Interview with Duke Class of 2010 MBA Student

My former client, Mr. Hazuki Suzuki, was kind enough to answer my questions about his experience at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Prior to attending Duke, Hazuki worked for software companies as an IT consultant for seven years. Most recently, he was a project leader of global system implementation projects for major pharmaceutical and medical companies. He is currently focusing on healthcare management.

Adam: What has your first year been like?

Hazuki: My first year experience forced me to expand my perspective through interactions with diverse students, and gave me opportunities to think about my career. Although sometimes I felt stressful, I was getting used to it and could become more active to facilitate team meetings and join extracurricular events.

Adam: What was the Global institute like?

Hazuki: The Global Institute (GI) was an intensive, three-week summer term and GI had two core courses, Global Institutions and Environments (GIE) and Leadership, Ethics and Organizations (LEO). I learned global institutions such as laws, conventions, and organizations in GIE, and managerial effectiveness in LEO.

Adam: As you know, Fuqua emphasizes collaborative leadership. What exactly does that mean? How is it reflected in your curriculum?

Hazuki: I think collaborative leadership means that everyone is a leader and a member simultaneously. A leader is a person who takes initiative and makes a difference. If every one of the team members takes an initiative and makes a difference, that’s collaborative leadership. Personally, I feel that a team led by collaborative leadership is similar to a jazz band where there’s no conductor (like orchestra) and each player exchanges inspirations. I think that the collaborative leadership is beneficial to utilize the diversity of team members and win successes under a complicated and rapidly-changing global economy.

In our curriculum, there are a lot of opportunities to learn and experience collaborative leadership. For example, we learned and discussed the concepts of collaborative leadership in LEO classes. Every student is assigned to an ILE (Integrated Leadership Experience) team, which has six members of diverse cultures and professional backgrounds. In all courses at Fuqua, the professor gives team assignments. Students work with the team members to analyze a case, conduct a research, and make a write-up or a presentation whichever is required. In this process, each student is required to demonstrate collaborative leadership.

Additionally, one second year student is assigned to every ILE team as a mentor, and holds meetings periodically to exchange feedbacks of daily team works for each team member. Through feedback sessions, I learned how my team members saw my contributions to team, strengths and weaknesses of my leadership.

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

Hazuki: It depends on how you prioritize your commitment. Clubs are one of the most useful resources for job search and, thus, most students actively participate in club activities. Of course some clubs are purely for enjoying hobbies. Fuqua also provides many leadership positions such as Admission Fellow, Alumni Fellow, and Leadership Fellow. These are also great opportunities to build your leadership experience.

In my case, however, I’m not in charge of any cabinet roles of clubs. During my first year, I joined some conference events as an audience member, and performed a mandolin (a string instrument) solo music at Fuqua Idol event hosted by Art & Music Club. This is also possible at Fuqua because we have a substantial leeway about how we spend our time.

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

Hazuki: Generally speaking, my classmates are friendly and supportive. They are easy to talk and get along with. I think that the slogan of “Team Fuqua” works to collect applicants who are comfortable to work as a team, and reminds current students to be supportive if anybody initiates something new or/and interesting.

Adam: Do you have any specific advice for those considering application to Fuqua?

Hazuki: I recommend applicants to consider how they leverage resources at Duke to achieve their career goals. Some may focus on general management, or major in Health Sector Management. And recently, more students seem to be interested in energy & environment. If you want, Duke enables you to take interdisciplinary approaches by accessing resources in other schools. Actually, some students take classes at Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke University School of Law. It’s worth to plan your curriculum and activities at Fuqua during your school research so that you can include specific plans in your essay.

Additionally, it’s important to consider whether your current or ideal leadership style fits Fuqua’s concepts, such as collaborative leadership and Team Fuqua. I think each business school has unique leadership concept and approach to provide opportunities to learn it. When you review your leadership experiences and career goal, if you find something similar to the school’s thoughts or which you want to add to you, it’s worth to show them in your essay and tell them during an interview.

