #3, below.) Overall, your approach to this question will be very similar to your approach to other "Why an MBA?" / career goals questions. While you should save the "Why Duke?" material for Question #3, be as specific as possible about how you see your career progressing over the next ten to twenty years. Do you want to dive right into industry and get your hands dirty? Learn as part of a larger operation and "grow up" as a leader, eventually taking the reins of a division within a large company? This is where you need to show that you've at least thought these things through, even if you know that you may change your mind one day. And by "specific" we don't mean that you must spell out that you will spend exactly four years as a management consultant, then three years as a business development manager, etc. Rather, you must show that you can "tie it all together" and envision a realistic career path for yourself after graduating from Fuqua.
   
   Also, this is the time to discuss the career choices you've made up until now. Even though the essay asks for your "career vision," don't miss the "inspiration" part of the question -- this is Fuqua's way of trying to understand the you've made up until now. Your biggest potential mistake here is to give the impression of an applicant who's applying to Fuqua simply because he's bored or has stagnated in his current job. You always want to look like an applicant who is moving toward something great, not moving away from something bad.


2. How will your background, values, and non-work activities enhance the experience of other Duke MBA students and add value to Fuqua's diverse culture?
   
   This question is new this year, although it's interesting that it's almost identical to one of Tuck's admissions essays from last year. This essay gives you a good chance to specifically highlight any strengths or themes that you want to emphasize more in your application. Everything in your background applies: your work experience, your personal life, and your hobbies all make you unique. Some applicants see this and think, "Oh, it's a 'diversity' question. I'm afraid I don't bring much 'diversity' to the table," but that's simply not true. All applicants have some things in their backgrounds that make them interesting... Discuss them here! And, do it in a way that demonstrates that you "get" the values that Fuqua prizes -- including teamwork, innovation, and a global perspective.


3. Why Duke? (If you are interested in a specific concentration, joint degree, clubs or activities, please discuss how you would contribute to these in this essay.)
   
   As mentioned above, in some respects Duke took last years' Question #1 and chopped it into two questions: this year's Question #1 and Question #3. This new essay prompt wins the award for shortest essay question ever, beating out NYU's "Why Stern?" question by one letter. (Just kidding. There's no such Stern essay!) In all seriousness, Duke, like some other top schools that tend to sit just outside the top ten in the MBA rankings, gets a lot of applications from candidates who also have applied to Harvard, Wharton, etc., and the school is quite savvy at recognizing when an applicant is truly excited about Duke. This is your opportunity to demonstrate that you have really researched the program, understand its core values (mentioned above), and really want to spend the rest of your life as a member of the Fuqua community.
   
   Some applicants will surely rattle of names of classes, professors, and on-campus clubs, to show that they've done their homework. For the most part, while this research is critical for you, "showing off" this kind of knowledge usually elicits a "big deal" from admissions officers. Go deeper, and force yourself to answer the question... Why Duke? Some pragmatic components to your response are totally fine -- it has strong ties to the health care industry, which is what first drew you to the program, for instance. That's a completely real, honest response. Then, starting there, move into how you can see yourself thriving in the Duke community. You prefer the school's teamwork-oriented teaching style since it's consistent with your undergraduate experience... Every student or alum you have met has raved about the program... That's just an example, but it's a more heartfelt, interesting, and effective response than simply rattling off names of clubs, because it's about you.
   

For more advice on getting into Fuqua, download our Fuqua Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools. If you're ready to start building your own candidacy for Harvard or another top MBA program, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!

Read More >>

U.S. News MBA Rankings Survey to Gather GRE Data This Year

Score one more point for Educational Testing Service (ETS) in its effort to take market share from the GMAT as the preferred test for business school admissions. On his Morse Code Blog, U.S. News Director of Data Research Robert Morse announced that this fall's U.S. News survey will ask admissions offices detailed questions on GRE test scores and the number and the percentage Class of 2012 students who submitted them.

Morse stopped short of promising that U.S. News's 2012 MBA rankings (which will be published next spring) will contain GRE data, but said that U.S. News "is considering changing its ranking methodology for the 2012 edition of the America's Best Business Schools rankings... to include both the GMAT and GRE test scores of all M.B.A. students entering in fall 2010."

In his blog post Morse points out that nearly 27% of the graduate business schools that U.S. News last surveyed are currently accepting GRE scores for admissions. Assuming that U.S. News does eventually decide to include GRE data in its rankings, it will be interesting to see how it manages it given that the majority of top schools still do not accept the GRE. Will it blend GRE and GMAT data by looking just at percentile scores? Will they only include GRE numbers when school report them, and ignore them otherwise? Could some schools have an incentive to include or exclude GRE data to manipulate their rankings, similar to what law schools have been doing with their employment data? It will be interesting to see.

While we still believe that the GMAT is the best predictor of how someone will do in business school, there's no denying that ETS has made impressive strides this past year in promoting the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT. If you're an applicant, the question to ask is, "What do I want?" If you're considering a variety of graduate program options (including business school), then the GRE may make sense. If you're certain you really want to pursue an MBA, though, it's still difficult to justify choosing the GRE over the GMAT. We've written about this decision at length, and still feel the same way.

Thinking about taking the GMAT? Visit our site for a GMAT course overview to see why thousands of applicants choose Veritas Prep every year. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and to follow Veritas Prep on Twitter so that you don't miss a beat in the worlds of GMAT prep and MBA admissions!

Read More >>

How Much Does The MBA Program You Attend Affect Your Lifetime Earnings?

Bloomberg BusinessWeek has just published the results of its second annual study of the lifetime earnings of graduates from the world's top MBA programs, in partnership with PayScale. While the data are interesting, the headline's not necessarily earth-shattering.

The key takeaway? Graduates of HBS, Wharton, and other ultra-elite business schools earn more money over the span of their careers than grads from any other MBA program. HBS grads earn the most, comfortably ahead of second-place Wharton. While these numbers are certainly interesting, there were a few other numbers in the article that piqued our interest more.

What Does It All Mean?
I'm not going to tear the study apart; I think it's a really fascinating subject, one that gets right at the heart of what we do here at Veritas Prep. But, as the article states, the study does have its shortcomings. First, the study excludes harder-to-measure compensation items such as stock options, meaning that it might look at the Stanford GSB grad who joined Google back in 1999 as a relative pauper.

(As an aside, check out the guy in the picture in the new BusinessWeek article. Looks like he's driving a car that can float in water, some sort of high-end amphibious convertible. We want one!)

