Ask Jason@沃顿 (my essays inside!) Free essay advice again~

cannedpineapple

I recently saw this piece of advice from Jon Frank (who apparently writes amazing Chinese.. I'm jealous) about how one should mention their age in their application:

如果你年纪大一些，你需要把这个写进你的论文。但是，千万不要写“天啦，我年纪太大的，但是，没关系”，如果这样，你就正应了招生者的预想了——他们正在担心你现在己经陷入了一个不进不退的事业瓶颈。他们会担心你处在一个你不愿意再脚踏实地的卷起袖子做事情的时期。你在论文里他们证明这不是你的现在的状态

如果你年纪稍小，那么，你也不要避讳在你的申请里谈到这个问题，但是，还是一定要巧妙。招生委员会的人会担心你可以还不太成熟，不能按照自己制定的目标走下去。因此，在你的论文里，你一定要显示出你是多么的成熟，多么的经过了深思熟虑。用你的脑袋里的“雷达”探测到他们担心的那一些小角落，然后填满！！

Regardless of whether you're above or below the average age, I don't think it necessary for you to discuss your age in your essays. Your essay space is a precious resource. There is so little of it and so much to cover; you're much better off showing the traits that they're looking for directly (eg. try to show maturity if you're below the average age; to show ability to grow and learn if you're above). Trying to 'talk about' and 'find reasons' to explain away your age is not a good use of space, and can often backfire. It can come across as being defensive, which can conversely draw attention to why you're being so defensive in the first place.

Your age, however, will come up. If you've spent your precious essay space selling yourself well, then the school will invite you for an interview and during the interview you'll definitely be asked this. I was asked point-blank by the admissions officer for Wharton: "do you have enough work experience?", and had to answer them. But until it comes up, don't waste your time dealing with a problem that isn't there. Trust me, no school is going to reject you because you're too old or too young.

They might however just ding you for being too defensive about your age.

xh65623746

Hey Jason,
I have read the thread you have put at Chasedream,it was very instructive. I have some questions about recommendation letters,and I hope you could help me out.
I am currently a senior and will apply MBA program at the U.S. I wasan exchange student at the University of Manchester one semester, and I askedtwo of my course teachers as my recommendation referees and they agreed.
Ihave noticed that some top MBA schools emphasis on leadership very much, and Ithink it would be really good if one recommendation letter is focused onleadership experience. However, I think the two U.K recommendation refereescould only provide strong academic reference for me not about leadership. Therewould be 2 choices for me while choosing the recommendation letters.
1, 2 U.K recommendation letters, allacademic
2, 1 U.K recommendation letter, 1 Chineseprofessor.(academic + leadership)

Could you please give me some advice whichchoice is better?
(rumors:Chinese professor recommendationletters are usually useless,since American Universities know that Chinesestudents write their own recommendation letter)
Thanks!!!!!
Please, please reply me message.

cannedpineapple

Both are not really relevant. Pick people whom you've WORKED with before. The key is to pick recommenders who know the PROCESS of how you got your results, rather than simply saw you performing well in class or in an exam.

When I applied I had a professor write for me as an optional third recommender. He had known and worked with me for three years on various projects both in and outside of class.

My main two recommenders were both superiors from work (internships).

Good luck!

cannedpineapple

Bump- please ask me more questions!~

m1nt

啊。jason出现了，我以为jason没空再来cd了

cannedpineapple

没有人提问题我就没必要上咯~

m1nt

没有人提问题我就没必要上咯~

-- by 会员 jelt2359 (2010/10/14 10:00:18)

哇。一个鸡冻，这个是我第二次看到jason讲中文

thecow10000

Jason, what's your expectation on the applicant size for Wharton's class of 2013?  Some are expecting the number to drop, hence maybe a higher acceptance rate.

cannedpineapple

In the past two years the class size has been 820+ and 870+, out of a given stated class size goal of 800. In short in past years we've accepted too many.

So even if the applicant size drops, and we accept the same %, we might just be back to closer to 800- and who's to say we can't go below 800?

In short, I doubt the acceptance rate will change. If anything, it might fall, not increase.

thecow10000

Thanks for the reply Jason.  I did notice the class size increase...  I thought it was Wharton's plan to become the largest B-school.  I guess I was wrong.