Adam: As you know, Fuqua really emphasizes making contributions and diversity in its application essays, so do you have specific advice for applicants? In other words, how do think applicants should answer questions like “How will your background, values, and non-work activities enhance the experience of other Duke MBA students and add value to Fuqua's diverse culture?”

Hazuki: After I started my life at Fuqua, I actually noticed my uniqueness among classmates. I recommend applicants to list their attributes of professional, cultural and personal backgrounds. It should be a good strategy to write one specific and memorable story which represents your unique characteristics, and show how you apply your abilities and experiences to Fuqua’s academic, extra-curricular and social communities and activities.

Fuqua has a lot of opportunities to exercise your uniqueness. For example, you can add new aspects by telling your opinions and experiences during classes and team meetings. Your professional skills for project management, quantitative/qualitative analysis or presentation should be assets for your academic team. If you have talents in sports or art, you may want to organize such events. If you have an academic or professional expertise and take a high grade in a specific class, you can be in charge of a tutor for the class to teach students as requested. Holding cultural presentations and events are also welcomed.

Adam: What impact has the financial crisis had on life at Fuqua?

Hazuki: Because of the stagnant economy, students encounter difficulties to find summer internship and full-time job offers. But we still have opportunities to find interesting positions. Actually, some Japanese second year students won full-time offers from US companies.

Adam: What are your favorite MBA related blogs (English or Japanese sites)?

Hazuki: We current students have a blog and write our lives at Fuqua.

Adam: Anything else you would like to tell us?

Hazuki: It must be a stressful experience to prepare applications for MBA programs. But I think that even the application process is an opportunity to think back on you and consider your future career. So I hope that you stay positive and win admissions.

For Japanese applicants, if you have any questions about Fuqua, please feel free to get in touch with us through the following website: http://mbaa.fuqua.duke.edu/aabc/Japanese/index.html

Good Luck!

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I want to thank Hazuki for taking the time to answer my questions. You can read my interview with a Class of 2009 student here.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

MBA留学 ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング デューク大学フュークアスクールオブビジネス

How to Beat “The Curse of the Class of 2009”

My guest blogger, Steve Green, provides some insightful remarks on why now may be a very good time to go to graduate school.
-Adam

How to Beat “The Curse of the Class of 2009”

Here’s some unsurprising news from the Wall Street Journal: “The bad news for this spring's college graduates is that they're entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years.”

As writer Sarah Murray notes, however, that’s not the whole unpleasant story. “The worse news: Even those who land jobs will likely suffer lower wages for a decade or more compared to those lucky enough to graduate in better times, studies show.”

Murray cites research by Lisa Kahn, an economist at Yale School of Management, “for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate, those with the misfortune to graduate during the recession earned 7% to 8% less in their first year out than comparable workers who graduated in better times. The effect persisted over many years, with recession-era grads earning 4% to 5% less by their 12th year out of college, and 2% less by their 18th year out.”

So, this spring’s graduates are cursed not only with reduced job prospects now but also lower wages for the next decade or more.

How can you increase your odds to beat this curse? Earn a graduate degree. According to Professor Kahn, college grads who went to graduate school instead of the job market during the early '80s recession didn't suffer the same wage losses.

Conclusion: If you have been thinking about earning a graduate degree, then now may be the best time for both immediate and long-term reasons. Of course, it is a bad idea to enter graduate school merely to escape the economy or only to increase your chances of a better salary without thinking about what kind of work fires your passions.

As in any year, and for anyone thinking about going to grad school, before you apply:

• Have a clear idea of what you want to study

• Envision your post-graduation career path and make sure the grad degree really is the best vehicle for that path

• Be honest about whether or not you are willing to take on student loans and/or spend your savings on grad school

• Start to prepare your application now (See my previous post on getting an early start to the process.)

- H. Steven Green

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

The 41 "Top 20" MBA Programs Averaged Ranking

This is the second of two posts on "Top 20" MBA Rankings. If you have not done so, I suggest reading the first post before reading this second post.

In what follows, I have built upon the data I collected on the 41 programs worldwide (See my previous post) that are generally identified by major ranking lists as "Top 20." While it seemed quite useful to simply collect all the data together so that I could see which programs were considered "Top 20" by the most well known ranking lists, I wanted to see what would happen if I simply determined the average ranking for each of the41 schools and so that is what I did below.