Also, as far as I can tell, the survey doesn't compare apples to apples as far as carer paths go. Of course the MBA who builds a fast-track career on Wall Street is going to make more money than the grad who joins a leadership development program at a medium-sized manufacturing company. Does that mean that the former grad necessarily got more bang for his buck from his MBA program? (Or, is an MBA "not worth it" unless you're going to embark on one of those seven-figure career paths?)

What We Really Want to Know
The real question that we'd like to answer -- and, again, this study deserves credit for getting closer to the answer than most others ever have -- is how much more a business school grad makes over the course of his career because he attended a given MBA program. Undoubtedly, a large part of the appeal of a top business school is that it opens the doors to those seven-figure banking careers (and attractive management consulting gigs, terrific leadership development programs, challenging brand management opportunities, etc.). But, what numbers the study uncovers will be heavily impacted by what careers a given school's graduates pursue. A school that sends a high percentage of its grads to investment banks will certainly show higher lifetime earnings than a school that sends a large number of grads into the non-profit sector.

One way to at least partly solve this problem would be for the study to break out graduates by job or industry. That may prove challenging because graduates switch jobs a lot, and in some cases breaking down the numbers may make a certain school's numbers too small to be statistically reliable, but it would be an interesting exercise.

Intriguing Stats Regarding Salary Increases
Beyond that, we were intrigued by the measure of how much certain business school grads' compensation increases over 20 years. Interestingly, the average increase for graduates of the top 45 MBA programs was 75%, which mirrors the average increase that the general U.S. population sees. Of course, MBA graduates' salaries start out much higher than most typical U.S. workers' so you're talking about a larger dollar gain over those 20 years, but this was still interesting to us. If a business school prepares a young professional to lead, wouldn't you expect top business school grads' salaries to increase faster than that of the typical American? It's an interesting question.

And, some top MBA programs -- such as Ross, Yale, Sloan, and Tuck -- have graduates whose salaries increase significantly less than the average American's. That's not a list a school would want to be on! But, again, there are so many factors in play (including, as one MIT Sloan representative pointed out, the fact that many grads may go into entrepreneurship, which may produce an artificially low salary number for some grads). So, again, very interesting numbers, but be sure to take them all with a grain of salt.

Let's Do Some Research!
Finally, getting back to the question I raised earlier -- how to know how much a business school is responsible for a graduate's lifetime earnings -- probably the only way to truly answer the question would be to conduct a controlled study from start to finish. Find a population of promising young professionals who are considering a variety of career paths, randomly assign them to each of the country's top business schools, and then watch their earnings over the next 20 years. Now that would be an interesting study.

Anyone interested in being randomly assigned to Harvard?

If you're planning on applying to business school this year, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with one of our business school admissions experts today. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

Columbia MBA Admissions Essays and Deadlines for 2010-2011

Last week Columbia Business School released its online application for the 2010-2011 admissions season. Oddly, they seem to make applicants create two accounts on their site: One on their "Inside MBA" site and one on Apply Yourself, which actually hosts Columbia's online application.

Columbia's application deadlines and admissions essays are below, followed by our comments, in italics:

Columbia Business School Application Deadlines
January 2011 Entry ("J-Term"): October 6, 2010
Early decision: October 6, 2010
Merit fellowship consideration: January 5, 2011
Regular decision: April 13, 2011

These deadlines are virtually the same as last year's. Columbia has always been a little unusual compared to other top MBA programs because of its J-term intake, but that deadline neatly coincides with Harvard/Stanford/Wharton's Round 1 deadlines. Also, note that Columbia Business School uses a rolling admissions schedule, so the only really firm deadline is the April 13 one. However, even though Columbia doesn't have a traditional Round 1, Round 2, etc., our advice still holds: We recommend against applying at the last minute. Applying as late as March or April means competing for one of the very few seats still open at that point.

Columbia Business School Application Essays

1. What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (750 words)
   
   This question carried over unchanged from last year. It's the standard "Why an MBA? Why this school?" question that many top MBA programs ask. Where some applicants is in failing to explain why Columbia is the best place for them to earn their MBA, given the school's culture, academic strengths, ties to certain industries, etc. Yes, Columbia has a big name and proximity to Wall Street. Those strengths are obvious. What else does Columbia offer that you can't find anywhere else?


2. Please tell us about yourself and your personal interests. The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have achieved professionally. (500 words)
   
   This question is new this year. It replaces last year's question about Columbia's Master Classes, which included a video prompt that applicants watched before answering the question. It seems as though that question didn't give the Columbia admissions office what it wanted (i.e., helping them learn more about each applicant), so it replaced that question with one that very directly hits on the "Tell us more about you" theme. They clearly just want to get to know you better. If there's any doubt about that, they explicitly add "rather than what you have achieved professionally." Don't be afraid to get a little casual here and show some personality. In this way, this new question is quite similar to the new "Introduce yourself to your future classmates" question on the new HBS application.


3. (Optional) Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.)
   
   As we always advise, only use this essay if you need to explain a low undergraduate GPA or other potential blemish in your background. No need to harp on a minor weakness and sound like you're making excuses when you don't need any.
   
   It's interesting to note that last year's "team failure" essay is gone, leaving just two mandatory essays. Again, when a school drops an essay it usually isn't giving the admissions office what it wants. Columbia must be looking to streamline its application, and that was the question that had to go.

Applying to Columbia this year? Before you do, download our Columbia Business School Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. Ready to get to work? Call us at (800) 925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

GMAT Tip of the Week: Pacman, Google, and Geometry

If you're reading this, then obviously you're on a computer or smartphone with internet access. And if you have internet access, you've been to Google today. If Isaac Newton were alive today, he'd add that as a fourth law of physics: "Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction, and every internet browser will land on the Google homepage at least once per hour of use." So, given the laws of internet physics, you already know the news: Today is the 30th anniversary of the iconic video game Pac-Man.

A blogger in his early 30s could spend hours talking about the impact that Pac-Man had on his life. Playing the arcade version at Pizza Hut as a reward for the pizzeria's Book-It reading program; firing up his first Atari game system on Christmas morning; competing for the high score in his dormitory freshman year instead of studying for final exams...

From the look of it, Sergey, Larry, and the rest of the gang at Google have similar stories, but the way that they chose to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man is G-Mattingly ingenious. Taking the typical Google logo, they created an interactive Pac-Man board, encouraging web surfers to take a moment before their searches to navigate Pac-Man around the G-o-o-g-l-e letters, racking up points and chasing ghosts along the way. Simply put, the Google graphic engineers took a unique shape -- the outline of the word "Google" -- and linked it to a familiar shape, the Pac-Man gameplay board.

