Mentors & Unpaid Advisers

This is the second in a series of five posts. The first one is here.

First, two stories:

A Happy Story
As I mentioned in a previous post, when I applied to graduate school in 1990, I was fortunate to have an excellent mentor, a PhD student at the University of Chicago, who remains to this day one of my closest friends. I was lucky because he understood the admissions process and the relative difficulty for obtaining admission at a time when the US Economy was weak and many people were applying to graduate school. His advice was timely and practical and helped me succeed.

A Sad Story
In 1988, during my senior undergraduate year, I decided to apply to graduate school. As I was graduating in three instead of the usual four years, I was 20 years old. I sought advice from two of my professors, both were tenured, one had his PhD from Harvard and the other from Princeton. They supported me, wrote recommendations (that I later used successfully in 1990), but provided me with little guidance on the admissions process. I simply followed the application instructions and made a horrible mess of the whole thing. I was dinged everywhere.

There are two differences between my happy and sad stories.
The first has to do with me. When I applied at age 20, I was completely immature and totally lacked a real sense of the process or its relative difficulty. Two years later, I understood what the application process really involved and was able to make the right decisions.
The second has to do with my advisers.

My team of 1988 mentors simply consisted of two professors. While they were great professors who were recognized in their fields and wrote me very good recommendations, they were totally ineffective admissions advisers:
(1) Their advice was not based on actual contemporary knowledge of the admissions process. Since both taught primarily undergraduates and were part of departments that did not have graduate programs, they did not actually know the process because that had finished their graduate work decades earlier.
(2) They did not give me practical advice beyond simply following the application instructions.
(3) They were too busy to be really involved with my process and I was not aggressive enough to really get their full support.

My 1990 team was different. I talked with my professors about academic issues, but as far as the practical issue of applying goes, I had a new mentor, who:
(1) Gave me timely advice based on the actual admissions process.
(2) Provided me with a set of strategies for success beyond the application instructions.
(3) Fully committed to supporting me. He put in the time to advise me on strategy and review my materials.


If you have a mentor like my friend, you are indeed very lucky. If not, you may be able to bring together a group of mentors (professors, friends/colleagues who succeeded at the admissions process, experts in your intended field of study, current students of the school(s) you want to attend, and/or alumni) who provide you with all the support you need.

Alternatively, you may find that your mentor(s) can't provide with all the help you need because
(1) they don't have enough time,
(2) they lack sufficient knowledge about the process,
(3) you are finding that they can only advise you based on their past experience,
(4) your mentors are contradicting one another and you are not sure which one is right,
and/or
(5) you want extensive assistance putting your applications together.

MENTORS AND/OR UNPAID ADVISERS YOU SHOULD HAVE
Depending on the type of graduate program you are applying to, I think you will find it useful to develop a team of mentors and/or advisers who can support you. Highly experienced admissions consultants can usually provide equivalent support for what I mention below, but even if you use an admissions consultant, I would still get a second opinion from a mentor and/or unpaid adviser.

All applicants: Try to find an alum who has recently graduated and/or a current student to give you insight into each program you apply to. Students and recent graduates are really in the best position to tell you what a school is really like. This is especially important and relatively easy for MBA applicants. In other fields it maybe more difficult, but many schools have graduate students available for applicants to talk with.

For all graduate school applicants in general and PhD applicants in particular: As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is often extremely valuable to make faculty contact. Check with the admissions office for each program first before doing so. Those applying to MBA are less likely to use this strategy and depending on the school might be told not to contact faculty. Obviously if you contact faculty you had better have an academic topic related to your study plans to discuss with them.

For LLM applicants applying to Harvard Law School and most other top programs. You will need to discuss one or more of the legal issues you are interested in studying in a great deal of depth and thus you would be well advised to consult with a lawyer or law professor who has sufficient knowledge in the field you plan to study to assess the depth and accuracy of your thinking.

For those applying to programs where a writing sample or other sample(s) of past work is/are required. Make sure that you have someone in your intended field of study who can assess the strength of your writing sample. Professors and/or professionals in your intended field are ideal for this purpose.

For those applying to research based programs in the arts and sciences. If possible, have your research plan reviewed closely by a professor and/or other professional in you field who can assess it.

FINALLY
If your mentors and/or unpaid advisers are not enough, you have three alternatives. In the next post in this series, I will discuss admissions consultants.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
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MBA留学, LLM留学, 大学院留学

Good Article on Chicago GSB Essay Three

UPDATE: Click here to begin to read my analysis of Chicago GSB's essays for 2008 admission. Question 1. Question 2. Question 3. Optional Question 4.
If you planning to apply to Chicago GSB and want further insight into Essay Three, the PowerPoint Question, I suggest taking a look at the following AP article (excerpts below):

In a first, the University of Chicago this fall will begin requiring prospective students to submit four pages of PowerPoint-like slides with their applications....

