Do you know where the ‘empty calories’ are in your MBA admissions essay?

Let me quote wikipedia: “Empty calories are a measurement of the energy present in high-energy foods with poor nutritional profiles, typically from processed carbohydrates or fats. An empty calorie has the same energy content of any other calorie but lacks accompanying nutrients such as vitamins, dietary minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, or in the case of refined grains, fiber.”
Empty calories define most fast food, sugary drinks, and popular cereals — so much so that regulators have reigned in advertising low-food-value items to children. (Food conglomerates have responded by adding back vitamins, minerals, etc. to cereals and other prepared foods.)
Why do I raise this? Because an MBA admissions essay — like any other piece of writing — is a meal for the reader. The reader’s hope and quiet prayer is that the text will deliver the informational nutrients they are looking for, with little fat or waste.
Consider something like this: “My journey to this point has been challenging, but the lessons I learned have been most meaningful — I truly have seen that a new beginning is an opportunity to start again, that life’s challenges are the best way to show one’s capability and forge memorable experiences, and that through passion and perseverance one can make a difference in the world.”
Or this: “I believe the best leaders are those who do things for the right reasons, grounded in a thorough understanding of economics, business, strategy, and innovation. I want to be a leader who is open-minded, can manage complex situations, and empowers people.”
Forget the turgid writing and cliche’s-running-amok for a moment. That can be fixed. The point is, even if fixed, there is still nothing there. From the Adcom readers’ point of view there is no nutrition in the text, nothing that tells them anything interesting or specific or memorable about these applicants and why they should be admitted to b-school. There is no data, there is no record of action, no unique insights. Just words taking up space. That is, just empty calories.
The task of MBA essays is to explain your admissions value to Adcom, and you can’t achieve this via empty text. You must present nutrition-laden text, or expect to be dinged.
This means excoriating anything and everything that tends towards vacant, weary generalizations. Cut that to create space for reader nourishment — discussion of specific well-chosen experiences that show you in action, developing unique skills and fresh non-obvious insights about yourself, about your future aspirations, and about management and leadership.

Source:-http://mbastudio.net/2010/12/do-you-know-where-the-empty-calories-are-in-your-mba-admissions-essay/

I’ve traveled the world, this is good for MBA admissions, right?’

I’d estimate that 3 out of 5 MBA applicants to top-tier schools have traveled widely, for work or for fun. It follows that in their MBA applications they cite travel as an activity they value and put it among the important experiences they have had. They think that journeying across the world speaks for itself as proof of “diversity.” Travel “broadens the mind” and all that.

This is true. But there is a lot of value to be had in travel that MBA applicants often don’t get to. Here I tip my metaphorical hat to the mother of an MBA Studio client who gave her son the following feedback — before he came to me — which absolutely dovetails with how I exhort clients to squeeze admissions value from their travel (and other) experiences. I quote:

“I don’t think you have written something meaningful enough about your travels. You have traveled widely but it looks like it doesn’t seem to have influenced you, affected your outlook about people, society.

“Perhaps write something meaningful about poverty, and yet the ingenuity of people who have very little but are innovative, creative, hard working.

“Can you think of reasons why you chose to travel to these places, culture, philosophy, history, etc.?

“Some insight into the way you and your friend chose to travel, no fuss, not staying fancy places.

“This travel was a test also in being independent, showing initiative, taking calculated risks in foreign places. (You don’t give yourself sufficient credit for these things.)”

If all mothers had this depth of insight, I’d be out of a job. But, seriously, the task here, and everywhere in MBA admissions, is to extract the full admissions value from any activity you have done, experiences you’ve had, or choices you’ve made.

Look at your experiences, look at the skill sets and character traits of middle-to-senior managers, and make the link.

In this case an applicant following this advice would be showing Adcom not just “travel,” but a nuanced outlook on foreign cultures; an appreciation of genuinely alternative value systems and social cohesion including alternative forms of innovation; a non-materialist sensibility; an ability to ride out adversity; practice at calculated risk-management, and so on. Now this is a platform a good b-school can build on, to create a senior manager for significant 21st Century organizations.

