Update: TOEFL will be accepted in the UK under certain conditions. See Using TOEFL® Scores to Apply to U.K. Universities. Except for this paragraph and the title, the rest of this post has not been updated. If you have been preparing to take the TOEFL and plan to apply to graduate programs in the UK and will need a Tier 4 Student Visa (The student visa required for longterm stay), you should stop studying TOEFL and start studying IELTS. For my interview with a TOEFL and IELTS test prep expert, please see here. According to the UK’sGuidance on applying for a UK visa: approved English language tests: “Expiry of Educational Testing Services' (ETS) licence to carry out secure English language tests: impact on student visa applicants. The Government wants to ensure that this change does not have an impact on genuine international students who took an ETS test in good faith before the licence expired. UK Visas and Immigration are accepting visa applications which rely on an ETS certificate issued before the expiry of the licence was made public on 17 April. These applications will be considered subject to our normal checks. Applications will be accepted until new Immigration Rules come into effect and transitional provisions have come to an end.” ETS reported it this way: “Following the broadcast of a BBC Panorama program in February 2014 which highlighted an organized criminal element seeking to circumvent the U.K.'s visa-granting process, ETS has made the decision not to extend our Secure English-language Testing (SELT) license with the Home Office. As a result, TOEIC® and TOEFL iBT® testing will no longer be offered for U.K. visa-granting purposes.” If you have taken TOEFL on or before April 17, 2014, you can still use your TOEFL score as part of the UK student visa process. If you TOEFL test was after April 17, 2014, you need to take a new test. The London School of Economics posted a long explanation of the issue on their site. Since this is all very new most schools have yet to handle the issue, but the University of Cambridge (the school behind TOEFL’s rival test, IELTS) has: “The Home Office has suspended accepting ETS tests as evidence of English language ability. This includes the Princeton TOEFL test (Test of English as a Foreign Language), and as a result the University of Cambridge will no longer be accepting TOEFL test scores as sufficient to meet the language entry requirements for Graduate study.” Unless the Home Office and ETS come to some sort of agreement, if you want to attend a graduate program in the UK and you need to prove your English ability based on a standardized test, forget about TOEFL and take IELTS. Even if the schools would be happy to take the TOEFL test, it is meaningless to do so because you can’t use it for a student visa. I am assuming, the rest of the UK will follow Cambridge’s lead. I will update this story as it develops.
-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.
One marketing gimmick, used the world over, is tell potential customers/applicants/survey test takers how easy it is to complete an application for whatever. I can’t prove that the Business School Admissions offices that I mention in this post had car insurance ads or membership card applications or “Please Take this Survey” requests in mind when putting together their applications. Still Booth Chicago, Cambridge Judge, Harvard Business School, IMD and Oxford Said all have “hidden essay” content, that is to say, they require essays which they don’t call essays. I expect this trend to continue in the coming years.
I think most of this is done to somehow create the appearance that applicants will have to do less writing than would otherwise be the case. Each of these school’s applications has its unique way of hiding essay content that is actually really important.
One downside of hidden essays is that applicants can easily underestimate how much time will actually be required to effectively complete an application. As anyone who has ever completed an application form for a top MBA program can tell you, it is time consuming.
Another downside of hidden essays is that applicants will not take really important content as seriously as they should because they somehow think application form content is not as important as essay content. Underestimating the importance of applications is actually a mistake. Schools take their application form content seriously and information on an applicant’s past academic, extracurricular, and professional background is a core part of the evaluation process. I regularly review my clients’ application form content because it is an important part of the application process. Even more so when the content is extensive and contains answers to questions related to goals, why MBA, and accomplishments.
While applications are sure to change in a variety of ways for 2015 admission, let’s take a look at some some of the hidden essays used for 2014 admission.
