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($) Deciding on a school: Qualitative factors

January 27, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

Finances are often a big part of the picture in deciding between different MBA programs. If one school offers free money and another does not, that can tilt the scale significantly. Or, if one school is in a very expensive city, and another has a more reasonable cost of living, these factors do matter.

But there’s other dimensions that are at least as important, we believe, and those are what we call qualitative factors.


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Decisions, decisions! (Hopefully you’re in this difficult position after Rd 1 apps!)
 
 

 
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More insights on navigating the “which school do I pick?” decision are in our “>Accepted Student’s Guide – the SnarkStrategies Guide to get after you get in!
EssaySnark's Admitted Student's MBA Readiness and Celebration Guide

Filed Under: deciding on a school (multiple offers)

If you applied in Round 2…

January 25, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

…should you be panicking yet if you haven’t been invited to interview???

 

Well, if you LIKE panicking — if it’s something you ENJOY — then go to town!

But we advise against it!

There really isn’t any reason for panicking just yet.

Yes a lot of schools are issuing interview invites, and yes if you’re spending time on the MBA applicant forums, it may seem like every other person has gotten invited except for you. But that’s just not the case.

The Round 2 cycle has barely begun! There are lots more chances for interviews coming from lots more schools.

Generally speaking, we consider the HBS Interview Invite Day to be the true kickoff of interview season.

And, even after that day comes and goes, it’s still not really time to be panicking if you haven’t gotten interviewed yet.

This process is a rollercoaster of emotions and can be truly taxing on the nerves. It’s really common for people, right after their apps are in, to suddenly plummet and assume that everything they wrote in their essays is crap and that they don’t have a chance at all and they blew it completely. An insane amount of second-guessing can occur in the second or third week of January.

We’re convinced that the MBA applicant forums can do more harm than good at certain times of your own personal admissions cycle. At some stages, especially the beginning phase when you know next to nothing about the process of applying, those forums are a godsend and you learn so much about what’s needed and the policies at the schools and figure out what GMAT score to aim for etc.

It can also be a helpful reality check, since it lets you compare your profile and stats against what others of (seemingly) similar profiles present, and their outcomes. (We say ‘seemingly’ because it never is about solely the core stats; there can be a not-helpful fixation on those stats on those sites, and it’s ALWAYS about the execution. Please don’t forget that salient fact!! The profile ABSOLUTELY matters, but weakness in core stats can be overcome with the right presentation.)

Since you’re here reading this blahg, then we assume you’re well aware of these realities, and the apps you submitted in Round 2 were executed well. Given that as the baseline assumption, then with the question “Is it time to start panicking?” the answer is a resounding “No!”

You have plenty of time for panicking later, BSer.

For now, if you had put together a multifaceted strategy in Round 2 and you know you had sound messaging in those essays, then as hard as it is to take this advice, we encourage you to find a way to distract yourself for another few weeks without obsessing, and let the process play out.

If things aren’t moving for you yet, then you may be surprised when suddenly they start moving significantly!!

Here’s to hoping that soon you are inundated with interview invites and you find yourself scrambling to keep up.

Till then… Go back to your Wordle and TikToks. You can worry about this later.

 
 

Filed Under: general snark Tagged With: cheerleading

($) You can have 2 of these 3.

January 24, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

In the world of business, especially software development and other such projects, you may have heard of the relationship between these things:

– Time
– Quality
– Cost

You can get two of these three, but you cannot have all of them.

Meaning: If you want it faster, you have to sacrifice quality or pay more.

Or if you want the quality to be higher, then it’ll cost more or take longer.

There’s similarly a relationship that starts to fundamentally kick in with admissions chances at this time of the season.


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Looking at reality through the factors that influence your chances
 
 

 
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Be clear on what your priorities are.

That’s always the best way to make big decisions with significant possible outcomes.

Filed Under: Round 3, selecting schools Tagged With: rankings

($) Updating the admissions office on changes to your profile post-submit: GMAT/GRE/classes

January 23, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

There are certain situations where an update of your new status is warranted. The admissions office will want to know about things that have changed in your life.

Today is a much more straightforward situation.

You retook the GMAT or GRE, and now you want to let the admissions office know of your shiny new score.


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Be strategic with your communications!
 
 

 
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If you’re thinking of following up with admissions about your application and you’re stressing about whether or not to do so, you can leave an update about it in SnarkCenter in the School Targets notes field, and we’ll check it out and offer some input to you if you want. We’re around and happy to help! If it’s a more involved situation, our Private Consult lets you share the details and what you’re strategizing upon.

This can be one of the hardest phases of the application process, because you’re doing a lot of waiting around and wondering. There’s a good way to spend this time. Worrying about your chances and overthinking things is not one of them! Get off the internet and go do something, you’ll end up much happier that way. 🙂

If we can help on these tactics on your specific situation, let us know!!!

