the MBA tour is coming to town next week. a lot of emails flying around. managed to make appointments with IE. BU says they don't normally interview before application completed but I am yet to find convincing reasons to apply it besides the bold brochure & alumni Martin Luther King Jr. Hope to see more schools coming though I've already known said is not coming.
IE's response is very fast & warm, liked it! Carry on!
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
Top 5 - What do they care?
Review of AdCom panel （Wednesday, August 02, 2006）转自一美国MBA申请者Blog
……I went to a UPenn Alumni Club event with members of the admissions committees at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, and MIT. Most of the answers were pretty standard, but I did find a few interesting tidbits.
They polled the audience in the beginning to get an idea of work experience (most people were applying with 3 - 5 years of experience), whether or not people had significant others that would join them at school (only about 10 -15 people!!!), and how many had already taken the GMAT (just under half).Each member of the panel spoke about a different part of the admission process.
General comments - they really do read the entire package. They all agreed that they never look at stats and then just put you in the reject pile. At least two people will read your package (including all essays).
Kellogg Rep - GMAT and Transcripts
Want to demonstrate you can handle rigor of program. Will understand a lower quant score if you were an English lit major. Everything taken in context of the overall package.
AdCom is looking for improvement and trends.
MIT Rep - Work experience and recommendations
Average is 4 - 5 years of work experience, more or less years is fine but make sure you goals are clear and the "why now" comes out in your essays
Being sincere will help you to differentiate yourself if you are in a common group (e.g., consultants). Be sure to show the impact you've had and let your passion come through.
Write about your accomplishments, not your tasks
Recommendations should highlight your strengths; best way to make sure that happens - get someone who knows you well to write the recommendation
Stanford Rep - Extracurriculars
Cover extracurriculars in college through current time; try to focus on leadership, scope of responsibility, size of organization and what kinds of activities that organization does, impact you've had. Non-leadership positions can be valuable too - sometimes you made an impact as a team. Attaining a certain level of achievement (e.g., All-American) also shows your dedication and self-sacrifice. They look at context. Understand that if you are working crazy banking hours and flying every week for work as a consultant that it would be hard to get involved. However, it is therefore even more impressive if you have managed to do that.
HBS Rep - Essays
Essays are the heart of the application. Will help if you see it as an opportunity rather than a chore. Chance to distinguish yourself. Make the AdCom excited to get to know you (they'll want to see you for an interview!) Ask your reviewers to think about whether this is you when they read your essays
Wharton Rep - Interviews
Gain insight into passions, career path, why you want/need an MBA
Rehearse your story and do your homework on the school - just don't get to the point where it's just recitation and not a conversation
Every school does its interview process differently - make sure you understand it for each. After this general discussion, there were prepared and open Q&A. Here are some things I found interesting:
All schools except Kellogg were very open to younger applications, particularly women (this stems from realizing that women often want to go to school earlier because they do include family planning in their career). Kellogg didn't say they were against younger applicants, but I guess they really value work experience.
All schools are really trying to get more women. They pointed out that law and med school has reached a 50/50 representation while b-schools still hover around 30%. (as a side note, MIT has clearly been proactive about this. I got a letter in the mail from the school highlighting their focus on recruiting and training women in business).
Optional essays are truly optional.
If you come from a non-traditional background, that's great b/c it represents diversity. But, you may have to do a bit more explaining about what you do so AdCom can understand.
Types of classes: Kellogg - variety, MIT - variety, Stanford - case, experiential (a few lecture), HBS - 80% case, rest are experiential (50% of their students do field studies in 2nd year), Wharton - mix of case and lecture
……
……I went to a UPenn Alumni Club event with members of the admissions committees at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, and MIT. Most of the answers were pretty standard, but I did find a few interesting tidbits.
They polled the audience in the beginning to get an idea of work experience (most people were applying with 3 - 5 years of experience), whether or not people had significant others that would join them at school (only about 10 -15 people!!!), and how many had already taken the GMAT (just under half).Each member of the panel spoke about a different part of the admission process.
