SEE YOU AT THE MBA TOUR IN TOKY0

For all my readers in Tokyo, I hope you will be attending the THE MBA TOUR in Tokyo on September 3rd at the Keio Plaza Inter-Continental Hotel. I suggest registering online at www.TheMBATour.com so you can save 500 yen off the 1000 yen admission (You will need the money later for drinks!).

Steve Green and I will be there.

By the way, the folks at The MBA Tour were kind enough to provide me with a list of the schools that will be in attendance. Here it is:

1. Bocconi University
2. Carnegie Mellon University
3. College of William and Mary
4. Cornell University
5. Cranfield University
6. Duke University
7. Emory University
8. ESADE Business School
9. ESSEC
10. Fordham University
11. Georgetown University
12. HEC Paris
13. Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology
14. Hult International Business School
15. IE (Instituto de Empresa)
16. Indiana University
17. Manchester Business School
18. McGill University
19. Melbourne Business School
20. Michigan’s Ross School of Business Global MBA
21. Nanyang Technological University
22. New York University Stern
23. Purdue University
24. Rice University
25. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
26. Temple University Japan
27. Thunderbird School of Global Management
28. University of California Los Angeles
29. University of Dallas
30. University of Denver
31. University of Maryland
32. University of North Carolina
33. University of Rochester
34. University of Texas at Austin
35. Vanderbilt University
36. Washington University in St. Louis
37. Worcester Polytechnic Institute
38. York University - Schulich School of Business

I think this a great opportunity to learn about a range of programs. Feel free to say hello if you see me.
-Adam
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2009年 9月 3日 木曜日

京王プラザホテル　

〒160-8330 東京都新宿区西新宿2-2-1

THE MBA TOUR's USA SEPTEMBER 2009 SCHEDULE

For my clients and blog readers in the US, if you have done so I suggest attending The MBA Tour. It is a great way to learn about a large number of top MBA programs. See below for details regarding the September 2009 Tour.

-Adam

Do you see an MBA in your future? The MBA Tour events offer unique formats to explore MBA programs and discover your ideal school MBA Panel Presentations: Cover all your basic MBA application questions before speaking one on one with reps Individual School Presentations: Easily compare schools and match your interests to program options Open Fair: Meet one on one with admission directors and alumni Participating Schools: Wharton, Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell, Duke, Michigan (Global), NYU Stern, Carnegie Mellon, UNC, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Emory, Yale, HEC Paris, ESADE & many more! Great opportunity to network with other like minded individuals! Not all schools listed participate in every event. Visit school websites to see participating cities. USA September Tour 2009 Houston, Sept 3 Hilton Houston Post Oak 2001 Post Oak Bvld Houston, TX 77056, USA Chicago, Sept 8 Swissotel Chicago 323 E Wacker Drive Chicago, IL 60601, USA Atlanta, Sept 10 Hyatt Regency Atlanta 265 Peachtree Street NE Atlanta, GA 30303, USA New York City, Sept 12 Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers 811 7th Avenue New York 10019, US Boston, Sept 13 Taj Boston Hotel 15 Arlington Street Boston, MA 02116, USA Washington DC, Sept 20 Grand Hyatt Washington 1000 H Street, NW Washington DC 20001, USA Los Angeles, Sept 26 Wilshire Grand Hotel 930 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90017, USA San Francisco, Sept 27 Grand Hyatt San Francisco 345 Stockton Street San Francisco 94108, USA $5 if you pre-register online $10 if you register at the door - CASH ONLY! Limited space, register soon! www.TheMBATour.com All registration proceeds will be committed to The MBA Tour Scholarship Fund Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Connect with us on Linked In

Q&A on Streetcanvas, an HBS MBA student venture

Business plan contests and the businesses that emerge out of MBA programs offer students an excellent opportunity to immediately apply what they learn. One such new venture is Streetcanvas , which was started by three HBS students. Streetcanvas was brought to my attention by Akiko Tateishi (Chicago Booth MBA Class of 2011) who is getting an opportunity to intern at this new venture business even before she begins her MBA program. In the interview below, I have asked her about her experience.

