UC Berkeley Haas MBA Essays for Fall 2011 Admission

The University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business is along with HBS, MIT Sloan, and Stanford GSB, one of the hardest programs to get into. The program is small and attracts a very diverse group of students. The objective of Haas admissions is to find the best applicants in order to put together a diverse group of students who will thrive in a program that values innovation, collaboration, and a high level of participation both in and out of the classroom.


CHANGES TO THE CURRICULUM:
Haas has made much of its changes to its curriculum. See here and here. To listen to the Deans of Haas, HBS, and Kellogg discuss their curriculum, go here.
IT IS CRITICAL TO CONSIDER  CHANGES TO THE CURRICULUM  IN TERMS OF YOUR  APPROACH TO SHOWING FIT WITH HAAS. The key component of this change is the Berkeley Innovative Leader Development (BILD):

"BILD is the connective theme that runs through the entire Berkeley MBA curriculum to ensure that every student develops the skills required of innovative leaders.
Infused with BILD's innovative leadership perspective, the Berkeley MBA's rigorous general management curriculum teaches you to become a leader who can harness new ideas to create value for your firm. You acquire skills and qualities that enable you to drive growth to ensure your organization thrives."

For more about BILD, including an interactive of the concept, see here. The interactive map actually provides a complete overview, so I suggest reviewing it closely.

My Interactions with the Haas Community

I experienced the energy of Haas students when I attended the end of the Japan Trek Party (For English, see http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/japan/Haasweek0904p1.pdf) in April 2009. I saw great diversity and real sense of enthusiasm amongst the participants. You can find my Q&As with Haas students here (MBA) and here (MBA/MPH).

Haas has always asked a large number of questions and (lucky for me),  the only change from last year is Short Answer 3. I have taken the questions from the website:

Short Answer:


1. What are you most passionate about?  Why?  (250-word maximum


2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250-word maximum)


3. At Haas, our distinctive culture is defined by four key principles — question the status quo; confidence without attitude; students always; and beyond yourself. Give an example of when you have demonstrated one of these principles. (250 words maximum, Review Berkeley-Haas’ Defining Principles)


4. There are many ways to learn about our program, what steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA? (250-word maximum)

Required Essays:

1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)
2. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? How will an MBA from Berkeley help you achieve these specific career goals? (1000 word maximum)

Optional Essays:

1. (Optional) Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)

GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT THE QUESTIONS

From my perspective, unless you really believe that you have nothing else important to say about yourself, there are no optional questions here. Needless to say, you should not treat the Short Answer Essays with any less seriousness than the Required Essays.

REALLY ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS!

I can that my clients who have been admitted there, all had one thing in common: They took time to craft answers specific to Berkeley's questions. There is a natural human tendency towards laziness that results in many applicants not taking the time to do that. If your objective is to get into Berkeley take the extra time required to craft truly excellent school-specific answers to their questions. Once you write the essays for Haas, you will have significant amount content for writing other school's essays.

Short Answer 1. What are you most passionate about? Why? (250 word maximum)

This is the only completely new question for Fall 2010 admission. It replaces a question on regret, which was a rather depressing question.

Passion is about emotion, it is about motivation. It is not rational and hence is in contrast to the very rational questions that make up the rest of the Haas application. In past years, when Columbia asked this question (and they did for many many years), I have seen successful essays on this topic on a variety of subjects, but the only common thing was that no one wrote about work or their career goals. Given, the 1000 words you have for the Haas goals essay, writing about your career goals here would be highly redundant. Whether it is your committed involvement in an organization, an issue that you care deeply about, a hobby/interest that you have long been engaged, your personal relationships, or your deepest beliefs, provide Haas with some insight into who you are as a person through this essay. Whatever it is that you do write about, passion has to be there. Also, since it is the very first essay, you certainly want to get them engaged and interested in you as an applicant.

Short Answer 2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)

Please see my analysis of the similar HBS question. Given that you can only write on one topic, for most applicants, I suggest making it your most significant professional accomplishment. Of course, significance is really the issue and it is important that you explain why it is significant. If you truly believe you have a personal or educational accomplishment that is your most significant, just make sure that admissions will not only understand why you believe that to be the case, but be able to view your accomplishment as a basis for admitting you.

Short Answer 3. At Haas, our distinctive culture is defined by four key principles — question the status quo; confidence without attitude; students always; and beyond yourself. Give an example of when you have demonstrated one of these principles. (250 words maximum, Review Berkeley-Haas’ Defining Principles)

This question has changed from last year.