On the GMAT, you'll be asked to do this on a fairly high percentage of Geometry-themed questions, on which:

• The area of a ring can be calculated by taking the difference between the areas of the two circles that create it (outer - inner)


• The area of a sidewalk or picture frame can be calculated by taking the difference between the areas of the rectangles that create it


• An awkward-looking shape can be deconstructed into the sum or difference of multiple basic geometric shapes (squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, and quadrilaterals)


• Any time you can break a shape apart to create a right triangle or two, you probably should, as right triangles have a greater number of GMAT-useful rules than do any other shape (Pythagorean Theorem, 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 side ratios, a build-in base/height perpendicularity for use in calculating area, etc.)


• The greatest distance between points in a three-dimensional figure can always be calculated by drawing a right triangle between those points and calculating the straight-line, short-side distances that create the hypotenuse

It's no secret that the admissions officers at top business schools would love to add the next Sergey Brin or Larry Page to their entering class (and alumni donor roster), and they accordingly reward the types of thought process that have made Google such an innovative, iconic company. To be successful on GMAT geometry questions, learn to see familiar shapes when you're confronted with seemingly-unique geometry. On the GMAT, as in Pac-Man, the quest for the high score is competitive, but the rewards are worth it.

If you can tear yourself away from Google's Pac-Man for five minutes, take a look at Veritas Prep's GMAT prep courses. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and to follow us on Twitter to keep receiving these GMAT tips!

Read More >>

Stanford MBA Application Deadlines for 2010-2011

And the hits just keep coming this week. Just days after Wharton and Harvard announced their MBA application deadlines for the coming year, Stanford GSB has released its deadlines. Stanford's essay topics have not yet been released, but we'll analyze them here as soon as they come out.

Stanford GSB Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 6, 2010
Round 2: January 6, 2011
Round 3: April 6, 2011

Nothing too interesting here... these deadlines are almost exactly the same as last year's. (That "666" is a little creepy, though.) Much like Harvard's and Wharton's Round 1 deadlines do for those schools, Stanford's early October Round 1 deadline gives the school plenty of time to notify applicants before the holidays, and gives denied applicants plenty of time to rev up their Round 2 applications, if needed.

Applying to Stanford this year? Before you do, download our Stanford GSB Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. Ready to get to work on your Stanford application? Call us at (800) 925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

Kagan to the Court: Examining the Downside

If you are an individual who remains connected to the news cycle (in whatever form that is now consumed), you know by now that Elena Kagan has been nominated for the open seat (formerly held by Justice Stevens) on the Supreme Court by President Obama and that her confirmation hearings before the Senate are set to begin on June 28. The process of putting a judge on the greatest bench in all the land is arduous and draining (check out Season One of The West Wing for a terrific inside look into the vetting process and tireless work required by White House senior staffers) and prone to surprises, but most believe that Kagan will ultimately be confirmed and take her place on the Court (described in terrific detail in this New York Magazine article). And as someone who has followed her career fairly closely, I believe she will make a great Supreme Court Justice and serve our country well in deciding the laws of the land.

That said, I can't help but dwell on one nagging detail: what if Kagan's value as a Justice is less than her value as an academic administrator?

Before moving forward, let me just state for the record that Elena Kagan should be able to pursue whatever career path she wishes and that no one can blame her for accepting what is arguably the most prestigious appointed position in the world (certainly in the judiciary). However, as someone who works with graduate school applicants for a living - and sees the exponential value of one great faculty member or one great administrator - I am troubled by the loss of one of the finest academic deans of my lifetime.

Understand also that this entire line of thought was relevant back in January of last year, when President Obama appointed Kagan to the position of Solicitor General - this was Kagan's first foray back into government (between stints as a law school professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Harvard Law School, she served as Associate White House Counsel and policy adviser under President Clinton). Technically, the "we've lost Kagan from the academic ranks" hand-wringing could have been conducted back then. However, there's a big difference between an administrative appointment and a Supreme Court appointment and those with even a passing knowledge of the Court know what that is: the latter is a lifetime appointment. Let's be honest here, if/when Kagan flies through the confirmation process, this absolutely will be the last job she ever accepts.

For the lifelong member of the judiciary, this makes sense. We are elevating a skilled judge to the highest position in the land, which both serves as a culmination of that person's career, but also undoubtedly the best social use of that individual's abilities (we'll save the whole "the most valuable judicial work is done in the lower courts" argument for another time and place). But someone like Kagan presents a different riddle. She is likely to be a terrific judge (again, my opinion, but obviously one shared by President Obama). But we already know that she's a fantastic dean. We joined the party in heaping praise on her work at Harvard Law back in October of 2008, but it bears repeating that she seemingly single-handedly transformed Harvard from a grim, sterile "lawyer mill" into one of the most student-friendly, progressive, and vibrant law schools in the country. When I applied to law schools in 2002, I never even considered going to Harvard - it was viewed by many top applicants of the time as a great brand, but an awful experience. When I graduated from Chicago five years later (and four years after Kagan was named dean of the law school), HLS was already back on top, with a bullet.

Harvard Law didn't reinvent itself overnight, but Kagan's aggressive, insightful leadership made it seem that way. She pushed for new facilities, focused on improving the student experience, and created consensus among a famous and massive faculty that was previously known more for individual scholarship than cohesive teaching. And lest we think Kagan's administrative skills were limited to day-to-day operations, she also exceeded expectations on the fundraising front - a "Setting the Standard" campaign (which she inherited) aimed for $400 million and finished in 2008 at $476 million. She also added powerhouse names to the faculty by going out and luring profs from Chicago and Stanford (folks like Cass Sunstein and Lawrence Lessig, who were thought to be untouchable) and even nabbing conservative powerhouses like Jack Goldsmith (Bush administration) to provide more balance. On top of all that, she showed a willingness to take important stances on social issues, famously restricting military recruiters from coming to campus due to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy (perceived as being discriminatory against gays and lesbians).

In summary, we are looking at an individual who stepped into arguably the highest profile dean position in academia and crushed the assignment. She raised money, she improved the quality of the faculty on every front, radically transformed the student experience, and even stood tall on policy issues. To say that accomplishing all that requires unique skill and a deft touch is a massive understatement. You could do so far as to say that no other dean could have done it.

