Rule #1: Ask the admissions office!

I frequently get questions from my clients that I can't answer. These are usually not questions about essays, recommendation content, interview preparation, what should go in a resume, or  usually even how usually how to fill out an application form. The questions that I can't answer usually involve the specific administrative policies of schools.  Sometimes I can easily find the answer on a school's website, but sometimes the answer can only be obtained from contacting admissions. While some MBA, LL.M., and other graduate programs provide extensive advice on the website, others simply don't.

When it comes to issues of application requirements, deadlines,  whether the stated GMAT, GRE, and/or TOEFL minimums are strictly enforced, whether a school will take a late official test score report, deferral policies, etc.  I may have an answer or may not.  If I do have an answer to such administrative questions, it is always because I can back it up with an official source. I don't even trust my own past experience in many instances because policies change. This is not just to protect myself from being wrong, but because I know I will best serve my clients sometimes by saying, "I don't know the answer to this question, but admissions will be able to provide to you. Please contact them."

One of the most extreme policy changes that I know of occurred when Oxford Said MBA program changed its TOEFL and IELTS requirement policy for admission in 2010.  The prior English requirement was not stringent or necessarily stringently enforced.  Suddenly for admission for fall 2010 and subsequently, applicants had to have the same high TOEFL or IELTS score required for admission to HBS: 109. Keep in mind that the UK's most prestigious and difficult to enter MBA program, London Business School, regularly admits applicants with a 100 TOEFL. As a result, the number of Japanese admitted to Said dropped significantly.  Here in Japan, Oxford had been a popular 2nd choice school for top European MBA focused applicants and a first choice school for some applicants, suddenly became out of reach.  The amount of misinformation  at the time was significant with one of my own clients even refusing to believe that this policy would be enforced because colleagues from his company in past years had always been admitted and because some Japanese admissions counselor told him it would not be a problem, which it was.
His test score was nowhere near the required level and he went elsewhere. Given that university-wide policies change, that admissions directors change, and that the rules of any organization change, past precedent is not always a sufficient guarantee.

When it is possible to ask admissions, I say ask. Like when buying any expensive thing, you should be an informed customer. After all, a graduate degree is likely to be one of the most expensive things you will ever purchase.


Contacting admissions:  I think if your question is relatively simple and not very specific to you, one of the easiest things to do is call the admissions office.   Sometimes they can provide an immediate answer to your question.  It is also fine to just send an email.  With email, I suggest you keep the email short and to the point and state it in the form of questions. Simple, short, polite, and clear communications are best.  If you have a personal and/or complex issue, you should certainly still try to explain it as clearly and simply as possible.  If you feel like you received a response from someone who did not understand, try to follow-up. It is certainly the case that the first person to respond to an inquiry might be the least qualified person in the office, so you may have to work your way up the organizational pyramid.  It is also a perfectly reasonable thing to ask questions at information sessions, either during the Q&A or privately usually at the end of the event.

Frankly, some admissions offices are friendlier than others. Just as some admissions offices will be better managed than others. School ranking does not necessarily correlate well with the quality and kindness of the response you receive, so don't be surprised if the admissions office at a high ranking school has worse customer service than one a lower ranking program.


Some applicants will no doubt worry about their contact with admissions being tracked or having some sort of bearing on applications. Unless one does something rude, this is nothing to worry about. In fact, it can be helpful to have such interactions, especially with smaller and/or friendlier admissions offices.  Depending on the interactions, just as with campus visits and off-campus information sessions, your questions to admissions may even become a small topic discussion in an essay ("I was really impressed with how Ms. Johnson actively explained your program would...").  The more standard the question, the less likely the admissions office will even consider tracking it.  Some programs do even extensive tracking of all potential applicant interaction, while others don't.  Such tracking does not necessarily correlate well with admission results.

Finally, always keep in mind that admissions officers have two primary functions:
1. They are gatekeepers who select applicants for admission.
2. They are marketers and salespeople of their programs who need to try and make sure that they get the best possible applicants to fill up all the seats in their program.
Applicants have a tendency to focus only on the first function and put admissions officers up on some kind of pedestal as judges.  Knock them off them off the pedestal!  To better understand admissions officers, see here (Though this piece is focused on US admissions officers, it applies more widely). Assume that admissions offices are happy to answer all reasonable questions about their policies because this will help to facilitate the potential admission of qualified candidates to their program.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

GRADUATE ADMISSIONS IS A LONELY ZERO SUM GAME

As part of a series of general posts on MBA admissions strategy, I present the following extreme position.  Those looking for a sweet and friendly view of the business school admissions process that emphasizes collaboration will surely be disappointed. Here, I will offer a view of the MBA admissions process that is cynical, aggressive, and, I think, realistic.

GRADUATE ADMISSIONS IS A LONELY ZERO SUM GAME
Blogs, online communities, MBA admissions sites, MBA Tours, your GMAT class, and even your fellow applicants may create the illusion that you are part of a community when you apply. This is a lie. Ultimately you are either admitted or rejected. Every other applicant to a program you are applying to is in competition with you because they all have the possibility to take your potential seat.  There are only winners or losers in this process. Just as with a lifeboat, you either live because you have a seat or you drown. There is no middle ground. At the end of the day, even a waitlist that does not convert into an admit is a loss.  One can't get half admitted. I think keeping this fundamental fact in mind is important, especially when it comes to such issues as time allocation, information gathering, and information sharing.

Beware of "The Noise"
"The Noise" takes many forms.  Sites like GMAT Club, which often contain good information, are also filled with crap: Rumor, the pathetic wailing of losers who submitted bad applications,  shallow articles in newspapers and magazines, unethical and unprofessional applicant profile analysis by admissions consultants having the most scant information about the applicant, and other garbage found online.  The problem with The Noise is that it can become a time suck. Instead of preparing essays, practicing interviews, and/or networking with alumni and students, some applicants get sucked into The Noise.  Another problem with The Noise is that can actually misinform applicants by providing misleading information.  My suggestion is to certainly look at sites like GMAT Club, but be aware of the limitations of such information.

