1. I have completed the first draft of all 3 essays for Wharton (I am a re-applicant so 1 essay less). Instead of perfecting one essay at a time, I decided to write all 3 first and then start editing them. This way I can get the complete story right before I can work on revisions. If any part of my story is not conveyed, I should be able to fill it in.
2. I am getting some help from a colleague for editing essays. He is a junior to me with good communication skills. He has aspiration to get an MBA and feels my essays would help his endeavor. We sit together and edit the content for grammar and expression. Then I get them reviewed from my friends and family for content.
3. I have decided to write one more story for Wharton Innovation/Initiative essay as I feel the current essay is very technical.
4. On 16-Aug-2008, I attended a non-profit boot organized by Craigslist foundation. It was very useful, especially to connect my non-profit and for-profit goals. Got glimpses of talents of professors at NYU Stern School of business. I am planning to write a detailed report of the event.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
First essay for the season
Yesterday I completed the first draft of my Wharton’s career goals essay. The first reaction from my sister-in-law was that it is better than my previous year’s essay. Today morning when I read the essay again with wearing a critical hat, I identified the following improvement areas
1. Answer “why is now the best time for you to join our program?”
2. Avoid generic reasons for Why Wharton question, such as, “With excellent faculty, diverse and intelligent student body, and global alumni network Wharton MBA appeals to me”. I need to be more specific.
3. Link my entrepreneurial failure to not having an MBA
4. Connect my non-profit initiative to my long term career.
5. I have repeated similar sentence construction many times. This could make the reader uninteresting.
6. Variation in Vocabulary: I have used some word too many times: ‘work’ (11), ‘focus’ (6), and ‘learn’ (7).
7. And the very obvious one, word count. I stand at 1400 words now.
1. Answer “why is now the best time for you to join our program?”
2. Avoid generic reasons for Why Wharton question, such as, “With excellent faculty, diverse and intelligent student body, and global alumni network Wharton MBA appeals to me”. I need to be more specific.
3. Link my entrepreneurial failure to not having an MBA
4. Connect my non-profit initiative to my long term career.
5. I have repeated similar sentence construction many times. This could make the reader uninteresting.
6. Variation in Vocabulary: I have used some word too many times: ‘work’ (11), ‘focus’ (6), and ‘learn’ (7).
7. And the very obvious one, word count. I stand at 1400 words now.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Can Entrepreneurship be taught in b-school?
Last week, I was talking to a Chicago GSB MBA student (class of 2009) at a student reception in New York. He had been an entrepreneur before starting his MBA. When we were discussing about resources available for entrepreneurs at GSB, he expressed his opinion that entrepreneurship has to come from within the person and the MBA programs cannot teach entrepreneurship. Though it was his own view, it triggered a question in me “Can Entrepreneurship be taught in b-school?” So I decided to do a little bit of research.
We all know that an entrepreneur is a person who starts a new business venture. But what are the qualities of a person that makes him a successful entrepreneur? A quick Google search resulted in 3, 7, 10 or 20 qualities of an entrepreneur, such as, energy, passion, assertiveness, initiative, creativity, self starter, etc,. Many of these qualities are also required for anyone to be successful in his carrier. What differentiates Bill Gates from Jack Welsh is the ability to take risk. Can b-school teach a person to take risk? No. But a b-school can provide the necessary tools and knowledge to calculate risk and help make change a risky decision into a prudent decision.
Few decades back, even now, many raised the question “Can b-schools prepare good managers?” The b-schools proved that it can, provided the students have the potential. When managers can be trained and leadership taught in school, entrepreneurship can also be taught. But entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It is only for the people with the right mind set. An MBA program can only impart business knowledge to an entrepreneurial person and increase his chance of success. “What is the best way to learn business skills?” is a different question. Some would say only “experience”. Other would say formal education. For entrepreneurs, real world experience is better any day.
In the second half of the video, Prof. Tom Kinnear of Ross School of Business at University of Michigan explains whether Entrepreneurship can be taught in b-school.
An interview from MIT Sloan school professor Ed Roberts. His answers to first 3 questions reflects my opinion
We all know that an entrepreneur is a person who starts a new business venture. But what are the qualities of a person that makes him a successful entrepreneur? A quick Google search resulted in 3, 7, 10 or 20 qualities of an entrepreneur, such as, energy, passion, assertiveness, initiative, creativity, self starter, etc,. Many of these qualities are also required for anyone to be successful in his carrier. What differentiates Bill Gates from Jack Welsh is the ability to take risk. Can b-school teach a person to take risk? No. But a b-school can provide the necessary tools and knowledge to calculate risk and help make change a risky decision into a prudent decision.
Few decades back, even now, many raised the question “Can b-schools prepare good managers?” The b-schools proved that it can, provided the students have the potential. When managers can be trained and leadership taught in school, entrepreneurship can also be taught. But entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It is only for the people with the right mind set. An MBA program can only impart business knowledge to an entrepreneurial person and increase his chance of success. “What is the best way to learn business skills?” is a different question. Some would say only “experience”. Other would say formal education. For entrepreneurs, real world experience is better any day.
