Attend The MBA Tour and World MBA Tour Events!

The MBA Tour has now posted its Fall 2008 schedule and The World MBA Tour has has posted its Summer 2008 schedule. If you can attend one or both of these MBA fairs I suggest doing so. Depending on your location, early registration may be advisable. These fairs are a great way of getting a huge amount of information quickly, possibly networking with admissions officers and alum, and getting free pens!

While these massive fairs can be helpful, they are an imperfect substitute for attending a school-specific admissions or alumni events or, better yet, visiting a school. Keep in mind that being well informed about where you apply can often be critical, especially for more selective programs. Intensive and extensive networking with admissions officers, alum, and current students is something you should prepare yourself for and these fairs are a good first step.

If you want to do an open invitation interview, now is the time to start getting your resume in order. A number of these schools will likely be doing interviewing, so while you may still be focused on GMAT and or iBT TOEFL right now, you should start to think about preparing for such interviews. For my post on interview strategy, click here. Additionally see here for how to start formulating your goals. Of course, you should also think about whether you really need an MBA.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.
-Adam Markusアダム マーカス

カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 ビジネススクール

Good TOEFL iBT Speaking Section Preparation?

I asked this same question in April, but I will ask again: Does anyone know of any particularly good TOEFL iBT Speaking Section preparation courses? At least here in Japan, I have not received very favorable comments from my clients about the iBT Speaking courses that are available in Tokyo (perhaps, I am unaware of a good one, I hope). I asked this same question to my fellow AIGAC (Association of International Graduate Admission Consultants) members, but without receiving any reply from them, so I am guessing that no one has yet developed a very effective test solution to this section other than the obvious: Study and practice English speaking intensely because the new TOEFL is a test of real ability. Actually that was the conclusion I came to when I analyzed what ETS wrote about their test. Read more about my analysis of the new TOEFL iBT here.

If anyone has had good experiences with any form (live classes, one-to-one sessions, and/or internet-based) of TOEFL iBT Speaking test preparation available in any country, please email me at adammarkus@gmail.com.

Also, in the unlikely event that someone who teaches ibt TOEFL Speaking reads this post and thinks that they have an effective teaching solution to the Speaking test and/or to the other sections of the TOEFL, please contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com. If I find that you have an effective solution, I will be happy to consider promoting it.

-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

TOEFL ibt スコア スピーキングセクション

School Selection: Career Prospects

This is part of my continuing series on school selection. Beyond other considerations, such as general selection strategy, ranking, location, financing your education, academic fit, and prestige, you should select degree programs that will support your career goals. This is a huge consideration that not only involves what you can learn, but also whether the career placement services, alumni network, and market value of the degree will provide you with the right kind of support to help you obtain employment after you finish. This applies as much to doctoral programs in English Literature as it does to more career focused degrees like an MBA, LL.M, or MPA.

You should of course consider the specific ROI (Return on Investment) that you can expect from the degree based upon your goals. If possible, actually calculate your anticipated ROI. This is especially useful for comparing programs. Most programs can provide some data on starting salaries and placement of their graduates.

Next consider how a degree from the school will be perceived in your intended field. Beyond mere calculations of ROI based on objective considerations of starting salary, what is the likely value of a degree from the school to your career? A school might have an overall great reputation (see my earlier post on prestige), but how is it perceived in your field? Is a graduate degree even valued? If so, how important is where you have it from?

Consider whether companies or organizations that you want to work for recruit from the school. After all if you want to work for the UN, GE Capital, Boston Consulting Group, etc., you would most certainly best be served by going to a school with the right recruiting history. While past performance is no guarantee of future success, it is a strong indicator of the likely outcome. This also applies to academic hiring as well. If the newly minted Ph.D.'s from the top ten program in your field that you considering applying to consistently get hired by small and medium middle ranked universities in the Midwest and Southwest, your chances to get immediately hired by Harvard or Princeton are likely to be remote. Realism and a willingness to do a little research will help you understand what you can expect as a result of having a degree from the a particular program. Additionally, such research will allow you to make the strongest possible case in your statement of purpose/goals essay about why a particular program best meets your professional objectives.

The value of the career services office should also be an important consideration for some applicants. The quality of such services vary greatly between schools and within schools. Generally speaking MBA programs have their own stand alone career services office, while other graduate programs may or may not have such offices. While the services will vary, a good career services office will help you practice interviewing, maximize the effectiveness of your resume, help you find internships, set-up on-campus recruiting, facilitate off-campus recruiting, and provide professional career counseling. A career services office is an integral and key part of top MBA programs. For those applying to programs outside of their home country who intend to return to their home country, the value of a career services office may not be that significant. I know from talking to many of my former Japanese clients who attended top US graduate schools that for purposes of getting hired back in Japan, The Boston Career Forum and recruiting connected to it was much more significant to them than the career services office.