"CALCULATION OF AVERAGE RANKINGS FOR "THE 41 TOP 20 MBA PROGRAMS WORLDWIDE"

METHOD: Actually I copied this method from one used by Real Clear Politics (RCP) for looking at Polling Data. The situation is similar because the RCP averages, just like mine, do not take account for differences in the methods by which the initial calculations were made. I will not enter into the debate about the various problems with all of these publications' rankings as they all have problems. As I am no statistician, I used the following rather simple method to make my calculation:

1. Schools that were not ranked in the Top 20 on a specific list that they qualified for were given the value of 21. By assigning the value of 21, I have not weighted the value of the individual rankings.

2. I calculated average value by taking scores for all six rankings and
dividing by4 for US programs and 3 for non-US Programs as
US News and World Report only ranks US.

3. The school with the lowest total has the top average rank.

4. Schools with the same average numerical value have the same rank.


Obvious unsolved problems with my methods that I am aware of :
-Some rankings do not actually rank 20 programs.
- While US News and W World Report, FT, and EIU's each have one comprehensive list, Businessweek break-up schools into two lists, which results in it having more impact on the averaged ranking.
-I could have used FT's regional lists, but choose to use the Worldwide list.
- All schools that were not in the Top 20 were given a 21 regardless of their "real rank" on a list.

OBVIOUS WARNING: THIS LIST IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE!
One thing I find highly problematic about "Top 20" rankings is that they are never comprehensive. This list of forty-one "Top 20"schools suffers from the same problem. Notable absences from this list include HEC Paris, USC, and SDA Bocconi. Rankings are merely "a map," but certainly not "the territory" (actual value of a degree to specific person, actual market value of the degree, actual brand value of the degree, actual measure of the educational value of the degree).

Here is the result (Click to enlarge it):
In the event that you should want to copy the rankings, here they are:

Averaged Rank for the 41 "Top 20" MBA Programs
1 Harvard Business School
1 Stanford University GSB
3 London Business School
3 University of Chicago: Booth
5 IE Business School
6 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
7 IMD
8 IESE Business School
9 INSEAD
10 Dartmouth College: Tuck
11 Columbia Business School
11 MIT: Sloan
13 New York University: Stern
14 Northwestern University: Kellogg
15 University of California at Berkeley: Haas
16 Queen's Univeristy School of Business
17 ESADE Business School
17 University of Cambridge: Judge
17 University of Michigan: Ross
20 University of Western Ontario: Ivey
21 Duke University: Fuqua
22 Hong Kong UST Business School
23 CEIBS
23 University of Toronto: Rotman
25 University of Oxford: Saïd
26 Cornell University: Johnson
26 UCLA: Anderson
28 Yale School of Management
29 University of Virginia: Darden
30 Cranfield School of Management
31 Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
32 Carnegie Mellon: Tepper
32 Indian School of Business
32 York University: Schulich
35 Indiana University: Kelley
36 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
37 Southern Methodist University (Cox)
37 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs
39 Georgetown University: McDonough
40 Henley Business School
41 University of Notre Dame: Mendoza

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

MBA留学 ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA ランキング

Rankings For the 41 "Top 20" MBA Programs Worldwide

This is the first of two posts on "Top 20" MBA Programs. The second post can be found here.

This is the second year in a row that I decided to do a comparison of the "Top 20" MBA Rankings from BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, US News and World Report, and The Economist Intelligence Unit. Last year, I included The Wall Street Journal, but since that their recruiter's poll has not been updated since 2007, I decided not to include this year. I also previously included Forbes, but since everyone ignores these rankings, I have as well. Since 2001, when I started working as an admissions consultant, I have yet to encounter anyone who takes Forbes into account. I am not actually convinced that most of my clients are even aware of the Forbes' rankings. Also see my fabulous ranking of MBA programs by post-MBA starting salary.