In the second half of the video, Prof. Tom Kinnear of Ross School of Business at University of Michigan explains whether Entrepreneurship can be taught in b-school.
An interview from MIT Sloan school professor Ed Roberts. His answers to first 3 questions reflects my opinion
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Essays Questions with a difference
In the last few weeks many schools have released their essays essays for 2009 intake. Most of the essays questions are similar. They include a few variations and combinations of the following question:
1. Describe your career progress to date.
2. Briefly describe your short-term and long-term career goals
3. Why MBA?
4. Why now?
5. Why our school?
6. Describe your most significant accomplishment.
7. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge
8. Describe your key leadership experiences
9. Describe a setback or failure and what you learned from it.
10. What are your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills?
11. Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected
Apart from the above regular question, some questions could trigger the creativity of the applicants. For example, one question for University of Michigan, Ross school of business is “If you were not pursuing the career goals you described in Question 1, what profession would you pursue instead? (For example, teacher, musician athlete, architect, etc.) How will this alternate interest contribute to your effectiveness in solving multidisciplinary problems?”.
University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of business has the question, “If you could change one thing you've done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently?”
Stanford has stuck to its usual off-beat question of “What matters most to you, and why?”
Of all the essay topics I have seen so far, 2 were totally different including the format requested. University of Chicago has requested a PowerPoint presentation. “We have asked for a great deal of information throughout this application and now invite you tell us about yourself. Using four slides or less, please provide readers with content that captures who you are.”
MIT has requested a cover letter. “Prepare a cover letter (up to 500 words) seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Describe your accomplishments and include an example of how you had an impact on a group or organization. Your letter should conform to standard business correspondence and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Director of MBA Admissions”.
The difference in format of the essays will stretch the imagination of the applicants and provide the reader with a variety in response instead of the old styled essay responses.
1. Describe your career progress to date.
2. Briefly describe your short-term and long-term career goals
3. Why MBA?
4. Why now?
5. Why our school?
6. Describe your most significant accomplishment.
7. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge
8. Describe your key leadership experiences
9. Describe a setback or failure and what you learned from it.
10. What are your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills?
11. Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected
Apart from the above regular question, some questions could trigger the creativity of the applicants. For example, one question for University of Michigan, Ross school of business is “If you were not pursuing the career goals you described in Question 1, what profession would you pursue instead? (For example, teacher, musician athlete, architect, etc.) How will this alternate interest contribute to your effectiveness in solving multidisciplinary problems?”.
University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of business has the question, “If you could change one thing you've done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently?”
Stanford has stuck to its usual off-beat question of “What matters most to you, and why?”
Of all the essay topics I have seen so far, 2 were totally different including the format requested. University of Chicago has requested a PowerPoint presentation. “We have asked for a great deal of information throughout this application and now invite you tell us about yourself. Using four slides or less, please provide readers with content that captures who you are.”
MIT has requested a cover letter. “Prepare a cover letter (up to 500 words) seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Describe your accomplishments and include an example of how you had an impact on a group or organization. Your letter should conform to standard business correspondence and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Director of MBA Admissions”.
The difference in format of the essays will stretch the imagination of the applicants and provide the reader with a variety in response instead of the old styled essay responses.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Early Announcement of application Essays
Every year the business schools publish their application essays at the end of summer or beginning of fall for the next year’s fall intake. This year, it is just the beginning of summer and many schools have already published their essay and admission deadlines.
Harvard started this trend by publishing the essays first (http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/writtenapplication.html). Kellogg (http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/admissions/admissions/index.htm), Haas (http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/fall2009.html), Stanford (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/essays_activities.html) and Wharton (http://adcomblog.wharton.upenn.edu/admissions/2008/07/fall-2009-appli.html) have also published their essays.
Many other schools such as Columbia, Chicago, MIT, Ross, etc have published their deadlines for applicants to plan their application cycle.
The rush by the schools to publish their essays early could be seen as a sign of possible increase in number of applications for the 2009 intake. The schools want to attract more students to apply for their schools, which would reduce their yield (and hence better ranking) and increase revenue from application fee. I could hardly take a breath after my last application season and not the 2009 application season has begun. Good luck for your applications.
Harvard started this trend by publishing the essays first (http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/writtenapplication.html). Kellogg (http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/admissions/admissions/index.htm), Haas (http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/fall2009.html), Stanford (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/essays_activities.html) and Wharton (http://adcomblog.wharton.upenn.edu/admissions/2008/07/fall-2009-appli.html) have also published their essays.
Many other schools such as Columbia, Chicago, MIT, Ross, etc have published their deadlines for applicants to plan their application cycle.
The rush by the schools to publish their essays early could be seen as a sign of possible increase in number of applications for the 2009 intake. The schools want to attract more students to apply for their schools, which would reduce their yield (and hence better ranking) and increase revenue from application fee. I could hardly take a breath after my last application season and not the 2009 application season has begun. Good luck for your applications.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Improving my writing
It has been more than 3 weeks since the last entry. Initially I committed to myself that I should write an entry at a minimum frequency of one in 2 weeks.
