Wednesday, April 16, 2008

MiF application

It's late in the application season for this year (although the last deadline is still a few weeks away) but I wanted to write about the application process for posterity. The MiF 2010 season will start in only about 6 months!

Anyway, there are 3 core parts to the application: essay, GMAT, and recommendations/referees - just like most other business MSc and MBA programs. Here is my thoughts on each one.

GMAT:
Reading message boards such as Businessweek's MBA boards you will see that many people fret to no end about the GMAT. While the exam is important and you of course should work to make your score as high as possible, I think people worry far too much about it. Programs are being serious when they say that the GMAT is but one component of your application, and they look at your profile as a whole in their decision. Most programs make the average score and even a range for their admits available for all to see. For MiF 2009, the figures (so far) are a 705 average and a range of 620-790. If your score is within that range you are probably ok. A weaker score can be balanced against strong points. Note of course that every situation is different. If you have a quantitative background for example then you will be expected to score well on the quant section; falling to do so could cause problems. As another exmaple, scoring less than well on the verbal section will be more forgiven for a non-native speaker of English than for a native speaker.

Materials I liked:
- Princeton Review's Cracking the GMAT - nice explanations, techniques and tips throughout. Practice tests on the CD-ROM and online are good too.
- 800score.com - online tutorials and good practice tests, low cost too.

Recommendations:
There is debate about how much these really count, and my opinion (note that I've never sat on an adcom) is that they are less important. A bad recommendation will clearly hurt you, but who has a bad recommendation?? If you are not confident that the referee will write nice things about you then you don't ask that person to submit right? I think that in reality everyone finds referees that will make good comments, so a good recommendation is the norm, not something that will make you stand out. One thing to note about referees, said many times before I know but just to make it clear: the program doesn't care who the recommender is, that is his or her title. Most programs want at least one supervisor, but it doesn't matter if the referee is the company president or a rank & file employee. What's important is that the person knows you well enough to make insightful comments.

Essay:
By far the most important part. MiF only requires 1 essay, the statement of purpose, so I'll comment on that. There are no hard rules for what a "good" statement is, but you need to address why you want to join the program, what your career goal is and how the program helps you, and what you will bring to the program. These things alone are not enough however. Your essay needs to be interesting and paint a story of you with a cohesiveness where one point naturally leads to the next. In my essay for instance, I wrote about my career to date, my rationale for the direction I've taken and how that led me to MiF. I then discussed why the program is right for me and how it fits into my goals. You want to give the impression that the program makes good sense for you and that you will bring the passion needed to be successful. On a technical note, it should go without saying but be sure to put the essay down after completing it and don't look at it for a day or so. Read it again with a fresh pair of eyes; you'll be shocked at all the mistakes you make in the first run!

Other helpful tips:
Show interest in the program! If the program has and information session near you, GO! The session will of course be informative and you'll have a great chance to ask questions to program officials and alumni, but it's a perfect chance to build some recognition. The session I went to had good food too - can't be beat! If no session is available to you, contact the program and ask about alumni in your area that you can chat with. There is a question on the application about contact you have had with the program and alumni, be sure to have a good answer!

There you have it. Best of luck with the application.

1 comment:

Papito said...

what was your grade on gmat?