If that last statement is true - or even partially true - we have to assess the loss to the academic community that Kagan's Supreme Court nom represents. To me, it seems like a big one. She would have had her pick of academic jobs, where she could have made a massive difference in the lives of thousands - even hundreds of thousands - of students. And that, to me, is the downside to Elena Kagan heading off to the Supreme Court.


For more information on law school admissions or for help incorporating career goals into the application, visit our law school admissions site or call our offices at 1.800.925.7737!

Read More >>

HBS Admissions Essays and Deadlines for 2010-2011

If you were wondering whether the 2010-2011 MBA admissions season could really upon us already after Wharton released its application deadlines last week, then wonder no more. Yesterday Harvard Business School announced its application deadlines and admissions essays for the 2010-2011 season. Here they are, taken from Harvard's site. Our comments are in italics:

Harvard Business School Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 1, 2010
Round 2: January 11, 2011
Round 3: March 31, 2011

This year's Round 1 deadline is exactly the same as last year's. We wonder if a top school will soon move its deadline into September? Round 2's deadline is about one week earlier than last year's, meaning applicants will have a bit less breathing room after the holidays pass this year. The Round 3 deadline has also crept forward by about a week.

Harvard Business School Application Essays

• What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600 words)
  
  This question has remained unchanged for years. It's a great opportunity for you to spell out three main themes that you want to emphasize in your application. This being HBS, at least one of your examples should highlight leadership, but don't discount stories that also demonstrate other traits that admissions officers look for, including teamwork, innovation, and maturity. Remember, the "why" in your story is even more important than the "what," so be sure to spell out why these accomplishments are so critical to describing you as an emerging leader. Also, ideally you will be able to draw upon multiple types of experiences -- not only on the job, but also from your community involvement, your hobbies, and even, in some cases, your personal life. Finally, don't be intimidated by that relatively tight word count! Harvard's word limits force you to focus on your most important experiences!


• What have you learned from a mistake? (400 words)
  
  This question also carries over from last year. An okay essay will answer the question and describe what you have learned, but a great one will then discuss how you put that lesson to work in a later experience. This allows you to move away from this essay being purely hypothetical to discussing another achievement in your young career.


• Please respond to two of the following (400 words each):
  
  
  1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
  
  
  2. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?
  
  
  3. Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed.
  
  
  4. When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates?
  
  
  
  The first two questions carry over from last year. The first one has "Optional essay for applicants with problematic undergraduate transcripts" written all over it. Only use it if you're in this situation. The second one is not too different from other school's "Why MBA?" and "Short-term/long-term career goals" questions. This is a perfectly fine question to choose, but avoid speaking in over broad generalities or in grandiose terms -- e.g., "To solve world hunger" -- that admissions officers will find hard to believe.
  
  The third question is an interesting because, on the surface, it doesn't seem very different from the "What have you learned from a mistake?" question. We recommend that you answer this one only if you can do what we describe for that other question: Don't only describe a time when you were disappointed, but also discuss what you learned from it and how you put that lesson to work.
  
  The last question essentially replaces last year's "Write a cover letter for the admissions committee" question, and we like it the slightly less formal slant that this version takes. What do you think are your most memorable experiences or attributes? How do you want to be known by your classmates? It will be interesting to see how applicants tackle this one, but we recommend erring on the side of being less formal -- friendly, written in the first person, and maybe even a little humorous.

Every year dozens of Harvard Business School applicants turn to Veritas Prep for help in getting into HBS. For more advice on getting in, download our HBS Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools. If you're ready to start building your own candidacy for Harvard or another top MBA program, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!

Read More >>

MBA Job Market Still Gloomy, But Improving

Last week the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) announced the results of a new employer survey that suggests that while the job market for MBA grads is still rough, we may finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The reason for the optimism? The percentage of employers planning to hire MBA is up this year compared with 2009, although the number of new hires per company is expected to decline slightly.

After a sharp drop in stated hiring intentions last year (down to 50%), in this year's survey about 55% of employers who participated in the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey said they planned to hire new MBA grads this year. What may be even more promising for the job market is that employers also indicated they may finally be shifting away from cost-cutting in favor of trying to grow their businesses again.

In a statement that accompanied the release of the survey results, GMAC President Dave Wilson said:

"Employers have spoken clearly. The intrinsic value they place on the skills people develop in business school does not rise and fall just because the economy does. Management talent is always critical to the well-being of any organization, and as conditions improve, employers will find ways to acquire more of that talent."

So, if you're in business school now or plan to apply to an MBA program this year, you may actually land a good job when you graduate, after all. However, it may take a while for MBA grads' salaries to start growing again. A separate GMAC survey found that only 40% of full-time, two-year MBA program graduates had at least one job offer before finishing school, down from 50% in 2009. And, the number of job offers reported by the grads who participated in this study declined by about 13% from the previous year. (By the way, our 100% free Annual Reports provide job placement info and much more, for 15 of the world's top MBA programs.)

So, although companies are saying the right things, there still remains a large number of new and and recent grads looking for MBA-level work. As long as that glut of talent is out there, salaries for new MBA grads probably won't grow much. But, "Will I get a job??" is still the primary question on most business school students' minds, and for the first time in a while, the answer to this question looks to be turning toward the affirmative.

If you're starting to plan your MBA candidacy, call us at (800) 925-7737 and speak with one of our MBA admissions today. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

GMAT Tip of the Week: Why Orbitz Executives Would Bomb the GMAT

Despite the well-substantiated claims of this self-proclaimed world's-worst-website, the winner of the worst website prize simply must be Orbitz.com, the least-helpful and most-dishonest website the Internet has seen to date. (Orbitz people, please don't sue us. Just sue Brian. These opinions are his alone and do not represent those of the company... yada yada yada. -- Ed.)

On no fewer than three travel bookings this month, your author has been led to the Orbitz website by specifically-advertised convenient options and good prices, and each time the Orbitz site has pulled the junior-high "psych!" gag, dramatically increasing the price on the checkout page from what had been advertised just one click prior. More frustratingly, even days later the initially-advertised price has prominently appeared in searches.

One can only imagine what's going on at Orbitz headquarters. Perhaps, if one believes that Vice President Al Gore did invent the Internet, his successor, Dick Cheney, created Orbitz.com as a torture technique for his beloved Guantanamo Bay:

Cheney: Here's $500. If you can find a flight home for that, I'll let you go. I suggest you try Orbitz.com.

Detainee: Wow -- my lucky day! I found a flight for $475. I can even afford to check a bag now!