General comments - they really do read the entire package. They all agreed that they never look at stats and then just put you in the reject pile. At least two people will read your package (including all essays).
Kellogg Rep - GMAT and Transcripts
Want to demonstrate you can handle rigor of program. Will understand a lower quant score if you were an English lit major. Everything taken in context of the overall package.
AdCom is looking for improvement and trends.
MIT Rep - Work experience and recommendations
Average is 4 - 5 years of work experience, more or less years is fine but make sure you goals are clear and the "why now" comes out in your essays
Being sincere will help you to differentiate yourself if you are in a common group (e.g., consultants). Be sure to show the impact you've had and let your passion come through.
Write about your accomplishments, not your tasks
Recommendations should highlight your strengths; best way to make sure that happens - get someone who knows you well to write the recommendation
Stanford Rep - Extracurriculars
Cover extracurriculars in college through current time; try to focus on leadership, scope of responsibility, size of organization and what kinds of activities that organization does, impact you've had. Non-leadership positions can be valuable too - sometimes you made an impact as a team. Attaining a certain level of achievement (e.g., All-American) also shows your dedication and self-sacrifice. They look at context. Understand that if you are working crazy banking hours and flying every week for work as a consultant that it would be hard to get involved. However, it is therefore even more impressive if you have managed to do that.
HBS Rep - Essays
Essays are the heart of the application. Will help if you see it as an opportunity rather than a chore. Chance to distinguish yourself. Make the AdCom excited to get to know you (they'll want to see you for an interview!) Ask your reviewers to think about whether this is you when they read your essays
Wharton Rep - Interviews
Gain insight into passions, career path, why you want/need an MBA
Rehearse your story and do your homework on the school - just don't get to the point where it's just recitation and not a conversation
Every school does its interview process differently - make sure you understand it for each. After this general discussion, there were prepared and open Q&A. Here are some things I found interesting:
All schools except Kellogg were very open to younger applications, particularly women (this stems from realizing that women often want to go to school earlier because they do include family planning in their career). Kellogg didn't say they were against younger applicants, but I guess they really value work experience.
All schools are really trying to get more women. They pointed out that law and med school has reached a 50/50 representation while b-schools still hover around 30%. (as a side note, MIT has clearly been proactive about this. I got a letter in the mail from the school highlighting their focus on recruiting and training women in business).
Optional essays are truly optional.
If you come from a non-traditional background, that's great b/c it represents diversity. But, you may have to do a bit more explaining about what you do so AdCom can understand.
Types of classes: Kellogg - variety, MIT - variety, Stanford - case, experiential (a few lecture), HBS - 80% case, rest are experiential (50% of their students do field studies in 2nd year), Wharton - mix of case and lecture
……
Friday, September 08, 2006
Fear of Flying - Welcome Onboard by Veritas Airways
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7884654
Welcome aboard
Sep 7th 2006From The Economist print edition
In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like?
“GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.
The flight attendants are now pointing out the emergency exits. This is the part of the announcement that you might want to pay attention to. So stop your sudoku for a minute and listen: knowing in advance where the exits are makes a dramatic difference to your chances of survival if we have to evacuate the aircraft. Also, please keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even if the seat-belt light is not illuminated. This is to protect you from the risk of clear-air turbulence, a rare but extremely nasty form of disturbance that can cause severe injury. Imagine the heavy food trolleys jumping into the air and bashing into the overhead lockers, and you will have some idea of how nasty it can be. We don't want to scare you. Still, keep that seat belt fastened all the same.
Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.
Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate.
On channel 11 of our in-flight entertainment system you will find a video consisting of abstract imagery and a new-age soundtrack, with a voice-over explaining some exercises you can do to reduce the risk of deep-vein thrombosis. We are aware that this video is tedious, but it is not meant to be fun. It is meant to limit our liability in the event of lawsuits.