Adam: Tell me about Streetcanvas?

Akiko: Streetcanvas (http://www.streetcanvas.com/) is a venture business launched by three HBS students, who were semi-finalists in the school’s business contest and are being sponsored by the school. The business is to first create an online community (the website is in both English and Japanese) for Japanese artists and designers who have an interest to display and share their artwork and gain attention. Streetcanvas is a platform for these artists to gain international recognition, and will provide opportunities for artists to have their artworks displayed in overseas art galleries and select shops, whom we collaborate with and who are interested in Japanese art and design. This online community network will host ongoing T-shirt design contests and the winner’s design will be printed on an American Apparel T-shirt and sold within Japan and abroad. Streetcanvas’ business model is similar to that of Threadless in the US.


Adam: Tell me about your internship.

Akiko: I think it’s a great experience to understand the challenges in setting up a venture and understanding the core of how a business is run. At Streetcanvas, our main activities are split up into Marketing, Operations, and Technology. Interns are allocated to one group, although there is no limit as to how much an intern can be involved. Through research and cooperation with the cofounders, one can learn a great deal not only about the business model, but also experience what it takes to meet business targets in each division.

Adam: What is the expected outcome?

Akiko: The core platform is already built, meaning the website has been launched and the first competition is complete. What remain, are the marketing efforts to recruit as many artists as possible so that there is enough member to keep the competition running. Our CEO, Rie Yano and the interns have been reaching out to artists and art students as well as teaming up with large corporations. Rie, herself, has been appearing in media interviews, including Venture View and Metropolis has introduced us as the “site of the week” (Issue #802). The expected outcome is that we reach our target membership of 1,000 members by the end of August and the competitions are self-sustainable with artwork submissions, evaluations, and voting within the Japanese art community which Streetcanvas has created.

Adam: How many students are involved?

Akiko: At this moment, a combination of 18 university undergraduate students and working professionals who dedicate their free time to the project, are involved, with two thirds of the interns belonging to the former group. (I am the only MBA Class of 2011 student)

Adam: Why are you participating in Streetcanvas?

Akiko: Throughout my career, I have only worked in large corporations and have never worked in a small entity or firm. Although start-ups are popping up in Japan, it’s still not as widespread a phenomenon as it is abroad. I feel it’s still not encouraged in our society (because it equates to risk taking) and people are not as open to such ideas. When I see these HBS students working, I see great potential in their ideas and hopes. They have taught me that good ideas are worth investing in and turning into a business. I think the risks associated with start-ups do not work well in the Japanese society, but I think these are exactly the kind of energy we need to create in Japan to bring innovation.
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I want to thank Akiko for taking the time to answer my questions. By the way, Streetcanvas is fun and anyone can join. The website is very easy to use and I encourage you to try it out.

-Adam Markus
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UCLA Anderson MBA Essays for Fall 2010

In what follows, I will analyze the UCLA Anderson School of Management's MBA Essay's for 2009-2010.

For Fall 2009 admission, I had the opportunity to work with five clients who were admitted to UCLA. You find testimonials from three of them here.

Here are the questions and instructions taken from UCLA's website:

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS: Please be introspective and authentic in your responses. We value the opportunity to learn about your life experiences, aspirations, and goals.

All responses to essays must be on double-spaced pages that are uploaded in document form, except for Essay 4 for first-time applicants, which may be submitted as an audio or video file instead. (Please note the word limits in parentheses.)