WHY RANKINGS MATTER
MBA Rankings are important because applicants, recruiters, students, and the schools themselves pay great attention to them. As to their basis in reality, I am not a statistician, so I can't judge their validity as measurements. I won't even try. For me the chief value in MBA rankings is that they provide lists of schools that are generally thought to be superior by enough people and institutions so that the authors of the rankings are taken somewhat seriously. Applicants take them seriously enough when selecting where to apply. B-Schools take them seriously enough to mention their rankings.

RANKINGS: Caveat Emptor!
Global and US national rankings inherently hide the local value of a particular school. It may very well be the case that a school ranks in the "Top 20," but has no name brand value in a particular market. As I have worked with an increasingly diverse client-base, I have come to realize that what may be an excellent choice for a banker in Japan, might make a lousy choice for entrepreneur in the UK. It may very well be the case that Notre Dame is a good choice for an American who wishes to work in Indiana, but what possible brand value can it provide to an Indian in Mumbai? For said hypothetical Indian, a local program in India, one without any international brand value, might be a much better choice. So while rankings are worth looking at, I do suggest that you really evaluate a school from the perspective of its value in terms of the job market(s) that you want to compete in.

If your intention is to be global and jump around the world than apply to MBA programs that have global brand value. You will likely find that a mixture of US and European programs best fit this description. In this sense, some rankings are particularly unhelpful. For instance, BusinessWeek ranks Queens University as the best non-US MBA program. I suppose if one is in Canada this is a quite a helpful thing, but I can say that the school has zero brand value here in Japan as well as in the US. Perhaps it has brand value somewhere aside from Canada, but except for Dubai, where it has a campus, I doubt it. Of course, the idea of separating the world into US and non-US programs is itself a clear sign that BW's perspective is inherently American. By contrast, what I appreciate about US News and World Report rankings is that they at least have the good sense to focus on what they can responsibility cover (US only). FT and The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) are the only MBA rankings that attempt to cover the world from a mostly global perspective (The placement of so many UK programs on the top of the EIU list is somewhat troubling). Covering the entire planet is not an easy thing to do and there are certainly times when I have looked at the EIU or FT rankings with great suspicion, but one must say their rankings are at least quite international. EIU's rankings always strike me as particularly odd because they seem to have little to do with the way my clients, regardless of nationality, rank these schools.

WHY TOP 20?
Initially, I started looking at "Top 20" lists because of a real issue that some of my Japanese clients have regularly faced. If you are told that your company will only sponsor you for a "Top 20" MBA program, then you will have to take these lists seriously. I always have had Japanese clients who have been under such constraints. I hope the following is somewhat helpful to them. Otherwise, I have focused on "Top 20" primarily because most of my MBA clients, regardless of their nationality, are only applying to and getting admitted to "Top 20" programs. Needless to say, the forty schools that are accounted for here are not necessarily the best forty-one business schools in the world. The inclusion or exclusion of a school from this list in no way should be assumed to be my view about which schools actually are "Top 20."

What I have done here is simply take all the major lists and look only at the rankings for top 20 programs as ranked by BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, US News and World Report, and The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Following this table, you see each ranking list. Note: If less than 20 programs are listed that is because less than 20 were ranked.

To best view the following table, click on it.
The rankings lists:

BusinessWeek
Rankings from November 2008. Next Rankings will be in October or November 2010.

Top 20 US
Top 30 U.S. Programs
1 University of Chicago (Booth)
2 Harvard University
3 Northwestern University (Kellogg)
4 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5 University of Michigan (Ross)
6 Stanford University
7 Columbia University
8 Duke University (Fuqua)
9 MIT (Sloan)
10 UC Berkeley (Haas)
11 Cornell University (Johnson)
12 Dartmouth (Tuck)
13 NYU (Stern)
14 UCLA (Anderson)
15 Indiana University (Kelley)
16 University of Virginia (Darden)
17 UNC - Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
18 Southern Methodist (Cox)
19 Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
20 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)

Non-U.S. Top 10 MBA Programs
1 Queen's University
2 IE Business School
3 INSEAD
4 Western Ontario (Ivey)
5 London Business School
6 ESADE
7 IMD
8 Toronto (Rotman)
9 IESE
10 Oxford (Saîd)


