Some schools, notably Chicago Booth, UCLA Anderson, and NYU Stern, ask for open, creative essays where you set the agenda and can submit (within reason, per guidlines) whatever you think is important. The test is (a) how you deal with unstructured situations, (b) whether you have any creativity/imagination ,and (c) what your broader communication skills are like.
It’s a heaven-sent opportunity to get yourself noticed, but only, of course, if you can do something notice-worthy. Of course this essay prompt causes more unhappiness among applicants than any other.
As an applications advisor, I find myself thinking about new and different ways to tackle these questions. The only sure principle is “pop” — can you stand out? As Adcoms keep telling us, it’s not about evaluation (almost everyone who applies is “good enough.”) It is about selection. If you pop and you’re not in a heavily oversubscribed applicant category, your application becomes hard to turn down.
Here’s one way to pop — a management innovation competition. As the Website blurb says:
“The Management Innovation Exchange, a project aimed at reinventing management for the 21st century, and HCL Technologies, a global IT services provider, are offering more than $50,000 in prizes for the best new game-changing management ideas. The HCL MBA M-Prize competition is open to all current graduate business school students and will honor “the best new idea for making organizations more adaptable, more innovative, more inspiring, and more socially accountable.
“One of the people involved in all this is Gary Hamel, director of the Management Lab at London Business School, the author of seminal management books including Leading the Revolution, and one of the most influential management thinkers around. This is what he had to say in a statement:
“Organizations around the world today are challenged to change in ways they have never imagined. Collectively and individually some of the world’s leading management thinkers and progressive CEOs are pushing themselves and their teams to answer the fundamental question: How do we invent ‘management 2.0?’ The HCL MBA M-Prize is not an intellectual exercise or a theory. We are looking for ideas we can test and make work in a real organization. We are looking to reinvent the future of management and let MBA students’ ideas play a critical role in making it work.
‘In addition to a $50,000 grand prize, the winner gets to lead a real-world management experiment, in effect testing the winning idea at a real company. There are also three additional prizes for the best management “hacks”–which the organizers describe as “a bold new idea or radical fix aimed at redistributing power, unleashing human capability and fostering renewal in organizations.”
“The deadline for submissions is Feb. 28. Ten to 15 finalists will be selected by April 15 and the winners will be announced on the MIX site on May 1. Entries will be judged on clarity of thought and originality, potential for impact, feasibility of implementation, and popularity.
“A bunch of the entries have already been posted on the M-Prize web site. One involves giving rank-and-file employees a say in big company decisions, such as mergers and acquisitions. Another proposes an internal market for management talent–allowing employees to choose their own supervisors and rewarding the best. A third suggests an online social network to solicit money-making ideas for the company, and giving a cut of the proceeds from any viable idea to the person who thought of it.
“Not a bad start, but only a start. Surely there must be hundreds of really smart ideas for fomenting the next great management revolution bubbling up in b-school. What’s yours?”
(Yes, it’s open only to current b-school students. But there nothing to stop you telling Adcom what your entry will be next year…)
For more information on MBA Essay Program click here.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Harvard Business School Announces Changes to 2+2 Program
Harvard Business School (HBS) Admissions Director Dee Leopold shared the details of some changes the school is implementing in its 2+2 Program, a deferred admissions program for promising college students.
Specifically, the program will now include ALL college senior applicants to HBS, meaning that no college seniors without full-time work experience will be admitted to HBS directly. All college applicants will be considered “deferred admission,” that is, a place in the HBS class after two years of work experience.
According to Leopold, there are no hidden messages about HBS strategy in this change. “It’s a mechanical change to bring all college seniors under the same 2+2 umbrella which will enable us to have a cleaner outreach message to this group,” she wrote.
These changes will take place beginning with the next application cycle, for the 2+2 Class of 2016 Cohort. College students who will graduate between October 1, 2011, and September 30, 2012, can select from one of four application rounds in which to apply:
• Early Round: July 2011 application deadline; September 2011 notification
• Round 1: October 2011 application deadline; December 2011 notification
• Round 2: January 2012 application deadline; March 2012 notification
• Round 3: March 2012 application deadline; May 2012 notification
Leopold added that HBS hopes for each 2+2 cohort to be comprised of half students from engineering and science backgrounds and half representing a wide range of undergraduate studies. She anticipates that the 2+2 cohort size will remain between 100 and 125 students.
For more information on HBS’s 2+2 Program, click here.
Specifically, the program will now include ALL college senior applicants to HBS, meaning that no college seniors without full-time work experience will be admitted to HBS directly. All college applicants will be considered “deferred admission,” that is, a place in the HBS class after two years of work experience.
According to Leopold, there are no hidden messages about HBS strategy in this change. “It’s a mechanical change to bring all college seniors under the same 2+2 umbrella which will enable us to have a cleaner outreach message to this group,” she wrote.
These changes will take place beginning with the next application cycle, for the 2+2 Class of 2016 Cohort. College students who will graduate between October 1, 2011, and September 30, 2012, can select from one of four application rounds in which to apply:
• Early Round: July 2011 application deadline; September 2011 notification
• Round 1: October 2011 application deadline; December 2011 notification
• Round 2: January 2012 application deadline; March 2012 notification
• Round 3: March 2012 application deadline; May 2012 notification
Leopold added that HBS hopes for each 2+2 cohort to be comprised of half students from engineering and science backgrounds and half representing a wide range of undergraduate studies. She anticipates that the 2+2 cohort size will remain between 100 and 125 students.
For more information on HBS’s 2+2 Program, click here.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Case method augmented in HBS curriculum reform: a call to ‘doers’
Harvard Business School this week announced first moves toward its long-awaited curriculum reform in an email from Dean Nitin Nohria and Senior Associate Dean Youngme Moon to incoming students. The essence of it is: HBS is creating a new required first-year course called “Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development” (FIELD), and will provide greater modularity and student choice in the second year.