Taking advice from other applicants?
There are many good reasons to take advice from alumni and current students.  They have gone through the admissions process and succeeded.  Whatever they did worked for them, though of course, whether it will work for you is not so obvious. Still, they are not your competitors and probably are acting in good faith in terms of providing you with their best advice.  On the other hand, taking advice from other applicants, whether in the form of taking seriously what some guy has written in an online forum, having your essays reviewed by another applicant, or basing your application related decisions on second-hand information, is potentially a very high risk. Aside from the fact that what might apply to one applicant might not apply to you, I think it would be a mistake to assume that such advice is without vested interest (whether conscious or not).  In other words, other applicants might not really have your best interests at the top of their own agenda.  Be as cooperative as you like with other applicants, but focus on your own interests because this is a process that rewards individuals, not groups.

Other applicants are competitors but not ones you can directly defeat
Unlike most zero sum games where you are directly competing against others, the admissions process is an indirect zero sum game.  You are competing against other applicants, but you can't directly defeat enough of them to guarantee that you are offered admission.  Therefore there is no reason to think about them very specifically.  You can't impact other applicants essays, GMAT scores, backgrounds, interview performance, so there is no point in dwelling on them.  All you can do is submit the best application you can and prepare for an interview as effectively as possible. Some applicants worry about their competition instead of focusing on themselves.  Some even make extremely foolish direct comparisons between themselves and other applicants from their country or industry: "I'm one of the few Japanese applicants who really understands American culture!"  or  "Unlike most financial professionals, I am highly ethical and cooperative." Since you can't really know who your competition is, such comments make the applicant look rude, ignorant, overly agressive, and/or egotistical.  Every year since 2001, I have stopped applicants from making such comments in their essays and during interview preparation.

Share information only if it can't be used against you
I love the admissions reports I can get from Clear Admit, Accepted, and GMAT Club, but I would never advise anyone to submit such a report until after they have been admitted or rejected because it is not in their interest to do so.  I am happy that there are so many kind and generous people who think there is no consequence to providing such information to their competitors, but at least very indirectly there is. And I am not just discussing online reports, but also providing information to your friends who are applying at the same time as you are. Just get into a waitlist situation and you will quickly see that helping one other applicant with her interview is impacting your chance for admission. She may have been your sorority sister and your study partner in economics classes, but now she is a barrier to your admission. I often get interview reports from my clients, but I don't use them until after my clients' admissions results are in. It would unethical to do otherwise. When I do a mock interview, the questions I ask are based on reports that my own clients sent me from prior admissions cycles and the lovely content that naive applicants put up on the internet.  If you are not already familiar with the concept of being a free rider, I suggest you become one until your admissions results are in.  Once you are admitted, feel free to put up all the anonymous interview reports you want and share your experience with applicants.  Winners have earned bragging rights.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

The Application You Is Only One Version of You

Now that my attention is beginning to turn to clients at the beginning rather than the end of the admissions process, I have decided to begin a new series of posts covering some core foundational application strategies. I thought I would begin with a seemingly obvious, but often ignored strategic consideration:
YOU ARE NOT SUBMITTING MBA APPLICATIONS FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE THAN TO GET ADMITTED!
I think applicants often forget this point when writing essays, resumes, or even selecting who they will use for a recommendation.  Some applicants become so carried away with an opportunity to tell their story that they forget to consider that not everything they could say about themselves is worth writing in an application and actually only those things that will get them admitted are worth writing.  One's greatest failure might have involved a love affair at age 15, but this would not make for an effective answer to an MBA program's essay topic related to failure.  Affairs of the heart are best left outside of the admissions process. Similarly getting drunk with clients in order to generate great sales results might be very true, but no sane person would write on their resume, "Engage in heavy social drinking 3-6 times a week in order to generate leads and results that contributed to over $20 million in sales for FY2011."  It might very well be the case such social drinking actually fulfills a core business function, but you simply can't it. Instead the resume will read "Engage in extensive daily discussions with clients and leads resulting in over $20 million in sales for FY2011." The drinking example reveals one very important thing: It is all about the interpretation.

And in fact, the importance of differentiating between the real you and the application you is one of interpretation. NO graduate school application can possibly capture the full real you. An application will only present a slice of you.  Some applications give you the chance to present more slices (More essays, longer resumes, more application form content), others less.  Some applications give you extreme freedom in choosing what to present (More open-ended essay questions), other less so. The point is that regardless of what questions you are asked to answer and/or what information you need are asked to provide, you need to control the interpretation.

Some will consider this an invitation to lie, but that is not what I am suggesting.  The story of one's life is not objective, it is subjective and its meaning is either something you provide to it or one what that your reader (essays) or listener (interviews) will naturally provide. Successful communication always involves controlling the interpretation.  The significance of what you do is something you need to explain, not something you can leave to chance. One set of facts can be presented in a number of ways, but my suggestion is that you look for a way that highlights aspects of yourself that align with the program you are applying to.