While some will write about a work-related topic here, I don't think that everyone must. The key thing is to fully connect yourself with one of the four key principles that underlies the BILD curriculum.
I think it is best if we examine each of these principles.
The basic structure for this essay:
1. State clearly which key principle you will be connecting yourself with. Only focus on key principle.


2. Provide an example that demonstrates your connection to this key principle.  Only focus on one example.


I suggest you discuss a specific example that is not covered elsewhere in your essay set or if it is mentioned elsewhere is discussed in a very different way from this version.  It is easy to imagine the example here overlapping with essays Short Answers 1 and 2 and Essay 1, so be careful.

The four principles are discussed at http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/strategicplan/culture/. I suggest reviewing that page.  I have reproduced the content below.

Question the Status Quo

"We lead by championing bold ideas, taking intelligent risks and accepting sensible failures. This means speaking our minds even when it challenges convention. We thrive at the world's epicenter of innovation."

Please see my analysis of  Stanford Essay 3 Option D and MIT Essay 1 as my analysis of those two questions would apply here.

Confidence Without Attitude

"We make decisions based on evidence and analysis, giving us the confidence to act without arrogance. We lead through trust and collaboration."

This is the perfect place to highlight your skills as team member and team leader and/or as a leader who makes decisions based on reason and evidence.  Please see my analysis of MIT Essay 2, Tuck Essay 2, and Stanford Essay 3 Option A as any of these might apply here.  Given that you have to write a whole 500 word essay highlighting your leadership, I suggest you select the topic for Essay 2 before choosing to write on this option because the last thing you need are two leadership stories that tell admissions very similar things about you.  That said, many applicants will find that have very distinct and effective stories that can be used here.

Students Always

"We are a community designed for curiosity and lifelong pursuit of personal and intellectual growth. This is not a place for those who feel they have learned all they need to learn."

Haas values curiosity and lifelong learning.  This is a good place to tell a story that highlights your academic and/or intellectual strengths.  Unlike HBS's very restrictive Undergraduate Experience Essay, Haas is really giving you the opportunity to discuss not only academic achievement, but personal growth.  While I suppose a professional topic is possible here,  most would use this to write about something academic or personal either in their present or past.

Beyond Yourself

"We shape our world by leading ethically and responsibly. As stewards of our enterprises, we take the longer view in our decisions and actions. This often means putting larger interests above our own."

This is the perfect essay for the many social entrepreneurs, environmentalists, and sustainable enterprise champions who apply to Haas.  It is also for anyone who has been passionately focused on a cause greater than their own self-interest. I suspect that if you have such an example, you don't need me to help you understand it.  The question aligns well with the interests and passions of many who apply to Haas, so I suggest only writing on it if you have a topic you are particularly confident about. 

Short Answer 4. There are many ways to learn about our program, what steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA? (250-word maximum)

You need to try to separate what you say here from what you discuss in Required Essay 2. You should mention changes to the curriculum (BILD), here and/or in Required Essay 2. There may be some overlap, but there is a distinction. In Required Essay 2, you should specifically explain why you need an MBA now from Haas and how doing so relates to your goals. In Short Answer 4, you need to show you have become informed about the Berkeley MBA program and why there is a good fit between you and the program. Haas provides online resources to help you, but in addition, if possible I suggest you visit, meet alums, and/or communicate with current students to become informed about the program. While it is important to show what steps you have taken, it is equally important to make a clear case for why Haas is the right school for you. See the Berkeley MBA Student Blogs.  Also take a look at the various institutes and centers connected to Haas. Those who read Japanese should most certainly visit the Haas Japanese website and Haas Japanese students/alumni blogs.

Required Essay 1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)

This is the most generic form of a leadership question there is.  I have already made some comments about taking account of overlap between Essay 1 and Short Answers 2 and 3.   While you need to focus on a single situation, you cannot just describe it, but also need to analyze it.  You should explain very clearly what aspects of leadership you are highlighting.


I have developed the following grid to help you outline leadership stories. The categories this grid employs may go beyond any particular schools essay requirements. Filling it out completely will help you write about your leadership in a way that will help convince admissions of your leadership potential.CLICK TO ENLARGE. 

How to use the grid:
1. Decide on a specific story.
2. Identify the most significant things you did in the situation, these are you action steps.
3. For each action step identify:

• What skills or qualities you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The strengths you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The kind of leadership you demonstrated.
• What you still need to learn about leadership.

4. Think about the results and identify how they relate to your action steps. So, at minimum, you should be able to state the impact on others and/or yourself.

5. After completing the chart you will see that some aspects of your action steps may be repeated. If there is a total duplication and nothing new is shown, either you need to redefine the action step or you may decide not to focus on it very much.