Filed Under: GMAT/GRE, GPA and grades

($) “When should I start practicing for my interview, and how?”

January 20, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

We got a Plea for Help! from a distressed BSer in December, asking for some guidance on what may have gone wrong in their Round 1 applications, and they ended up going for the Post-Mortem Review (rejected app analysis) — and through that process, it was determined that they didn’t really do anything wrong in the execution of the application itself.

“But,” they wondered, “was it maybe my interview?”


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Now that your apps are in… Is it time for the next stress-event?
 
 

 
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Building interviewing skills is obviously another part of the process to worry about attend to. It may be a tad too early to get cranking on the actual interview prep, but constructing a plan for what needs to be done and how you will do it is totally worth doing even now!

EssaySnark's MBA Interview Prep Guide

Filed Under: interviewing

($) The BSer’s Dilemma: Deciding between two top MBA programs — what to do, what to do?

January 18, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

Are you in the coveted position of having multiple offers in hand from top-notch MBA programs, and now you have to decide which one to accept?

We have a treasure trove of posts on individual schools here on the site, so starting there to see what we’ve said about the specific programs and the school culture and any snarky insights that are on tap is always wise. Our school application guides also go into discussions on many things such as in the case of NYU, why aren’t they that highly ranked if they’re such a great program?

If you’re deliberating between two different MBA programs then it wouldn’t hurt to go back over both schools’ application guides now, to pick up on the commentary we’ve offered on culture and fit.

In the case of an applicant debating between NYU Stern and Michigan Ross, there are many factors to consider.


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You would think this part of the process would be easy!
 
 

 
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Filed Under: deciding on a school (multiple offers) Tagged With: rankings

($) Should you use ChatGPT to write your MBA admissions essays?

January 17, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

In case you haven’t been tracking latest developments in tech and society, there’s this AI that now can produce pretty good writing, just by feeding it a prompt. It’s called ChatGPT and available at https://chat.openai.com/ . If this truly is brand-new news for you and you’ve not heard of it before, then here’s a description from when it first came out , a few short months ago. Mashable called it “AI generated plagiarism” which didn’t seem quite accurate – is it plagiarism if what you’re copying wasn’t written by a person? Apparently so. (For a refresher, here’s one of several posts from us on plagiarism in writing bschool admissions essays.)

Most of academia is up in arms about this, because ChatGPT actually creates a well-written essay that surpasses what many college students produce on their own.

And there’s almost no way, at the moment at least, to check to see if an essay was produced by AI or not. (There are some smart people trying to work on this problem right now too.)

AI has all sorts of moral and ethical implications for our society and our future, and at the same time, EssaySnark is generally pro-advancement of our world through science and technology… So this post isn’t a hand-wringing of “Oh noz! What will become of us with this newfangled threat to our existence!” Instead, we’re going to look at the reality: This new thing exists. It’s good at what it does. It solves a problem that so many people have (producing something that people aren’t good at producing on their own).

Should you use ChatGPT to write your essays for bschool?


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Let’s get real today.
 
 

 
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Really, this invention is causing us to wonder what comes next. We have real concerns about how all of this will go. The opportunity for true abuse and manipulation of the truth is getting real.

Will AI cause the downfall of modern society? Who knows. But we do know that this particular train has left the station. The horse is out of the barn. No one is going to stop this now, and it’s roaring through academia already.

And yet there are real ethics here, which show up in your individual decision-making on your own approach to the task of writing your essays.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should — remember, being a leader means doing things that are hard. And anyway, at least as far as ChatGPT goes, even though you can, it might not turn out in the way that you’re hoping for if you do.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Making meaning out of a great leader

January 16, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

Regardless of your nationality and where you grew up, we’re assuming that most of you have heard of The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.


Photo source: Smithsonian

In the U.S., today is the day that we have designated as a national holiday to honor his legacy.

Some states don’t recognize the holiday at all; some even celebrate Robert E. Lee on the same day. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday, but that does not mean it translates to any local observations.

For those areas that do recognize this leader by giving employees the day off and closing business, it’s still not necessarily celebrated in light of the message of this man. In many communities, this holiday has been — at best — translated into an exhortation of a day of service, where people may go out to build community gardens together, or perhaps volunteer at a shelter. Those are all good deeds that are worth doing, but they’re not quite in line with the work of Dr. King.

Here is a quote directly from the source:

“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1959

Dr. King was a civil rights leader, and his message was social change through non-violence.

Did you know that Dr. King was only 39 years old when he was assassinated?

That’s probably not that much older than you are today.

He first became known as a leader when he was 26 and led the year-long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Another name you are probably familiar with that is associated with that event is Rosa Parks, the Black woman who refused to give up her seat.