Getting the Right Slices: What are MBA Programs Looking for in Applicants?
At the strategic level, I identify four core aspects that MBA programs look for in applicants.  You need to understand this categories in general and also in relationship to the programs you are applying to.  You need to consider how you will demonstrate each of these categories in your applications and interviews.
1. Academic Potential is the applicant's perceived ability to perform well in the academic program. This is measured by GPA, GMAT, difficulty of courses indicated on the transcript, school reputation, demonstrated academic/intellectual accomplishments, analytically challenging work, possibly recommendations, and essay content related to academic/intellectual accomplishments/analytical work/problem solving. Beyond an application, it is surely measured by an applicant's performance in an interview. 
2. Leadership Potential is the applicant's perceived capacity to lead people, organizations, projects, and innovation both during and after the MBA program.  It can be a stand in for the perceived overall effectiveness of the applicant as a manager and businessperson. It is a highly contested category with much more flexibility to it than those who simply perceive leadership as telling others what to do within the context of an organization.  It is measured by your past leadership experiences (Professional, but also academic and extracurricular) as detailed in your resume, application form, essays, and recommendations and as discussed in an interview.  
3. Community Engagement is the applicant's perceived capacity to engage in activities of a voluntary, interpersonal, philanthropic, social, cultural, athletic, political, and/or altruistic nature. This community engagement category can be a way to measure the philanthropic potential, networking skills, uniqueness, perceived ethical/social sensitivity of the applicant.  If one were to be cynical, it could be said that this category favors do-gooders over those with a total focus on their professional careers, but it also measures those who have a  real capacity for working with others from those who prefer to spend their time alone. It is a category that makes some suspect that the admissions criteria for business schools is a bit soft headed, but given the rhetorical importance of companies needing to demonstrate their philanthropic, socially conscious, and or community spirit, it would be reasonable to expect that the future potential leaders of such companies have shown an understanding and capacity for community engagement. It is measured by engagement in activities as detailed in your resume, application form, essays, and recommendations and as discussed in an interview. For some applicants, community engagement is something they seem to have endless supplies of, while for other applicants, they will have very little to discuss. If you are six months or more away from an application due date, it is not too late to add something in this area, but sudden new activities don't impress all that much. Ideally, if you are one year or more from making application, now is a good time to engage in such activities if you have not done so. Remember that community activities can happen inside the office. Volunteering to organize an annual party, leading your department's green initiative, participating in a company sports team are all possible ways to show community engagement.  
4. Personality Qualities and Experiences is at times a stated category. For example, Stanford fits personality into the "Personal Qualities and Contributions" category (See here).  Whereas HBS, does not clearly mention it. (Their categories are "A Habit of Leadership, Capacity for Intellectual Growth, and Engaged Community Citizenship.")  Kellogg includes personality in its criteria through personal character, interpersonal skills, and motivation. Unlike the first three categories, which are covered pretty consistently, the personality category is communicated in many possible ways.  In the case of HBS, it does not come out as a category per se, but is certainly a core consideration:
"The true common characteristics of our students are demonstrated leadership potential and a capacity to thrive in a rigorous academic environment.
Indeed, to create the most stimulating environment possible for all students, we consciously select a diverse student body, one that not only reflects a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and nationalities, but also a wide range of personal interests and professional ambitions."
In order to get that diversity, something all top MBA programs want, each applicant's unique qualities and experiences comes into play.  This category can immensely difficult to pin down, but is it includes so many possible things.  Here is a list, by no means comprehensive, of what fits into this category: 
1. Demonstrated creativity in professional, extracurricular, or academic life. Artists, poets, writers, and inventors all fit into this category
2. Extensive international experience. This involves living, working, traveling and/or studying in more than one country.  It might involve spending a year traveling, being raised in three countries, study abroad, mastery of two or more languages, and working as an expat.
3. Mastery of artistic, athletic, scientific, academic disciplines resulting in outstanding personal accomplishments. Those with patents, professional musicians, captains of winning sports teams, Olympic medal holders, and public poets all fit into this category.
4. Unusual professional experiences that would give the applicant the possibility to make unique contributions in class. Concert violinists who also day trade, working a corporate job and running a start-up on the side, film directors, chefs, actors, and professional athletes all fit into this category.
5. Overcoming extreme personal, professional, academic, economic, political, social and/or physical obstacles.  If you have overcome poverty, personal misfortune,  sexism, homophobia, racism, physical disability, and other obstacles that reveal the strength of your character, they will likely be ways to distinguish yourself in the application process.
6. Being first at something. As long as it is not trivial if you are the founder of something, the youngest at something, the first to do something, it is likely to be a great topic for an essay or at least a bullet point on a resume.
7. Risk taking as demonstrated by professional career choices, personal acts of heroism, and/or participation in high risk sporting activities:  Air Force Rangers, extreme sports enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs all fit into this category.
8. Demonstrated passion and commitment to a cause, an intellectual pursuit, athletics, or hobbies.  If you can made a real commitment to something in terms of your time over multiple years, it is likely to be a good topic.
9. Unusual personal background that makes the applicant standout within a pool where white male American finance professionals, Indian IT guys, and management consultants are typically over-represented.
10. An interesting, engaging, and/or original perspective. Easier said than done.  One needs to distinguish between simply writing an effective set of essays and actually being a highly engaging personality.  Not everyone has the capacity to be such a personality and, in fact, it is not necessary to be a highly engaging  personality to gain admission into a top MBA program.  While applicants should certainly aspire to do this in their essays and interviews, some people are great writers, wonderful story tellers, and super communicators and others are not.  
Assume that you need to cover all four categories above in each application you submit, but the mix will be different depending on the application. The art of putting together a great application is knowing how you can distinguish yourself in relationship to each of these categories, how you can compensate for any weaknesses, and how you can create an effective total portrait of yourself based on these categories.  Don't worry if you are not strong in each of these categories as it is quite possible to be admitted to any top program without being perfect. The point is to provide your readers and interviewer with a clear set of selling points about yourself that fit within their own criteria for why an applicant should be admitted. 

You are more than your application and more than any interview, but it is on the basis of those two things that you will be admitted or rejected.  Great applicants with lousy applications get rejected all the time. I know because I help such applicants then submit great applications!  Applicants with significant problems in the four categories I mentioned above can gain admission to great programs by submitting great applications. I know this too because I help applicants with one or more significant problems in their objective background gain admission to programs where they are statistical outriders.