By adding PowerPoint to its application, Chicago thinks it might attract more students who have the kind of cleverness that can really pay off in business, and fewer of the technocrat types who sometimes give the program a bad name....

"We wanted to have a free-form space for students to be able to say what they think is important, not always having the school run that dialogue," said Rose Martinelli, associate dean for student recruitment and admissions. "To me this is just four pieces of blank paper. You do what you want. It can be a presentation. It can be poetry. It can be anything."

...Martinelli acknowledges one reason for the requirement is that students inevitably will have to master the technology in their jobs.

But she says students won't be judged on the quality of their slides. Rather the slides are an outlet for judging the kind of creativity the business world needs.

Chicago does have a few ground rules: no hyperlinks and no video. Beyond that, "I really don't know what we're going to get," Martinelli said.

In a series of future posts later this month, I will discuss the Chicago essay set. Till then, you should take a look at accepted.com's and clearadmit.com's analysis.

-Adam Markus
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シカゴ、ビジネススクール, MBA留学

Admissions Advice: Mentor, Consultant, Editor or Ghostwriter?

What kind of admissions advice are you looking for? I think it is important to think very carefully about the types of advisers available when selecting what is best for you. The right advice from the right adviser(s) will facilitate your acceptance in to an MBA, LLM, PhD, or other graduate program, while the wrong advice might very well result in the need to reapply.

MY BIAS: If you have not read, the blog post or the article where my views are discussed, I would simply state that my own bias is towards ethical consulting and against ghostwriting as this is simply the only basis upon which I would counsel someone. I believe applicants should write their own essays. That said, I am not looking to impose my own views on you. You must make your own choices. In the next four posts, I will analyze the pros and cons of mentors, admissions consultants, editors, and ghostwriters.

A couple of things to mention. I will not include the names of any specific admissions consultants, editors, or ghostwriters here. This is not due to any ignorance or laziness on my part, but rather the fact that I am not advocating or criticizing the use of any specific service because (1) I can't fairly attest to the efficacy of all major service providers and (2) I am not interested in being sued for libel.

I hope these posts will help you determine what kind of advice you need and who you should get it from.

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

MBA Applicants: Join caseplace.org

As a follow-up to my last post, I wanted to mention the benefits of joining caseplace.org. Membership is free.
Benefits include:
"My CasePlace section to organize, track and save information you gather. You'll be notified, every time you log on, about the new materials that have been added to your interest areas.

My Folders: Create multiple lists which contain information about cases of interest to you and how to get them. Organize cases around themes and courses.

My Bookmarks: Return to documents you are especially interested in.

Contact Information: You will be added to the Membership Directory. You can then contact others who work in your area, or they can contact you."

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

Learn About the MBA Case Method Before You Apply

Did you know that approximately 25% (Chicago GSB) to 80% (HBS) of all courses at top Business Schools use the case method?

While Harvard Business School is most known for its use of the case method, other top programs use it typically 30%-50% of the time with the remainder consisting of lecture, experiential learning, simulations, and other methods.

If you are thinking about applying to business school, you should learn about the case method to help determine (1) whether it suits your own learning style and (2) which schools you want to apply to.

If you have decided to apply, you should learn about the case method because you will (1) need to think whether you need to discuss directly or indirectly in their "Why MBA" essay and (2) need to be prepared to discuss why you would benefit from the case method in an interview.
One of the clearest explanations for the case method is, not surprisingly, the HBS website. Every MBA applicant could benefit from watching the case study video which will provide you with a clear 13 minute and 25 second image of what case study is about.

Want to read some case studies?

One great resource for cases studies is caseplace.org, where you can read (890 were available when I checked) cases written by and for top business schools. Many were published by Harvard Business School through Harvard Working Knowledge, Harvard Business Review, and Harvard Business School Publishing. Sources for other cases include Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Knowledge @ Wharton, and MIT Sloan Management Review.

Sponsored by the Aspen Institute, "CasePlace.org is designed for business school faculty" , it "is a free, practical on-line resource for up-to-date case studies, syllabi, and innovative teaching materials on business and sustainability - from corporate governance to sustainable development." Given the sources and purpose of the site, this a wonderful opportunity to read cases on a diverse range subjects.

If caseplace.org is not enough for you than you can also purchase case studies directly from schools such as HBS, Stanford, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and the University of Western Ontario's Ivey School of Management. Actually, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "Some Schools Now Sell Case Studies on Web," online case sales are a major source of revenue for many top schools.
Please keep in mind that the objective is to get enough background to make good decisions about your applications, so don't feel obligated to spend so much time reading cases. Just spend enough time to know what the case method is and how it will impact your application decisions and admissions strategy. Just as in my earlier post about professors, the point here is learn about what you want to do in graduate school.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

ハーバード, シカゴ、ビジネススクール, MBA留学