[申请总结] 给亚洲MBA申请者的四条建议（待续）

这四条建议都来自于 Dr. Shel Watts. 她是MBA admit.com的创始人， 主要为MBA申请者提供建议。 Dr. Watts 毕业于哈佛大学， 牛津大学硕士及博士学位。 JHU GMBA完全没有做广告的意思， 但是觉得她的四条对亚洲MBA申请者的建议还是值得一读的。现在中国留学生， 印度留学生越来越多， 所以到底怎样才能脱颖而出？

1. Recognize the Importance of your GMAT score.

For applicants who have begun to do their homeworkabout MBA admissions to top U.S. and European schools, you probably alreadyhave a solid understanding of how important your GMAT score can be in the MBAadmissions process. MBA candidates come from a wide range of schools and fromschools located all around the world. The GMAT provides MBA admissions officerswith a standard metric by which to compare candidates from these widely varyingbackgrounds. The GMAT also provides an indication as to whether you will beable to do the work in their rigorous MBA program. Because of this, your GMATscore plays an important role in your overall “package” and can have a notableimpact on your admissions outcomes. For Indian and East Asian foreign national candidates in particular,the GMAT score can have a big impact on outcomes because GMAT averages tend tobe notably high among these two broad groups of foreign national applicants, soif you score low on the GMAT exam, you will be at a notable disadvantage.

Are female candidates from India or East Asia with lower GMATscores (relative to their male counterparts from India and East Asia)successful in MBA admissions?

Yes. Because fewer women apply to business school, even among the East Asian and Indianforeign national pools, top business schools will often give women morelatitude to have a lower GMAT score and still gain admission to top business schools. Normally, if I get a female candidate who is an East Asian orIndian foreign national and her score is as low as 660, there are stillreasonable odds that we can help her put together an application and gainadmission to top schools like Columbia and Oxford, as long as the rest of her record is reasonablystrong.

Wed Mar 6, 2013 10:16 am

2． Apply during an ideal blend of “Rounds”.  
Some candidates procrastinate in applying to top MBAprograms. But if you are from an “overrepresented profile” – as most men from India or East Asia will be– you want to apply to the top schools when there are still a good number ofseats that have not yet been allocated to applicants from your profile. This means you should consider applying early decision or in Round 1.  

By Round 2, your odds of admission will be harder,but I have worked with many candidates to gain admission successfully in Round2. Success in Round 2 is about putting together an outstanding overallapplication – essays, recommendations, resume, application form, etc. – as wellas targeting a well-selected list of schools, which would include schools thattypically reserve a good number of seats for Round 2 admissions. If you end upseeking to apply in Round 2, do your homework excellently so that you have avery strategically well-selected set of schools to which you are applying.

Wed Mar 6, 2013 10:17 am

3. Explain why you need an MBA from a top university in the UnitedStates or Europe.

This is a very important bit of advice, and often ifmany candidates fail to heed this they may not have a strong shot at gainingadmission to a top MBA program in the United States or Europe.  

Most top MBA programs have an essay question focused on, “Why do you want an MBA andwhy is our school a great fit for you?” As a foreign national from India orEast Asia, you should pretend that there is another unwritten part of thatquestion for you, which says, “… and why do you need an MBA from a top schoolin the United States (or Europe)?” If you fail to demonstrate an answerto this unwritten question, some top schools might believe you really don’tneed an MBA from outside of your own home country or region of the world.

Imagine a scenario in which you have submitted a great applicationand you are as attractive in your academic credentials, GMAT score,extracurricular achievements and professional successes as another candidatefrom your country. But, that other candidate has articulated a clear,compelling reason why they need an MBA from a U.S. or European school. Allother things equal, the committee may likely tilt in favor of the othercandidate because they have been given a clear reason to do so. In their minds,that other candidate really needs to be in a program in the USA or Europe, andthey need to have the resources and network that their school can provide. Ifyou did not articulate a reason why you really needed to attend school in theircountry and at a school with their resources and network, they might reason youcan make your own way after attending a business school in your owncountry.
当回答到学校问题为什么要申请MBA, 对于亚洲学生可能还要加上一段来解释为什么要选择欧洲或者美国的商学院。

4． Present a differentiating “personal story”, not onethat is very similar to the stories told by many other candidates from yourcountry.  

Some top business schools require an MBA essay aboutyour personal background. Through it, they want to get to know you better. Inother MBA applications that do not explicitly ask you about your personalbackground, you should usually still seek to skillfully weave in references inyour essays, if the topics are conducive to this. The problem can come when you have a personal story thatmight sound a lot like the story told by many other candidates with your sameprofile.

For example, a typical candidate from India mightwrite about coming from a family in which their parents worked hard andsacrificed to give them opportunities. They will tell the reader about how theywere influenced by the positive role models and developed excellent values. Asa result, they studied hard and scored excellently in national exams, earningadmission to a top college in India and then progressing on to greatprofessional success. This is great information and indeed the personal storyis quite laudable. But there is a big problem: This is largely the same storythat many Indian foreign national candidates will tend to write. If you focuson this storyline without taking steps to make the story more unique, you willsound very generic and it will be harder for the admissions committee todistinguish you from other applicants. There are, of course, many ways to makethe story unique.

For East Asian foreign national candidates who are not alreadyworking or residing in the United States, I see less of this particular problembecause the life experiences of East Asian candidates can vary greatly basedupon country of origin or even regions within a country. Life in Malaysia canbe quite distinct from life in China, for example, and life in big-city Chinacan be quite distinct from life in rural China. Similarly, life in Japan can bequite different from life in Indonesia, and within Malaysia there are so manydifferent ethnicities and ways of life that you can see much more variety instorylines.  

However, when an East Asian foreign nationalcandidate is in the United States/Europe already (working or studying), it isoften the case that such candidates want to write about the cultural shock theyexperienced in coming to the United States or Europe and their success inovercoming the challenges associated with integrating, learning the newlanguage, and excelling in the new environment. When a candidate focuses onthese themes, therefore, they risk introducing material that the admissionscommittee will see from many other candidates with the same profile. But as Imentioned above, there are many ways to tell this story uniquely, so I don’tthink a candidate has to avoid the story, but rather to write about theexperience in a unique and compelling way.

文章来源：

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/event/10-keys-to-success-for-indian-and-east-asian-applicants-live-chat