Some might think that I am suggesting that you present yourself falsely, but that is not at all the case. I recommend that applicants honestly discuss the best part of themselves, honestly addressing any objective problems that they can't avoid mentioning (That low grade in your transcript, the 11 months when you were not working, the reason you quit a job after 3 months, etc.), and not make any deceptive claims. You should  never provide deceptive information that will get your application rejected or your admission revoked.  On the other hand, don't volunteer information that is unnecessary to provide and unhelpful to you. Don't dwell on failures when you are not asked to.  Don't worry about trivial facts that can't be easily checked. Do interprete the past in way that is to your advantage and is believable.  Also, always consider that anything you submit in an application needs to be believable and that if asked about it in any interview you have to sound convincing.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

How to pick a graduate admissions consultant

In the post, I provide some general suggestions for selecting a graduate admissions consultant.  I have previously discussed the whole issue of application advisers in Admissions Advice: Mentor, Consultant, Editor or Ghostwriter?, but I wanted to provide a practical guide for the purpose of admissions counselor, consultant, and/or adviser selection. This post does make use of a part of that earlier post, but I suggest reading both. I hope this post will help applicants find the right consultant for their MBA, LL.M., MPA, MPP, or other graduate school applications.

WHAT IS ADMISSIONS CONSULTING?
The Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) provides the following excellent summary of what admissions consultants do:

• Guide applicants as they explore professional and educational options
• Teach applicants to prepare applications that fully present their qualifications.
• Serve as mentors through the grueling admissions process.
• Provide the critical, objective, and knowledgeable eye that benefits all writers when submitting important material like application essays, personal statements, and resumes.

I have been a member of AIGAC shortly after its founding in 2007. I support the intent of the organization as well as the above definition of our role.

WHO ARE ADMISSIONS CONSULTANTS?

Admissions consultants are a mixed group. Typical backgrounds for admissions consultants:

1. Former admissions officers

2. Counseling professionals with degrees or certification in career counseling, social work, and/or a related field

3. Professional educators

4. Individuals with a strong academic pedigree who found they are good at helping others with the admissions process

5. Degree holders for the type of program they provide admissions consulting for

SELECTING WHICH CONSULTANTS TO CONTACT

Are you offered a free initial consultation with the consultant you would be working with?

For me, at least, this is the most basic consideration there is.  If you can't have an initial consultation how can you determine who to work with?   No two consultants have the same opinions, bring the same experience, or will give you exactly the same advice.  Even with my colleagues who have worked closely with, we don't agree on everything, our methods, and certainly our personalities and personal perspectives are different.  Actually, for interview preparation, this can allow for a client to get multiple perspectives by having mock interviews with multiple consultants, which clients can us to their advantage.  However, when it comes to essay consulting, ultimately you will likely need to work with one person, at least primarily.   For essays, it is very hard to work effectively with multiple consultants effectively. You will likely spend more time and money with consultant on your essays than on anything else, so you need to make sure that there is a good personal fit between you and the consultant.

HOW LONG IS THIS INITIAL CONSULTATION?

I would consider 30 minutes to be an absolute minimum for you to ask questions about the consultant's services and for the consultant to briefly give you a bit of trial feedback.  I schedule one-hour sessions which frequently last a bit longer than that because I usually provide 30-40 minutes of feedback based on initial questions I ask potential clients.  The amount of time I spend giving feedback is a direct function of how well the potential client has filled out my initial consultation form and the kind of questions they ask.

PROVIDE FULL ANSWERS TO THE INITIAL CONSULTATION FORM

I assume that any counselor will provide you with an initial consultation form for you to complete. Based on what I have seen, my own form (Google Docs version/ Scribed version) is of medium level length.  I try to get potential clients to provide me with the most essential information I need to have an effective initial consultation and also to not overburden potential clients with burdensome documents.   Please complete the form in a reasonable level of detail so that the consultant has sufficient information about you to ask more than basic questions.  If you have not calculated your GPA, do it!   Especially with US schools, I can't effectively advise a client on school selection if I don't know what their GPA is.  Don't just leave answers to big questions. At least indicate that you don't have an answer. For instance,  if you don't have an answer to question like "What are your long term goals?" I suggest you just write down that you need assistance with this issue.

DOES THE CONSULTANT ASK YOU QUESTIONS OR ARE THEY JUST TRYING TO SELL YOU?

 I would personally worry about any consultant who does not ask you many questions because this likely means that they will likely work with anyone because they are simply trying to generate an income and not necessarily a positive admissions result. Popular consultants don't just have to work with anyone. They ask good questions to potential clients and try to engage with them in order to determine whether they want offer their services.

SOME BASIC QUESTIONS TO ASK THE CONSULTANT

Some good questions to ask:

1.   Based on my profile, what is your assessment of my school selection? Do you think there are other schools that I should be considering?

2.  How can you add value to my applications? 

3. If you don't know about the consultants results and experience, you should ask about that. If you have such information, ask for any clarification you require.

3.  What are your methods?

4.  What is your availability?

5.  What is your around time on document review?

6.  Can you give me an idea about how the whole process would work?

7.  What differentiates you from other consultants?

8. What are your criteria for selecting which clients to work with?

9.  For applicants with an international background applying to US schools:  Have you worked with people from my country or part of the world before?  How much experience do you have working with international applicants? 

10.  For reapplicants:  How much experience do you have working with reapplciants? 

11. Whatever burning issues in your own background you really want to discuss. For instance, how to handle a prolonged period of unemployment or low GPA.

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD AND BAD ADMISSIONS CONSULTANTS?

Good consultants:

1. They will listen to you and provide highly individualized advice.

2. They will understand your strengths and weaknesses as a candidate.

3. They will have a solid set of methods for explaining all aspects of the process to you.

4. They will be honest. (For example, when discussing school selection they will provide you with an honest assessment of how your GMAT, TOEFL, and/or GRE scores will impact your chances for admission to a specific school.)

5. They will become engaged with you and your life.

6. They will refine their advice to you as your sessions proceed.

7. They are great at brainstorming and helping you tell your story.

8. They will push you to revise your essays and, if applicable, push you to practice your interviews.

9. They will let you know when they think an application is done regardless of either your expectations or their financial benefit. That is to say, sometimes they will advise working on something more than you think and sometimes less than you expected.