US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT
April 2009
1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
5. University of Chicago (Booth)
7. University of California–Berkeley (Haas)
8. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
9. Columbia University
10. Yale University
11. New York University (Stern)
12. Duke University (Fuqua)
13. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Ross)
14. University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson)
15. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
15. University of Virginia (Darden)
17. Cornell University (Johnson)
18. University of Texas–Austin (McCombs)
19. Georgetown University (McDonough)
20. Univ. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)

FINANCIAL TIMES
Top Twenty Worldwide
2009
1 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
1 London Business School
3 Harvard Business School
4 Columbia Business School
5 INSEAD
6 Stanford University GSB
6 IE Business School
8 CEIBS
9 MIT: Sloan
10 New York University: Stern
11 University of Chicago: Booth
12 IESE Business School
13 Dartmouth College: Tuck
14 IMD
15 Indian School of Business (ISB)
16 Hong Kong UST Business School
17 University of Cambridge: Judge
18 ESADE Business School
19 Yale School of Management
20 University of Oxford: Saïd

ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
2008 Ranking
1. IMD - International Institute for Management Development
2. IESE Business School - University of Navarra
3. Chicago, University of - Booth School of Business
4. Stanford Graduate School of Business
5. Dartmouth College--Tuck School of Business
6. California at Berkeley, University of--Haas School of Business
7. Cambridge, University of - Judge Business School
8. New York University - Leonard N Stern School of Business
9. London Business School
10. IE Business School
11. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology -- School of Business and Management
12. Harvard Business School
13. Cranfield School of Management
14. Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
15. York University - Schulich School of Business
16. Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
17. Pennsylvania, University of - Wharton School
18. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT Sloan School of Management
19. INSEAD
20. Henley Business School at the University of Reading


This is the first of two posts on "Top 20" MBA Programs. The second post can be found here.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

MBA留学 ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA ランキング

Columbia Business School January Term 2010 Essays

JULY 30, 2009 NOTE: My analysis for Early and Regular Decision for Fall 2010 is now up. That post updates some of the links found below.

In this post I discuss the essay questions for admission to the Columbia School of Business January 2010 Accelerated MBA. I also discuss the reapplication essay question below. Finally, don't forget to read my concluding remarks.

The applications for Fall 2010 Early Decision and Regular Decision are not available yet. There is the possibility of the questions changing for Fall 2010 as Columbia has altered its essay set frequently for the last several years. I will post an analysis of the September 2010 term essay questions once they become available. While in this post I will discuss why January Term might be a good option, you can find my older post on who should apply for Early Decision here.

The Columbia essay set is rather small as we will see. It most certainly emphasizes why CBS best fits your goals (Essay 1), learning based on a practical experience (Essay 2), and learning from team failure (Essay 3). This is not an essay set that emphasizes personality.

I have taken the January 2010 questions from the online application:

1. What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)

Over the years, Columbia has been very consistent in the way they ask this question. At first glance, it does seem pretty straightforward and common, but if you have looked at other schools' essays, you will likely notice that something is missing from it. Compare it to Wharton and you will see that there is no reference to the past. While one must certainly address one's past when answering this question, there should be no extended analysis of your career progress to date and you need not emphasize how your past experience will contribute to your future goals. Instead focus this essay on showing how Columbia will help you achieve your goals. It is critical that you explain why the January Term program is right for you. According to the Columbia website:

The Accelerated MBA is ideal for you if

• you are an entrepreneur;
• you want to join your family business;
• you plan to return to your current employer;
• you are sponsored by your company;
• you want to remain in the same industry;
• you have built a strong professional network in the industry of your choice.

The program is designed for those students who do not want or need an internship. The principal advantage of the 16-month program is its accelerated format, which allows members of the smaller January class to network quickly and effectively and return to the workplace sooner.

Obviously you need to make the case that you meet the special criteria for this program and that an internship is not something critical for you. For those who don't need an internship, this is really a great program. Of course, even if you wanted an internship, in the present circumstance, those are getting harder to find. If you think that an internship is not critical to your post-MBA goals, J-term is a great program.