The latest update from me is that I have joined an online non-fiction writing class at Gotham Writer’s workshop (http://www.writingclasses.com). I have many reasons for joining a writing class
1. I am bad at writing. I have lost marks in examinations because of my bad writing. My GMAT AWA score is awful 4.5
2. My friend who just finished his Executive MBA at Wharton advised me to work on my writing skills. He has graduated in Top 5% of the class. He mentioned the B+ and B he got were in the courses that required submitting a written project report. And if he had good creative writing skills, he would have got all A’s.
3. I want to improve my application essays this time. Everyone who read my last year’s essays consistently said that presentation could be improved.
Now, let me tell about my experience so far about the online class. Most of the students are from different part of the country and one from UK and taking up writing seriously as a second career or career change. I am the only novice out there. I have completed just one class in Memoir writing. It works like this. The instructor provides about 10 pages lecture notes to read on one topic each week. The instructor also provides a writing assignment and some sample writing each week. The class discusses about the writing sample till the next lecture is posted and also complete the assignment for the instructor to comment on. The benefit you get is from the class discussion and the comments about the assignment. The topics that are going to be covered are
Memoir
Personal Essay
Feature Articles
Profiles
Reviews
Travel Writing
Hope at the end of the course I am able to improve my blogs and application essays.
The latest update from me is that I have joined an online non-fiction writing class at Gotham Writer’s workshop (http://www.writingclasses.com). I have many reasons for joining a writing class
1. I am bad at writing. I have lost marks in examinations because of my bad writing. My GMAT AWA score is awful 4.5
2. My friend who just finished his Executive MBA at Wharton advised me to work on my writing skills. He has graduated in Top 5% of the class. He mentioned the B+ and B he got were in the courses that required submitting a written project report. And if he had good creative writing skills, he would have got all A’s.
3. I want to improve my application essays this time. Everyone who read my last year’s essays consistently said that presentation could be improved.
Now, let me tell about my experience so far about the online class. Most of the students are from different part of the country and one from UK and taking up writing seriously as a second career or career change. I am the only novice out there. I have completed just one class in Memoir writing. It works like this. The instructor provides about 10 pages lecture notes to read on one topic each week. The instructor also provides a writing assignment and some sample writing each week. The class discusses about the writing sample till the next lecture is posted and also complete the assignment for the instructor to comment on. The benefit you get is from the class discussion and the comments about the assignment. The topics that are going to be covered are
Memoir
Personal Essay
Feature Articles
Profiles
Reviews
Travel Writing
Hope at the end of the course I am able to improve my blogs and application essays.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
H/S/W to M7 to …
I started showing interest towards MBA way back in 2002. During those days only Harvard, Stanford and Wharton (H/S/W in short) were considered top programs. Other schools were considered a compromise. Today the list has grown to become M7 (Magnificent/Magic 7). Kellogg, MIT, Chicago and Columbia
To answer the question, I decided to analyze the applicant pool in 2000 and in 2007.
| GMAT Test Takers in 1999-00 | 190264 |
| GMAT Test Takers in 2007 | 219077 |
| Increase | 28813 |
| Increase % | 15.14% |
Data from GMAC
| H/S/W | 2001-2002* | 2008-2009 * |
| | 1742 | 1908 |
| | 730 | 741 |
| | 1566 | 1640 |
| Total | 4038 | 4289 |
| Increase | | 251 |
| Increase % | | 6.21% |
| M-7 | 2001-2002* | 2008-2009* |
| | 1742 | 1908 |
| | 730 | 741 |
| | 1566 | 1640 |
| MIT (Sloan) | 717 | 746 |
| Northwestern University (Kellogg) | 1200 | 1200 |
| | 1016 | 1125 |
| | 1155 | 1220 |
| Total | 8126 | 8580 |
| Increase | | 454 |
| Increase % | | 5.58% |
| US News Top 10 schools | 2001-2002* | 2008-2009 * |
| | 1742 | 1908 |
| | 730 | 741 |
| | 1566 | 1640 |
| MIT (Sloan) | 717 | 746 |
| Northwestern University (Kellogg) | 1200 | 1200 |
| | 1016 | 1125 |
| | 398 | 500 |
| University of California-Berkeley (Haas) | 484 | 486 |
| | 1155 | 1220 |
| | 840 | 838 |
| Total | 9848 | 10404 |
| Increase | | 556 |
| Increase % | | 5.645816 |
The class of top program has be traditionally been hired by the Investment Banking, Management Consulting and other Industry in almost equal portion. The growth of the Private Equity, Venture Capital and Hedge Funds industries in the past few years has taken away most talented away from IB and MC. So some of the lesser know IB and MC have to go to outside the Top 10 programs for hiring.
There is one major problem for the programs outside Top 10. The schools find it difficult to hire and retain quality professors. The number of quality professors has not increased at the same rate as the increase in MBA candidates. There is lots of competition among top programs for hiring good professors. Soon the market forces will come into play and many more would take teaching as a career and fill up the gap.
Better hiring coupled with better incoming class would increase the popularity of the programs outside the top programs. If these programs could maintain a good infrastructure and teachers, they can make it to the E10 or S15 in the next 5 to 10 years.
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