April 29th, 2010 | 
Author: Earlier this week on Inside the London MBA, a blog with news and views from the London Business School MBA community, Steve posted some things it would have been good to know as he comes up on the end of year one at LBS. In the hopes that this information may also prove useful to some of our readers, here is his list, in no apparent order:
- Nobody knows each other’s grades and people are not interested
- Almost everybody lives right next to school
- You will spend a large percentage of your cash in the Windsor Pub
- People will not leave NW1 that often
- The football team is a good way to learn Spanish as it has so many Latin Americans
- There are so many clubs to join you can really only have any meaningful impact in a couple
- You really do have to sit in the same seat every class
- They really do give you free beer and wine every Thursday night
- Some of the speakers on campus are amazing
- Inter-business school competitions are as brilliant as they are unpublicized; definitely enter them
- Most faculty and lots of students have studied in the USA so despite being in London, examples in class will all be US-cetric and you will start referring to the Easter Holidays as Spring Break
- Although you won’t have that many hours of class, you will always feel pretty busy
- It’s hard, but not impossible, to fail classes
- You should take every waiver available to you
- It’s impossible for there to be a consensus; some people will love a particular class/professor, while others will hate them – Diversity!
- If applying for an HSBC loan, bring every piece of ID you have ever had with you, in triplicate
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The latest research conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) reveals that Asia is the world’s fastest growing region for the GMAT. These results, released Tuesday, show the number of Asian citizens taking the GMAT rose 75% per year between 2005 and 2009—more than twice the global increase in GMAT testing volume over the same period.
India and China accounted for nearly 70% of exams taken in this region. Institutions across Asia are also attracting a growing share of GMAT score reports, suggesting that prospective students are becoming more interested in attending business school in the region. However, most score reports are still sent to the United States, which remains the world’s most popular destination for GMAT scores.
“Asia plays a leading role in the global economy, and the strong GMAT activity we are seeing is a sure sign of the high value people in this region place on quality management education,” says Julia Tyler, executive vice president of member services and school marketing for GMAC.
For more details about GMAT testing and score-sending trends among Asian citizens, see GMAC’s latest Asian Geographic Trend Report for GMAT Examinees.
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If you are feeling stumped by your application essays and need some additional guidance, check out our NEW series of essay guides for MBA applications. Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, Stanford and Wharton available now. They are seriously terrific and we are proud to say that almost every person who has ordered one has come back for more!
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Amazingly, a third of 2010 is in the books and we barrel towards May … a month that often represents a clear distinction between the MBA candidates who will prevail in the fall and those who will come up short when they apply to their programs of choice. The candidates who set their dreams in motion now stand a much better chance than someone who “waits for the applications to come out.”
Playing it cool is not a recommended strategy when pursuing admission to a top-10 MBA program. Instead, passion and persistence should be hallmarks of your summer, as you take advantage of every chance to learn more, develop your story, and build your overall application package. For inspiration, we look – as we so often do – to the world of hip-hop (remember, we are the same company that celebrated “Hip-Hop Month” in March), where laid-back, above-it-all cool has been replaced by earnest hunger in the lyrics of rising rap stars.
On Tuesday, Atlantic Records released a highly anticipated album from the artist B.o.B. titled “The Adventures of Bobby Ray.” As the memoir-ish title would suggest, it is a record heavy on personal tales and self-reflection (also, it is fantastic, but that’s not really the point). Gone is the typical swagger and bombast of a breakout hip-hop star and instead, we get a collection of songs about taking chances, dreaming big, and pursuing a lifelong goal. This, a year after fellow breakout star Kid Cudi bared his soul on “Man in the Moon.” Whether it is a new guard, a sign of the times, or just the works of a couple of mature-beyond-their-years artists, there is no denying that living your dream is the new mantra of hip-hop.
In fact, the most inspiring lyrics on the entire album come from Eminem – a rapper who made his millions being angry at the world. On “Airplanes, Part II,” Eminem tells a story about never giving up, never sitting around, never losing momentum, never procrastinating. He talks about his broken family, the people who doubted him (“it makes no sense to play the game, there’s no way that you’ll win”), not having any friends, and even failing at a school talent show. Most importantly, he talks about never losing sight of his dream and pursuing it relentlessly with passion.
This whole sentiment is timely, given that it is the season of graduations and commencement addresses (did you see that Obama’s commencement address will be carried live on the Big 10 Network?), but more than that, it also serves as an important reminder for applicants: if your dream is to gain admission to an elite MBA program this fall, you have to start chasing that dream now. There will be myriad distractions: work, travel, interpersonal drama, the GMAT, and general sluggishness, to name a few. The key is to push through the distractions and start focusing, because May is the calendar’s equivalent to a starter’s pistol. The race is on.