First-time applicants -- 4 required essays:

1. Describe the ways in which your family and/or community have helped shape your development. (750 words)
2. Describe the biggest risk you have ever taken, the outcome, and what you learned in the process. (500 words)
3. Describe your short-term and long-term career goals. What is your motivation for pursuing an MBA now and how will UCLA Anderson help you to achieve your goals? (750 words)
4. Select and respond to one of the two following questions.
   
   a. Entrepreneurship is a mindset that creates new opportunities in established and new organizations.  Describe an instance in which you exhibited this mindset.
   b. What is something people will find surprising about you?
   We would like you to respond to the question by recording an audio response  (up to 2 minutes) or video response (up to 1 minute). If you are unable to submit your response via audio, then please upload a written response instead (250 words).
   Supported File Types:
   Audio:  .avi, .wmv, .wav, .mp3, .midi, .wma, .aiff, .au, .mp4
   Video:  .avi, .wmv, .mov, .mpeg
   
5. OPTIONAL: Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the Admissions Committee should be aware? (250 words)

The first thing you should notice about this set of questions is that it begins with a very unique question that emphasizes personality. It is fair to say that it is almost the total opposite of application like Columbia Business School's that have a focus on work-related topics. It would indeed be possible to write UCLA's entire set of questions without including a standard "leadership" or "greatest work accomplishment" essay. It is worth considering what UCLA says about its admission criteria:
The Admissions Committee evaluates applicants? prospects as leaders in management and their projected ability succeed in, benefit from and contribute to the UCLA Anderson MBA Program. Committee members carefully consider personal and academic background information, GMAT scores, TOEFL scores (for most international applicants), achievements, awards and honors, employment history, letters of recommendation, and college and community involvement, especially where candidates have served in leadership capacities. The Admissions Committee seeks to create a community of students who bring unique contributions from their diverse backgrounds and experiences and who will collectively enrich the educational experience.

UCLA is very focused on understanding your ability to make a contribution to their community. This very much at the center of the education they offer and how how they differentiate their program:

Student life at Anderson is exceptional, highlighted by:

• Challenges: Whether it?s tackling the intricacies of corporate strategy, leading a student initiative, or climbing a nearby mountain, students will be tested by both the academic rigors of UCLA Anderson and development activities outside of class.
  
• Values: The values of UCLA Anderson set it apart from other schools. By working with professors and administrators, students forge a community that values learning, teamwork and research-based practical knowledge
  
• Collegiality: The hallmarks of student life at Anderson are compassion, mutual respect and support, which students demonstrate toward one another. The UCLA Anderson community is built on the collective strengths of our diverse student body.
  
• Access: The network of personal relationships and industry contacts that students develop while attending UCLA Anderson and after they graduate is arguably as important as the academic degree they earn. Countless opportunities exist for students to connect with individuals, business and community outside the classroom, and for alumni to stay in touch with the school, faculty, fellow alumni and current students.
  

I mention all of the above because I think it is quite helpful in understanding what UCLA is looking for: Highly collaborative, community-oriented individuals, who are great at networking. The Anderson School is also very focused on entrepreneurship. You should most certainly look at the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies webpage.

1. Describe the ways in which your family and/or community have helped shape your development. (750 words)
The "UCLA Question" should help admissions understand who you are and what you can bring to their community. They have slightly simplified the wording this year by eliminating wording related to "youth." Now the question does not require you to focus on your childhood, but it certainly requires that you emphasize the past.

Use this essay as way to help admissions understand who you are and where you come from. This might take the form of personality traits connected to your parents, values connected to the community you were raised in, and/or core skills that you can trace to your early development.

Given the length, I suggest providing two to four "stories" that will help admissions understand who you are. The stories may be about you, your family, or other aspects of your background that will demonstrate who you are.

It is not necessary to be explicit about how you might make a contribution at Anderson, but it is important that you tell stories and analyze them so that the adcom will really understand what you could contribute. Therefore, it is critical that you just don't tell stories, but you provide a very clear interpretation of them in order to highlight what makes you a unique individual.

You need to think carefully about what will work here. Always ask yourself whether what you are telling admissions will really help them understand why you should be a part of their community.

