Rule #1 Play the Admissions Game On Your Terms

In my previous post on test preparation, I suggested the importance of knowing enough about your own learning needs to determine how best to prepare for the TOEFL, GMAT, or GRE. This points to what I consider to be the heart of the admissions game: Play the game on your own terms.

To get accepted to the school(s) you are applying to you will have to follow formal application rules, but the manner in which you follow them is your choice. Let's be honest, the application process can be annoying:

Who likes to take expensive, time consuming standardized tests?

Who likes to spend time and money preparing for those tests?

Who likes to complete endless applications?

Who likes to ask other people, especially their supervisors and professors, for recommendations?

Who likes to devote much of their time for six to twelve months or more to apply?

Who likes waiting for an admissions committee to make a decision?

I am sure there is someone who does, but I have never met such a person. All of the above and more are part of the admissions process that you can't control. Now here is what you control:

Timing
While some applicants will have to apply during a certain year because of sponsorship, many applicants have control over the timing of their applications. If you control timing, apply when you are ready to apply to the schools you want to attend. Some people need two to three years to prepare, while others can do it in a matter of a few months. The important thing is that you work at the right pace for you. Professor Tara Kuther's Timetable for Applying to Graduate School is one good attempt to map out a schedule, but is clearly intended for US applicants. International applicants would be well advised to start earlier than she suggests, especially if TOEFL is a consideration. Make a schedule that is realistic and keep yourself to it. If you can't keep yourself on your schedule, consider either altering the schedule or getting an admissions consultant (also known as an application counselor, admissions counselor, or admissions adviser) who will provide you with sufficient coaching to keep you on your schedule.

School Selection
Unless you are specifically limited to choosing particular schools because of sponsorship or scholarship criteria or because of geographic limitations, look carefully at a variety of schools to decide which to apply to. Think about such things as the school's reputation, what impact you expect your graduate education to have on your career, the time and cost involved in studying, and the impact that a particular school's location will have on you personally. If you can't work through these issues yourself, seek advice from mentors, peers, family and/or an admissions counselor. While you should be realistic about your chances for admission, don't compromise on selection. Apply only to schools you want to attend.

Your Story
You control your story in your application. Your story is what you write about yourself in your essays, resume, and even in your answers to some of the little questions on the application. It is also what you say in an interview or in any interactions with admissions people. Controlling and developing your story is absolutely critical. If you can't do it alone, seek the advice of a professional counselor if you can afford to do so.

Enjoy it!
If you are going to spend the next six months or more focused on getting into school, make it as pleasant for yourself as possible. See it as a learning opportunity and above all treat it like a game that you will be committed to win.

Passion
Your motivation, your desire for study, for your future, and for a particular school is something admissions committees care about. I like Linda Abraham's formulation of this: Passion = Action + Dedication. Passion is not just for MBA essays, but even for those pursuing a PhD in particle physics, an LLM, or any other degree. Passion or the lack of it is detectable by other people. Sometimes it can be found in the application, sometimes in an interview, and sometimes not until school starts. If passion is connected to reason, it simply acts as a powerful force for application success, not to mention success in the rest of your life.

Bottom Line:
Take what you control, use it to your advantage, and play the game to win.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
MBA留学、LLM留学、大学院留学

No back-up schools please!

In general, I don’t believe in the concept of back-up graduate schools. A back-up school (or safety school) is where you go when you have no alternative. For me, a back-up is like a spare tire or the flashlight you keep in your house if the electricity stops working. That is to say, a back-up is a substitute for a school you wanted to go to. Unless you must get into school, you should not apply to schools that you will not be happy with. The time and money involved for an MBA, not mention a PhD, is simply too great to spend on something that you really don’t want.

Only apply to schools you want to attend. That school may or may not be your first choice, but should be a school that will provide you with the educational experience, skills, connections, and/or ROI you want to obtain.

However, sometimes it takes a couple of years to get what you want. Getting the right advice from counselors, books, friends, mentors, and/or teachers combined with sufficient effort on your part can speed this up considerably. However, some people simply require longer because of work or family commitments, the necessity to obtain prerequisite knowledge in their field, the need to improve English skills, and/or, of course, standardized tests. For instance, the TOEFL iBT’s speaking section may very result in a longer period of preparation for those with very weak speaking skills. Those with weak math skills may find the GMAT or GRE a serious challenge that will require relearning math that they may not have studied for a decade or more. If you need that time, take it. Leave the back-up schools to those who are too lazy to work for what they want, prefer a quick-fix to a real solution, prefer safety to risk, and were born to compromise. Life is simply too short to settle for a spare tire or a flashlight.
-Adam Markus
MBA留学、LLM留学、大学院留学

My LL.M. Resources Links

My LL.M. Resources links merge my professional interest in LL.M. admissions with my personal academic interest in legal theory and history. I will be adding more links and would be happy to take any requests (write comments or email me at adammarkus@gmail.com).

Get Associated!: My Higher Education Association Links

My Higher Education Associations link list (law related associations can be found in my LLM Resources links) is a good place to start if you are thinking about what to do study or simply trying to determine where to study.

One advantage of looking at an education association's website is that it contains information designed to give you an overall picture of an academic discipline. For instance, if you are thinking about a degree in public policy (MPP, MPA) you would be well advised to visit the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) and in particular take a look at the For Students Section.

My list of associations is far from complete, but includes links to the associations related to degrees in such diverse disciplines as arts administration, electrical engineering, and political science. When I applied to graduate school, I found reviewing materials from the American Political Science Association to be very helpful. It has become so much easier now that everything is on the internet.

If you have any suggestions for additional links, please write comments or email me at adammarkus@gmail.com.
MBA留学、LLM留学、大学院留学

MBA Admissions Interviews: There Are No Secrets

While other parts of the admissions process may not be fully transparent (though most of it is), the MBA interview most assuredly is.

The Clear Admit Admissions Wiki contains frequently updated interview reports by applicants to Berkeley Haas, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, Chicago GSB, Columbia Business School, Cornell Johnson, Dartmouth Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Harvard Business School, Michigan Ross, MIT Sloan, New York Stern, Northwestern Kellogg, Pennsylvania Wharton, Stanford GSB, UCLA Anderson, UNC Kenan Flagler, Virginia Darden, Yale SOM, INSEAD, London Business School, and IESE, Spain. These are up-to-date and sometimes very complete reports.

Accepted.com’s MBA Interview Feedback Database includes even more schools.

Both of these sites include not only specific reports on individual schools, but an inventory of the kinds of questions that interviewers ask.

I have no professional relationship with either of these companies and can’t comment on the quality of their one-to-on MBA counseling services, but I think both companies should be praised for making information free and helping to demystify the interview process.

In addition to interview reports, both sites provide information on essays (including essay analysis) and deadlines. From my viewpoint, any MBA applicant would be well served by reviewing these sites closely. When combined with other publicly available sources of information (school websites, blogs, and Businessweek), most applicants will find that they can best direct their precious financial resources to test preparation, individual counseling, school visits, and/or application fees.

-Adam Markus
MBA留学、LLM留学、大学院留学