10. They either have or know how to obtain any admissions information that you will need.

Bad consultants:

1. Don’t listen to you.

2. Their advice lacks any depth or specificity.

3. They lack integrity.

4. They will not push you to work hard.

5. They are basically indifferent to you as a person because they just consider it to be their job to review your application materials or prepare you for an interview, which they will do only formally.

6. They don’t have high standards.

7. You will notice that they quickly fail to learn more about you after the first couple of sessions.

8. They have rigid preconceived ideas that they will foist upon you.

9. They are more likely to act like editors than counselors.

10. They seem to lack key information about the admissions process.

CONSULTANT OR CONSULTING SERVICE?

You will quickly find that admissions consultants are either working as independent service providers or part of a service. The biggest potential differences between hiring an independent service provider and services are as follows:

1. Service structure. Independent consultants, for both good and bad, are not part of larger organizations and hence the level of service you can expect will be personal and will reflect the personality of the consultant. If you are someone who loves rules and regulations, a service is more likely to provide that level of bureaucracy. An independent consultant should be able to provide you with services in a more flexible manner.

2. Changing your consultant. If you eventually discover that you don’t like an independent consultant, there is no company to complain to, and depending on the way you are paying for the service, you may find yourself stuck with the consultant. On the other hand, if you use a consulting service, you will likely have the option of switching to a new consultant.

3. Choosing your consultant. Obviously if you use an independent consultant, you have chosen that person. On the other hand, if you decide to use a consulting service, depending on your contract, they may have the right to switch consultants on you. If you use service and don’t specify the consultant first, you may also find that the consultant you wanted to meet with is too busy to meet with you because they already have too many clients. BEWARE OF SUBSTITUTIONS! Most successful services have at least one well-known consultant, but since such individuals are a finite resource, not everyone gets to work with the star. Some clients get the other consultants. The other consultants can be great. Or the other hand, consultants can be someone the organization needed to fill a seat because of client demand. If you go with service, don't accept substitutions. Furthermore, if the consulting service does not offer a free initial consultation with the consultant that you want to work with, you should really consider other alternatives.

4. Getting multiple perspectives. One advantage some consulting services have over independent consultants is that they offer clients the possibility of getting the viewpoint of more than one counselor. While this can be quite helpful, it also requires managing the perspectives of multiple consultants, which will likely be less efficient, and may prove confusing. It may also be the case that such services will provide you with multiple perspectives, but none of those perspectives will be very deep because each of their consultants does not know you all that well.

While some services will claim that they have an informational advantage over independent consultants or other rivals, I think this is an increasingly difficult argument to make given the accessibility of free or low cost information.

THE BOTTOM LINE

”Does the consultant have expertise?” No matter whether you use an independent consultant or service, you should really consider that it is the consultant who will be impacting you. Regarding expertise, I think it is mistake to assume that you need to see a consultant who has an academic credential in your intended field of study. Just because someone does not have an MBA, LL.M., PhD in Electrical Engineering, a Masters in Art History,etc. is not inherently a problem. Instead you need someone who has expertise in the admissions process, in listening to you, in helping you tell the most effective story you can, and in helping you present yourself at your best.

-Adam Markus

アダム　マーカス

If you are interested in my overall counseling services and would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on Google Docs and Scribed, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to.  See here for why.

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Letters of Recommendation for Public Policy Programs

Steve Green on Letters of Recommendation for Public Policy Programs

This is both my second post on recommendations and my third post on public policy programs. The earlier recommendation post is here. The earlier public policy posts are here and here.

The advice in this post is aimed at applicants to public policy degree programs, e.g. an MPP, MPA, Environmental Policy, etc. Public policy programs include programs in policy and administration. Degrees such as the MPP focus on strategic policy analysis and public policy creation, while degrees such as the MPA emphasizes skills and knowledge for the administrative side of public policy formation.

In general, a letter of recommendation for a public policy degree applicant should cite evidence of the kinds of brainpower discussed in the previous post. In particular, ideal recommendation letters give specific examples of skills directly relevant to analyzing and making public policy and, particularly in the case of MPA applicant, to organizational and leadership skills. A recommender should be able to should cite specific examples of when and how an applicant analyzed a complex problem, preferably one that was social or economic in nature, and proposed a solution. Furthermore, a recommender should ideally be able to cite evidence of good project management, leadership and/or interpersonal skills.

Part I below contains advice for applicants currently working in the field of policy-making at any level of government, or for NGOs. Part II makes suggestions for applicants currently working outside the field of public policy. Part III has advice for current university students.

1. If you currently work in a policy-making field (i.e. as a government ministry professional, a legislative aide, or for an NGO) then you probably have a well of experience from which a recommender can draw specific examples to verify your strengths.

• The ideal recommender is the person who directly oversees and evaluates your work. This person is probably your immediate supervisor. Considering the many titles held within government bureaucracies it might be tempting to seek a recommendation from someone higher up the command chain with a more impressive-sounding title, but, unless that person has directly overseen your work, then his letter will not sound authentic. For example, I once worked with a client who was a policy analyst for a ministry of the government of Japan and who obtained a recommendation letter from the prime minister. The letterhead and the signature were very impressive. Unfortunately, the content of the letter was quite bland because the writer could not actually describe the details of any particular accomplishment of the applicant, who worked directly under someone who was several positions lower in the government hierarchy than the prime minister. Thankfully, the client decided not to include this letter in his application and was successfully admitted to a number of top programs.

• Other recommenders include previous supervisors at work, former university professors in your field, and supervisors of any volunteer or extra-curricular activity in which you believe your participation indicates the potential for success in a policy degree.

  • The ideal recommendation letter from your boss should describe the details of how you achieved specific accomplishments, and/or your particular contributions to projects. The writer should be able to demonstrate how you think and how you solve abstract problems, as well as how you work with and/or lead your peers.

