B school application - choosing a school

tinaxueMIT

Hi Everyone. I will introduce myself again. My name is Tina. I'm a graduate English student at Harvard. Hopefully I will finish my thesis soon and graduate.

I worked at the admissions office at MIT for 2 years, and just got a new job working as a program director at Harvard University. So I am constantly working with new students, applications, reviewing applications, working with the admissions committee, reviewing requirements, etc. So every year, I give advice on how to get through the application process and how to write PS and essays.

If you are at all interested in applying to business school, you should be looking into different schools already.

Choosing the right school is very important because you want to get into the best school you can get into and not waste any money. So it is important to look at potential schools now based on your GPA (academic history), work experience, location, and extracurricular activities, and test scores.

Make sure you have taken the correct test for the school you are applying fore i.e. GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, etc.  Every year, a lot of people take the wrong exam. So make sure you check the application requirements. By the time people realize they took the wrong exam, its too late.

Now should also be the time that you pick your references. Try to improve your relationship with these professors to the best of your ability. I know that generally you write your own references. In these references..DO NOT be modest or say anything bad about yourself.

If you have no extracurricular, work or leadership experience, I highly advise that you go and find an opportunity now. You can tutor, work for your family company, anything. American schools focus a lot on experience. Just having good grades is not enough.

Finally, start looking at the essay and PS requirements. Schools should post them soon. If not, then you can look at last years. They should not be too different. Then over the summer, start thinking about how you can write about your experiences effectively, how your past fits into the essay requirements, etc. When it comes to the essay, the earlier you start writing and drafting the better. In the very least, think about what you want to write about, what is impressive about you. Refer to my post of PS structure if you are not sure what to write. That PS structure post is very general so try to think about what makes you special and unique. The more you think about it, the more ideas you will have.

To pick the right school, you should go onto the school's website and look at the information on the people they admitted before, their program, etc. The schools will usually give the average test scores, gpa, etc. Other good sources are Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc.

I highly advise that you start this as soon as possible. Do it slowly and carefully. Working in admissions, I can see which applications were finished the day before the deadlines, and which ones were done in advance. The ones finished the day before the deadline generally will always have something wrong with them - from tiny mistakes to huge mistakes. Make sure you avoid these. If you want to get into a top 20 business school, a mistake on the application means that you have no chance of getting in.

amelialeaf1

谢谢! 受用~~

canols

支持写一个系列的吧，如何写PS，如何address某些学校的essay，或者一些general rules
或者谈谈一些dos and don'ts

gmatethan

Thx a lot