6. Once you think you have two to four fully worked-out action steps for two to three stories, start writing your essay.

7. Next start re-writing. Eliminate duplicate points made between action steps. Make choices about what parts of each action to step to highlight. Given the word limits, you will have to make some decisions about what to include. Simply providing a description of your actions, is not enough. Consider what it signifies about you. Consider what your actions reveals about your leadership potential.
 
Finally, thinking and writing about leadership is an important part of preparing for interviews because you can be certain that you will have to talk about leadership. So, you might find that the parts of the outline you jettison now will become valuable when you will want to have alternative stories for your Haas interview.

Required Essay 2. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? How will an MBA from Berkeley help you achieve these specific career goals? (1000 word maximum)

I should point out that there is a difference between this version of the question and questions like Kellogg's that ask for a career summary. Berkeley does not ask for such a summary and its inclusion especially at the beginning of your essay will be a sign that you did not customize your answer for Berkeley. Berkeley instead asks for you to explain how your professional experiences relate to your goals. Therefore discussion of your past experience should be made as a part of an explanation of your goals. For those who have already written Kellogg (or essays like them), if your essay begins with a career development section, I suggest beginning with goals instead. Take your career development section and use parts of it to support your reasons for your goals and why you need an MBA now. For many applicants this will not be so much about writing new content as editing it to better answer Berkeley's version of the question.

Regarding the third part of the question, keep your Berkeley specific content focused on explaining why you need an MBA now and how it will help you with your goals.

BEFORE YOU WRITE
Before writing this essay, if you have not done a similar essay for another school, I suggest going through a formal process of goals analysis because it will really help you determine the most important things you need to tell Haas. You can use my GAP, SWOT, AND ROI TABLE FOR FORMULATING GRADUATE DEGREE GOALS for this purpose (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.

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.

WHY HAAS?
See my comments above regarding Short Essay 4 and changes to the curriculum (BILD).

GOALS
You need to make admissions excited about your future. To do so, you should think 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..."), try to go beyond the typical answer to make your goals compelling.
Be informed. Haas 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. Think about 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 Haas as someone who is not only well informed, but who has CUTTING-EDGE knowledge related to their goals. Some great general sources for learning what is hot:
From the Business Schools: Feed your brain with cutting-edge ideas from the best business schools in the world. Start with California Management Review.Other great sources of information include Stanford Social Innovation Review,Harvard Working Knowledge, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School Publishing,Knowledge @ Wharton, University of Chicago GSB's Working Papers,The University of Chicago's Capital Ideas, 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 to the GSB), Chicago GSB Podcast, Net Impact, and Harvard Business IdeaCast. INSEAD, IMD, LBS, and, of course, Haas also have podcasts.
LinkedIn Answers: I would suggest that everyone join 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.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: YOUR STORY

When you initially write Essay 1, you might find that it does not seem to be coming together as a single essay. If that is the case, you might simply not be telling your story in the right way. The way you tell your story will depend on your situation. Applicants with extensive experience whose goals connect directly to their past experience will be telling a story based on continuity, while applicants looking to change careers will be telling a story based on discontinuity. A story based on continuity is often easiest to tell in a fairly linear way because the future is based directly on what happened in the past. By contrast, a story based on a discontinuity should be told to emphasize the need for the change In either case, it is critical to explain why you want an MBA from Haas.

Optional Essay 1. (Optional) Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)

This is a completely open question. While you might very well need to tell Haas something negative, such as an explanation for a low GPA, I would suggest using at least part of it to tell them something positive about you. Feel free to write on any topic that will add another dimension to admissions' perception of who you are. I would not treat it as optional unless you truly feel that the rest of your essays have fully expressed everything you want Haas to know about you. I don't suggest writing about something that would be obvious from reviewing your application, instead tell Haas that one story that will give them another reason to admit you. And whatever you do, please make sure that you write on a topic that is not obviously for another school.

Finally, if you interview with Haas, please see my earlier post.