    • If you work for a government ministry or agency the ideal letter should contain details of your contributions to specific policies and/regulations, and/or of specific your role in inter- or intra-governmental negotiations or summits.

    • If you work in an NGO the ideal letter should present evidence of your contribution to a policy proposal, or your role “on the ground” in carrying out your NGO’s mission, including examples of how you identify, frame and solve problems, as well as how you work with and/or lead your colleauges.

  • The ideal recommendation from a former university professor should describe details of your analytical and communication skills in an academic subject directly related to the field of public policy. The greater the time between your university graduation and your current job, the less useful a recommendation letter will be. So, ask for an academic recommendation only if:

    • The graduate program to which you are applying requires it

    • Only 1-3 years have passed since your graduation AND you are confident the professor remembers you well

    • You are still in contact with the professor

  • Seek a recommendation from outside work and university only if it will enhance your policy-making and/or policy administration skills. You are already a working professional in the field, so a recommendation letter that is from someone outside work might be seen by the admissions committee as a sign that you could not obtain good recommendations from your supervisors or professors.

• Provide your recommender with a copy of your resume/CV as well as with detailed plans of your graduate and career goals.

• If your employer will pay for all or part of your graduate tuition, then be sure to include that fact on your resume/CV. If someone responsible for the decision to award you with sponsorship for your graduate studies also meets the criteria above for an ideal recommender, then you should certainly request a letter from that person.

2. If you are currently working in a field that is unrelated to public policy, then you likely have no experience in drafting or implementing public policy. So, you will need recommendations that can demonstrate that the skill and knowledge you possess can transfer to your new field.

Remember! The point of your whole application is to demonstrate that you have the brainpower and communication skills to succeed as a public policy graduate student and professional. Many of the skills that you have developed as a professional will transfer to your new field.

• The ideal recommender is the person who directly oversees and evaluates your work. This person is probably your immediate supervisor. Considering the many titles held within corporate hierarchies it might be tempting to seek a recommendation from someone higher up the command chain with a more impressive-sounding title, but, unless that person has directly overseen your work, then his letter will not sound authentic.

• Other recommenders include previous supervisors at work, former university professors in your field, and supervisors of any volunteer or extra-curricular activity in which you believe your participation indicates the potential for success in a policy degree.

• The ideal recommendation letter from your boss should describe the details of how you achieved specific accomplishments, and/or your particular contributions to projects. The writer should be able to demonstrate how you think and how you solve abstract problems, as well as how you work with and/or lead your peers.

• The ideal recommendation from a former university professor should describe details of your analytical and communication skills in an academic subject directly related to the field of public policy. The greater the time between your university graduation and your current job, the less useful a recommendation letter will be. So, ask for an academic recommendation only if:

  • The graduate program to which you are applying requires it

  • Only 1-3 years have passed since your graduation AND you are confident the professor remembers you well

  • You are still in contact with the professor

• The ideal recommendation letter from someone in a volunteer organization will emphasize your organizational skills, interpersonal and leadership skills and any analytical ability you utilized for the sake of the organization.

• Provide your recommender with a copy of your resume/CV as well as with detailed plans of your graduate and career goals.

• If your employer will pay for all or part of your graduate tuition, then be sure to include that fact on your resume/CV. If someone responsible for the decision to award you with sponsorship for your graduate studies also meets the criteria above for an ideal recommender, then you should certainly request a letter from that person.

3. If you are currently a university student then you likely have no experience in drafting or implementing public policy. So, you will need recommendations that can demonstrate that you are an excellent student with potential to succeed in graduate school and a career in the field of public policy. In addition to the advice discussed in the previous post you should seek recommendations from teachers based on the criteria listed below.

• Ideal recommenders include:

• A teacher in whose class you earned an excellent grade

• A teacher who taught a class as closely related as possible to the field of public policy

• A teacher with whom you worked closely on an extended project, such as a graduation/senior thesis

• An immediate supervisor from an internship, volunteer activity, or job

• Ideal letters should be able to:

  • Highlight your brainpower, with emphasis on your verbal and written analytical ability and with an example of how you approached a complex social or economic problem

  • Where relevant, highlight your leadership and/or personal skills

For questions regarding this post, please contact me at h.steven.green@gmail.com. To learn more about my graduate admissions consulting services, please click here.
- H. Steven ("Steve") Green, グリーン・ハロルド・スティーブン 大学院留学 カリフォルニア大学バークレー校 マクスウェルスクール シラキューズ大学 ハーバード大学ケネディスクール コロンビア大学の国際関係・公共政策大学院（通称SIPA)

Letters of Recommendation for Academic Graduate Degree Applicants

Steve Green on Letters of Recommendation for Academic Graduate Degree Applicants

In this first post on recommendations, I am going to focus my discussion of strategies for letters of recommendation for applicants to academic graduate degree programs in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and engineering. This post also applies to those applying for LL.M. programs. In the next post, I provide advice for those applying to public policy programs. In the third post, I will provide advice for those applying to MBA programs. There is necessarily some repetition between these posts.

SUMMARY: First, I discuss the role of the recommendation within your application package, and I suggest how to maximize the impact of the endorsements you obtain. While the overall purpose of a recommendation letter may seem self-evident, you will solicit the best possible set of recommendations if you understand the strategic value of each letter to your overall application before you contact possible recommenders. Also, I provide specific advice to LL.M. applicants. Next, I describe what actions to take related to requesting letters. Finally, I offer advice for solving common problems in obtaining a letter of recommendation.

I. STRATEGIC THINKING ABOUT RECOMMENDATIONS

A recommendation letter is NOT a general endorsement of you. It is an endorsement of you based on specific abilities you have demonstrated to the recommender. A recommendation letter needs to sound genuine, which is only possible when the writer can provide first-hand evidence of particular strengths.