Source: http://mbastudio.net/2010/11/ive-traveled-the-world/

MBA admissions interview – the last step to success

The interview is one of the most important stages of admission procedure. Before you appear for an MBA admission interview, you must be thoroughly prepared. The first step is to prepare a list of questions that are likely to be asked from all aspects that concern your profile’s strengths and weaknesses, as mentioned in your first profile analysis. This needs to be done with the critical help of your consultant. The replies to these questions should also be drafted with care, in order to prevent any pitfalls. Another important part of MBA admissions interview is the stress factor. Interviews are known to stress an individual. Instead, you must learn to give your best even in a stressful environment. This would require mental preparation and stress management, which is also the responsibility of an MBA consultant to take care of. MBA admission interviews not only test what you know. They also test how willing an individual is to adapt which is an important trait for a leader to have.

Strengthening Your Work Experience

If you’re not already doing so, you need to start volunteering for stretch assignments and unique projects at work. Showing up for work and doing what you’re told is a good formula for staying where you are, but it won’t get you promoted and it won’t get you into business school. If you want to earn a spot in a top business school, then you have to show initiative and distinguish yourself from your peers. If you’re working in an over-represented field like investment banking or consulting you need to be even more ambitious than other candidates in going after unique projects that will set you apart. That may mean volunteering for projects that others are unable or unwilling to tackle.

If you’re a software engineer, a bio-chemist, or a derivatives trader then you probably have a number of technical accomplishments to be proud of. You need to be looking for opportunities in your current job to develop and demonstrate your management skills, interpersonal abilities, and your leadership skills. If formal opportunities don’t present themselves then you need to get creative – that could mean proposing and implementing a survey of current customers, working on a business plan for a new division, or convincing your manager to lend you to the marketing group for a few months. The point is that if you’re serious about going to a top business school, you must be scanning the horizon for every opportunity to show the admission committee that you are more than just a gear-head, quant jock, or rocket scientist – you’re a future business leader.
Many applicants understand that community service is practically a pre-requisite for admissions to business school. Armed with this knowledge, they do some volunteer work in hopes of having some community service activities to list on their application forms. But this misses the point. Just as having a job is not sufficient for earning a place in a top MBA program, neither is simply being a participant in a community service organization.

We're often asked by clients who haven’t done any volunteer work what kinds of community service activities business schools want to see. Again, this misses the point. No community service organization is better than another from an admissions officer’s standpoint. Admissions officers really just want to see that you have engaged with a community that you have a passion for serving and that the volunteer work you’ve done has importance and meaning to you. So if you’re looking for way to get involved then look for an organization that has a mission that you want to be a part of. Find an emotional connection and work on a problem that you have a passionate interest in solving. For example, if you are a first generation American who benefitted from free English language classes then you could volunteer to teach classes in that program or, better yet, work at the organizational level to raise money and expand program offerings to reach more students.

If you’re already volunteering for a community service organization, you should be looking look for opportunities to harness the energy of other people, generate results, and make a real difference. You could lead a fund raising drive, pull together a team that addresses a long-standing organizational issue, or work with board members to develop a five-year strategic plan.

So in summary, focus on maximizing the depth and breadth of experiences you gain both inside and outside of work. Not only will this make for a stronger MBA application but it will make your work significantly more interesting!
Source: http://mbaprepschool.com/how-much-work-experience-is-enough/

GMAT Tip: How often should I take practice tests?

Today’s GMAT tip comes from Kaplan. In this article, Kaplan GMAT instructor Bret Ruber provides some advice on how many practice tests you should take before the actual GMAT exam:

When it comes to taking practice tests, many GMAT testtakers fall into one of two categories. The first type is made up of students that think of practice tests as THE way to prep. These students will take practice test after practice test, sometimes taking up to four or more a week. The second group is made up of students that are afraid to take any practice tests. These students will exclaim, “I have not studied everything and will do terribly if I take a practice test.” With this mindset, these students will fail to take practice tests until perhaps the week or two before their actual exam.

So, which approach is correct? Not surprisingly, both of these mindsets are problematic. Testtakers in the former group miss opportunities to focus their practice on their problem areas. This focused practice is essential to improving one’s GMAT score and simply taking additional tests will not help students improve their understanding of content.

On the other side, testtakers who fail to take any practice tests until the last minute will not be prepared for the pressure of test day. Additionally, these students will not be used to the endurance needed to take a three and half hour exam. This means, in order to successfully prepare for test day, students must find a happy medium between these two extremes. In order to gain both test taking experience and content specific review, those prepping for the GMAT should aim to take about one practice test per week. After taking each test, preppers should review all of the problems and then make sure to work in areas in which they missed questions over the course of the week. By following this system, you will be maximizing the effectiveness of your studies and on your way to a top GMAT score.

Source: http://blog.clearadmit.com/2010/11/gmat-tip-how-often-should-i-take-practice-tests/