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 "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
アダム マーカス

ビジネススクール エッセイ 大学院入学 カウンセリング コンサルティング 合格対策 MBA留学 カリフォルニア大学バークレー ハース

Guest Blogger: 河野太一のGMAT OG12解説 SC19

This is another post from Taichi Kono, author of two textbooks on TOEFL and one on TOEIC and a highly experienced TOEFL, TOEIC, and GMAT instructor. Most of his posts will be in Japanese. This post is on GMAT sentence correction. His other posts can be found here.
-Adam


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河野塾代表の河野太一です。年来の友人であるAdam Markusさんのご厚意で、"The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition"の解説ブログの内容の一部をこちらにアップさせていただくことになりました。オリジナルは河野太一のGMAT OG12解説でご覧いただけます。なお、オリジナルのほうは予告なく内容を変更することがあり、ここに上げたものと相違があることがありますのでご了承ください。私のこれまでの記事やGMAT以外の話題についてはこちらをご覧ください。


SC19
planters,までで主節は終わり。その後に接続詞を用いてどのような形を続けるかの問題。

(A) 等位接続詞butがあるが、前に並列すべき-ing形がないので、アウト。

(B) andの次に動詞が来るのは、The Iroquoisという主語を共有すると考えれば OK。過去完了形がおかしい。「その時まで（は）supplementしてきた」となってしまうが、そのことによって表したい意味がわからない。もしこの Iroquoi族が現存する種族であれば、主節のwereもsupplementも現在形で表されるべき内容。もし後者を現在完了形にすれば、「これまではそうしてきたが、これからはそうしない」かのようなニュアンスが出てしまう。それを過去時制に移しただけだから、どちらも過去形になるべき。

(C) even though節を入れてしまったのでは、andに対応する節がもう1つ必要になってしまう。

(D) 　接続詞も時制も問題なく、これが正解。内容的にも「cultivation（耕作）をfishingやhuntingでsupplementした（補った）が、primarilyには（主としては）plantersであった」となり、althoughのおかげでprimarilyが生きて、論旨が明確になっている。この問題は一応そこまで読み取ったほうがよい。

(E) 前に<前置詞＋名詞>がないのでダメ。


-河野太一


河野塾ではTOEFL/IELTS/GMATの個人授業を提供しております。なかなかスコアが上がらずにお悩みの方、きめの細かい効果的な個人指導をお求めの方は、ぜひinfo@konojuku.comまでお気軽にお問い合わせください。

NYU Stern MBA Essays for Fall 2011 Admission

In this post I analyze NYU Stern MBA program's essay questions for Fall 2011 Admission. This post is updated from last year, but the changes are all pretty minor because the questions did not change this year.

New York University Stern School of Business MBA essay questions' web page also includes great tips which you can find here. 

Every year, I have seen some potential applicants to Stern look at the above questions and simply decide it is better to apply elsewhere. Actually, I have found myself frequently advocating application to Stern as part of a school selection strategy as a result. While Stern's questions are unique, especially Essay 3, they maybe significantly less daunting than what you initially think.

Stern admissions does a very good job of explaining their application. As is written above, listen to their podcasts. If you can attend a presentation at Stern or at least attend an admissions event, that is most helpful because getting into Stern is all about fit.  For my colleague Steve Green's report on one such event, please see here.

Consider that in the three required questions above, the one constant feature is Stern. If you look at other top schools essay sets you will not find another one where a 100% of the questions require you to discuss the school. While Essay 1 only refers to Stern in the context of what you will do after it, clearly the assumption here is not that you just need any MBA, but one from Stern. Essay 2 actually consists of three questions about your relationship to Stern. Finally Essay 3 is about how you would introduce yourself to your classmates at Stern.

Attending Stern's Admission Event in Tokyo last year only further convinced me of this focus on fit. Steve's report this year is an excellent discussion of why fit matters at Stern. 

Essay 1. Professional Aspirations(750 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

Think about the decisions you have made in your life. Answer the following:

(a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position?
(b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life?
(c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long-term career goal?

What I really like about this essay is that Stern is doing all the organizational work for you. 

(a) What choices have you made that led you to your current position?

The core issue is to focus on the choices.  What were those moments in your life when you had to make a choice that determined your current professional position?  Focus on 1-3 critical choices that led to this position. You need to provide an explanation for your career to the present with an emphasis on your current position, which is based on those choices. Given the space limitations, I don't suggest using more than 1/3 of your word count for this part of the essay. Focus on providing an explanation that would not be clear from simply reviewing your resume. Your motivations should be made clear. Don't write a career summary here! Instead help admissions understand you, not just what you have done.

(b) Why pursue an MBA at this point in your life?

Clearly you need to show why given your present position and future goals, now is the right time to get an MBA.  And since you need an MBA, you had better state that you want one from Stern.  You could certainly avoid including Stern here, but frankly I think that would be rather foolish.  Considering that you have align what you say about wanting an MBA with exactly what Stern can offer you, there is absolutely no value to treating this as a generic answer, make it Stern specific!

(c) What is your career goal upon graduation from NYU Stern? What is your long-term career goal?