Orbitz: We're sorry. The flight that we advertised to you in real-time just seconds ago is no longer available at that price. It now costs $950. Please click to continue with your purchase.

Cheney: Psych! Get those goggles back on...we're headed back to the waterboard pool.

Regardless of who actually does run Orbitz, we know this to be certain -- with their mentality, they'll struggle mightily on the Data Sufficiency and Critical Reasoning sections of the GMAT, on which it is crucial for you to know that the facts never change.

Consider the following Critical Reasoning fragment:

All chimpanzees eat vegetables, and some chimpanzees eat meat. Those that eat meat are wild.

Which of the following conclusions can be properly drawn from the above?

(A) Chimpanzees that eat meat are the exception to the rule that all chimpanzees eat vegetables.

(B) Meat is the only thing that wild chimpanzees eat.

(C) Chimpanzees that are wild are among those that eat vegetables.

Successful people love the "exception to the rule" -- we love to know more than anyone else, get credit for thinking outside the box, etc. But, in this question, we're given the irrefutable fact that "all chimpanzees eat vegetables." That leaves no room for an exception -- if ALL chimps eat vegetables, then we can't conclude anything that would violate that fact.

Similarly, choice B cannot be true given the facts. If ALL chimps eat vegetables, then it cannot be true that some ONLY eat meat. Choice C is correct -- any group of chimpanzees will be among those that eat vegetables, because ALL of them eat vegetables.

Keep in mind this -- certain answer choices will tempt you to stray from the facts that are given as part of the question, but the facts cannot change. Consider each fact that you are given to be a constraint, as well -- anything is possible except for anything that would violate those facts.

A common GMAT mistake is to violate the facts/constraints given in divisibility-related Data Sufficiency questions. Consider this Data Sufficiency fragment:

Is y an integer?

(1) y/3 is an integer

Quite often (and mistakenly!), the test-taker's instinct with statement 1 is to try to prove or disprove it, rather than use it (correctly) as a fact to help determine the answer to the initial question. When reading this, did you try to plug in a number like 4?

Note that, based on the fact/constraint given in statement 1, 4 is simply not an option. 4/3 is not an integer, and we know that y/3 must be an integer, so 4 is not a possibility. Instead, we can only use numbers that are divisible by 3. Because all multiples of 3 are integers, statement 1 is sufficient.

Again, remember that, when the GMAT gives you a fact, it's irrefutable. Learn to see the provided facts as binding constraints and you'll avoid those common errors that derive from thinking outside the GMAT's logically-constrictive box.

As for Orbitz, I give you the middle finger -- the left middle finger, to be exact, as I use it to press "E" on my keyboard, via which my browser will immediately pop up Expedia.com for my future travel searches.

If you're just starting your GMAT preparation, try a free GMAT practice test or download our free free GMAT iPhone app. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and to follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

Let Someone Else Do the Work for You

There is perhaps nothing more satisfying in life than having someone else do the work for you. This applies to tough manual labor, exhausting deep thinking, and everything in between. For some, it represents the pleasure of being able to relax while someone else takes care of things. But, for others, it means making their own tough jobs much easier.

This idea of "They do the work for me, and therefore make my own job easier," comes up frequently in the graduate management education space. We've heard this same idea come up in two areas that almost seem to be at exact opposites of the MBA spectrum, but are in fact closely related: MBA admissions and the post-business school job market. We'll start with the latter.

MBA Admissions Officers Do the Work for Future Employers
When employers are pressed for why they tend to recruit MBAs from the same top business schools, their answer often boils down to: "The schools wouldn't have admitted them if they weren't great, so we know we're fishing in a pool of highly skilled talent. The schools make it easy for us to find a lot of great potential hires in one place." That's not a new idea -- yes, getting one's "ticket punched" at a top MBA program can sometimes seem to be the real value in earning an MBA -- but it cuts right to the heart of what employers must deal with.

A large management consulting firm may want to hire 80 associates this year. While they could theoretically cast a net as wide as the entire world, it makes their jobs much easier when focus on the top five or ten (or whatever the cutoff may be) MBA programs. This isn't elitism as much as it is a need for convenience and a lack of infinite time and money. These employers are saying, "They got into these schools, so they must be pretty good." Out of necessity, they put their trust in the top schools admissions offices to do their jobs right, and to keep their classrooms stocked with A-level talent.

... And Reco Writers Do the Work for Admissions Officers
So, now the pressure is entirely on business school admissions officers, right? They have to sift through thousands of great essays, GMAT scores, and resumes to separate the wheat from the chaff. (HBS alone had to sift through more than 9,500 applications this past admissions season.) Even after interviewing some or all of the applicants, how can tell who's great vs. who merely talks a good game?

Fortunately for them, much of the proof resides in each applicants' letters of recommendation. We recently heard an admissions officer say (I'm paraphrasing here): "Recommendation writers have seen the applicant in a variety of situations, and knows him far better than we can after reading a few essays. They know the applicant's true grit, and they're communicating that to us. A well-written letter of recommendation makes our jobs much easier in this way." It's the same exact dynamic at work in both instances: The person in the decision maker's seat needs to make an important decision without having perfect information. So, they need help from someone else who knows you better.

Use This Dynamic to Get Into Business School
When business school applicants talk about the admissions game, they spend a lot of time talking about the GMAT and their essays. Their letters of recommendation seem to reside in a place in their minds somewhere below their essays and above the data sheets -- important, but not quite as exciting as some of the headliners in their application. Nothing could be further than the truth. Although your recommendation writers most likely (you hope) support your candidacy, what they say about you -- and how they say it -- is critically important for an admissions officer who needs to make a decision on your candidacy.

So, recruit recommendation writers who know you well and will be very enthusiastic about your candidacy. Spend as much time as you can preparing them with specific examples to support their answers, and drive home the message that they should communicate nothing less than 100% passion about your candidacy. When MBA admissions officers see these elements in a recommendation, they know they're on to something good. They can only learn so much about you from your test scores and essays, so this "second voice" is a critical voice in the evaluation process.

Use it to your advantage, and you can put admissions officers at ease as they review your application, because they'll know that someone else has done the work for them in finding a terrific young professional.

For more MBA admissions help, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with one of our admissions experts today. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

A New Wrinkle in the Law School Rankings Game

Everyone who operates in the graduate school admissions space knows that rankings are both important and also to be taken with a grain of salt. Any summation of programs presented in list form purports to be an objective analysis, but is always filled with subjective factors, opinion, and incomplete data.