2. Describe the biggest risk you have ever taken, the outcome, and what you learned in the process. (500 words)
This question is new for 2010. Depending on how you handle it, it may take the form of a leadership story (See my analysis of HBS and Stanford for how to handle such leadership questions), a failure (See my analysis of Wharton), or an accomplishment (See HBS). The structure for your essay should essentially consist of the three parts mentioned in the question:
1. Describe the risk you took.
2. State what the outcome was.
3. State what you learned.

Given that this is the only essay that can be easily used for discussing a professional situation in detail, most applicants will certainly consider doing so. Generally, that might be a good idea, but just make sure that a real risk was involved. Your essay will fail if your reader cannot accept that you were taking a risk. Clearly state what the risk was.

The outcome might be very simple or complex. It might involve a change within you or a change to an organization/group or both. Whatever it is, make sure that you are identifying the outcome as clearly as possible.

As always with questions that ask about learning, it is really important that you provide clear lesson or lessons learned, and, where applicable provide a concrete application of the lesson to a new situation. If you write on a failure, make sure that the learning takes the form of an application of the lesson learned to a new successful situation.


3. Describe your short-term and long-term career goals. What is your motivation for pursuing an MBA now and how will UCLA Anderson help you to achieve your goals? (750 words)
As I mentioned above, this question is focused on the future. Rather than repeat much of what I have previously written about other versions of this question, I would suggest that you look at my analysis of Columbia 1 as it can be applied here.

A great Essay 3 will clearly answer the "Why now" aspect of the question without focusing too much on past experience. One core focus of this essay should be on how being a part of Anderson's Class of 2012, will contribute to your intended professional future. Make sure that your motivations for pursuing that future are clearly stated in this essay and perhaps explained further elsewhere in your essay set.

UCLA puts great emphasis on applicants demonstrating that they have become informed about The Anderson School, so I strongly suggest that you visit if you can, but at least attend one of their admissions events. Getting in contact with UCLA alums would also be helpful. At a minimum, learn as much as you can from their web page. You really need to convince adcom that you know what you need from UCLA for your future goals. If you have the word count do so, you may also want to address what you can contribute.

Japanese applicants should most certainly take a look at The Japan America Business Association (JABA) page. In addition, please see LA State of Mind ～UCLA MBA留学記 2009-2011～.
 

4. Select and respond to one of the two following questions.

a. Entrepreneurship is a mindset that creates new opportunities in established and new organizations.  Describe an instance in which you exhibited this mindset.

b. What is something people will find surprising about you?

We would like you to respond to the question by recording an audio response  (up to 2 minutes) or video response (up to 1 minute). If you are unable to submit your response via audio, then please upload a written response instead (250 words). 
Supported File Types:
Audio:  .avi, .wmv, .wav, .mp3, .midi, .wma, .aiff, .au, .mp4
Video:  .avi, .wmv, .mov, .mpeg

For its Fall 2009 application, the UCLA Anderson School of Business did something completely unique in the annals of MBA application history. For Fall 2010, they now request that applicants provide a  audio or video response to one of two questions. While it is possible to opt out of this audio or video option, only someone wanting to commit "application suicide" would do that. WHATEVER YOU DO, MAKE A RECORDING. If your TOEFL iBT Speaking score is weak, this is your best shot at showing you can say something meaningful in one minute. Get a decent recording device, prep your answer intensively, and get this one right if you want to be part of the Class of 2010. If you are technologically challenged, get someone's help. Unless you lack vocal cords, I am not sure what excuse you could have. If you are shy on camera, just use audio. After all, no other school asks this question, so UCLA admissions will be able to judge how much time and effort you put into their application. I have more to say about this question below.

