Ask Jason@沃顿 (closed)

cannedpineapple

In the US system, an undergraduate degree = a bachelor's degree. Unless you're talking about honors.. Did you officially graduate from the university?

fienfde

Hi Jason,

Wharton is my dream school. Although I was dinged last year, I want to reapply this year. I have some questions about reapplication.

1.     Would the adcom read only this year's application package or together with last year's essays, rec letters etc? I want to know because some essay topics are the same (e.g. the failure essay). I don't know if I can use last year's essay if I am satisfied with that one.

2.     Also, the reapplication requires 2 additional recommendations. Last year, I chose my current boss and my boss of former employer. If I still choose them these year, maybe recommendation of my former boss remains the same, at least the examples were the same. Can I still choose them this year?

3.     Can you give some enlightenment on discussing the improvement on candidacy? It's only several months ago that I got the denial, and it's hard to have remarkable improvement within less than half a year.

Really appreciate your help.

ElisaWang

以下是引用jelt2359在2009-7-7 12:15:00的发言：
In the US system, an undergraduate degree = a bachelor's degree. Unless you're talking about honors.. Did you officially graduate from the university?

Yes, I graduated from a university with a 3-year program and recieved an associate degree(专科) before I got undergraduate diploma.

Sorry that I should have used 'undergraduate diploma(本科学历）' and ‘bachelor's degree（学士学位）' to better differentiate the two.

I found this online:本科学历是各高校颁发的,学士学位是国家学位委员会统一颁发的.拥有学士学位的人必须先拥有本科学历,但是也有一些拥有本科学历的人不能达到国家学位委员会的要求,所以也就不能得到学士学位.

I probably will look for certificate verification from World Education Service.

Thanks for your time!

流浪的悉达多

LS，估计不少学校要学位‘bachelor's degree，

加油！

ElisaWang

谢谢流浪的悉达多！

是的，许多学校都要求bachelor's degree。但也有个别学校要求比较宽松，就是比较少，我还在找。。。

不管怎样，试试看吧！没有努力过怎么知道不行呢？

Eliott

以下是引用jelt2359在2009-4-24 13:54:00的发言：

Finally,I would recommend when choosing a school, that you look for the best 'fit'. A huge part of the value of the MBA is probably the friends and alumni that you will be able to tap into, and you'll see that the alums from different schools are very different. Most of my classmates, for instance, (especially in the Lauder programme) can't imagine going anywhere else. Do your research, and you'll start to find that each school has unique traits and attracts a certain type of people.

You mentioned "fit" in some previous post. Can you explain that what are the unique traits of wharton, and what are the type of people typically admitted to wharton?

Thanks.

cannedpineapple

That post will take much too long to answer. The two aren't necessarily the same thing. Every school is 'unique', after all, there's no other like it. But one way you can think about what matters to you are to think about the following (these are just some traits where schools typically defer. What they mean to you is something you must decide yourself):

Traits to think about include, approach (quantitative vs qualitative); teaching style (case vs lecture vs mix); class size (big, small, etc); alumni size (determined by age of programme, number of alumni (including undergrad alumni if applicable)) and more specifically alumni size in the country you are interested in; number of electives offered; flexibility of the core curriculum; location (closeness to NY, Chicago, whereever else you want to work, and what that means about 1) your ability to network 2) firms' expectations of how much you need to network); and finally, background of class- how international, how diverse in terms of professional backgrounds and age; and so on.

As for the type of people who are admitted, there is no 'typical' person. What there are are people who understand where Wharton stands on the traits above, and has decided that Wharton is the best 'fit' for them given what it offers.

I know this sounds very official, but I truly believe it. If you compare my background with some other Wharton alums here, I think you'll find that I'm living proof that there is no 'typical admit'.

cannedpineapple

fienfde>

1) Just remember that if you submit the same product, you get the same result. Adcom will have your previous application on file and will look at it. Frequently, applicants did not do as well as they thought on the essays.

2) Sure, you can choose them, but 1) applies. Same input, same output. Perhaps they can comment on your progress this past year as well?

3) For improvement, some people get more clear about their career goals. Most just write more relevant, reflective and well-executed essays. You'll be surprised how many essays are convoluted, confusing, and simply.. don't answer the question.

Eliott

以下是引用jelt2359在2009-7-9 17:50:00的发言：
That post will take much too long to answer. The two aren't necessarily the same thing. Every school is 'unique', after all, there's no other like it. But one way you can think about what matters to you are to think about the following (these are just some traits where schools typically defer. What they mean to you is something you must decide yourself):

Traits to think about include, approach (quantitative vs qualitative); teaching style (case vs lecture vs mix); class size (big, small, etc); alumni size (determined by age of programme, number of alumni (including undergrad alumni if applicable)) and more specifically alumni size in the country you are interested in; number of electives offered; flexibility of the core curriculum; location (closeness to NY, Chicago, whereever else you want to work, and what that means about 1) your ability to network 2) firms' expectations of how much you need to network); and finally, background of class- how international, how diverse in terms of professional backgrounds and age; and so on.

As for the type of people who are admitted, there is no 'typical' person. What there are are people who understand where Wharton stands on the traits above, and has decided that Wharton is the best 'fit' for them given what it offers.

I know this sounds very official, but I truly believe it. If you compare my background with some other Wharton alums here, I think you'll find that I'm living proof that there is no 'typical admit'.

 Thanx, Jelt2359 ,

  That's a very comprehensive answer.  Just one more, I dont' quite understand " the firms' expectation of how much you need to network", would firms expect people to network a lot when they are recruiting?

cannedpineapple

If you're living in New York studying at Columbia, firms in New York might expect that you will be at all their events because it is so easy for you to visit them. If you're in Chicago recruiting for New York positions, then even if you go once every two weeks or once a month, firms will think it's enough because they know you're further away.

The point is, some industries (eg. banking) are very 'high-touch', and really need you to show your interest by doing a lot of networking. But even then, they understand that for some it's geographically easier to network and so expect even more from you.