The most famous, of course, is the "peer assessment" score that plays such a huge role and completely stems from opinion -- and often uninformed opinion at that. With numbers -- average test scores and GPAs, acceptance rates, job placement, and so on -- we assume a bit of gaming (using a huge waitlist to improve yield rate is a favorite), but for the most part, trust that we can believe the stats.

Well, as the old expression goes, there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics." And in the case of the U.S. News Law School Rankings, there are some very interesting statistics indeed.

Yesterday, on his popular blog TaxProf Blog, Paul Caron wrote a spicy piece that wondered aloud whether 16 law schools committed some form of malpractice last year by reporting employment numbers that were lower than the "plug-in" stat that U.S. News uses when there are no numbers at all. It's kind of a strong word to attach to the actions of these schools, but Caron's idea is that these programs harmed their various constituents (students, faculty, alumni, and so on) by reporting numbers that unnecessarily weakened their overall ranking.

Why was this reporting unnecessary? Well, the simple answer is that U.S. News has a default number it uses when schools do not report their "employed at graduation" numbers in time for the new set of rankings. Last year, according to Caron, 74 schools did not supply this information, and so each of them got the default stat (created by taking the "employed after nine month" number and subtracting 30 percentage points). The prevailing opinion is that all 74 schools had actual placement numbers that were lower than the x-30% stat, creating an incentive to accept the default number rather than present the real version.

Caron goes on to discuss the 16 schools that did report numbers below x-30%. The accusation of malpractice is a little strong and probably unique to this setting (hard to imagine a blog focusing on MBA rankings going there), but the premise is logical: these schools gave more info than they had to and would have done a better service to their constituents by falling back on the default stat.

But what does that do to the intended audience (prospective students, employers, and so on)? Picking and choosing between actual stats and default formulas does nothing but obfuscate the actual state of the program. It can't possibly be a good thing when schools are strategically withholding data, or when truth-telling programs are ridiculed for sharing information with the public. Can it?

I don't blame U.S. News for its formula (after all, it can't very well just exclude that column of data, or -- worse -- exclude all the schools that miss a reporting statistic), but it definitely serves as a reminder that we have to keep the machinery in mind when we look a the tidy list of schools, ranked in numerical order. We have long encouraged our clients to take the rankings with a grain of salt, but when you see stories like this, it makes you want to recommend taking the rankings with a whole barrel of the stuff.

If you're getting ready to apply to law school, our law school admissions consultants can help you get in. Call us at (800_ 925-7737 to speak with an expert about your candidacy today. And, as always, remember to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter

Read More >>

Wharton Application Deadlines for 2010-2011

University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School has not yet released its admissions essays for the coming year, but the school recently released its application deadlines for the coming year:

Wharton Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 4, 2010
Round 2: January 4, 2011
Round 3: March 3, 2011

These deadlines are virtually the same as last year's. Note that Wharton's Round 1 deadline is in the beginning of October, much like Harvard's and Stanford's. We expect that more top schools will soon follow and start moving their deadlines to the first half of October to give them more time to release Round 1 decisions before the holidays (and before the Round 2 deadline). Note that Wharton's Round 3 application deadline is still in March, leaving just Stanford and Harvard as the top schools with April deadlines right now.

To learn more about how to get into Wharton, download our Wharton Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. If you're ready to start building your own application for Wharton or other top MBA programs, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!

Read More >>

Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Start Your GMAT Preparation

It only comes six times a year, when the planets align and our GMAT prep classes start around the world on the same week! If you're planning to apply to a top MBA program this coming fall (or even if you're just starting to think about it), this is the perfect time to start preparing for the GMAT.

Why? Because starting your preparation now will put you in position to take the GMAT by late July. If you ace it, then great. You can put the GMAT out of your mind and start planning the rest of your application. If not -- and it's not unusual for an applicant to take the GMAT two or three times -- then you still have plenty of time to prep some more and take the GMAT again, before you get deep into the stress of pulling together your Round 1 business school applications in October.

When it's early in the calendar year and applicants ask us, "What can I do NOW to most help my MBA admissions chances in the fall?" we often say, "Start earlier! Give yourself more time than you think you'll need, for everything -- the GMAT, your essays, your letters of recommendation. You'll be glad you did!" Sometimes they listen, and sometimes they don't. But the ones who do listen always become advocates of the "Start early!" school of thought. (Maybe that's why our May classes are so popular!)

Okay, back to the special occasion at hand: If you haven't yet taken the GMAT and want help in maximizing your score, you're in luck. We have classes starting in dozens of cities worldwide this week, in all sorts of formats -- weeknights, weekends, Saturdays-only, accelerated, and online GMAT prep. You name it, we've got a GMAT class for it. And taking our 42-hour, seven-week Complete Course (our most popular option) will leave you with plenty of time to take the GMAT in July, setting up the calendar for you beautifully in the back half of the year.

Ready to dig in and reach your maximum potential on the GMAT? Visit our site for a GMAT course overview to see why thousands of applicants choose Veritas Prep every year. Then, find a GMAT course near you and you'll be on your way.

As always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and to follow Veritas Prep on Twitter so that you don't miss a beat in the worlds of GMAT prep and MBA admissions!

Read More >>

GMAT Tip of the Week: Million, Not Billion

Yesterday, the world economy nearly crumpled, with the Dow losing almost a full thousand points before a late rally to close at "awful" instead of "catastrophic." Was it the Greek/EU economic crisis? Was it oil speculation related to the Gulf spill? Was it the advertising industry's fear of LeBron James' elbow injury?

No, it was the kind of silly mistake that cost the Dow over 300 points and could do the same for your GMAT score if you're not careful. Indications are that a trader accidentally submitted a trade for "billions" instead of "millions," triggering a selling frenzy that left the world in limbo wondering what this meant for economic recovery. This simple mistake - just one letter off - caused billions (and, yes, I meant to use the 'b') of dollars to change hands and scores of people to lose piles of money, and hopefully serves as fair warning for future titans of industry preparing for that critical first step, the GMAT:

Make sure you use the proper units when selecting your answer.

Many a GMAT question has been missed because the examinee performed all of the calculations correctly but failed to answer properly with the correct units.

Consider the question:

A cylindrical bucket with radius r and height 10, is 3/4 filled with water. A boy is dropping marbles with volume r/10 into the bucket at a rate of 12 marbles per minute. How many seconds will it take before the water overflows from the bucket?

A) 2.1 * pi * r
B) 25 * pi * r
C) 125 * pi * r
D) 300 * pi * r
E) 375 * pi * r

There are quite a few things to tackle in this problem, but for the purposes of this demonstration follow the units closely.