Finally, if you are really uncertain about what you want to do after you graduate (what you write in your essays is a completely different issue), I suggest applying to schools where you be able to maximize your opportunities and that will help direct you into a post-degree career. That is to say, apply to programs that will provide you with career counseling, that have an established record of job placement, and can attract a wide group of recruiters. If you need help, you better go somewhere where you can get it.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.
-Adam Markusアダム マーカス

カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 ビジネススクール 米国ロースクール 米国大学法学院 大学院入学 大学院合格対策 キャリアフォーラム

U. of Virginia Darden 1st Year MBA Student Interview

Naomi Uchida, a first year MBA student at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and my former client, was kind enough to answer my questions. Naomi has her bachelors from New York University. She subsequently worked for a Japanese bank in New York City and then a real estate investment firm in Tokyo prior to joining Darden's Class of 2009.
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Adam: Darden is often referred to as the boot camp of MBA programs for its intensity. Looking at your first year schedule, I can kind of see why. So how hard has it been?

Naomi: I learned very quickly that they were not joking when they said Darden is a boot camp. First of all there is the workload. We have 3 cases a day, which means 3 cases we need to prepare for on our own prior to our learning team. Apart from the cases we need to squeeze in recruiting briefings and guest speakers in our afternoons. In the early evenings we get together in our learning team and go over the cases again. The next morning these cases get discussed in the classroom, which is an intensive and engaging environment where we get cold-called and our ideas that we worked through with our respective learning teams get challenged day in and day out. You have to be willing to work hard, because Darden will not be a 2-year vacation from your job. But I have found it to be a constant battle between sleep, getting cases done, recruiting events, and squeezing in time for yourself (workouts, social events).

Adam: Can you explain the role of the Case Method at Darden?

Naomi: Darden trains us to think and act like managers. In a case method classroom, everyone is prepared, ready to jump right into the case when class begins. We argue with each other about certain key aspects of the case, and defend our positions to our classmates who often have opposing ideas. The professors' role is to be the moderator, not the lecturer. The case method is what defines Darden, and what gives this program the intensity that is often spoken of. I have learned to explain myself very well, since they teach us that the process is more important than getting the right answer.

Adam: What was your Learning Team like?

Naomi: I am very fortunate to have ended up with an incredible group of people in my learning team. There are 6 of us: 2 international students, 2 women, and all of us have different professional backgrounds. During the first 3 quarters at Darden, we met almost every night at 7:30pm before a school day ( which typically was Sunday through Thursday). We would have done our cases on our own by then, and be ready to discuss the cases. Since we have different strengths and weaknesses, I felt that we really depended on each other at times for knowledge in certain areas such as accounting, operations, and marketing.

This is a big time commitment for all First Years. Beginning in Quarter 2 the Darden program gets even more intense, and we were spending 3 hours every night in our learning team. However, I came away feeling that I have a special bond with these 5 people, and we tried to get together once in a while in Quarter 4 for dinner.

Adam: Would you mind explaining the role of the Honor Code?

Naomi: It is because of the honor code that we have the privilege of being able to do certain things at Darden. For instance, we can leave our laptops anywhere at school and know that it will be right where we left it. It is the reason why our exams are take-home, open notes and open-book. By signing the honor code prior to beginning each exam, we pledge that the work will be our own, and that we have not exceeded the time limit (typically 5 hours).

Adam: Do you actually have any time for clubs? If so, which ones are you active in?

Naomi: To be completely honest I have not had much time for clubs for the first 3 quarters. In Quarter 4, I got elected as the Vice President of Events for the International Business Society so I have been organizing the remainder of this year's events for the club and planning next year's events (guest speakers, international food festival, etc).

Adam: Are there any common characteristics you find amongst your classmates?

Naomi: We are a very diverse crowd, but one consistent characteristic I found was that everyone is willing to help each other out. We are graded on a forced curve as First Years at Darden which puts us all in competition with each other so that we do not end up in the bottom of the forced curve. Despite that, students lead the review sessions we have prior to exams and offer the limited time that they have to give tutoring lessons to those who are struggling with the course material.

Adam: Since you did your Bachelors at NYU, I was wondering what it was like for you to now be studying in a relatively small college town.

Naomi: Living in a college town is a lot of fun. The town is defined by UVA (for e.g., the local restaurants are closed during home football games). You do not have the advantage of anonymity --whether you are at the grocery store or the driving range, you will always find someone from school there. It certainly is a world of a difference from my life at NYU--at NYU I recall going to classes, occasionally having lunch at the student center, and going home directly after classes. At Darden I am completely immersed in school, and almost everything I do has to do with Darden or UVA. I attend home football games, represent Darden and volunteer in Charlottesville, go to a professor's home for dinner….these activities also gave me a lot of opportunity to get to know my classmates.