Use at least 1/3 of your essay to explain both your post-MBA career goal and your long-term career goals. The goals you outline should connect very directly with what you intend to gain from Stern as discussed in (b) above as well as in Essay 2. For more about goals, see my analysis of other schools goals statements, such as Stanford's.

Essay 2. Your Stern Experience(500 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

We take great care to shape the Stern community with individuals who possess both intellectual and interpersonal strengths. We seek individuals who are highly intelligent, collaborative and committed to flourishing as Stern leaders. Please answer the following questions:

(a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? Tell us what actions you have taken to learn about us.
(b) Describe what most excites you about Stern from both an academic and extracurricular perspective.
(c) How do you anticipate making your mark on the Stern community? Be specific about the roles you will take on and the impact you hope to achieve.

Given that this total Stern Love Festival Question requires you to (a) explain how you learned about Stern, (b) what excites about you about Stern, and (c) how specifically you are going to contribute to it, only a total moron would fail to realize that they want a VERY DIRECT ANSWER TO EACH PART OF THEIR QUESTION.  You might ask why Stern asks this question.  My assumption is that they want to find applicants who really want to go to their program.  Consider their numbers for Fall 2009 admission (taken from US News and World Report):

Acceptance Rate: 14.5%

Number Accepted: 670

Total first-year enrollment: 333

Yield (Calculated by me): 49.7%

Stern is very hard to get into, but over half of those who are admitted go elsewhere.  Stern like Berkeley Haas is school that is very picky about who they accept, but they don't have very much relative control about who they actually get in their class.  Questions like Essay 2 and Essay 3 allow Stern to really see who potentially loves them.  They know they will be rejected much of the time by those the offer admission to, so at least they have to try and find students who seem to really want to go there.  Finding applicants that fit is always a core consideration for admissions officers, but so much more when you know that you are often a Top MBA bound applicant's secondary or possibly safety choice.

To be honest, I have had so few clients attend this school because the ones that get in almost always have gone elsewhere.You can find a testimonial from one of them here.

If you were a Stern admissions officer, you probably would ask the same questions they do unless you wanted to read even more applications and have an even lower yield.

(a) What is your personal experience with the Stern community? What actions have you taken to learn more about us?

Here you need to clearly indicate how you have become informed about the program. Visiting is obviously best, attending their admissions event is also good, and so is making an effort to communicate with students and alumni. Obviously reading their website is important, but that is not enough. Make sure you listened to their podcasts. Making a connection to alumni is always a good idea. Be specific about the steps you have taken. Feel free to use names of admissions officers, alumni, and students that you met. I would try to limit this section to 50-100 words to save room for the more substantial components of the questions.

(b) Describe what most excites you about Stern from both an academic and extracurricular perspective.
It is here that you should devote most of your energy.  You need to establish fit between yourself and Stern by highlighting those aspects of the program that you truly love.  Don't just state them and don't discuss too many things. Instead focus on 2-4 aspects of the program that you can relate to your goals, learning style, personality, or life style. My suggestion is to highlight a specific aspect of the program and explain your connection to it so that admissions really learns about you through your discussion of Stern.

(c) How do you anticipate making your mark on the Stern community? Be specific about the roles you will take on and the impact you hope to achieve.

This question is asking you about what you will specifically contribute to the Stern community on an organizational basis, not an abstract one.  Think about organizations that you will lead and your role in specific aspects of the academic program.  In order to answer this question effectively you need to know in great detail about Stern.  For each role, explain why you think you would be effective at it and how you would add value.  This is another way for you to help Stern learn about you while you show them how much you love them.

Question 3

Essay 3. Personal Expression:
Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative.

This is the NYU question. It is the one that seems to stop many applicants from applying to Stern. In my experience, I have found that strong applicants who are willing to put the time into this question are often well rewarded (invited for interviews, admitted), but those who slap something together are often rejected.

To be honest, I have found a creative essay to be as effective as an "arts and crafts project." If you think you can answer the question most effectively by writing an essay, just do that. I have had clients admitted to NYU who have done both and all can say is that the key factor to their success was providing a response that really answered the question.

In past years, I have had clients who have done slide presentations for NYU, but given that Chicago Booth now requires one, if you are applying to Chicago and Stern and state that on your NYU application, don't do a PowerPoint for Stern because the NYU admissions people will assume you are trying to cut corners. After all, one reason NYU asks this question is because they want you to show your commitment to NYU by putting time into it.

In general, anytime a school has a non-standard question, you should really keep in mind that they are looking for answers that demonstrate an applicant's willingness to put time into it.

Regarding time, try to give yourself at least three weeks before the deadline to write/create this essay. In my experience, most successful versions of this essay take more time and drafts than most other essays. Of course, some applicants can do it right quickly, but since you are trying to be creative and also to effectively introduce yourself to your classmates, you may need more time.