The bucket's volume can be calculated using the formula Volume = pi * r^2 * height, providing the volume 10 * pi * r^2. If 3/4 of that bucket is full, the marbles need to fill the other 1/4, or 2.5 pi * r^2, in order for the bucket to overflow.

So at this point we have the volume that we need to fill, 2.5 pi * r^2. Because we need to fill that volume, we need to set it equal to the "replacement" volume of marbles, so we can set up the next step as:

x (number of marbles) * r/10 (volume per marble) = 2.5 pi * r^2 (volume to be filled)

Divide both sides by r to get: x/10 = 2.5 pi * r

Multiply both sides by 10 to solve for x: x = 25 pi * r

This arrives at answer choice B, but just like Citibank's rogue trader, we'd be making a colossal mistake if we incorrectly used "B" - 25 pi * r represents the number of marbles, but that's the wrong unit for the answer. We need seconds, not marbles!

If we have 25 pi * r marbles, and drop 12 per minute, then that means that we drop one every five seconds. 25 pi * r marbles * 5 seconds / 1 marble = 125 pi * r seconds, and the correct answer is C.

Particularly when a question involves multiple steps, like the one above, the authors of the GMAT know that they can catch a fairly high percentage of test-takers by allowing them to finish their calculations and ignore the units. Be certain to double-check that you've used proper units - you may not cost the world billions by making the mistake, but you could cost yourself some serious points.

Our GMAT prep classes start around the world next week! Visit our site to find a GMAT course near you. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and to follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

Three Hints for Maximizing Campus Visits

Last week, we talked about using the month of May to jump start your fall applications to MBA programs, and one of the best ways to do that is to take advantage of the opportunity to visit campuses while school is still in session. Waiting to tour a business school (or any grad school) during the summer months is almost a complete waste of time, because there are no classes in session and all you are seeing is a bunch of empty buildings.

That leaves either the end of the school year (now), or the fall. And the problem with waiting until the fall is that you run the risk of missing out altogether, as many schools have round one deadlines that occur before campus visitations fully open back up (for example, Stanford GSB's round one deadline last year was October 7, while most opportunities to engage with students and faculty kicked off in mid-October), or your are simply too busy cranking on your applications to find the time.

All of which makes May a critical month for visiting campus. With that in mind, here are three suggestions for maximizing your campus visit:

1. Be the buyer, not the seller.
Too many people think of a campus visit as a chance to show off and impress the school. This is a poor use of your energy, for a couple of reasons. First, a campus visit is all about acquiring information - info that will help you choose your list of schools, info that will help you ultimately pick which school you will attend, and info that will help you gain admission in the first place. You are on an investigative mission, not an audition. Second, MBA programs simply will not know whether you were amazing or an abomination. Not to diminish the people who work in admissions (hey, I was one of them), but there is no way that a business school has the resources to closely monitor and record the actions of a random visitor who comes to campus four months before the next application deadline.

Right now, admissions officers are finalizing enrollment for the incoming class of 2010, they are planning upcoming recruiting trips, and taking vacations to recover from another busy year. To think they are filing away notes about you is crazy. Knowing this, free yourself from the burdens and pressures of "performing." Don't do something stupid that gets you kicked off campus or turns you into a cautionary tale, but at the same time, don't worry about winning over the student or professor standing in front of you. Ask them real questions. Get some dirt. Engage in the world around you.

A big advantage to visiting campus in late spring is that everyone lets their hair down. So let yours down as well and really come away from the trip with an understanding of that program's DNA. If you visit a campus in May and come away feeling like it was an artificial experience, it either means that your approach was wrong or the school is as fake as a million-dollar bill.

2. Work on your sales pitch.
In last week's blog, we talked about honing your sales pitch and there is no better place to trot it out than at an actual business school. If your reasons for pursuing an MBA seem odd, if your timing is all wrong, if your career goals are overly ambitious, there is no better way to find that out than by talking to a current MBA student who is dealing with a live marketplace.

You want to come out of a campus visit feeling like your personal pitch - your reasons for applying, your goals, your passions - has either been validated or improved. If you find yourself confused after visiting campus, it might be time to seek consultation with an expert.

3. Start composing your application.
We don't mean literally, of course, but you should absolutely check out last year's essay questions and do some thinking about what the MBA program in question really cares about. Knowing that Wharton has an ongoing focus on student community and globalism helps you when you go to the Penn campus. Now you can ask questions, visit classes, take tours, and explore programs with those key themes in mind. You will leave your visit with a better idea of how you fit with that school and also with some specific conversations and interests that you will want to mention in your essays.

Context is everything when applying to grad school, and being able to place yourself and your life/career arc into the context of what makes a school tick is critical in writing impactful essays and properly expressing program fit. Your very best chance to marry "you" the candidate with the MBA program in question is when you are physically there. So while you are researching as a consumer, don't forget that you are also an applicant who has to connect all the dots. Give yourself the opportunity to collect data, make connections, and lock in a fit with the place while you are there visiting.

These are three simple suggestions, but they will make a big difference on your campus visit. If you stay relaxed about your own need to "perform," it will allow you to stress test your goals and start building a powerful application story, even as you are checking things off your own wish list.

To start planning your own business school candidacy, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

HBS Names Nitin Nohria New Dean

Yesterday Harvard Business School announced that Nitin Nohria, the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at HBS, will become the School's 10th dean, replacing current Dean Jay Light on July 1, 2010.

Nohria, currently the co-chair of the school's Leadership Initiative, gained notoriety last year when he co-authored a Harvard Business Review article that ultimately led to the creation of the MBA Oath. His reputation for being willing to ask tough questions about ethics and the social of managers that makes him an attractive choice to lead HBS in the post-financial-meltdown world.

Nohria has been at HBS for the past 22 years, joining the faculty as an assistant professor in 1988 after earning his PhD at MIT Sloan, with an emphasis in behavioral sciences. He earned tenure in 1997, and was named to the Chapman Professorship in 1999. Most recently he has served as the Harvard's senior associate dean for faculty development and chair of its organizational behavior unit.

As expected, the HBS community has been very supportive of Nohria's announcement, all the way up to Light, who had this to say in written statement:

Nitin Nohria will be a wonderful dean of Harvard Business School. He is widely respected within our extended community as a perceptive scholar of leadership and as a thoughtful and able academic leader. He believes deeply in the distinctive mission of the School and its role in the world. He will effectively carry forward the objectives and the strategies that make this institution a very special place.