Adam: What are your favorite MBA related blogs?

Naomi: I cannot say I have accessed MBA blogs lately (meaning after coming to Darden) to tell you the truth. But here's an interesting article written by a classmate of mine--it really sums up the life of a Darden First Year.

Adam: Anything else you would like to tell us?

Naomi: Darden is tough, and you will most likely miss your job/hometown/friends/pets when you first get here. But once your routine becomes a well-oiled machine, you realize you are surrounded by an incredible group of classmates, professors and staff who are always willing to help you. The case method, honor code, learning teams are all key components of the Darden program. However, it is the people that make the program great.

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I want to thank Naomi for taking the time to answer my questions. Japanese who are considering application to Darden should most certainly visit the Japanese language Darden MBA Blog.

Question? Comments? Email me at adammarkus@gmail.com
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 ダーデン

School Selection: Prestige

In this post I will consider the most nebulious school selection that can have real lifetime consequences: prestige. Beyond other considerations, such as ranking, location, financing your education, and academic fit, I always think it is worth considering the general prestige value of the degree. For some strategic advice on school selection, please read my earlier post here. To a certain extent, this is always a relative question, but it would be absurd to ignore the fact that a degree from Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, and other internationally recognized brand names carry value beyond whatever the degree is in. You might not be a snob, but the guy who is considering hiring you when you decide to change careers in ten years might be.

School snobbery is ugly, but often inescapable. It is the underside of meritocracy based on education. You may have obtained an excellent education, have a high GPA, but if you graduated from a school without prestige, your education will not be valued highly. One can make the decision to simply ignore prestige, but doing so may come at a cost. Unlike what you actually learn, the prestige value or lack of it of a degree, will always be with you and cannot be easily undone (except by obtaining a higher prestige degree). For some, prestige will never matter, but for others it will determine what sort of position they can obtain out of school and limit who will even read their resumes.

The value of a prestigious degree for hiring is obvious: It is more likely to get you an interview. The degree may not get you the job. I try to never confuse prestige with actual ability. One of worst managers I ever worked with, a perpetual job changer, was a Stanford GSB alum. There are always people who look good on paper. I know because when I was doing hiring, I invited them for interviews. Did I miss someone who was good as a result? Probably, but the organizations I was working for imposed standards on me and I followed them. That is one impact of prestige.

The networking value of prestigious varies with the culture of the school and the strength of the alumni organization, but generally speaking, the higher the prestige, the stronger the network. After all, people want to continue to associate themselves with institutions that bring them status and often avoid those that don't. It is no surprise that many of the world's most prestigious schools have alum club facilities located in major metropolitan areas, while less prestigious institutions do not.

Prestige can be location specific. There are many schools that have regional prestige by virtue of the fact that they are the best institution in a particular city, region, or even country. If you are residing in an area where the school is perceived as prestigious, you are benefiting from it, but if you are not residing there, the degree may have little or negative prestige value.

Prestige can be industry or even company specific. As with location, if you intend to work in an industry or a company where a particular school has prestige, you obtaining a benefit that may end if your career direction takes a new turn.

Prestige changes: Some schools rise and others fall in prestige. When you look at where to go, especially with newer schools and middle ranked programs, ask yourself whether the school appears to be increasing or decreasing in prestige. Obviously you want to invest in a degree at a school where the prestige is increasing.


Ask yourself: Are there any negative consequences to having a degree from this institution? Just as some schools have a prestige factor, others may carry a negative factor. Be especially careful with distance and online programs. From my perspective, if you do attend a distance or online program, go with a well-established program at a reputable university. I can't comment on the education you might get from a school with very little reputation or history, but if I were being conservative about it, I would avoid such programs.

I would never say that prestige is everything, but most certainly is a real consideration. Prestige is a matter of perception, subject to indvidual or group whim, damaging to egos, and ultimately an important part of any rational school selection process.

MAY 29th Update: I found the following in-house advertisement in the May 29th daily email bulletin from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Higher education leaders are facing increased competition for top students and faculty, as well as research grants and donations. Market research into public awareness and perception has become increasingly important for institutions in developing effective branding and recruiting strategies, and having access to the right research tools is critical. The Chronicle/Gallup Panel is the most effective way to gauge the views of the American public on a wide range of topics.

If America's primary higher education industry publication has partnered with one of America's top polling organizations to provide schools with information on the value of their brand, it is rather obvious that prestige is something to be taken seriously.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.

-Adam Markusアダム マーカス
カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 ハーバード ビジネススクール 米国ロースクール 米国大学法学院 大学院入学 大学院合格対策