The resources available at CBS and Columbia University are vast, so figure out specifically what you want from the school. The program is flexible, so identify your needs from Columbia as specifically as possible. Also keep in mind that CBS recently changed its core curriculum. After all, you want to show them you love and need them (See my post on Early Decision for an analysis of Columbia's acceptances rate and yield in comparison to other top programs). For learning about what is hot at Columbia, I suggest taking a look at their blog: Public Offering. Also look at Hermes which provides news on the Columbia community. You may also want to write about taking a Master Class, so see the next question. Japanese applicants should most certainly visit http://columbiamba.jimdo.com/index.php.
Making a clear case why your goals are best achieved at CBS should be at the core of the essay. To make sure that they can see that, be very specific about what you need to learn at CBS to achieve your goals. I suggest reviewing some of the full course descriptions that you can find on their website.

If you are having problems clearly articulating your goals, I suggest using my GAP, SWOT, AND ROI TABLE FOR FORMULATING GRADUATE DEGREE GOALS f (see below). I think Gap, SWOT, and ROI analysis are great ways for understanding what your goals are, why you want a degree, and how you will use it. (Click here for a GMAC report on MBA ROI. )

(To best view the following table, click on it. For a word version, please email me at adammarkus@gmail.com)

How to use this table:

Step 1. Begin by analyzing your "Present Situation." What job(s) have you held? What was/is your functional role(s)? What was/are your responsibilities?

Next, analyze your present strengths and weaknesses for succeeding in your present career. REMEMBER:WHEN YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS DON'T ONLY THINK ABOUT WORK, THINK ABOUT OTHER ASPECTS OF YOUR LIFE. In particular, some of your greatest strengths may have been demonstrated outside of work, so make sure you are accounting for them.
Strengths: What are you good at? Where do you add value? What are you praised for? What are you proud of?
Weakness: What are you bad at? What are you criticized for? What do you try to avoid due to your own limitations? What do you fear?

Next, analyze the environment you work in right now. What opportunities exist for your growth and success? What threats could limit your career growth?

Step 2. Now, do the same thing in Step 1 for your "Post-Degree" future after you have earned your graduate degree. IF YOU CANNOT COMPLETE STEP 2, YOU HAVE NOT SUFFICIENTLY PLANNED FOR YOUR FUTURE and therefore you need to do more research and need to think more about it.

Step 3. If you could complete step 2, than you should see the "Gap" between your present and your future. What skills, knowledge, and other resources do you need to close the gap between your present and future responsibilities, strengths, and opportunities?

Step 4. After completing Step 3, you now need to determine how an MBA will add value to you. It is possible that an increased salary as a result of job change will be sufficient "ROI" for the degree to justify itself, but you should show how a degree will allow you to reach your career goals. How will the degree enhance your skills and opportunities and help you overcome your weaknesses and external threats? If you can complete Step 4 than you should be ready to explain what your goals are, why you want a degree, and the relationship between your past and future career, as well as your strengths and weaknesses.

The above table will also help you answer such common interview questions as: Where do you want to work after you finish your degree? Why do you want an MBA (or other degree)? What are you strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your goals? Thinking about these issues now will help you to develop a fully worked-out strategy for how you will best present yourself both in the application and in an interview.

ARE YOUR GOALS HOT?
Making career goals exciting requires thinking about whether your goals are compelling. Admissions committees ask applicants to write about their goals after graduate school, but can applicants actually know what will be on the cutting-edge in two or three years? While many applicants will be able to successfully apply with relatively standard goals ("I want to be a consultant because..."), communicating aspirations requires going beyond the typical.

Be informed. Columbia Admissions needs to believe you know what you are talking about. If you are changing careers, no one expects you to be an expert, but you should come across as having a clear plan based on real research into your future. If you are planning on staying in your present industry, you should be well informed not only about the companies you have worked for, but about the industry as a whole. If you are not already doing so, read industry related publications and network.

Those who are changing fields should most certainly read industry related publications in their intended field. Additionally I suggest conducting informational interviews with at least one peer level and one senior level person in that field. Conduct a peer level interview to get a good idea of what it would be like to actually work in that industry. Conduct a senior level interview to get the perspective of someone who can see the big picture and all the little details as well.

