Filed under: College Admission — admin @ 8:11 am

Paying for college tuition may seem daunting, but with research and planning, finding funding for college may not be as difficult as first thought.  In recent years, numerous schools have adjusted how they employ financial aid. Since 2004, Harvard College has not charged tuition to students who come from households earning less than $60,000 per year.  In a recent change, Harvard has cut the cost of tuition and increased the amount of financial aid to ensure that even upper-middle class families will not pay more than 10% of their income each year in tuition.  This university has also eliminated repayable loans and replaced them with grants. Additionally, Princeton has instituted a no-loan financial aid policy for students.  Even recently, Hamilton College, a liberal arts school in New York State, has eschewed the financial pressures of filling the class with financially rich candidates by adopting a Need-Blind Aid policy.  

Scholarships are an ideal place to begin searching for aid. There are several resources that can help direct your search.  The Scholarship Book 11^th edition, edited by Daniel Cassidy, includes a CD which can facilitate your search for scholarships. Scholarships, Grants & Prizes by Laura Paul provides information on millions of awards offered to students based on ethnic heritage, talent, employment experience, military service or religious affiliation. Online, Fastweb.com helps match students with over 1.5 million scholarships based on geographic location, intended majors, need, merit and other characteristics.

When starting the process of financing your education, do not assume that you will not qualify for financial aid.  Begin by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.  Next, inquire into what a school’s financial aid package typically covers.  Several Ivy League schools offer hefty financial aid packages that leave students paying less out of pocket than if they had attended a less expensive school. 

There is over $11 billion worth of merit-based scholarships available to students.  To qualify for academic-based scholarships, a student will need strong grades and standardized test scores.  Start with those PSAT scores. National Merit Scholarship rewards approximately 7,500 students based on PSAT scores. Furthermore, discuss with the college admissions office about any merit-based scholarship that they may offer. Additionally, an online resource to help in your search is the website, www.meritaid.com.

Merit-based scholarships aside, there is a substantial number of minority-based scholarships available. The AICPA Minority Accounting Students Scholarships provides funds for students with African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native American or Asian American heritage. The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is an excellent resource that offers over 400 scholarships, fellowships and grants to students from low to moderate income families.  The Gates Millennium Scholarship provides financial assistance to deserving students from African Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asian Pacific Americans and Hispanic Americans heritage.

If you have exhausted all scholarship resources, look into securing a student loan.  The Federal government supplies Direct Student, Stafford and Perkins loans, all of which have secure, low interest rates.  In addition to scholarships and loans, the Federal government offers a Federal work-study program, which employs students at the college or university. Several schools also offer non-federal work-study opportunities for students who do not qualify for federal work-study.

When applying for scholarships and financial aid, remember to apply early. Money is limited, especially in these financial times.

Filed under: College Admission — admin @ 7:16 am

Summer is often a time when you want to have fun and step away from the stresses of high school and the pressures of college admission. Yet, making the most out of these twelve weeks will positively benefit your college acceptance, especially to any of the Ivy League schools.  Do not worry, this does not mean you will be imprisoned to a room memorizing SAT vocabulary words or working on your essays all summer. 

To begin, sit down with your teachers and parents and brainstorm about summer activities that may be beneficial to your personal growth and college admission. These conversations will help you individualize your summer to achieve personal satisfaction along with increasing your value to the college admission process. Taking the time to determine the most beneficial summer activities for your college application will greatly aid in your chances of acceptance to your school of choice.

College admission offices, specifically at Ivy League schools, look for students who are differentiated but also balanced.  Think of subjects that you are interested in and seek out programs which would allow for you to grow. If you are one who has a passion for languages, consider studying abroad in a foreign country.  This experience would help build cross-cultural understanding along with intensive language immersion. If business and entrepreneurship is your calling, don’t be afraid to try and start a small business. Check out the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) as a starting point.

Many colleges, including Ivy League schools, offer academic programs for high school students.  These programs allow for students to immerse themselves in a particular academic subject, live on campus, and explore academic and career opportunities. Harvard University offers the Secondary School Program which allows for high school students to live at Harvard, attend classes, and earn college credit.

According to Summer Parenting Expert, Jill Tipograph of Every Thing Summer, during the summer you should push yourself outside of your comfort zone, and seek leadership experience. College admission officers at Ivy League schools continue to reiterate the importance of leadership experience. There are several summer camps which offer residential summer programs for high school students that focus upon developing leadership experience. But whatever you decide don’t go for the same old stuff you have done. Step out and push yourself. You can learn something about yourself along the way.

So take a break from SAT practice tests and follow your passions this summer. The results will show come college acceptance time. Remember to include all your summer experiences in your admission applications.  The time and commitment that you dedicated during those hot summer months will help enhance your application profile and increase your chance of acceptance to selective schools.