In a statement accepting the role, Nohria set the tone for his new role:

I feel a profound sense of responsibility for continuing Harvard Business School's proud legacy of groundbreaking ideas and transformational educational experiences. With business education at an inflection point, we must strive to equip future leaders with the competence and character to address emerging global business and social challenges. As we enter our second century, I look forward to working with the School's faculty, staff, students, and alumni to forge a vision for Harvard Business School that will enable it to remain a beacon for business education for the next 100 years.

Every year we help many applicants get into Harvard Business School. For more advice on getting into HBS, download our HBS Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools. If you're ready to start building your own candidacy for Harvard or another top MBA program, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!

Read More >>

On Becoming a Responsible Manager

(Today's post is a guest feature by Darren Kowitt, one of Veritas Prep's most experienced MBA admissions consultants and essay editors. He shares some insights about what makes a great manager, and how these lessons also apply to crafting an effective business school application.)

While waiting for a plane in April I was catching up on my backlog of Harvard Business Review reading, and came across very thoughtful article (The Responsible Manager, HBR Jan/Feb 2010, reprint #F1001G) by Univ. of Michigan Ross Professor of Strategy, C.K. Prahalad. In one of life’s strange coincidences, I read the article on the day Professor Prahalad died, April 16.

I bring this article to your attention because it touches upon one of the critical differentiators of successful MBA applications. In their first drafts, applicants tend to focus too much on their analytical skills. Applicants also tend to use too many buzz-words, to demonstrate familiarity with today’s frameworks for understanding business, and they also tend to frame their accomplishments in terms of heroism and pure ambition.

This last part is natural enough -– one wants to come across as impressive -– and yet it's strategically slightly misguided. Ambition is a given; you can't really out-compete on the authenticity of your desire for success. Heroism is even more suspect, for the people who read applications have learned, in their years, that heroic narratives are as notable for what they omit (namely, anything that would complicate or detract from the taut story line of hard work leading to victory) as they are for what they convey.

My point is that applicants all too easily overlook something that's perhaps even more impressive than raw analytical skills: the maturity and wisdom to think about how and why those analytical skills are deployed, and what the results, conceived most broadly, are.

At the end of each MBA and EMBA class he taught, Prof. Prahaland presented (among others) the following points:

• Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader.


• Due process matters. Team members seek fairness, not favors – decisions don’t have to go their way but the process has to be fair and transparent.


• Accept human weaknesses, laugh at yourself -- and avoid the temptation to play God. Leadership is about self-awareness, recognizing your failings, and developing modesty, humility, and humanity.


• Balance achievement with compassion, learning with understanding.


• Understand the importance of nonconformity. Leadership is about change, hope, and the future. Leaders have to venture into uncharted territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity.


• Managers must remember that they are the custodians of society's most powerful institutions. They must therefore hold themselves to a higher standard. Managers must strive to achieve success with responsibility.

He also noted how over the 33 years of his teaching career the world had changed a great deal, and yet the insights contained in his points stayed essentially constant. I would add that this is so because his observations concern ideas (and ideals) about human relationships, things that evolve much more slowly than our technology.

Your resume, if well designed, will effectively convey the scope of your achievements. Your essays, if well designed, should convey the wisdom you have gained along the way. It is this last part that you would do well to remember. Demonstrate that you have the wisdom to attempt to connect the dots between your actions and the consequences of those actions for your team, division, firm and society –- and you will be much closer to your goal. Echoing Cicero, remember that in MBA admissions essays self-awareness is the better part of valor.

For more MBA admissions advice, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with an admissions expert today. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>

MBA Admissions Mind Control, Part 2: Are You Worth My Time?

Several week ago we posted Part 1 of our "MBA Admissions Mind Control" feature, in which we described how MBA admissions officers tend to form impressions of an applicant within seconds of picking up an application. While this may seem unfair, remember that admissions officers are only human, and they can't help but be influenced by the hundreds or thousands of applications that they've previously read.

Whether or not they're thinking about it consciously, the question that runs through MBA admissions officers' minds essentially boils down to this: "How much time should I devote to this application?" Give off all the obvious signs of an applicant who will never fit with the school -- e.g., by having a very low GMAT score or presenting a confused, lackluster career path -- and you'll make an admissions officer's decision easy (and not in a good way).

How Searching for Keys Is Like MBA Admissions
If you've ever had to find a lost set of keys, you quickly made decisions about where to look and not look: "No, it's not in the couch. I wasn't sitting on the couch." / "Hmmm... I was rolling around in the yard with the dog. I'd better go outside and look in the grass again." / "Maybe I left them in my jeans when I changed my clothes. I'll take a look there." / "It's not in my jacket. I never put my keys in my jacket." In every instance you made a decision about where to invest your time. And admissions officers are constantly making those same decisions as they move from one application to the next, trying to find the best ones to recommend for further evaluation.

Finding great applicants in the pile of applications is not the hard part -- it's finding the best ones that is the challenge. And the more time that the admissions officer spends on a bad one, the more he has to make up for it later (either by hurrying up with another application or working even longer hours).

Ask Yourself These Six Questions
While it can be hard to be completely objective and strategic about your application, this is what is required at the planning stage. (And it's also what MBA admissions consultants like those at Veritas Prep help applicants do every day!) Ask yourself these six things:

1. Will your work experience look impressive or bland?


2. Will your GMAT and GPA seem like assets or liabilities (or will they offset one another)?


3. Do you seem like someone on an upward trajectory, or someone who's stagnating in his or her career?


4. Is there anything in your application that will make the admissions officer want you over the other people who have very similar professional/ethnic backgrounds?


5. What personality comes through? That of a somber, boring, immature, excuse-making, or challenge-seeking person?


6. What about your application will the reader remember 15 minutes after reading it???

Again, objectivity is key here, particularly when asking yourself why an admissions officer might want to choose you over someone else who looks very similar to you on paper. This is also where another pair of eyes can help, ideally from someone who doesn't know you too well. (Your friends and family are biased... They think you're amazing, but they've known you forever! An MBA admissions officer doesn't have such an advantage.)

In the final part of this series, we will explore specific ways in which an applicant can give off signals that say, "This application is worth more of your time!" and we'll contrast those approaches to some ways that tell an admissions officer, "Don't worry, nothing to see here. You can safely put me in the 'ding' pile." Look for that in a few weeks.

For more MBA admissions help, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with one of our admissions experts today. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

Read More >>