1. The Mini-Goals/Why MBA Essay of HBS and IMD
HBS eliminated even an optional full-length Why MBA/Goals Essay a couple of years ago. For the last two years, they have been asking for a 500 character statement in the application form:
Employment Section Intended Post-MBA:
Industry:
Accounting
Advertising/Marketing
Aerospace/Automotive
Agribusiness
Arts/Culture
Biotechnology
Broadcasting
Chemicals
Commercial Banking
Community/Economic Development
Computer Software and Services
Construction
Consulting
Consumer Products
Diversified Communications
Diversified Financial Svcs/Insurance
Education
Energy/Extractive Minerals
Engineering
Entertainment/Leisure
Food Service/Lodging
Food/Beverage
Government
Health Services
High Technology/Electronics
Highly Diversified Manufac and Service
International Development/Relief
Internet Development Services
Investment Banking
Investment Management
Legal Services
Machinery and Indus Equip Mftrs
Medical/Health Care Devices
Military
Multimedia
Other Non-Profit
Paper and Forest Products
Pharmaceuticals
Printing/Publishing
Private Equity
Public Relations
Real Estate Development
Real Estate Finance
Retailing/Wholesaling
Sales and Trading
Sports
Telecommunications
Trading/Import/Export
Transportation
Utilities
Venture Capital
Function:
Accounting/Control
Consulting
Engineering
Finance: Corporate Finance
Finance: General
Finance: Investment Management
Finance: Lending
Finance: Mergers and Acquisitions
Finance: Research
Finance: Sales and Trading
Finance: Treasury/Analysis
Finance: Underwriting/Advising
Finance: Venture Capital
Fundraising/Development
General Management
Human Resources
Information Services Mgmt.
Investment Advising
Legal Services
Logistics
Manufacturing/Operations
Marketing: Brand/Prod. Mgmt.
Marketing: Communications
Marketing: General
Marketing: Research
Marketing: Sales
Medical Services
Other
Product Development
Professional Advising-Religion
Project Management
Public Relations
Purchasing
Research and Development
Strategic Planning
Teaching
How does pursuing an MBA support your choices above? 500 characters.
Quite similarly IMD (My of IMD’s essays can be found here) provides two 200 character statements: What is your career goal post IMD? What are the skills you need to develop in order to achieve your goal?
IMD gives even less character count than HBS to explain why you need an MBA and what you intend to do post-MBA. This is a major topic, which might be central to an interview at either school and will surely be a basis upon which an applicant will be judged, so it highly likely that an applicant will spend much more time thinking about the answer(s) than on the writing. This really is a “brevity is the soul of wit” situation: An applicant needs to think deeply and explain as succinctly as possible why they need an MBA to achieve their goals.
2. Cambridge Judge: Somehow make the distinction between “MBA Essays” and “Career Objectives”
My Analysis of Cambridge Essays can be found here. Anyone who thinks that the Cambridge only has has two essays is in for a bit of surprise when they actually look at the Cambridge Judge Online Application because there are actually 5 essays, not two. Strangely, a 500 word Career Objectives statement is not an “essay.” One "Career Objectives" Statement Please provide a personal statement. It should not exceed 500 words and must include the following:
What are your short and long term career objectives?
What skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you to achieve them?
What do you hope to gain from the degree programme and how do you feel it will help you achieve the career objectives you have?
I am not sure what sort of bureaucratic mind is at work that differentiates between this statement and the essays, but clearly this is an essay and a core part of the Judge application. 3. Chicago Booth: Break-up an essay into two pieces and just don’t include it in the essay section.
Booth is not as confusing as Judge, but clearly doing something a bit odd. You get 700 characters each for these two application form questions: What is your short-term post-MBA goal? What is your long-term post-MBA goal?
It seems clear enough from their application form that Booth modified what HBS had been doing. The thing is, HBS gives 500 characters, which is about 75-125 words and clearly a very mini-essay. On the other hand, Booth is giving 700 characters each for the above, which amounts to about 125-150 words each, so between the two applicants had about 250-300 words, which is actually the length of a small essay. Clearly Booth was just moving around content to make it appear that applicants have fewer essays to write than they actually do. 4. Cambridge Judge and Oxford Said: Combine essay content with a standard employment description
I have already mentioned Cambridge labelling only two of its five essays as “Essays.” Their other non-essays are: What is your most significant challenge within your current company? (1000 Characters Maximum) What is your most significant accomplishment within your current company? (1000 Characters Maximum)
1000 characters is 150-250 words, so again small essays. These two non-essays are clearly on important topics for assessing an applicant’s past experience.