One very common initial error with this essay is to focus on being creative at the exclusion of thinking about the purpose: to introduce yourself to your classmates. Keep in mind that your objective is to create a positive image of yourself that would make an excellent first impression on your classmates. It may be creative, but make sure that it also leaves admissions with a clear understanding of what positive impression of yourself you are communicating. It is your job to provide a sufficiently clear message regardless of the way you creatively present yourself.

Some Questions to get you brainstorming:

1. What do you want Stern Admissions to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?

2. What major positive aspects of your life have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?

3. If you were meeting people that would you be working closely with for two years and that you might want as a part of your lifetime professional network, what would you tell them about yourself to create a strong first impression?

4. Why do people like you?

5. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you, what is it?

6. Do you have a personal interest (painting and poetry for example) that would work effectively?

Finally, keep in mind that what you write here should not duplicate the content of Essay 2 or anything else in the application, instead it should really provide admissions with a new perspective on why you belong at Stern.

Essay 4. Additional Information: (optional)
Please provide any additional information that you would like to bring to the attention of the Admissions Committee. This may include current or past gaps in employment, your undergraduate record, plans to retake the GMAT and/or TOEFL or any other relevant information.
If you are unable to submit a recommendation from a current supervisor, you must explain your reason in this essay.
If you are a re-applicant from last year, please explain how your candidacy has improved since your last application.

If you are applying to a dual degree program, please explain your decision to pursue a dual degree.

Steve Green's report on the Tokyo NYU Event specifically addresses this question:

Optional Essay #4 is not really optional (Just as I tell my clients every year!)  This was actually highly useful advice that will save applicants time otherwise spent fretting about whether or not to write this essay. Chris urged everyone to write something here that could not be included in the rest of the set, including explanations of any weak spots (e.g. bad grades in university) or why a supervisor would not write a recommendation letter.  He pointed out the this essay does not have to be as long as the other ones and said, in fact, that something as curt as 3 sentences or bullet points would be acceptable.

If you are a re-applicant, this is where your reapplication essay goes and clearly this should be a very positive and wonderful essay that states clearly how you are much stronger candidate.

Under no circumstances include an essay clearly written for another school. NYU did not ask you write a whole essay about an important leadership experience you had, and since they did not ask for it, we can assume that is not what they need.

Unless you are perfect there is a reasonable likelihood that you will have something to write about here.  If you don't think you have anything, just ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is the weakest thing about my application content?  Do I have anything that I should say about that? Would it be obvious to a reader or something only I could know? If you can identify something that you think would likely be obvious to a reader, write about it.

2. What is the weakest thing about me as an applicant? Do I have anything that I should say about that? Would it be obvious to a reader or something only I could know? If you can identify something that you think would likely be obvious to a reader, write about it.

3. Is there anything at all that I did not have space in my essays to clarify?  If so, write about it.

4. What else do I really want to highlight about myself? There has to be something.  Actually even if you write about something negative, you might also want to answer this question.  Anyone should be able to answer this question. 

Best of luck with your application to join the Class of 2013!

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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Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Strategy

A NEW VERSION OF MY WHARTON INTERVIEW ANALYSIS WILL BE POSTED  WHEN THE PROCESS OF FALL 2012 ADMISSION IS FULLY CLEAR. THE CONTENT BELOW IS BASED ON FALL 2011 ADMISSION.  

The post below simply collected information as it became released. Given Wharton's horrible implementation of new behavioral interviews last year, it was updated as information became available.   Hopefully this better they will be more transparent by providing all candidates with the same level of information.



Wharton Admissions:

INTERVIEWS


We offer interviews by invitation, based upon a full review of your application.


As someone selected to interview from a tremendously accomplished group of individuals around the world, you should feel excited to communicate your background, your interests, your plans, and your decision to pursue an MBA at Wharton. Likewise, the admissions staff will be interested in meeting you and learning more about you. Don’t worry too much about specific preparations for the interview. Simply being the author of your application and feeling comfortable with it are excellent preparations in themselves.


Interview questions will focus on the reasons behind your career trajectory, and the personal qualities that comprise your emotional intelligence. We will use the interview, which will be a 30-minute conversation, to assess your communication skills. Be prepared to talk about yourself, and pace your answers. Don’t spend 20 minutes answering the first question.


Wharton offers interviews on campus and at locations around the world. Bring your energy and passion to the interview, and engage the interviewer in a healthy discussion. The interviewer will play off your enthusiasm, so the more you can bring to the discussion, the more productive your 30 minutes will be.