Don't know anyone in your intended field? Network! One great way to start is through LinkedIn. Another is by making use of your undergraduate alumni network and/or career center.

LEARN WHAT IS HOT. No matter whether you are changing fields or not, learn what is hot now and try to figure out what will be hot by the time you graduate. Now, of course, this is just a plan and chances are that what is hot in your industry or field now may very well be cold in the future. The point is to come across to Columbia Adcom as someone who is not only well informed, but has CUTTING-EDGE knowledge. In addition to Columbia's Public Offering blog, also look at ideas@work, and The Chazen Web Journal of International Business. Some other great general sources for learning what is hot: Harvard Working Knowledge, Harvard Business Review, University of Chicago GSB's Working Papers, The University of Chicago's Capital Ideas, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Knowledge @ Wharton, and MIT Sloan Management Review.

You may also want to do a search on itunes for podcasts: My favorites are Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (from the Stanford School of Engineering, but totally relevant) Net Impact, Chicago GSB Podcast Series, and Harvard Business IdeaCast. INSEAD, IMD, LBS, and Wharton also have podcasts.

LinkedIn Answers: Also consider joining LinkedIn and make use of LinkedIn Answers. LinkedIn Answers is a great way to tap into cutting edge expertise (including my admissions advice!). Follow LinkedIn's rules and you will often be able to obtain excellent information.

Hoovers: For information about specific companies, Hoovers is just a great way to learn about key facts including competitors (a very useful way of knowing who else you might want to work for and to learn about an industry). While primarily focused on the US, Hoovers does have listings for companies worldwide.

Vault: For scope of coverage, this site is a must. Vault includes both career and admissions information. It includes both company specific and industry-wide information.

Other sources: Read magazines, websites, and books that relate to your intended field.


2. Master Classes are the epitome of bridging the gap between theory and practice at Columbia Business School. View link below. Please provide an example from your own life in which practical experience taught you more than theory alone. (Recommended 500 word limit) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4698876883776961370&hl=en

Before doing anything, watch the Master Class video. If, at the end of the video, you are not highly motivated by what you have seen, don't apply to Columbia and reconsider whether you really want an MBA. From my perspective, the video does an excellent job of selling Columbia, of differentiating it from other top schools (see the HBS Case Study video for an interesting contrast), and of informing the viewer about exactly what practice is. The message is clear: Columbia will teach you how to do business, go elsewhere (HBS for case studies and Chicago GSB for lectures, perhaps) if you primarily want to just learn business theory.

At first glance, some might find this essay question difficult, but actually it is rather simple:
1. Pick an experience in your own life where you learned more from practice than theory.
2. State what the theory was.
3. Show how practice was a better teacher.
4. Describe what you learned.
5. Describe the outcome. This is not stated, but the proof of practice is in the result.
6. Keep in mind that you do not need to talk about the video or the Master Classes when answering this question. It is, of course, worth mentioning the Master Classes in Essay 1. You can view the Master Class Course Descriptions on the Columbia website.

Given that essay three is about team failure, I suggest you select an accomplishment for essay two and not a team story. It might be personal or professional. Obviously it should only be academic if the point is to show how you had to go beyond theory. Many applicants will probably write on a professional accomplishment story where they had to think and act outside of the box. This is quite a reasonable choice. Some applicants might write on something personal and it is possible for this topic to work but if that is the case, then you should be sure that what you learned and what the story reveals about you are both very significant.

3. Please provide an example of a team failure of which you've been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently? (Recommended 500 word limit)

This question combines two common topics- failure and teams.

I think the reason that business schools ask about failure is because they want to see that you have the ability to learn from errors and/or problems. Some readers will find reviewing my analysis of Wharton's failure question helpful.

Clearly, teams play an important role both in most professionals lives and at most business schools. Assessing your potential as a team leader and a team player is an important way for admissions to determine whether you will fit in their program and have the kind of predisposition to succeed professionally afterwords. It is quite a change for Columbia to be asking about teamwork ability per se, but as you look at Columbia's curriculum you will see that teamwork plays an important part in the classroom.