The 1950s and 1960s probably seem like so far in the past that you can’t even relate to those times or imagine having any connection to them. We’re in 2022, after all. Why are we mentioning these historical figures, from a time when all we have are black-and-white photos? It’s so far back in history that that time is probably not at all relatable for you.

Mostly we want to bring attention to the legacy of someone who fought for change in this society. Who did so from a young age. Who acted on his beliefs, and believed in action.

Action is where leadership comes from.

Since you’re here on this lil ol’ blahg reading about MBA stuff, then presumably you’re interested in leadership of some kind, of that whole “making a difference” thing.

Spending some time today thinking about the ways that a significant leader of the past took action, the things that he stood for, the way he influenced people, is surely worthwhile.

There are plenty of other examples of leaders that you could similarly study, both contemporary and historical, though in the society of the U.S., very few of them are leaders of color. We figured it was a worthwhile opportunity to invite you to stop, and explore, and learn something or re-learn it about a man who lived his values (and died for them) and what his message was about.

Stanford has the King Papers Project in case you want to go on a deep dive to learn more.

Watch Dr. King speak to a group of high schoolers asking them what is their life blueprint:

“Each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives. The question is whether you have a proper, a solid, and a sound blueprint.” His language and speaking style may sound old-fashioned to our 21st century ears, yet his message is still meaningful today.

In our fast-paced TwitterTok culture, find time to reflect on what matters to you, find space to honor those who have come before, find energy to nurture yourself, and find courage to do the next right thing on your own personal journey towards the person you are becoming.

Filed Under: leadership, values

What if you don’t get in? Planning your Plan B.

January 13, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

Today we’re posting a series of links to articles that we have collected over the years, to help you learn about learning, understand your understanding, and deepen your ability to gain insight into yourself — insights that you can use in practical ways.

One of those very practical ways is figuring out what to do next with your bad self.

That means what to do if you get in — and what to do if you don’t.

You may think, “Heck, if I get in, I’m going!”

And yes, presumably that’s true!

We also often hear of BSers who get into bschool and then realize they don’t really need the MBA.

Or, they get into multiple places, and then what!?? Making the decision on which school to attend can be one of the most challenging things you’ve ever decided.
If you’re sitting here with literally no admits in hand yet, then that “problem” may seem like one you’d practically kill someone to have! It may seem impossible that it would be such a “challenge” to make that decision. Honestly though, it can be massively difficult.

And then of course the big one that may be looming a shadow over the hearts of some of you out there: What if you don’t get in anywhere?

If Round 2 was (were?) your first applications then you may have had that thought and you don’t even know if it’s a reasonable fear to have.

If you tried in Round 1 and didn’t make it in, and then had to scramble to try again for Round 2, that may be a more real fear that you’ve been experiencing.

If you’re in any type of job that has an expiration date — where you’re transitioning out of military service, for example, or coming up on your two-year commitment in a contract, where everyone else already knows that you’ll be leaving and yet you are not yet sure where you’re actually going to go, then these things can certainly cause stress.

IT’S WAY TOO EARLY TO BE STRESSING!! Today’s post is actually meant to let you start thinking through options before you’re feeling the pressure of time.

We’re still in a world of total possibilities with Round 2 schools — very few of them have even issued interview invites yet for apps that went in over the last 10 days, so it’s still in the Schrodinger’s Box of opportunity going any which way.

Which is the right time to be looking at your own values and doing some considered self-exploration.

Sitting here right now, do you have a sense already of what you will do if none of your apps pan out? Are you just going to go back to the same not-very-happy-at-this-job mindset that originally caused you to seek out an MBA as a possible means to escape into something fresh and new and exciting?

The experts are saying that it’s going to be probably late summer or maybe fall (or possibly even later) before we’ll all be able to resume “normal” lives again, where things like movie theaters will open and sporting events with people in the stands will be a possibility. At least, that’s what they’re assuming in this country, based on the very slow rollout so far of the vaccine. Depending on what type of work you do now, maybe by summer, offices will be reopening and allowing employees to come back and things like team meetings in conference rooms and morning standups will happen again. Will you want to return to the same job you have now?

Or will it be time to use that revised resume that you made for the purpose of your MBA apps, and go out on the job market in search of something different?

Things are still up in the air as to whether the U.S. economy will be headed into a recession, but as you’re likely aware, some sectors got hit hard already, such as technology with many layoffs in the Bay Area last fall. What do employment prospects look like for your current situation?

How about this: If your Round 2 schools don’t pan out, will you be trying in Round 3? There are some built-in challenges there, and in most cases, it means compromising on the level of school that you’re aiming for. Someone who was H/S/W or Bust early in the season may realize that dang, an MBA actually would make a lot of sense for me now and perhaps I’ll reconsider other options too. However, that would probably mean, by the time we’re in Round 3 territory, moving to much less competitive schools, like UCLA or maybe Cornell, or even the tier below, where we’re talking like McCombs or Tepper or McDonough — really great schools, still, but not ones that have the same prestige factor that lots of BSers are craving.