Lauder applicants
If you are invited to interview, you will complete two interviews, one with the Lauder program and one with the MBA program. The Lauder interview will focus on your international interests and experience, personal qualities, general fit for Lauder, and ability to start and manage the two programs beginning in late April.


Healthcare Management applicants
If you are invited to interview, you will complete two interviews, one with the Health Care Management (HCM) program and one with the MBA program. The HCM interview will focus on your interest in, and experience with, health care, as well as your personal qualities and general fit for HCM.


This is totally modified from last year's post. My analysis of Wharton's MBA application essays for 2011 admission can be found here. 


UPDATE: WHARTON INTERVIEWS ARE NOW 100% BEHAVIORAL! See here. I have made further updates to the post below including strikethroughs. For my opinion on how this change was implemented, see here. There is a report of more standard interview on GMAT CLUB, but this seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

The first report on Clear Admit for 1st round of 2010 consisted of the following questions:
"Tell me when you have ensured that a task has been completed, when others seemed less focused than you on completing it.
 
Describe a time when you worked towards an important goal and had to address conflict between two or more team members.
 
Explain a time when you persuaded others to your way of thinking, when at first they didn’t agree with your idea."


These questions are completely consistent with all other 1st round reports.  All reported interviews have lasted for 30 minutes.

In this post, I have decided to simply comment on the  helpful  (NOT WHEN THEY DON'T TELL APPLICANTS THAT THE INTERVIEWS NOW FOCUS COMPLETELY ON BEHAVIORAL QUESTIONS!) advice that Wharton provides in Tips on the Wharton MBA Admissions Interview, which has been recently modified.  In addition to my own knowledge of Wharton MBA interviews, I am drawing on the reports found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com. Also see http://poetsandquants.com/2010/11/21/leak-of-whartons-interview-questions-raises-ethical-issues.



Key update: See below regarding the role of behavioral questions.

I have quoted that entire Wharton Tips text and inserted comments. Wharton's original text is in bold.

Tips on the Wharton MBA Admissions Interview

Invited to an interview? Here are some tips directly from the Admissions Committee to to help prepare you…

PURPOSE

Interviews provide additional information about your candidacy that is included in the final reviews of your application. As such interviews, are not the decisive factor in your admissions decision. In most cases, interviews are fairly consistent with the application.

ADAM: At Wharton, interviews are just one factor that goes into the determination to admit, waitlist, or reject. That said, don't take this interview lightly because I think is fair to say that those who don't do a superior interview are unlikely to be admitted or at least waitlisted.

STRUCTURE

Interviews are blind, which reduces bias as your interviewer will have no preconceived ideas of your ability or personality based on your written application.
 

ADAM:  Even interviews with admissions are blind!  One minor issue to keep in mind: While it is true that all interviews are blind in the sense that interviewers will not have read your application, if you interview with an admissions officer or alumni you have had previous contact with, the interviewer may very well have preconceived ideas of your ability based on that contact.

Interviews may include behavioral questions. Questions may center on specific examples or detailed descriptions of events, projects or experience that demonstrate how situations you’ve faced in the past have been handled and what you learned from them. Behavioral interviewing assumes that past performance predicts future behavior.

ADAM: Based on early reports I received for interviews for  2011 admission, Wharton is now 100% focusing even more on behavioral.  While they have always asked such questions, it appears that interviews are now JUST focusing on them.  Just as essay questions and admissions staff have changed, it now appears that the structure of interviews is changing.  When I have more specific information, I will further update this post. One possible indicator of this change is that Wharton's interview tips document no longer has a section on  "Interviews are dialogues or exchange between two people" (See old 2009 version here), which is consistent with a change to behavioral interviews because that style of interviewing is much less focused on a conversation and more focused on the interviewee providing a fully described story based on the question asked, with the interviewer then perhaps asking some follow-up questions.  A review of past Wharton' interview reports indicates that the behavioral interview method is generally not used at all or used extensively. However, this appears to be changing. For a complete discussion of behavioral interviews, see my post on MIT interviews.


WHARTON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: FOCUS  ON THE BEHAVIORAL  ONES!

My colleague, Steve Green, has compiled a list of the commonly asked  Wharton questions based on interviews conducted prior to 2011 admission:

RESUME

• Walk me through your resume.
• Tell me about yourself.
• Tell me about what you do.
• Please tell me about you career progression to date.
• (SPECIFIC QUESTIONS BASED ON RESUME CONTENT)
• Why did you join Company X, etc.?
• Explain more about the sector you work in.
• Why current firm?
• What are your main responsibilities?
• Why did you leave your first job?