A list of strengths that indicate a high potential for graduate school success begins with examples of your brainpower, which includes analytical ability, creativity, and logical thinking. A recommender should ideally be able to highlight written and verbal evidence of your brainpower.

Remember! The primary measurable evidence of your brainpower lies in your GPA and GRE or other graduate school test scores. A strong letter of recommendation will provide a concrete application of your ability, i.e. it will offer a glimpse how your brain worked to obtain a high GPA and test score. A strong recommendation will also support the claims made in your statement of purpose and/or other essays.

Other strengths that indicate your ability to succeed in graduate school include strength in skills that directly relate to your field, the ability to complete a task in a timely manner, excellent communication skills with your peers in a formal academic setting, organizational skills (such as you may have demonstrated in an extracurricular activity) or time management skills (e.g. your ability to earn a high GPA while engaged in extracurricular pursuits or while working near-full or full time.).

• Ideally you should try to get letters from people able to provide specific examples of your strengths in your intended field of study.

• If you are applying to a field different from the one in which you majored as an undergraduate, and cannot obtain more than one recommendation from someone in your new field, then try to obtain letters from people able to demonstrate applications of your brainpower in different fields.

• If you are continuing graduate work in your major field of study, then aim to obtain letters from people who taught different topics within your field to demonstrate you are not someone who cannot perform outside a narrow field of interest.

You should request letters from those people in the best position to judge the particular strengths you wish to highlight in your application. Most graduate programs require two or three letters of recommendation.

• As the guidelines above indicate, the best judge or your abilities to succeed in an academic graduate degree program are usually your undergraduate professors (or graduate professors if you are changing programs). Some guidelines for whom to ask:

  • If you have been a member of a small seminar run by a professor, then a recommendation from this teacher would be ideal as the recommender is perfectly suited to judge your written and oral brainpower, as well as your interactions with peers. Even if your only seminar experience was in a field outside your major (and you want to continue graduate work in your major field of study) a letter from a seminar professor can be an excellent endorsement of those academic strengths.

  • If most or all of your undergraduate courses included lectures supplemented by discussion sections with a graduate teaching assistant (TA), then you can still obtain a letter of recommendation. Ask either the TA or the professor for a recommendation letter (whom you ask will probably depend on how comfortable you feel with each, which will likely be a function of the class size). Many professors have their TA’s write a letter on behalf of a student, but sign it themselves. This practice is legitimate because the TA is serving as a proxy for the professor, who is responsible for the course content. On the other hand, admissions committees do accept letters from graduate students because they understand that at many large universities it is not possible for undergraduates to be observed closely by professors.

  • If you successfully completed an internship or worked at a part-time or summer job that developed skills and knowledge you consider relevant to your graduate school goals, then you may want to ask your immediate supervisor for a recommendation.

• If you have already graduated do not worry. If this is the case, then whom you ask will depend upon how long you have been out of school. The further back in time your graduation was, the less likely professors will be able to remember you well enough to say something specific about you beyond commenting on a paper you wrote (assuming you still have a copy of it to present to them with your recommendation request.) DO NOT WORRY! Admissions committees look favorably upon “experienced” graduate students as they value their maturity and know they are probably dedicated since they are willing to step outside an established income stream for an extended period of time. Guidelines for people who have already graduated from university:

  • Seek letters from your immediate supervisor at your most recent position, as well as from at least one other position you’ve held. Aim for someone who can verify the skills listed above in whatever setting possible.

  • Seek letters from a supervisor or peer of any professional or volunteer organizations in which you have been active, in particular if you have played a leadership role in them.

Should all recommendation letters come from the same type of person? Not necessarily. As is evident from the previous comments, whom you ask depends on what your current status is and what accomplishments you wish to highlight (i.e. academic, professional or extra-curricular achievements).

Two “case studies” (I use these two personal examples because I can do so without disclosing information about clients):

• A successful applicant who did not have any academic recommendations: My wife was accepted to academic MA programs at both of the graduate schools to which she applied (one of which was at an Ivy League university.) She had earned her BA degree fifteen years earlier and had not been in contact with any of her professors since that time. On my advice, she relied exclusively on recommendations from her current supervisor, her previous supervisor and someone with whom she co-led a national volunteer organization. She had a strong GPA, safe test scores and a wealth of experience that included leadership positions at work and in her volunteer activities.

• A successful applicant with one non-academic recommendation: I applied to graduate school during a year I spent working full time after I earned my BA. I was applying to graduate programs in political science, but I was working as a foreman of a factory. My recommenders included two professors, and the president of the factory, who happened to be my immediate supervisor. I wanted his recommendation because I hoped to demonstrate my analytical ability as applied to a “real world” endeavor as well as my organizational and interpersonal skills.

Specific Advice for LL.M. applicants: Assuming you need three letters of recommendation and that you have work experience, at least one should come from a law faculty member (For Japanese applicants this could be either a professor or a member of the Legal Training and Research Institute.) and one should come from a supervisor who is lawyer or other legal professional and can attest to your abilities as a lawyer/legal expert. The third recommender might be another professor or a lawyer/legal professional. If possible, avoid using someone outside of the legal professsion.

WHOM NOT TO ASK:

You should not ask for a letter of recommendation from anyone who is not able to evaluate your strengths objectively, which would include:

• Your peers at work and/or university (unless you have been specifically asked to provide such a recommendation), but senior colleagues at work are fine as substitutes for supervisors
  

• Family members

• Friends and neighbors

• Anyone in your university or at work who does not directly oversee you or is not someone to whom you report directly. For example, as impressive as it might seem to have a letter of recommendation from the President of Prestigious University or the CEO of Large Powerful Corporation, these people will not be able to say anything meaningful about your abilities, unless you happen to study/work directly under them.

• Famous people you may happen to know but not actually study or work under. Sure, it would look pretty cool to be able to list Angelina Jolie as a recommender on your application, but unless she was your professor or your immediate supervisor, she cannot say anything specific about your abilities.