Many applicants to Cambridge Judge also apply to Oxford Said (My Oxford essay analysis is here) and “coincidently” Oxford as the following non-essay questions: Please list your main responsibilities, your most significant challenge and your greatest achievement (5000 Characters including spaces, which means about 1000-1250 words maximum for answering all three of these).
These are three separate topics. The first one is simply standard current position application content, while the other two topics are actually the same non-essay questions that Cambridge asks. I think it is fine to include this sort of content in an application form, so please note that I am not criticising this, but rather simply pointing out that these are major topics for evaluating an applicant and should be taken seriously.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet -W. Shakespeare
B-schools can call them essays, application form questions, statements of purpose, whatever. The name does not matter. The time you will to write an answer will be just the same. The value given to the answer will be just the same. Just make sure your answer smells sweet!
-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.
In this post I analyze the essay questions for the University of Cambridge Judge Business School for Entry in September 2014. I’m too late for the first two deadlines, but better late than never. Hopefully next year, I will get this up in time for first round.
I have worked with eight clients to Cambridge Judge including two who already admitted for the September 2014 entering class. You can find my clients’ results and testimonials here.
Anyone who thinks that the Cambridge only has has two essays is in for a bit of surprise when they actually look at the Cambridge Judge Online Application because there are actually 5 essays, not two. Let’s take a look at each of them
Two “MBA Essays” If you could change one thing about your current organisation, what would you make different? How would you overcome obstacles to this change, and what impact would this change have in the short-term and long-term? (300 words)
This hypothetical question is a very interesting way for Cambridge to gauge a number of things about you:
1. Your understanding of your organization, which relates to the way you might actually manage.
2. Your ability to critically assess something you should seemingly be very familiar with. This relates to your analytical/critical thinking skills.
3. Your solutions oriented thinking.
4. Your ability to think about organizational impacts short and long-term.
5. Your ability to conceptualize organizational change.
Considering the MBA curriculum’s focus on Practical Learning, this essay is a great way for Judge to judge your ability to work effectively on consulting projects.
Suggestions for Brainstorming:
1. If you are having difficulty formulating a topic, I suggest using a SWOT analysis on your organization to identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Here is a nice video that relates directly to organizational analysis: SWOT Analysis: How to perform one for your organization.
2. Make sure there are real obstacles to your proposed change. If there are no obstacles, chances are pretty high that the change you are discussing is relatively minor. Find another topic.
3. Make sure that you fully consider both the short and long term impact of your proposed change. Applicants sometimes focus so much on explaining the change they want to make that they ignore addressing the time factor. If the change you are proposing seems to lack distinctive short and long-term impacts, there is a problem either with your proposed change or in your ability to think about it.
What did you learn from your most spectacular failure? (up to 200 words)
This is a fairly standard failure question except that they specifically ask for a “spectacular failure,” which means that it should not be the sort of thing were only you were disappointed by the outcome, rather it would be one were you overtly failed and other could see it, otherwise how can it be very spectacular? It is critical that you learned something meaningful . The basic components of an answer: 1. Clearly state what the failure was. 2. Clearly state your role. 3. Clearly state the result. 4. Explain the effect in terms of what you learned and perhaps also how you applied what you learned .If possible, show how you applied what you learned to a new situation because the application of abstract learning to a new situation is a key indicator of real learning.
One ”Career Objectives” Statement Please provide a personal statement. It should not exceed 500 words and must include the following:
What are your short and long term career objectives?
What skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you to achieve them?
What do you hope to gain from the degree programme and how do you feel it will help you achieve the career objectives you have?
This truly is a standard statement of purpose question.
What are your short and long term career objectives?
What do you hope to gain from the degree programme and how do you feel it will help you achieve the career objectives you have?
Please see my analysis of Stanford Essay 2 as what I have written there will help you answer the 1st and 3rd parts of this question. Especially if you are having difficulty with goals formation, that post will help you. Your objective is to Cambridge a clear plan for future. They need to understand both your professional plan and how Cambridge fits into that plan.
What skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you to achieve them?