Once we have reached cruising altitude you will be offered a light meal and a choice of beverages—a word that sounds so much better than just saying ‘drinks’, don't you think? The purpose of these refreshments is partly to keep you in your seats where you cannot do yourselves or anyone else any harm. Please consume alcohol in moderate quantities so that you become mildly sedated but not rowdy. That said, we can always turn the cabin air-quality down a notch or two to help ensure that you are sufficiently drowsy.
After take-off, the most dangerous part of the flight, the captain will say a few words that will either be so quiet that you will not be able to hear them, or so loud that they could wake the dead. So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We appreciate that you have a choice of airlines and we thank you for choosing Veritas, a member of an incomprehensible alliance of obscure foreign outfits, most of which you have never heard of. Cabin crew, please make sure we have remembered to close the doors. Sorry, I mean: ‘Doors to automatic and cross-check’. Thank you for flying Veritas.”
Welcome aboard
Sep 7th 2006From The Economist print edition
In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like?
“GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.
The flight attendants are now pointing out the emergency exits. This is the part of the announcement that you might want to pay attention to. So stop your sudoku for a minute and listen: knowing in advance where the exits are makes a dramatic difference to your chances of survival if we have to evacuate the aircraft. Also, please keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even if the seat-belt light is not illuminated. This is to protect you from the risk of clear-air turbulence, a rare but extremely nasty form of disturbance that can cause severe injury. Imagine the heavy food trolleys jumping into the air and bashing into the overhead lockers, and you will have some idea of how nasty it can be. We don't want to scare you. Still, keep that seat belt fastened all the same.
Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.
Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate.
On channel 11 of our in-flight entertainment system you will find a video consisting of abstract imagery and a new-age soundtrack, with a voice-over explaining some exercises you can do to reduce the risk of deep-vein thrombosis. We are aware that this video is tedious, but it is not meant to be fun. It is meant to limit our liability in the event of lawsuits.
Once we have reached cruising altitude you will be offered a light meal and a choice of beverages—a word that sounds so much better than just saying ‘drinks’, don't you think? The purpose of these refreshments is partly to keep you in your seats where you cannot do yourselves or anyone else any harm. Please consume alcohol in moderate quantities so that you become mildly sedated but not rowdy. That said, we can always turn the cabin air-quality down a notch or two to help ensure that you are sufficiently drowsy.
After take-off, the most dangerous part of the flight, the captain will say a few words that will either be so quiet that you will not be able to hear them, or so loud that they could wake the dead. So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We appreciate that you have a choice of airlines and we thank you for choosing Veritas, a member of an incomprehensible alliance of obscure foreign outfits, most of which you have never heard of. Cabin crew, please make sure we have remembered to close the doors. Sorry, I mean: ‘Doors to automatic and cross-check’. Thank you for flying Veritas.”
2 weeks
So many happenings in the past 2 weeks. my friend has got a just nice GMAT score, congratulations! Been to Wharton's reception held at BCG office. A crowd of 30-40, an alumni couple (very interesting background, but not going to share here personal details). I was a bit late so didn't catch the name of the male admin officer. Nothing much exciting & he sounded a bit cocky, maybe it's just my wrong perception or lack of interest. One thing for sure, they don't quite bother such a small place like Singapore & this basically one-man-show was not well prepared. They even forgot to open up the refreshments afterwards. What a waste!
BTW, I've also been doing some interesting projects for L.A.!
BTW, I've also been doing some interesting projects for L.A.!
Feedback from SG & LD
About two weeks ago, I sent out email enquiry to both Insead & SAiD. Within a week, I got a quite comprehensive but not-so-warm reply from SG. Yesterday, had a nice phone conversation with Ginny from SAiD followed by her very detailed & personal reply. I guess the difference is probably Insead had a much bigger applicant pool (several thousands / batch, 2 batches / year) than SAiD (about 800 / year). Later saw SAiD's latest brochure, very cool design & unique concept, can't help ordering 1 print copy:-) At the same time, requested from IMD, Kellogg also. Tried to make an appointment with IE for 1-to-1 interview during the MBA tour, yet to get the details. Cheers!
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