Basically they are asking you to deliver a one minute speech. Structure your answer so that you are clearly answering one of the three options and that you make a clear point. If you think about it, this is a great way to test an applicant's ability to say something meaningful in the amount of time that one might typically make a comment in a class. My suggestion is that you practice enough so that it does not sound or look like you are simply reading a piece of paper. Record yourself until you are happy with the result. HINT: This may involve many recordings and alterations of your script.

a. Entrepreneurship is a mindset that embraces innovation and risk-taking within both established and new organizations. Describe an instance in which you exhibited this mindset.
As I mentioned above, UCLA has a strong entrepreneurial focus, so if your goals are specifically entrepreneurial, this is a great question to answer. Obviously in one minute you cannot provide a long story. Think about a situation where you showed innovation and/or risk-taking. Obviously don't duplicate the content of Essay 2. One possible structure:
1. State the situation, 15 seconds.
2. Describe what you did, 30 seconds.
3. State the outcome, 15 seconds.

c. What is something people will find surprising about you?
This question is a great opportunity to balance out the rest of your application. Is there something really important about you that would not be clear from your application form, essays, resume, and recommendations? Is there something you really want to emphasize about yourself? Here is the chance to do that. Unless a professional topic would reveal something surprising about you, I don't necessarily think this question lends itself well to most work-related topics. Otherwise, the options here are wide open. Just make sure that adcom understands why this issue is so important to you that you are using one of your precious essay questions for it. Finally, make it surprising! If it is obvious from your application, it will bore them.

5. OPTIONAL: Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the Admissions Committee should be aware? (250 words)
This is a nice open-ended version of the standard "anything negative" optional essay. If everything is good, you don't need to write this one. If it is not, I suggest doing so. See my comments regarding the Wharton optional essay as they apply 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. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my recent post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant." If you are interested in my graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
-Adam Markus
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The GMAT versus GRE: Does It Matter for MBA Applicants?

BusinessWeek has a recent article about the fact that the GRE is now being increasingly accepted by MBA programs as an alternative to the GMAT. The article explained the nature of the competition between GMAT (GMAC) and GRE (ETS), but did not actually discuss, in any great detail, the subject that most applicants are likely to be concerned about: Which test is likely to generate the best result for them? The best the article provided on this issue was the following quote from Darden Admissions Director:
"I wouldn't accept the GRE if I didn't understand what it was asking people to do," Neher says. "It's definitely not as complicated of a math test, but it still tests logic, general analytic ability, vocabulary, and reading comprehension in the same way the GMAT does," she says

Still, this is far from enough to make a judgment about which test is better to take. One clear and simple explanation for which test to take is offered by Dr. Joern Meissner, Academic Director at Manhattan Review in an article on the QS TOPMBA website:

Based on Academic Strengths and Weaknesses

• Skills: In general, if you have excellent quantitative skills, look more into the GMAT. If you have outstanding writing and verbal skills with less stellar quantitative skills, consider GRE.
• Background: If you are not a native English speaker, look more into the GMAT.

Based on Practical Factors

• What other majors you will apply for: If you are also interested in applying to other graduate programs that do not accept the GMAT, consider GRE.
• Financial Consideration: If you can not afford the GMAT, lean toward the GRE, though both exams do allow for fee waivers.
• Location Consideration: If the GMAT is not offered near you, lean toward the GRE (if it is offered near you)

In summary, based on academic considerations, native English speakers with strong writing and verbal skills and weak math skills should take the GRE. Everybody else should probably take the GMAT. Still the $100 price difference between the two tests make we wonder why GMAT should cost $250 while GRE costs only costs $150. If GRE can force price competition, that would be good thing. As someone who hates authoritarian monopolies, I can't help but cheer for the entry of GRE into the MBA application testing market. But those who play with fire might get burned, ETS itself might find TOEFL's dominance of the US English testing market (IELTS is accepted at many US schools, but outside of the UK and the rest of Europe, just not that popular) under attack when Pearson takes on the TOEFL. According to the article in INSIDE HIGHER ED, look for Pearson to start their marketing blitz in October of this year.


-Adam Markus
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