Ask Jason@沃顿 (closed)

sk8nicole

Jason I read your comment of every single question. I am so impressed by everything about you.

I think I have a similar experience with you as of finished under from double major BA Finance & IB in University of Maryland College park, and considering about going to a top MBA in the short future(2011 or 2012).

Here is my background:

I am currently staying in the US.I am jobless ans currently I am not looking for jobs at all.It is in a way because I gave up.
I spent one year looking for a full time job in here but it ended up that because I am not a US national that I got rejected by almost all positions I applied, and I understand that the rejection of foreigners is more or less related with the current economy condition that I graduated in... for the jobs that I got, I do not like them because they are not my dream jobs...
I think I was, am, and will be a hard working person in my life. Maybe I have setup goals too high for myself which leads to a problem now----心比天高，命比纸薄 ：（
I had multiple internship experiences(Merrill Lynch, United Nations, and A private consulting company here in Maryland), and I was actively involved in many school activities.
Now I am helping my family business to contact some of our partners in the US to spend my time of OPT..which I don't like.
My family gives me a lot of pressure by not earning a living by myself...however I turned down offers from some small companies that would have supported my life here. 
I concluded that I really want to do something that I truly like.
My dream is to work for the medical business and help cure people that can not afford their treatment.
It is something still far away from me now and I need a start. I do not like going back to China for some certain reasons..
and now I can't stay here.
I thought over and I started preparing for gmat in this Sept.I think the only way out for me now is to go to MBA,to keep my status here and to learn more and broaden my perspective of this world. I want to learn from my future MBA peers about their experience as well.
However, my choice of going to MBA is my "way out" under my current condition, but I really would like to have 1-2 years of working experience in a position that I really like with a sponsorship here in US or in HK or Singapore. However, it is so hard to get a job now...
Do you have any recommendations for me?  Do you see me as one of the future MBAs there?
I know your answer will be if I see myself as one then I will be one.. but yeah, I do see myself as one of them
Anyway, any thing wanna say to me?

Thanks a lot Jason you are so awesome by the way!

无奈午夜

Hi Jason -- Just a quick check for the essay “Tell us about something significant that you have done to improve yourself, in either your professional and/or personal endeavors”.

In your view, what kind of quality does admission officer want to learn about applicant through such an essay?  My personal thought is to describe sth about personal activities here i/o professional experience, since working has been described so much in the other essays required.  To demonstrate myself to officer in full, I would like to present sth in my leisure.

Please help correct me if my idea is wrong.  Thanks in advance!

Lo

[此贴子已经被作者于2009-7-16 0:20:51编辑过]

cannedpineapple

sk8nicole>

The MBA should not be seen as a 'way out' for
college seniors. Instead, you must have a very clear idea of why you
need the MBA to further your career. I emphatise with your situation-
it is not a good time to be in the job market, especially in the US.
However, I would recommend that you think very clearly about where an
MBA fits into your career before jumping into this. It is not a small
investment in terms of time and money, and you'll find that 1) you'll
have better success in the application stage to better schools 2)
you'll gain more out of the MBA itself; after you think clearly about
what you want. That's not to say that after thinking it through, you won't decide that the MBA is the best way to go. But this is a deep and time-consuming process that may take you (as it does for all MBA applicants) quite a while.

Good luck!

Lo>

Always
look first to see if you're answering the question (eg. in one example in which applicants frequently don't answer the question, when they say
they want a 'failure', are you giving them a 'failure', or merely a
'setback on the way to a success'? etc.). In this case the question
says, 'in
either your professional and/or personal endeavours'. So since you're
using an example that they specifically say is okay, I wouldn't worry
about this at all.

More importantly, what they are looking for- 1) how you analyse what it is about yourself that
needs to be improved 2) how you analysed what the best way to improve
this is 3) how you executed on this actual improvement.

The type (professional vs personal) of experience is less
important than using the experience to properly demonstrate 1), 2) and
3). Good luck!

[此贴子已经被作者于2009/7/16 11:53:39编辑过]

cartera

Jasson,

What top joint MBA/area studies (latin america, east europe...) do you know? It is worth to apply for in terms of mone, time? It is easier to access to one of this programms?

thanks

坦克指挥官

Hi, Jason.

I’m also a college senior wanna apply to MBA after graduation. I didn't have strong intern experience neither, but I have been to a unviersity in US as an exchange student for a semester. During my exchange program, I seized an opportunity to represent that university with other three american students to take part in a business case competition hosted by OSU. This extra-curriculum experience deeply impressed me since it offered me a better interpretion of leadership ( say, my team leader’s reaction to same emergences) and teamwork. Although I was not the team leader ( I did a lot to help the teamleader to make several important decisions about that case), will this affect my expression about my specific understanding of leadship and teamwork from these case competition into my essay?

Besides, do you have any idea which top MBA program tend to enroll college seniors (or no full-time working experience)? Thank you very much!!

TXqueen

great

cannedpineapple

cartera> Whether it is worth it depends on your goals. If you need a joint-degree for your career, then sure it's worth it. This is an individual decision that I cannot do for you- what I can do is answer specific questions about the experience, so you can decide if that sounds like what you are looking for.

It is not easier to access them. If anything, it's harder, because you must be admitted into both programmes, which are both typically very competitive. There are many many programmes out there. Wharton alone has >10, I think. Just go check on schools' websites.

tankezhihuiguan> Yes, that counts as leadership experience. Not being the team leader is not crucial. Leadership is more about influencing others to a common decision, rather than being in a position of authority.

However, most successful college applicants (look at my intro on the first page) combine strong internship experiences, a wealth (rather than a single incident) of extra-curricular activity, and other traits (eg. intellectual vigour, and so on) in order to demonstrate maturity, clarity of career goals, and potential to achieve great things professionally. So you'll want to demonstrate these things as well.

Many top schools take college seniors, including:

Chicago Booth
Columbia
Stanford GSB
HBS
Wharton
(these are just those I thought of in about 10 seconds)

Some don't, like Kellogg. Go visit their websites, you'll be able to see if they accept college students.

Good luck!

Ken_Hsu

Hi, Jason

Want your help

One question about the LOR:what is "constructive feedback". I saw some former treads on this forum, someone suggested that "constructive feedback" means "critiques", right?

thanks

cannedpineapple

Not necessarily. Constructive feedback is often given to help a person improve, rather than just to point out everything that is bad about them. It often takes the form of, 'I think you could work more on this...' and is therefore seen by many as 'critical', but it's really not the same intent.

Ken_Hsu

Thank you!