As stated above, give them a plan. Show how specific skills/characteristic support that plan. The order you answer this question is really up to you, but I think it is very important that your answer not become overburdened by discussing your past experience at the expense of discussing your plans and why Cambridge is right for you. Keep in mind that you should be using your skills/characteristics as evidence to support your plan. The point is provide analysis, not to try and describe in detail because you will not have sufficient word count for that purpose. Cambridge admissions will be reading your resume and your answers to the other essay questions, which will provide them with a wealth of detailed information about your past experience. Here try to distill that past experience into two-three core skills or characteristics that will enable you to reach your post-MBA goals.
Two “Essays” in the “Current Full-Time Employment” Section
Those applying to Oxford’s MBA program will see that they ask these same questions. as Cambridge
What is your most significant challenge within your current company? (1000 Characters Maximum)
I hope you have been working for your company for more than a few days.
A challenge can certainly be a weakness, failure or setback, it is surely possible that a challenge could simply be a real test of your leadership and a great way to convey an accomplishment.
Structure
1. Clearly state what your challenge was. 2. Explain what actions you took. Think about what your actions reflect about your own skills and/or personality. 4. Explain what you learned and/or gained (a skill or a new opportunity, for example) from the experience. It is critical that you learned or gained something, otherwise it will be difficult (probably impossible) to explain how this experience has helped you achieve success now and in the future.
Here are some types of challenges to get you brainstorming:
-Challenges that relate to lack of ability or skill. For instance having difficulty completing a task or being successful because of your limited capability. Overcoming such a challenge involves a story about gaining or otherwise obtaining access to the necessary skill.
-Challenges that relate to relationships with other people or groups, such as conflicts within a team. Overcoming such challenges typically involves effective utilization of interpersonal skills.
-Challenges that relate to one's psychological condition, cultural understanding, or other deeper mental assumptions. Overcoming such challenges typically involves a change in mindset.
-Challenges that relate to a really difficult task. It is possible that you write about a challenging situation which you use to highlight your abilities rather than a situation where you were initially deficient in some way.
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.
Following Oxford Said's introduction of severely high English requirements for 2010 entry, Cambridge Judge will be getting even more severe than Oxford for 2012 entry.
Oxford Said introduced new English level minimums for entry beginning in 2010:
For applicants, especially those coming from countries where getting a 109 or higher is difficult (Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan being the ones that immediately come to my mind), this is good and bad news. It is clearly bad news for those with scores under 109 because clearly Oxford is no longer an option. For East Asians with TOEFL scores over 109, suddenly the number of highly competitive applicants coming from their region is likely to drop significantly.
I think this is especially unfortunate for my clients in Japan, not only because it will eliminate many strong applicants from applying, but because it will likely damage the ability of Oxford to build a strong network here. Given the large percentage of company-sponsored applicants who don't have TOEFL 109 level English, I think it is fair to say that Oxford will see a significantly reduced number of Japanese with strong professional backgrounds in the coming years.
In fact, the number of Japanese at Oxford has gone down and they are all, obviously very advanced English speakers. Oxford is no longer a viable option for many candidates who would have considered it, but find all top US schools (except HBS), INSEAD, LBS, and IMD (GMAT score only) better options both in terms of rank and barrier to entry.
Not to be outdone, Cambridge will be introducing new standards of required English ability for entry in 2012:
110 TOEFL! Congratulations Cambridge, you are about to have the world's highest TOEFL requirement of any MBA program! This is a bold experiment in exclusivity designed to radically reduce non-native English speakers without extensive international experience. I know there is a Cambridge/Oxford rivalry, but..
By the way, for those applying for 2011 entry, the old Cambridge requirements-
-are still in place, but I bet they will be making it tougher than these numbers indicate.
As far as UK schools go, London Business School, with its very flexible entry requirements and top rank, proves that exclusivity per se is not the best way to be recognized as a Top B-School. For applicants who want to experience real diversity while getting the top B-school experience in the UK, I predict that LBS will be the only game in town. For those who want to experience working with only fully bilingual/bi-cultural candidates, Oxford and Cambridge should be your targets. Each option has its advantages (real diversity versus fluency) and disadvantages (inefficiency versus experiencing the kind of diversity that is the part of working with those who really don't share your linguistic and/or cultural assumptions).