Filed under: Interviews — admin @ 6:53 am

Interviews present a great opportunity for applicants to seal the admission deal. As round two admission interview invites have gone out, here are some things that applicants should keep in mind to avoid derailing their candidacy.

Schools differ when it comes to the admission interview. Some schools interview a large portion of the applicant pool but admit a small percentage (Wharton, as an example); others interview a smaller portion of the application pool but admit a larger size (Harvard Business School). So how should a student who receives an interview invitation interpret the interview offer? This is clearly good news—you are one step closer to being admitted. It means that you have done something good at some level with regards to your application. But that’s all you know at this point. What you don’t know for sure is what questions or holes the admission committee has identified in your candidacy. This is particularly important for schools where there is a full review of your entire application and where specific questions are highlighted for the interview (see Harvard).   

The questions that may arise may be as simple as probing for more details with regards to an essay you wrote. It could be feedback that your mistake essay seems weak and for you to come up with another example. Perhaps the choice of essays and the way you approached all your essays did not reveal fully who you are and this could be a flag that the admission committee has about you. Perhaps you have focused too much on work or too much on your personal/community side. The important thing with preparing for your interview is to have one or two people who know you well evaluate your admission essays and identify the knee-jerk response/issues that jump out at them. Then you may want to have an objective person who has experience evaluating candidates to assess your story in order to flag blind spots and potential gaps/issues which you can prepare for ahead of the interview.

Some schools outsource their interviews to alumni primarily. Stanford GSB is an example. My advice to candidates interviewing at Stanford is to be prepared to talk about ANYTHING. The interview is really more of an assessment of who you are, your vibe, whether you will fit at Stanford versus how impressive your particular work project or leadership impact was. Subtlety is key. That’s not to say that other MBA programs do not ask for awareness. It matters regardless of MBA program but pay particular attention to it for Stanford. And know the schools’ brand. If a school is very big on team culture (think Kellogg, Tuck) for example, going on and on about what you did and your great, impressive achievements could signal that you are not a good fit for the program.  It also appears that Stanford is taking a great deal of time in matching alumni interviewers with MBA applicants which is interesting because it allows the school to get a really good read on the candidate’s authenticity. Don’t however assume that this is based primarily on work experience similarities. It can be as simple as you mentioning that you have a passion for bullfighting….next thing you know your interviewer unbeknownst to you is an international, award-winning bullfighter. Ok, I’m being a bit fictitious, but the point is that preparation, knowing every facet of your story is key. But equally important is doing your due diligence of your interviewer when you are fortunate enough to know his/her name.

A final thought on the admission interview. Many MBA programs conduct a sizeable portion of their interviews through their second year students. While there are no major differences between alumni and student interviewers, I personally think that sometimes student interviewers can be a bit fastidious and can in some instances take their job a bit too seriously and see themselves as gatekeepers. Interviewers ask themselves whether they can see you in their program and filter your responses through this lens. I think it can be a bit awkward for an applicant who is a bit on the mature side (with tons of experience) to be interviewed by a current student who technically in the real world would be a subordinate. Just my observation. When given the choice to interview with a student versus alumna think about all facets of your story before making the decision on which option to go for. If you have never been on campus, then I recommend taking advantage of the campus interview and squeezing in a class visit ahead of the interview. It can provide some common ground to kick off the conversation.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 4:45 pm

Ok, so you have worked so hard to put in the application and you were so relieved to hit submit in time for the round one deadline at such schools like Stanford, Wharton, and Harvard. What do you do now? The toughest part of the application process for many applicants is the waiting process. The good news is that schools are becoming more proactive in getting their interview decisions out earlier, so hopefully the wait won’t be as long and torturous for applicants. 

Stanford has already started extending invitations for interviews and HBS will begin extending its interview invitations in four days (October 16th). Know your story cold for your HBS interview and have someone review your essays to identify questions/gaps that may prompt interview questions. For Stanford, be ready to defend any information you provide on your resume since that is the focal point of the interview. But most importantly, be yourself and come prepared to communicate the value you will add to each MBA program.

Filed under: General — admin @ 4:06 pm

Interview between Chioma and Reapplicant (Spring 2009)

Chioma: What was going through your mind as you embarked on the reapplication?

Reapplicant: I won’t lie – the application process was daunting, even the second time around.  Not getting into your dream schools or getting into school at all is very frustrating. Also, a very humbling experience.

Chioma: What advice do you have for individuals who are attempting the application a second or third time around?