By all accounts the reforms are not huge, and not as extensive as those undertaken by Wharton, Stanford, Yale, Haas, and other major programs recently. It appears that HBS’s strategy is to introduce reforms in a incremental, rolling way.
But there is a radical kernel in the FIELD program, something HBS applicants should note. According to the deans’ statement, the course will focus on developing substantively meaningful small-group learning experiences that are “experiential, immersive, and field-based.”
Elaborating on this, Brian Kenny, chief marketing and communications officer for Harvard Business School, was quoted as saying: ”For most of the last 100 years, we have been exclusively using a case study pedagogy. We’re recognizing that the case method needs to be supplemented with experiential things that allow students to balance knowing with doing.”
In other words, “doing” is moving up the list of what’s crucial at HBS. They are looking to graduate “doers” rather than merely “knowers.” Of course Harvard will claim they have been doing this all along, but part of the enduring criticism leveled against business schools, particularly in the wake of the Credit Crunch, is that “book learning” is not enough to make a good business leader.
The case method is in itself a hybrid between a straight textbook learning and the real world, and this is what made it powerful in a world where some other b-schools taught more rote style. But the world has moved on, and “experience” and “immersion-fieldwork” have become central to what all serious b-schools consider valuable in formative management education. Of course, the case method will still be at the heart of the Harvard’s teaching. But there is a clear manifesto to nudge the case method further towards the real world by augmenting it with immersion.
How does this affect admissions? Quite simply, HBS is looking, more than ever, to turn out graduates who are ready, willing, and able to roll up their sleeves and immerse themselves in their leadership projects. So you-the-applicant should look to show where and how you have successfully navigated “immersion” projects in your past, what learning experiences you will immerse yourself in while at HBS and in your near-term future, and how the FIELD experience will help you do it better.
For More info visit at :http://mbastudio.net/2011/01/case-method-hbs-curriculum-reform/
By all accounts the reforms are not huge, and not as extensive as those undertaken by Wharton, Stanford, Yale, Haas, and other major programs recently. It appears that HBS’s strategy is to introduce reforms in a incremental, rolling way.
But there is a radical kernel in the FIELD program, something HBS applicants should note. According to the deans’ statement, the course will focus on developing substantively meaningful small-group learning experiences that are “experiential, immersive, and field-based.”
Elaborating on this, Brian Kenny, chief marketing and communications officer for Harvard Business School, was quoted as saying: ”For most of the last 100 years, we have been exclusively using a case study pedagogy. We’re recognizing that the case method needs to be supplemented with experiential things that allow students to balance knowing with doing.”
In other words, “doing” is moving up the list of what’s crucial at HBS. They are looking to graduate “doers” rather than merely “knowers.” Of course Harvard will claim they have been doing this all along, but part of the enduring criticism leveled against business schools, particularly in the wake of the Credit Crunch, is that “book learning” is not enough to make a good business leader.
The case method is in itself a hybrid between a straight textbook learning and the real world, and this is what made it powerful in a world where some other b-schools taught more rote style. But the world has moved on, and “experience” and “immersion-fieldwork” have become central to what all serious b-schools consider valuable in formative management education. Of course, the case method will still be at the heart of the Harvard’s teaching. But there is a clear manifesto to nudge the case method further towards the real world by augmenting it with immersion.
How does this affect admissions? Quite simply, HBS is looking, more than ever, to turn out graduates who are ready, willing, and able to roll up their sleeves and immerse themselves in their leadership projects. So you-the-applicant should look to show where and how you have successfully navigated “immersion” projects in your past, what learning experiences you will immerse yourself in while at HBS and in your near-term future, and how the FIELD experience will help you do it better.
For More info visit at :http://mbastudio.net/2011/01/case-method-hbs-curriculum-reform/
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
John Wells returns to Harvard to teach strategy
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John Wells, former president of IMD in Switzerland, has returned to his alma mater, Harvard Business School. He has resumed his position there as professor of management practice, a title given to business people with strobng academic credentials that are outside the traditional tenure system.
Prof Wells was appointed president of IMD in April 2008, leaving his position at Harvard to take up the post. He quit the Swiss school in June 2010, and was replaced there in December 2010 by long-term IMD professor Dominique Turpin.
Prof Wells works in the strategy unit at Harvard where he teaches the first year core course in strategy and a second year elective course on strategic agility. He also teaches in several executive education programmes.
He received his MBA from Harvard in 1979, which produced many of the most famous and infamous names from the school, including Jeff Skilling, former chief executive of Enron, Meg Whitman, former chief executive of eBay, and Archie Norman, chairman of UK television company ITV.
For the full article, click here.
John Wells, former president of IMD in Switzerland, has returned to his alma mater, Harvard Business School. He has resumed his position there as professor of management practice, a title given to business people with strobng academic credentials that are outside the traditional tenure system.
Prof Wells was appointed president of IMD in April 2008, leaving his position at Harvard to take up the post. He quit the Swiss school in June 2010, and was replaced there in December 2010 by long-term IMD professor Dominique Turpin.
Prof Wells works in the strategy unit at Harvard where he teaches the first year core course in strategy and a second year elective course on strategic agility. He also teaches in several executive education programmes.
He received his MBA from Harvard in 1979, which produced many of the most famous and infamous names from the school, including Jeff Skilling, former chief executive of Enron, Meg Whitman, former chief executive of eBay, and Archie Norman, chairman of UK television company ITV.
For the full article, click here.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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.
To read the full article on , MBA admissions essay click here.
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.
To read the full article on , MBA admissions essay click here.
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