It’s May. Creeping up to the middle of the month. That means, bschools are gonna start releasing their new essay questions soon. Harvard is usually the first one out of the gate with questions. Then comes Columbia. Most other schools wait till June, and then it all happens in a flurry. A few slowpokes (Stern [...]
Learn More...MBA Essay Questions: Wharton
Wharton Useful Links Wharton MBA Admissions Blog Wharton MBA Admissions Deadlines 2013 Wharton MBA Essay Questions (Expected in early June) The Wharton essay questions tend to change dramatically from year to year. Still, you can check out what they asked last season, to get a sense of how very difficult these questions can [...]
Learn More...Why you’re doing this, and what you have to look forward to.
January 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
If you’re struggling with your career goals and banging your head against the desk because you honestly don’t know what you want to do you just want to get an MBA goddammit, then check this out: It’s a blog post from a Wharton first year, Esther Sun Jang, written this past November, when on-campus recruiting [...]
Learn More...($) Wharton’s Team-Based Interview and a little on Harvard
November 9, 2012 by
We’re getting a lot of inquiries about this new group interview format at Wharton… and we’ll write a bit about it here, but honestly, this is yet another case where the school has already told you what to do. For anyone invited to this stage, Wharton has explained the structure of how their Team-Based Interview...
A Tale of Two Bschools
October 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Recently we’ve been talking about is the MBA worth it – the whole “is there a bubble?” thing is the perennial topic. It’s fun to bash the MBA when people like George Bush and Mitt Romney and Jon Corzine and Raj Rajaratam have them and Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Richard Branson did/do not. [...]
Learn More...Planning your multi-school strategy Part 3
August 6, 2012 by
Recently we talked about how to chunk out your approach and which schools you should write essays for first. Today let’s look at planning your strategy across the entire admissions season. We said the other day that you should not need to apply to more than 3 schools, and that applying to more than 5...
Wharton 2012 Essay Guide
July 30, 2012 by
for admissions season first released on 8/6/12: Read about Wharton’s new assessment process on their Admissions Director’s Blog (we cover all this for you in the Wharton strategies guide) 8/10/12: If you’re interested in the Lauder program, then check out this interview with their admissions director. Very helpful! First published on: Specific to: Purchase [...]
Learn More...Pissing off the BSers
May 15, 2012 by 1 Comment
Those of you who’ve been coming around these parts for awhile know we tell it like it is. We try to shoot straight. Bschool admissions is competitive. What’s the point in shining you on and telling you that you have a good shot of making it into Harvard if you really don’t? The main reason [...]
Learn More...Bschool is not the goal.
May 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Had a surprising email come in some months back, and got permission from the sender-inner to post it here on the blahg. This person’s outcome is not typical. Here’s what they said: Hello essay snark, Application season got a little crazy and had an interesting twist at the end. I did not apply to any [...]
Learn More...The real reason you were rejected (simplified).
April 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Let’s break it down further. If you weren’t accepted to bschool this past season, there are only two possibilities: Either: a) your profile isn’t strong enough, or b) your presentation of your profile wasn’t strong enough To grossly oversimplify, either your GMAT (or GPA) isn’t good enough, or your essays weren’t. Or both. That’s it. [...]
Learn More...What you can do right now
April 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
If you haven’t yet made it into the school of your dreams, or if you’re just starting the process of applying to bschool, either way, you know that you have a date with destiny in October. (For the uninitiated, October is when Round 1 deadlines hit for most top schools.) If you’re serious about getting [...]
Learn More...If you didn’t make it in
April 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Round 2 is wrapping up. And this is not what you expected. Columbia came back fast with the first slap across the face. Way back in February, HBS passed you up for an interview invite. Eventually, Wharton did too. Stanford was totally silent, and then you finally got confirmation this week of what you’d started [...]
Learn More...A firsthand report on Amsterdam’s Master’s of International Finance
March 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Recently we had a very motivated commenter named give us an extensive firsthand report of his/her experience at the University of Amsterdam and the Master of International Finance. However, all these valuable insights were posted in response to our critique of an entirely different Brave Supplicant’s application essay to that program — and thus, were [...]
Learn More...“School X, or School Y with $$$?” (Part who knows)
March 9, 2012 by
This question often comes up in these conversations: “What if I just call up School X and ask them if they can match the funds that School Y is offering?” Typically we think this is getting a little greedy. But you can do it if you like. However, it’s rare that School X, being a...