 

GOALS, REASONS FOR MBA, REASONS FOR WHARTON

• Why are you pursuing an MBA?
• Why an MBA?
• Why Wharton?
• Imagine I am an admissions officer, and you need to sell me your candidacy. Take a minute to think about it, and 3-5 minutes to tell me why Wharton should accept you
• Why now?
• What are your plans post-MBA?
• What are you short-term goals?
• Long-term goals?
• Based on the long-term goals you mentioned, what would you do if you were given $5 billion dollars?
• If you were the CEO of your company what would you do differently?
• What are you interested in being involved with here at Wharton?
• What do you do for fun?
• What are some things you like to do outside of work?

LEADERSHIP

• Tell me about a time when you lead a team.
• Describe your leadership style
• Please give me an example in which you exemplified leadership?
• Give me some examples of leadership.
• Give me some examples of mentorship.
• What are the attributes of a good leader?
• What is your leadership style?

  TEAMWORK

• Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult teammate.
• Please describe a team situation that did not work?
• If you were working in Wharton learning team, what characteristics would you look for in your teammates?
• How do you manage a global team?
• How do you motivate your team members?
• How do you deal with challenges in your team?
• 
  

  ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND FAILURES

• What is your biggest professional accomplishment?
• What is your biggest personal or professional regret?

  STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

• Tell me some of your weaknesses
• What are two weaknesses you would like to resolve/correct over time?

  MATURITY, SELF-AWARENESS

• Tell me about a time you were involved in a confrontation, either at work or in your personal life.
• Tell me what your approach is for dealing with conflicts.
• How would your colleagues describe you if you were not in the room?

  CONCLUSION

• Is there anything you would like to talk about that you have not had the chance?
• Is there anything else we have not discussed that you would like to share with the Committee?
• Any questions for me?
• Is there anything you’d like to share with me?
• Is there anything else you haven’t had the chance to say?
• Anything you want to add to say or add to your application?

A review of past Wharton' interview reports indicates that the questions, even the behavioral ones are almost always straightforward. You should certainly prepare for this interview by becoming comfortable answering the full range of such general MBA questions as well as being able to discuss everything on your resume. See here for more information about how to prepare for such questions. It is particularly important that you be able to express why Wharton is your first choice.

All interviews carry equal weight. There is no advantage to interviewing on-campus or with an admissions staff member. Arrange the type of interview that is most convenient for you.

ADAM: Based on my experience with clients, I can say that I have not ever noticed any real distinction in terms of outcome (admit, ding, waitlist) that was traceable to who the interviewer was. If you do an alumni interview, you will might have a choice of alumni to select from. The one advantage of this is that you can find out about the alumni ahead of time. If you have an off-campus option of meeting with an admissions officer, you may be able to learn about him or her as well. Campus interviews are with students or admissions officers, but you will probably not have any information about your interviewer ahead of time. Each option has its inherent advantages and disadvantages. Alumni and admissions officers are likely to be more experienced at interviewing, whereas students are more likely to be your peers. My suggestion is to select whoever you will feel the most comfortable with.

The exact length of the interview does not indicate how well the interview went. While we schedule 30 minute interviews, they may vary a bit. Deviations from the schedule are random and unrelated to the candidate.

ADAM: Reported length is typically 30-45 minutes.

Do not expect the interviewer to give you feedback – literally or figuratively. Be careful to avoid any interpretation of verbal or non-verbal communication, as both may mislead you.

ADAM: I think asking for feedback is a particularly odd thing to do because it puts the interviewer in a difficult position. The advice to avoid interpretation of verbal or non-verbal communication is nonsensical and/or simply badly stated. As a human being we cannot avoid such interpretations. What they probably meant to say was that one should not necessarily assume the absence or presence of positive verbal and/or non-verbal feedback from the interviewer indicates how well your interview is going. This might be true or it might not. It is certainly is the case that whatever way your interviewer acts, you need to stay positive and focused and not over-analyze the interviewer's reactions.

Interviews are not a popularity contest. The interviewer is assessing your fit for the Wharton MBA program, not whether or not the two of you would make good or best friends.The key is to relax, be genuine, and enjoy the opportunity for us to get to know one another.

ADAM: While these interviews may not be popularity contests, your objective is make sure that the interviewer understands why you should be a part of the Wharton community. As these interviewers are gatekeepers, convincing them that you belong at Wharton requires that you be well prepared as well as relaxed and genuine. Being both well prepared and genuine requires real practice, so don't focus on one at the cost of the other.

-Adam Markus
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If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.

Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. 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 post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."


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