Ask Jon Frank- P69-Q&A:WHY MBA? 7 OVERLOOKED REASONS TO GET AN MBA

JonFrank

Hi, Jon,

This is J from Taiwan.
I got 7-year full time employment. (2 years in army and 5 years in a leading pharmaceutical company)
My test scores: GMAT 700; TOEFL: 106.
I would like to apply for MBA programs with healthcare management concentrations.
Can you suggest some schools that you think I might have good chances to get in?

Thanks for your time!!

Best regards,
J

-- by 会员 taiwaneseg (2010/12/14 23:02:32)

Hey there! Yes, it would be our pleasure to list a few schools where you have a good shot of getting in, and where there are great healthcare-related programs.  I like Tuck, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Ross.  J  Of course HBS and Wharton have great programs as well—but as you can tell, we tend to be conservative.  Consider these four programs, and you will be in business this year.  All GREAT options for you my friend, and a well-rounded group of schools…


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Another question: do you have guarantee policy in your service? e.g. you revised the paper work package and make sure people to get in their dream schools, if they don't, their money back or at least some of it.  Or do you just get the work down but care less for the result?

I know some agencies in China provides such guarantees.

-- by 会员 honeybutter (2010/12/15 7:22:23)

Hey there!  Thanks so much for the note.  Yes, schools do background checks after folks are accepted.  And on one occasion, I know of a guy who had lied who had his offer rescinded.  Of course this is unusual, but it is a real possibility.  In fact, this year we worked with an applicant (from the Middle East) who worked for one of the companies that does these background checks…

And we try not to discuss our company business here out of respect for our gracious hosts at CD—but the answer is no, we don’t offer any such guarantees.  After all, we cant interview for our clients!  J  And if we did offer such guarantees, we would have a (harmful) incentive to tell people NOT to apply to challenging schools.  We would never do a Stanford application, for example.  After all, nobody has a GREAT chance of getting in there.  We do address this great question on our website—but please, beware of any company offering such guarantees.  Think about their incentive to help you, should they be most interested in managing that ratio…

And feel free to reach out to me personally, any time at all.  Best of luck to you!


Jon Frank

ben3ben4

Hey Jon,

Thanks for answering my questions! If I cannot get into a good business school this year, I would definitely ask for your help to review my Stanford application for next year. I hope my application could be more drama, even if it seems a little bit right now...haha..If yyou need any help with your business, my pleasure to offer help.

Cheers on our entrepreneur spirits,

Ben

JonFrank

Hi, Jon

Thanks for your time and effort paid to our forum. I have a question here.


I graduated from Peking Univ in 2004 and had 6 years working experience,3 yrs in PwC and 3 yrs in an alternative investment company. Now my career meets a bottle-neck, so that I want to enroll in an MBA course. My GMAT is 710 and I just got my TOEFL score 96, which did not meet the line of 100. Although some B-schools say that they do not have a minim requirement of T score, I still think T plays an important role. Now I have 2 solutions.The first one is to apply in the near 2nd round and well prepare with the essay. I WISH the school will value me based on my whole package rather than to filter the scores. The second one is to re-take the exam and put-off the application in the last round.The advantage of this strategy is a better score and more choice of the schools, while the shortcoming is that the last round application is really tough for international applicants.  Could you help me about your preference? I really appreciate for your help.

-- by 会员 cte1231 (2010/12/15 14:07:10)

Hey there.  I am so sorry that you aren’t happy with your scores.  While 710 is not necessarily a dealbreaker for top ten programs, a 96 on the TOEFL will be very tricky indeed.  L  Your  best bet, if you need to apply this year, will be to find programs that are open to lower TOEFL programs.  For example, Tepper accepted someone last year with a 96 on the TOEFL.  What you DON’T want to do is apply to any schools in the LAST round.  This is never a good idea—even for US based candidates it is extremely risky.  For international candidates, it is even more difficult to get in.  So I would find some programs that do not have a minimum requirement, and I would go with it.  That is your best bet—that, or retake the TOEFL and apply next year in Round 1…

Jon Frank

thecow10000

Jon - how did you become so fluent in Chinese?  Especially reading?  Your Chinese is better than most Chinese Americans!

Took classes in HS, college and study abroad in China?

KyleBroflovski

Jon - how did you become so fluent in Chinese?  Especially reading?  Your Chinese is better than most Chinese Americans!

Took classes in HS, college and study abroad in China?

-- by 会员 thecow10000 (2010/12/16 23:54:26)

Cartman, what is up? you wanna learn Chinese?

JonFrank

Hey Jon,

Thanks for answering my questions! If I cannot get into a good business school this year, I would definitely ask for your help to review my Stanford application for next year. I hope my application could be more drama, even if it seems a little bit right now...haha..If yyou need any help with your business, my pleasure to offer help.

Cheers on our entrepreneur spirits,

Ben

-- by 会员 ben3ben4 (2010/12/16 11:32:28)

Ben, thanks so much for the kind words.  I wish you nothing but the best of luck, and if there is ever anything we can do to help, we hope you do ask.  Cheers--to entrepreneurship man!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Jon - how did you become so fluent in Chinese?  Especially reading?  Your Chinese is better than most Chinese Americans!

Took classes in HS, college and study abroad in China?

