GMAT Content from Knewton, Inc.

May 20, 2011 Update:  My Linkshare arrangement with Knewton has ended.

I am pleased to announce that Knewton, Inc. will be providing my blog with GMAT content. I think Knewton, Inc. offers a superior GMAT course option. They have a great development team lead by some of the best in test prep and are offering a course with a money-back guarantee that anyone looking for GMAT test prep should really consider taking.

As a matter of disclosure, I have entered into a Linkshare arrangement with Knewton.  For quite a while now, I have wanted to find an advertiser for my blog who I was comfortable partnering with. Knewton, Inc. is that partner.


-Adam Markus
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UC Berkeley Haas MBA Interviews

I have made a few minor changes to this year's version of this post.

Before reading this post on UC Berkeley Haas MBA, I suggest reviewing the Director of Admissions for the Full-time MBA Program's excellent Tips for Acing the Admissions Interview. I also suggest that you listen to the short podcast on interviewing found at http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/haas/podcast/audio/haas_mba_interview_tips1.mp3. The advice is very simple and clear and applicable to most schools. If you think you will get special insight about the Haas interviews from listening to this, you will likely be disappointed, but still it is worth a listen.

The reports of interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com make it clear that you need to know your resume completely as you will be asked about content in it ("Walk me through your resume"). Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game.

You also need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on basic interview strategy.

I see no reports of and have never been told about any trick questions that have been asked in Haas interviews. Be prepared to ask questions about the program. If you have an alum interview, be prepared to have a number of questions.

Interviewers (students, adcom, or alumni) are usually friendly and consistently try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. Most interviews are conducted with students on-campus or alumni off-campus. I did read some reports of relatively weak student interviewers, so don't be surprised if this should happen. Regardless of how your interviewer performs, just be relaxed and positive. This is an interview about fit and your own potential, so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to attend Haas, how you will contribute to it, and what you intend to do afterwords. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare. For more about Haas, see my Q&A's with students and essay analysis.

Campus interviews are scheduled for 30 minutes and usually last 30-45 minutes. Alum interviews seems to last about 45 minutes to an hour.

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."
-Adam Markus
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Starting to post 2010 client results and testimonials

While it is too early for most results to be in,  two of my clients were admitted to CBS J-Term and one client was admitted to HEC and IE.  You can find testimonials from two of them here. I will post more results and testimonials as they become available.
-Adam
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Are good MBA application essays like maple syrup?

One of my clients dared me to write this. Since it is 1:49am right now and I am bit tired from doing a significant amount of interview prep with a number of clients today, I thought it might be nice to write this. Warning: There is a high likelihood that what follows will not help you gain admission to the MBA program of your choice.

Are good MBA application essays like maple syrup?

It depends on what you think about about maple syrup.

For those of us raised on artificially flavored quasi-maple pancake syrup, the real stuff can seem, well, not that sweet.  Even, and this makes me sad to admit, somewhat bland.  Good essays should certainly not be bland.  They need to standout and have impact. If your reader can't easily distinguish between the subtle, but authentic taste of something really good, you clearly have no room for being overly subtle.  In this sense, good  MBA application essays are not like good maple syrup.  Instead, a better comparison would be a great bottle of wine.  Good essays are certainly like that.  A truly great of wine will be memorable.  The odor and taste will leave you wanting more.  This is an ideal image for what one wants from great MBA essays because they leave the reader wanting more so that the reader is left with only one choice, interviewing the applicant.

However, maple syrup is authentic and authenticity is something that the best MBA application essays must have.  Those who really know the real stuff become unable to enjoy the fake stuff. Put simply, real maple syrup lacks that extreme sweetness of the artificial buttery sweet pancake syrup. Consider that essays that are sickeningly sweet have a high likelihood of leaving the reader with a bad taste in his or her mouth.    Real maple's subtle taste is what makes it such an expensive sweetener.  Good MBA essays certainly have a taste of their own.  The applicant's ability to communicate their own story as effectively as possible and in a manner that convinces the reader is quite similar to the impact that maple syrup can have on those who appreciate it.

It is times like these when I wish that I had some pancakes.  Instead, I will simply end this post now.

-Adam
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MIT Sloan MBA Interviews

My analysis of MIT Sloan's MBA essays can be found here.

 This post has remained relatively unchanged from the one I put up last year.  

My colleague, Steve Green, has put together a list of common MIT Sloan interview questions, it can be found here.

Before reading the rest of this post, I strongly suggest downloading a copy of MIT's  guide to behavioral interviews, The MIT Sloan Interview Guide, because reading it first will maximize the value of my comments below.

The behavioral interview method is not old:

“Bill Byham, CEO and founder of Development Dimensions International, originated the behavioral interviewing method in 1970.”

In fact, the STAR technique outlined in MIT’s guide was developed by Byham as THE WAY to answer behavioral questions:

Byham calls an example of past behavior a STAR, because a complete example consists of a situation or task, the specific action you took and the result of your action. The result you describe doesn't have to be positive; it could be that you learned a valuable lesson from doing something the wrong way.

In his book "Landing the Job You Want: How to Have the Best Job Interview of Your Life" (Three Rivers Press, 1997), Byham tells candidates how to identify the skills for a job; explore their own "behavioral dimensions" (the behaviors they use every day to get things done); and recognize and present a STAR with positive impact in an interview.

In addition to the MIT SLOAN Guide, I suggest also taking a look at the slightly different guide to the Star Technique that MIT Career Services provides.

The STAR technique is really the core method you need to use for answering behavioral questions in MIT essays. It is simply this (taken from the MIT Sloan Guide):

• Situation: define the situation or “set the stage.”

• Task: identify the task/project performed.

• Action: describe the action you took.

• Result: summarize the outcome

Just keep in mind that you need to be introspective as well, so in an interview say what you thought as well as what you did. Don’t just present “the facts” but actively interpret your actions. There is really nothing overly complicated about this as long as you understand that you need to tell a DETAILED story. Pure abstractions disconnected from a concrete set of action steps are highly likely to result in a weak answer. Similarly, grand actions not told in any depth are also likely to be weak. Identify specific actions that contributed to the result so as to establish a clear link between cause and effect.

As when answering any kind of question, another important consideration is to think very critically about what your story selection, understanding of the task, actions taken, and results say about you. Keep in mind that the whole point of asking behavioral questions is to determine how someone acts and thinks as a basis for selecting or rejecting that person. It is obviously critical to be aware of your own message. Specifically think of examples you can use to highlight your intelligence, creativity, leadership skills, interpersonal communication skills, and conflict resolution skills.

Since your interviewer will know your file well, you need to have alternative stories for answering behavioral questions. Unlike MIT's behavioral essays, you need not limit your answers to topics from the last three years. My suggestion is to have a mix of stories ready to deliver from different times in your life.

Please see my more recent post which consists of common MIT interview questions.  You can find behavioral questions in the interview reports found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com. In addition, the list of behavioral questions found at MIT Career Services site is actually quite good for preparing for answers to wide variety of questions.

Beyond answering, behavioral questions, you need to know your own application completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Re-read your essays and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly.

You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions as well. While the answers may be analyzed using behavioral analysis, don't be surprised if you get asked questions like "What do you want to after your MBA?" or "Why Sloan." See my previous post on basic MBA interview strategy.

The interviewers, all admissions staff, are generally reported to be friendly. They are the only ones who conduct interviews.

Based on reports, interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes with 45 minutes to 60 minutes being most common.

For more insight into MIT, please see here.

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."
-Adam Markus
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ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接