A RECOMMENDATION LETTER SHOULD NOT:

Emphasize traits everyone is expected to possess, such as politeness, good attendance, enthusiasm, likeability. It should not emphasize loyalty or the willingness to work overtime hours.

• Detailed examples of how you perform will demonstrate many or all of these traits indirectly but more concretely.

  • Since you cannot usually control what the recommender writes it is a good idea to deliver your resume/CV with your request so that the writer will have in mind specific accomplishments.

REMEMBER! GOOD RECOMMENDERS:

• Are in a proper authoritative position from which to evaluate you.

• Can provide specific evidence of the strengths you wish to highlight because they…

• Have personally seen and evaluated your work already.

REMEMBER! A GOOD RECOMMENDATION LETTER: Emphasizes particular strengths relevant to your graduate degree plans by describing specific examples of accomplishments.

II. WHEN TO REQUEST A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION

Request letters of recommendation now. The application deadlines for most American academic programs are not until December at the earliest. You should make a respectful request to your desired recommenders now. Asking early is not only polite, but it ensures the writer will have plenty of time to prepare a letter and evaluation that comprehensively describes your strengths. If you cannot yet obtain the evaluation forms from your target schools, just let the recommender know that you will deliver them as soon as possible. Even though the writer may not act upon your request until then, at least they have time to think about you and they will know to budget time for the task once the forms are in their hands.

• Asking early is especially important if you are either a current university or graduate student. As someone who has written letters of recommendation for my undergraduate students, I can say that your university teachers’ memories of your written work and strengths in the classroom or seminar will probably decline as the time passes between when you were their student and when they actually write the letter. A professor may remember that you were an excellent student and a good writer, but, as time passes, he may not recall particular, unique qualities of your abilities in a classroom setting.

• If you are asking a previous supervisor for a recommendation, then it is also important to ask early. The sooner someone who is no longer working directly with you begins to refresh his memory of you, the more time he will have to recall specific anecdotes that highlight your strengths.

Give your recommender an up-to-date copy of your resume/CV (For more about resumes/CVs, see here). When you make request for a letter of recommendation, present your recommender with the latest version of your resume/CV. The writer will not need to comment on any aspect of your background outside that experience in which they were in a position to judge your work or academic performance. (For example, if you are currently working, your current supervisor has no reason to mention your outstanding GPA in university.) However, there are two benefits to presenting your resume/CV to your recommender.

• First, a professional resume/CV makes you look serious, dedicated and prepared.

• Second, the writer can see which accomplishments you are highlighting for the position in which they are able to evaluate you. If you have given careful thought to whom you ask for a recommendation, then there should be a natural fit between the accomplishments you wish to highlight and the “menu” of possible anecdotes they would choose from in order to illustrate your strengths at that particular position.

III. PROBLEMS IN OBTAINING A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION

In my experience, many Japanese, and other non-native English-speaking, applicants face three particular hurdles to obtaining letters of recommendation.

1. It is an unfortunate fact for many Japanese applicants that their bosses do not support their decision to leave the workplace and enter graduate school (usually because they do not want to lose a good employee). So, they refuse the request to serve as a recommender. In such situations or ones like it, I suggest:
   

• First, request a letter from the next person best able to judge your performance. If no one in a position of some authority is available within your organization you may consider requesting a letter from a senior colleague who has worked closely with you as well as an outside observer, such as a vendor. If you are active in non-work activity that can provide examples of your brainpower, then you should definitely try to obtain a recommendation from someone there.

  • If you are unsure of whom to ask, then you may wish to consider seeking the services of a professional admissions consultant. Since 2001, Adam and I have worked with many clients facing this issue and a part of the advice we provide to our clients is how to handle this.

• Second, include a letter with your application package that explains your predicament to the admissions committee. You will not be the first applicant with this particular problem, and the readers will appreciate your directness in explaining your situation. Some applications specifically include an optional essay or other space to discuss such issues.
  

2. Even when their supervisor, senior colleague, and/or professsor does agree to write a letter, many applicants are told they should write the letter themselves first, and their busy boss will sign it later. Needless to say, this is an ethical problem. I should point out that it is not a problem unique to Japanese applicants because sometimes people here in Japan think it is. Actually it is a common problem for all applicants. What should you do? Here is one solution:
   

• First, get as much input from your recommender for the content as you can. This might simply involve asking them standard recommendation questions (see what the recommendation form asks) and recording what they say. If you can get their unique viewpoint on you, it will help to provide something that reflects their real viewpoint and yours.
  

• Next, write the letter in your recommender's native language and ask your recommender to review it. Ask your recommender to read it and let you know if he/she agrees with your interpretations of your actions.

• Next, if applicable, have the letter translated into English by a professional translator. This will at least eliminate the appearence of it being in your own words.
  

3. A supervisor agrees to write the letter of recommendation in English, but includes content that is inappropriate for a North American frame of reference. I have reviewed English-language letters of recommendations and have seen that what may count as a strong letter in one context, is considered weak in another context. Generally, this includes emphasizing the traits listed above under “A RECOMMENDATION LETTER SHOULD NOT”. While all of these traits may be admirable, they do not, in and of themselves, focus on the right content. What should you do?

• If you GIVE THE RECOMMENDER A COPY OF YOUR RESUME/CV when you make the request for a letter, then you increase the chance that the writer will discuss specific accomplishments.

Finally, and this really is not a problem like the above situations, if you have a recommender who is willing to write a letter for you, but not in English, simply get it translated. Send the original along with the translation. Again only do this in the case where the original is written by the recommender. If the school requires it, you might need to send a certified translation. In Japan, one could get such certification through the Notary Public at the US Embassy in Tokyo.

For questions regarding this post, please contact me at h.steven.green@gmail.com. To learn more about my graduate admissions consulting services, please click here.
- H. Steven ("Steve") Green, グリーン・ハロルド・スティーブン

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