Things to do in May when you are applying to MBA programs
May is a huge month for applicants. For starters, this represents the best (and in some cases, last) chance to visit campuses before a round one application deadline. Students are usually in good spirits and very willing to talk this time of year and exploring campuses late in the spring is a great way to define a school search heading into the summer (when visiting is fruitless, because campuses are empty). Furthermore, this is the time to start assessing strengths and weaknesses in your candidacy, while you still have time to address them. Six months from Round One, you still have time to showcase leadership and teamwork, to start a volunteer activity, to take a summer class, or even to pursue a credential like the CPA, CFA, or CABM.
Not only that, but (and this is going to sound crazy) your preparation for MBA interviews starts now. The goal over the next half of a year is to refine your own personal sales pitch to the point where you can deliver a one-minute version or a one-hour version, depending on the audience. You will be able to splice it up to answer different questions, figure out ways to bring up certain points yourself, and generally know how to get the whole message out in front of any interviewer. Such a sales pitch is made up the answers to four questions: (1) why do you want an MBA? (2) why now? (3) why this school? (4) why should you be admitted over another qualified applicant? At some point, you are going to have to artfully answer (in so many words) those questions. So start practicing now! Every time someone asks you why you are pursuing an MBA, take advantage and work on your sales pitch. It will be easy to play it cool and make a joke or a passing comment, but that does you no good. That choice is part of a bygone era, where rappers and MBA applicants alike could afford to stay aloof and still achieve success. Now? The hungry win. Survival of the fittest rules the day.
Hopefully, this blog post will do two things for you today. First, it will guide you toward some terrific music. Second, and most importantly, it will light a fire under you to start working on your goal now – to start living your dream earnestly and passionately, with no room for procrastination and no scorecard for cool points.
It’s almost May. It’s time to set your dreams in motion.
(P.S. Sorry, President Obama. I’m pretty sure B.o.B., Eminem, and I just stepped on your speech.)
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It sounds crazy at first, but I came across multiple people who retook their GMATs after they were not only accepted to school but were actually in school. Why would someone do this you ask? Because they want one of those jobs, I am looking at you consulting, that requires the GMAT on the application and then filters out first round interviewees using it.
So if you are one of those people who have tons of extracurricular activities, write great essays and fit the mold of whatever type of candidate the school is looking for, your GMAT score might not have been the deciding factor during admission. However, once you are trying to get a consulting job, or even a few others, they will not care that you can write a great essay or that you immigrated from a war torn country by yourself at the age of two and lived to tell about it (well maybe they might, but if you don’t get to an interview nobody will hear about it). What they will care about is how smart you are and how much value you can bring to their firm. One of the key factors, rightly or wrongly, they use to determine this is your GMAT score.
For those friends of mine whose dreams had them boarding a plane every Monday for a city few people have ever heard of, to work on a six sigma efficiency study for a steel producer, their GMAT score was getting them rejected before they even had a chance to impress any HR person, much less a hiring partner. I do not know the cutoff for these firms, but I can tell you that those I know who applied with a 6 as their first number were very unsuccessful.
They soon realized that retaking the test was the only way to get through the filter and on to the next round. On the application no firm asks when you actually took the test, simply what your score was. When or even if proof is ever required it will be well past the time where someone might find it odd that you improved your score after school started.
If there is ever a period in your life where you have free time available to study for the GMAT, it is in business school. After fall core classes pass your free time will greatly improve, and if you need a better score, take advantage of it.
I hope none of you actually have to do this, almost as much as I hope you don’t choose the consulting path, but you need to know it is an option if your dreams depend on it.
Good luck.
With the job market as bad as it is, that family business is starting to look more and more appealing to many undergraduate business school students and graduates, reports a BusinessWeek article last week entitled “Family Inc.: The New B-School Job Choice.”
Many undergraduate business students head to school in order to expand their post-grad job options—that usually means ruling out working for mom and pop. However, a growing number of students are opting out of the grueling Wall Street or Corporate America job search and are opting in to the family business.
Some schools offer programs, forums, and courses in family business; such options are receiving a jump in enrollment. Popular topics in this area include developing a personal leadership plan, drafting a succession plan, and working together with parents to avoid conflict. The classes provide the perfect opportunity for students to reflect on whether returning to the family business is what they really want to do.
Most family business programs or courses also delve deeply into innovation and entrepreneurship. “The second generation joining the family business better well be entrepreneurs if the business is to continue to succeed,” explains Frank Hoy, co-author of Entrepreneurial Family Firms, a family business textbook. Students who return to the family business holding business degrees are not expected to work passively for their parents, but to initiate innovation and to propel the family business forward.
Job-Related Accepted.com Blog Posts:
- Good News for MBAs: Job Opportunities Abound!
- B-School Students See Light at the End of the Job Market Tunnel
- Passionate Optimism: It’s Nice, but Will it Land You a Job?
- GMAC: MBA Employers Express Job Market Optimism
- The Make-Your-Own-Job Solution
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