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($) Should you apply Early Action / Early Decision?

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We’re reblahgging this from the ‘snarchives since it’s an important topic!! You can see some comments below from BSers who’ve gone before, asking about their own strategies — feel free to post your own such questions too if you have them!   This is one of the most important decisions that you will make in…

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Columbia MBA early decision deadline & acceptance rate

by EssaySnark - Discusses

Now that Columbia has officially released its 2018 MBA essays and application, and the essay questions are, as usual, focusing on career goals and “why Columbia?” with the second one asking about being at the center…. So given the focus on an “early” application that we often see at this time, we wanted to dig…

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We were bummed to have discovered this.

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Well-meaning or not, a BSer we worked with this past season ended up executing on an application strategy decision that, had we known about it, we would’ve advised against. This person used our help to apply to a bunch of top-tier Round 1 schools. They did a good job on those essays. Apparently somewhere along…

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($) Renegging on an Early Decision offer

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Reblahgging this from 2010… since some people didn’t get the memo about “binding.”     Apparently, there’s lots of people who didn’t carefully consider the big picture when they pulled the trigger on an Early Decision/Action application to Columbia or Duke or whomever. Because as you now know, those are “binding” apps, meaning that by…

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Ethics and Early Decision

by EssaySnark

The “early action” concept is much more common in undergrad admissions in the U.S. Among top business schools, only a small handful have such a thing for MBA admissions. They are: Columbia Early Decision – binding Duke Early Action – binding Tuck Early Action – not binding UNC Early Action – sort of binding? Tuck…

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Ethics and your MBA application

by EssaySnark 1 Comment

Back in February, we did a little series on the blahg about ethics, and when compiling some examples of real-life ethics and challenging situations, we of course thought of the many ethical issues involved in applying to business school.

We know that none of you would ever think of copping someone else’s essays as your own. We don’t write essays for applicants, and we’re sure that none of you would ever seek out the assistance of some type of “consultant” or essay-writing service that does. So we’ll skip that, as not needing to be discussed.

The obvious one is lying on your application.

Our categorical advice is, don’t do it.

It’s not worth it.

It doesn’t matter if you know someone who lied and got in. We’re talking about YOUR integrity.

If you encounter an admissions consultant who suggests that you bend the truth, then we suggest, run. Fast. Why would you trust possibly the most important opportunity of your next 10 years to someone who plays so loosey-goosey with honesty?

There are plenty of grey areas to wander through in developing your application. What is misrepresenting? What is spin, versus appropriate levels of self-promotion? What’s marketing and positioning when it comes to presenting yourself on the page? We admit, these can sometimes blur together. But you will KNOW if what you are writing is not true. You will KNOW it. Don’t let your ambition (or fear) override your good sense. When you get that squirmy feeling inside as you’re typing away on an essay or editing that resume, listen to it.

Another landmine lurking for many BSers are the letters of recommendation. Your boss asks you to write it, and she’ll send it in. Nope. That’s a no-go, too. Writing your own recommendations is unethical. Full stop, end of sentence. You can’t do that and submit an honest application.

There’s one more area of MBA applications where it’s easy to justify some questionable decision-making – call it an EssaySnark pet peeve (yeah, we admit, there’s more than one of those) – which we’ll cover in detail tomorrow.

($) Columbia MBA: Early Decision, rolling admissions, when to apply

by EssaySnark - Discusses

Columbia does things differently. For one, as you may have noticed, they open their application earlier than a lot of their peer schools. Because of the unique processes and options, between the Columbia Early Decision and the J-Term Accelerated MBA, and how all of their admissions is rolling, it can be a little confusing. So…

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($) What (not) to look for in an admissions consultant

by EssaySnark

In no particular order, some words of warning for those of you starting to consider engaging the services of an MBA admissions consultant this season. Be careful of: A consultant who tells you to make stuff up for your resume. We hear of this all too often and it gives us the heebie jeebies. Talk…

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($) “I’ll just apply to Columbia Early Decision as an insurance policy.”

by EssaySnark - Discusses

Actually, last year we heard of an admissions consultant who advises their clients to do that. Talk about gross. Totally unethical. In case you don’t know what we’re talking about, it’s this: Columbia has this very sweet opportunity where you can apply very early in the cycle – like, say, now – and they will…

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($) Queries from a concerned BSer: EA/ED vs a fave school, worth the risk?

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Here’s the last question that was presented to us by the Brave Supplicant we’ve been discussing recently (first question here, on a so-called non-traditional background; second one here, on Columbia’s culture). I really like Kellogg (my top choice after Stanford) but I’m not sure if risking an EA/ED at CBS or Fuqua (I quite like…

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