Reapplicant: I did some practical things that I believe made a difference in my application outcome this time around. The steps I took this year and the lessons I learned include:

• Invest the time/resources to find out where you went wrong the first time. I suspect that for many of you, it won’t necessarily be issues with your GMAT or G.P.A. (those can be mitigated by retaking the GMAT and securing a high score as well as taking some courses to offset weak grades); the greater challenge is when you have excellent academics, high GMATS, strong professional profile and still get rejected as was my case. That is very frustrating because you don’t know what intangibles could have kept you out. To pinpoint those factors, I recommend showing your applications to friends who are already in business school or to an admissions counselor. Don’t simply show the essays, but the recs, transcript, resume – everything that went into the application package to get a holistic evaluation of your application. This was the first step I took with my reapplication.

• Really ask yourself why you want an MBA. Timing is everything. I never understood that until the 2^nd time I reapplied. And I didn’t understand how skeptical business schools are when discerning your reasons for wanting an MBA. Luckily, I had a counselor who pushed me very hard and really made me sound out exactly why I needed an MBA. If you have progressed too far in your current career, it’s hard to make a case for why you still need an MBA so make sure you flesh out your goals and develop the rationale for the MBA.

• Be able to connect all the dots of your past and account for everything you’ve done. Obviously, this is harder if you’ve been out of school longer – your story is that much richer, but you’ll have to work harder to account for all that you’ve done and rationalize how the experiences have shaped you. It’s possible that you switched jobs or industries based on instinct. But unfortunately, that won’t sell with schools unless you can put a reason behind that or show what you learned from the transition and how that has impacted your current position and your aspirations. This was also something I didn’t really understand the first time around. I focused on my current position, without really connecting the dots from my past, beginning with my undergraduate experience.

• Know the importance of branding. This was another thing I failed to consider the first time I applied. I naively thought that my entire application package would somehow come together. But you can’t be passive when you apply. You have to know from the outset what your 3 – 4 key themes are that you want the schools to know about you. At the end of the day, schools need to be able to have a good read of your brand—who you are. Without communicating your brand, you won’t be a memorable candidate and you probably won’t be admitted.

• Take the time to research MBA programs. Schools really do have certain cultures and they are looking for different candidates. Make sure you are applying to schools where you are a fit. I applied more strategically the second time around, whereas the first time, I applied more blindly.

These steps helped me gain admission to 5 out of 6 top MBA programs (plus scholarships too!). Good luck with your application or reapplication!

Filed under: General — admin @ 4:03 am

I’m often asked about specific programs that target unique interests, whether it is real estate, entertainment or what have you.

I came across this article that talks about different customized programs for those interested in a career in the bio tech space  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123809943944451143.html

But beyond the schools covered in this article, there are also many U.S. MBA programs where students interested in pursuing a career in the BioTech industry can thrive. The key is to look at the course offerings at schools and the list of firms that recruit graduates of the program. Schools like Stanford and HBS, given their vicinity to the industry, are also worth consideration.

Filed under: Essays, Uncategorized — admin @ 9:06 am

Without a doubt, the essay remains a critical part of the application process. Applicants have to find creative ways of sharing their brand but schools are also becoming creative with the types of essay questions they are asking.

But they are not stopping there. Applicants now have the option to write a cover letter as one of the essays at Harvard Business School. Chicago has for the past few years required applicants to provide 4 slides to showcase who they are. UCLA’s Anderson program with its audio essay question has definitely raised the bar for applicants. What’s next? Applicants have to turn in a short video of themselves answering an admission question? That may not be too far away. In any case, what applicants need to focus on is knowing their brand and effectively communicating it to the admission board, regardless of the questions they face or the mode of presentation  

Filed under: MBA NEWS — admin @ 2:29 am

With a new Dean at Stanford (Garth Saloner)  and the recent resignation of Dean Dipak Jain at Kellogg, it will be interesting to see what changes if any will emerge under the new leadership. Every leader puts her mark on the organization she leads. Business Schools are no different. Time will tell if there will be any fundamental change in the brand of these schools. 

Filed under: MBA NEWS — admin @ 2:14 am

EARLIER APPLICATION DEADLINES

I’ve often wondered why it took MBA Admissions Offices so long to set their deadlines and post their new application essays. Most schools wait till July and August to post their essays leaving applicants with less time to complete their application (especially those applying in the first round).

The Good news is that Stanford GSB and HBS have posted their essays and deadlines already.   These two schools have also moved their round one deadline to the beginning of October and their notification date to December. Applicants will find out quicker about their application outcome leaving them more time to explore other courses of action if things don’t work out. Columbia with its early decision admission has confirmed its deadlines as well. Hopefully more schools will update their essay and deadline requirements sooner.

Filed under: MBA NEWS — admin @ 2:06 am

Like Stanford GSB and MIT, HBS will begin accepting GRE scores in lieu of the GMAT starting this fall. For more details, check out the full press release from Harvard announcing this change.