At what point will you have to decide?

Some schools are going to have extended seasons this year — at least, Ross is, modeled after their extended rounds during the initial coronavirus craziness. Ross now has four rounds, so even though their Round 2 deadline was ridiculously early in January, they have another round deadline at the end of March and then a final fourth deadline in early June. So there’s actually plenty more chances to try. Will they still have many seats left? They’re likely holding back spots in order to fill them for those rounds, so yes, though it’s likely also to be pretty competitive at that stage. Other schools also have late-cycle deadlines, or they accept applications on a rolling basis after a certain date.

Pro Tip: The schools that do this? They tend to be the less-competitive programs. You can’t expect Wharton or Stanford to be operating under similar rules.

And to that you may say: “But what about Columbia?!?? They have rolling admissions with apps accepted all the way till April!”

That is indeed true! However, it becomes incredibly difficult to get into Columbia if submitting an app anytime after like the end of January.

The other topic to honest-to-goodness be considering right now is: Do I even need an MBA?

There has been an overall shift in our culture, what with quiet quitting, and a re-examination of values caused by the pandemic and social changes and recognition of inequities all over.

Maybe you still want an MBA, but do you NEED one?

A lot of you don’t. You’re already in careers that have a nice steady upwards progression, or in some cases you’re in fast-paced roles and are doing some moving and shaking in what you’ve accomplished to date. An MBA is not necessary to go do more with your life. You maybe already are doing more than most others your age!

So, part of the Plan B questioning might be: What do you expect to gain from the MBA?

Ha.

Didya see that?

It was kind of a trick, how we asked you that.

Because you probably have now spent months and months thinking of what to say to that exact question! If you applied to Wharton, you had to answer that literally.

But those answers were always crafted. You were writing for an audience. You were trying to come up with something intelligent to say, to convince an admissions person to want to meet you.

What if you asked yourself that question for real?

What do you expect to get from the MBA?

Knowing what you want out of it can help guide you through the possibly murky waters and unclear situations that will be facing all of us, in some way or another, as we figure out what’s happening in this economic situation.

Knowing why you’re trying for this can be liberating! It can gain new clarity on what is at stake, and help guide next steps and further decisions.

And it can make you that much more convincing when an interviewer asks you exactly that question in an MBA interview in the upcoming weeks.

 

Filed Under: general snark Tagged With: your life

($) “If I’m really really really really really excited about a school do you think they will let me in???”

January 12, 2023 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

This question coming of course from a Brave Supplicant with a really low GMAT.

And the answer is…. actually, yes! Or at least, maybe! Depending on the school.


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Enthusiasm certainly can’t hurt! But how much it can help is debatable. UNLESS IT’S AUTHENTIC.
 
 

 
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Filed Under: low GMAT, reapplying

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CLASS OF 2025 MBA APPLICATION STRATEGY GUIDES

From a former BSer:
"love the guide books!"




    The 2022 Stanford MBA Application Guide - for "what matters most" in your MBA application!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Stanford GSB for the Class of 2025
   
    The 2022 Harvard MBA Application Guide - updated for the Class of 2025!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Harvard Business School!
   
  The 2022 Wharton MBA Application Guide - even more advice on how to get to a win with those essays!
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  The 2022-2023 Columbia MBA Application Guide
SnarkStrategies Guide for Columbia Business School for 2022-2023 applications
   
    The 2022 MIT Essay Guide covers the org chart, the cover letter and 'introduce yourself' video, plus the new optional short-answer question on "the world you come from" -- and everything else you need to know!
SnarkStrategies Guide for MIT Sloan MBA - totally revised for the Class of 2025!
   
    The 2022 Kellogg Essay Guide - with a full methodology to identify your 'lasting impact' and your 'values'
SnarkStrategies Guide for Kellogg MBA - revised for 2022!
   
    The 2022 UVA Darden MBA Application Guide gives insights on the essays, Early Action, the possibility of a test waiver, and everything else going on here!
SnarkStrategies Guide for the Darden MBA - updated for the Class of 2025 requirements!
   
   
The Yale SOM MBA Application Guide for Class of 2025 candidates!
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    The 2022 Berkeley-Haas MBA Application Guide - updated for the Class of 2025 application!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Berkeley Haas - refreshed and updated, with brainstorming exercises and structured maps to help you focus your stories!
   
    The 2022-2023 NYU Stern MBA Application Guide that covers the essays, the EQ Endorsement and test strategies!
SnarkStrategies Guide for NYU - discusses your requirements for the Class of 2025 essays!
       
   
   
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