“School X, or School Y with $$$?” – a case study
March 7, 2012 by
In our experience, there is tremendous pressure for BSers to accept the higher-ranked school no matter what. The prestige factor is often hard to resist. Let’s take some specifics — here’s a real-life situation that we were asked about: I am deciding between a full-ride at Ross and a tiny fellowship at Wharton. I felt...
“School X, or School Y with $$$??” (Part 2)
March 6, 2012 by
OK we know you want to look at the real question here: The finances! For someone with the X or Y scenario we’ve identified, the finances do matter. Let’s be real: Coming out of bschool with less debt would be awesome. But “ROI” takes on many forms. We had a conversation with a BSer on...
“School X, or School Y with $$$??” (Part 1)
March 1, 2012 by
We’ve had this post half-written since December and never managed to finish it off, but we’re getting so many requests for it that we decided to put the margaritas away (what else do you think EssaySnark is doing now that deadlines are done?) and publish the thing. A couple BSers asked about this scenario recently....
Timing of interview invites
February 6, 2012 by 1 Comment
To follow on our rant from Friday: IN MOST CASES, THE TIMING OF WHEN YOU GET INVITED TO INTERVIEW DOES NOT MATTER. The only case where there is a tiny bit of info to be gleaned from the timing of your interview invite is at Columbia — but even then, there’s only a little you [...]
Learn More...“Should I try again?”
January 16, 2012 by 1 Comment
>This one is heartbreaking. Every now and then, someone comes to us with a dilemma. They applied all over the place in Round 1. And goodie! They had some success!! They were accepted at a lower-level school like an Emory or a Georgetown (great schools!!! just not the top of the heap) — often even [...]
Learn More...the one less traveled by… CORNELL
January 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
NOTE: You guys have been keeping us busy all weekend, but we’ve been keeping up with you, and as of right now, the crazy essay offers are still in effect! Happy New Year to all! Cornell is a Top 20 bschool that appears to be so far from the Top 10 that sometimes it seems [...]
Learn More...Don’t be a dolt.
December 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
If there’s one thing that annoys this here EssaySnark, it’s the entitled.* (Here comes another “truth bomb” — thanks DanV.) If a bschool does not admit you, it is not their fault. It is YOUR fault. In our experience over many years of doing this bschool admissions gig, those who work hard — not just [...]
Learn More...Compare and contrast (don’t do it)
December 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Today is Christmas. Well it’s not literally Christmas – Christmas was yesterday – but yesterday was Sunday – which means we get today off as the “official” Christmas. Even though everyone did their eggnogging and gift-unwrapping yesterday. Today they’re all at the mall returning those presents and getting what they REALLY want. And rest assured, [...]
Learn More...You people are crazy.
December 8, 2011 by 6 Comments
We should not be surprised. This happens every year. But this year, we spent so much time explaining and exhorting about which round to apply in (and which round to not) that for some reason, we thought it would be different. We told you to get started early. And here it is, not-early. In fact, [...]
Learn More...So you want to be an i-banker?
November 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Last week we were all hearts and gratitude and talking about service. Which is where our passion is. It was Thanksgiving after all, which is about thanks and giving, in case that escaped you. Thanksgiving is over. Now it’s time to get to work. And to start off a Monday-after-the-holiday with a real reality check [...]
Learn More...WHAT WENT WRONG?!?
November 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
>Let’s face it, rejection hurts — whether it’s from a love interest or from a bschool. We’re with you. We know what it’s like. If you’re feeling the sting of being shown no love by the adcom and you’re wondering what went wrong, EssaySnark has a special deal available: an analysis of your app with [...]
Learn More...essay critique Part II: Wharton "a time when you were innovative"
September 28, 2011 by
>We covered this yesterday, but we still have more to say — yes, even on just that first paragraph. This is for the Wharton essay on Dean Robertson’s assertion about innovation. Here’s the question: Keeping this component of our culture in mind, discuss a time when you have been innovative in your personal or professional...
essay critique: Wharton “discuss a time when you were innovative”
September 27, 2011 by
Wowser you Brave Supplicants are having a tough time with Wharton’s “innovative” question. We’ve been reluctant to do full essay critiques on this one because… well, because they’re so long. Critiquing a 600+ word essay in a blog post makes for a very long blog post. ‘Cuz you know that we can never be brief. ...
