well, I think it would be difficult to pin down one or two elements that contribute to my admittance to Wharton. Your application pretty much consists of these 7 elements:
1) GMAT/TOEFL (Academic ability and potential / Language Ability) 2) GPA (Academic ability and how serious you take academics) 3) Work Experience (Career Progressions and Development) 4) Extra-Curricular/Community Service (Personal Quality / Well-Roundness) 5) Recommendations (Evalutation of your professional and personal development from people who are supposed to know you well, ex. supervisors or peer.) 6) Essays 7) Interview
GMAT and TOEFL is just the ticket to the ball game. If you are around the average of the school or within the middle 80% of the class profile, you will be fine.
Don't be to obsessed with GMAT or TOEFL. It's important, but it's not the most important factor to be admitted.
GPA tells schools not just only your academic potential, like the GMAT score, and give you adcom a measure to see your capability to handle the school work. It also shows the school how seriously you are dealing with academia.
Apart from the above 2 components, the others are all qualitative measures. You need to show your professional growth, potential and past track record while at the same time showing your personal quality. Don't over focus your whole application on professional aspect only. This will make you look like a single-dimension candidate and will not help you much in differentiating yourself. After reading your apps, the adcom should have a pretty good idea of who are you both personally and professionally. If you can do this, then you are almost there.
The final thing I'd like to say is "fit" to the school. You need to do a through research on your target schools. Find out reasons why the school attracts to you, again professionally and personally. Only this way can you show passion to the school in your essay and interview.
There're no hard and fast rules that guarantee admissions. I believe I submit a pretty strong application overall. And to be admitted to a competive school, you really need to make sure you cover all your bases, professionally and personally.
For essays, they are rather presonal and I am sure all admitted students have different approach to the questions asked. I can share with you how I approach these essays, but it does not mean what works for me might work out the same way for you.
A strong interview probably will not get you a straight in. It is still put into context with the rest of the application and then compares against the other applicants. However, a really poor one might keep you out from the race.
以下是引用michellewx在2003-12-24 12:18:00的发言： gowell,请从你的理解和研究谈谈WHARTON独特的地方好么? How did you do a through research on a school, like Whaton?
Thanks so much!
Wharton's admission process is quite transparent compared with that of other schools. A few resources I used while applying were:
1. Wharton's school website: it has tons of information. Read it through and take notes of the things that interest you. You probably will feel that all schools brag about the same thing, but if you dig deeper, you will notice huge differences. A school might be strong in many areas. The key point is not to copy everything you see on the webiste and pluck them into your "Why this school" answer. Make sure you choose points that matters to you, such as your career goal, your personality etc. The school knows what their strengths are. Therefore, no need to repeat what they already know unless you put them in context. Explain why this particular strength matters to you is vital to writing a compelling answer. Take another look at your note when you are ready to write the "Why this school" essay. This way, you do not have to go through everything over again and you only read stuff that you find relevant to your goals and summarize your notes to your final answer then.
2. Wharton's stuent2student discussion board at http://s2s.wharton.upenn.edu/wh-wharton An online forum where you can ask questions about the admissions process and life at Wharton; meet other prospective and current students; and get a glimpse of the kind of debates that go on everyday in the Wharton community. Wharton also hosts a chat session, each Wednesday at 6 p.m. East Coast time at http://s2s.wharton.upenn.edu/wh-wharton/chat
3. Wharton's student diaries at http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/community/diaries/ Some Wharton students volunteer to share part of their school life and expereince online and it is a good way to get an insider's view as a prospective.
4. Student Profiles on the Wharton webiste http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/community/profiles/ Read current students' profile and see why they choose Wharton. Each person has his or her own reasons, and by reading it through, you might find that some students reasons for attending Wharton is similiar to your reson of applying to Wharton.
5. Contact current students, alumni or admissions office If the above info do not answer your questions, then try to contact as many people as you can and ask around. I contacted some current students, alumni in the process and was impressed with the support that I got.
6. School Visit This is another great way to get a real feeling about the school, but not everyone can afford the time and expense to do so. I myself did not have the priviledge to visit campus while I applied, but I found the above resources are good enough to give me a good understanding of Wharton and its community.
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发表于 2003-12-22 01:51:00