I think it is important that we read what is written here very closely as it will help you see that there are multiple correct ways to answer this question.

First, keep in mind that you may not necessarily have been the cause of the failure because it just simply says you are a part of a team that failed. Therefore the team will be one where you are the team leader or a team member.

Second, given that they are asking specifically about a team failure, your failure should be one where the team itself was at fault. This might seem like an obvious point, but many weak answers to this question will focus on a failure and then focus on the team as at best a secondary consideration. Make sure that your essay is one where the team aspect of the story is strong.

Third, the team could be a failure in one of two ways. One option is that the team could simply have failed to complete its external objectives due to a problem or problems relating to the composition, actions, and/or dynamics of the team itself. For example, a team fails to create a new business model due to the fact that the team leader cannot effectively manage the diverse perspectives of her team members. Another is that the team could have succeeded at its external objectives, but you might perceive it as failure due to a problem with the team. For instance, you successfully led a team to complete a project, but by the end of the project, the team members complain that you did not effectively share project responsibilities. In either case, the basic structure for this essay would most likely be:

1. Clearly state what kind of team you were on.
2. Clearly state your role on the team.
3. Explain how the team failed.
4. Explain what you learned from the failure.
5. Explain what you would do differently if you were in the same situation.

Fourth, when you think about what you learned and what you would do differently think deeply about it because you will be revealing the depth of your thinking (perhaps your EQ) about teams. Assume that the reason Columbia is asking this question is because they are looking for more students who will be effective team leaders and team players.

4. (Optional) Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.)

As with other school's optional questions, do not put an obvious essay for another school here. If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background. If you have no explanation for something negative, don't bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don't bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don't waste the committee's time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it.
You can certainly write on something positive here if you think its omission will be negative for you, but before you do, ask yourself these questions:
1. If they did not ask it, do they really need to know it?
2. Will the topic I want to discuss significantly improve my overall essay set?
3. Is the topic one that would not be covered from looking at other parts of my application?
4. Is the essay likely to be read as being a specific answer for Columbia and not an obvious essay for another school?

If you can answer "Yes!" to all four questions, it might be a good topic to write about, but my suggestion is to keep it brief so as to be consistent with the length for the other essays, ideally around 100-500 words.


Reapplication Essay
How have you enhanced your candidacy since your previous application? Please detail your progress since you last applied and reiterate your short-term and long-term goals. Explain how the tools of the Columbia MBA will help you to meet your goals and how you plan to participate in the Columbia community . (Recommended 750 word limit).
The period of Reapplication at Columbia is rather limited, 12 months from the time of the initial application. If apply to Columbia more than 12 months after an initial application, you should apply as a new applicant. Columbia's Reapplication Checklist can be found here. It is my understanding that If you applied for Fall 2009 admission and were rejected, you can apply as reapplicant for J-Term. The biggest difficulty you are likely to encounter might be that not much has changed since your last application, but you must demonstrate that it has. You will not be able to submit new answers to essays 1-3, but will have to use only the reapplicant essay.

When judging reapplicants Columbia makes it perfectly clear what they are expecting. See here for their criteria.

Clearly this essay gives you the opportunity to:
1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Columbia is right for you.
For more about reapplication, please see here.





CONCLUSION: Columbia Loves to Be Loved
One thing that is consistent about Columbia Business School is that they want to know that there school is your first choice. If you have an alumni interview you can be expected to be asked about that very directly. See here for my advice on Columbia interviews. One real advantage in applying for January Term is that it is incredibly easy to justify that Columbia is your first choice because it is quite possible that it will be your only option if you are only applying to top US MBA programs. Other options would be INSEAD or IMD, which also have January starts, but Columbia Adcom does not worry about losing admitted students to those two. They do worry about HBS, Wharton, Stanford,and Chicago, but chances are, this is not a concern for them when dealing with a J-term applicant. Still, even if you apply for J-term, you need to show Columbia why you are a perfect fit for their program.

Finally, If you have not yet done significant Columbia related networking, you had better do so. See my earlier post on the value of networking here.


Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.

-Adam Markus
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