-- by 会员 thecow10000 (2010/12/16 23:54:26)

Hey there!  We are not expert in Chinese—we still consider ourselves to be beginners.  We have a number of people who help us when we get confused—mostly former clients whom we have helped through the years.  Thank you though for the kind compliment!  J

cte1231

Hi, Jon

Thanks for your time and effort paid to our forum. I have a question here.


I graduated from Peking Univ in 2004 and had 6 years working experience,3 yrs in PwC and 3 yrs in an alternative investment company. Now my career meets a bottle-neck, so that I want to enroll in an MBA course. My GMAT is 710 and I just got my TOEFL score 96, which did not meet the line of 100. Although some B-schools say that they do not have a minim requirement of T score, I still think T plays an important role. Now I have 2 solutions.The first one is to apply in the near 2nd round and well prepare with the essay. I WISH the school will value me based on my whole package rather than to filter the scores. The second one is to re-take the exam and put-off the application in the last round.The advantage of this strategy is a better score and more choice of the schools, while the shortcoming is that the last round application is really tough for international applicants.  Could you help me about your preference? I really appreciate for your help.

-- by 会员 cte1231 (2010/12/15 14:07:10)

Hey there.  I am so sorry that you aren’t happy with your scores.  While 710 is not necessarily a dealbreaker for top ten programs, a 96 on the TOEFL will be very tricky indeed.  L  Your  best bet, if you need to apply this year, will be to find programs that are open to lower TOEFL programs.  For example, Tepper accepted someone last year with a 96 on the TOEFL.  What you DON’T want to do is apply to any schools in the LAST round.  This is never a good idea—even for US based candidates it is extremely risky.  For international candidates, it is even more difficult to get in.  So I would find some programs that do not have a minimum requirement, and I would go with it.  That is your best bet—that, or retake the TOEFL and apply next year in Round 1…

Jon Frank

-- by 会员 JonFrank (2010/12/16 23:45:31)

Hey, Jon

Thanks a lot for your reply. I have decided to re-take the test on 8th Jan. 2011,  which is the earliest date available in mainland. Additionally, I have applied a restate of speaking part score. I wrote to some schools to state my situation, some replied to me that I can use the score to apply in 2nd round and updated them with the new one. If they can get the update with a week or so after the deadline, it is OK. I listed this information here and hoped it could help others whose conditions might be similiar to mine.

Thank you for your kind advice and I think I may need your further help in Essay, since it is a MUST to use touching stories to offset the bad test score. Let's keep in touch.

Have a nice day!

JonFrank

Hi, Jon

Thanks for your time and effort paid to our forum. I have a question here.


I graduated from Peking Univ in 2004 and had 6 years working experience,3 yrs in PwC and 3 yrs in an alternative investment company. Now my career meets a bottle-neck, so that I want to enroll in an MBA course. My GMAT is 710 and I just got my TOEFL score 96, which did not meet the line of 100. Although some B-schools say that they do not have a minim requirement of T score, I still think T plays an important role. Now I have 2 solutions.The first one is to apply in the near 2nd round and well prepare with the essay. I WISH the school will value me based on my whole package rather than to filter the scores. The second one is to re-take the exam and put-off the application in the last round.The advantage of this strategy is a better score and more choice of the schools, while the shortcoming is that the last round application is really tough for international applicants.  Could you help me about your preference? I really appreciate for your help.

-- by 会员 cte1231 (2010/12/15 14:07:10)

Hey there.  I am so sorry that you aren’t happy with your scores.  While 710 is not necessarily a dealbreaker for top ten programs, a 96 on the TOEFL will be very tricky indeed.  L  Your  best bet, if you need to apply this year, will be to find programs that are open to lower TOEFL programs.  For example, Tepper accepted someone last year with a 96 on the TOEFL.  What you DON’T want to do is apply to any schools in the LAST round.  This is never a good idea—even for US based candidates it is extremely risky.  For international candidates, it is even more difficult to get in.  So I would find some programs that do not have a minimum requirement, and I would go with it.  That is your best bet—that, or retake the TOEFL and apply next year in Round 1…

Jon Frank

-- by 会员 JonFrank (2010/12/16 23:45:31)

Hey, Jon

Thanks a lot for your reply. I have decided to re-take the test on 8th Jan. 2011,  which is the earliest date available in mainland. Additionally, I have applied a restate of speaking part score. I wrote to some schools to state my situation, some replied to me that I can use the score to apply in 2nd round and updated them with the new one. If they can get the update with a week or so after the deadline, it is OK. I listed this information here and hoped it could help others whose conditions might be similiar to mine.

Thank you for your kind advice and I think I may need your further help in Essay, since it is a MUST to use touching stories to offset the bad test score. Let's keep in touch.

Have a nice day!

-- by 会员 cte1231 (2010/12/17 19:42:18)

Thanks so much for this thoughtful response.  You are 100% correct, schools are often open to the idea of your submitting an app, and resubmitting test scores a bit LATER in the process.  Thanks for pointing that out--it is advice that everyone should hear.  One more thing that you have pointed out--great that you called the adcom directly.  There is no need to take anyone's word for these tricky situations...but the adcoms themselves!  Nicely done here--we would love to keep in touch.  Good luck!

Jon Frank