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- 精华
- 2
- 积分
- 5097
- 经验
- 5097 点
- 威望
- 25 点
- 金钱
- 8633 ￥
- 魅力
- 4797
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Tip 6: Save your money early and prepare bank certificate
Earn your money for the following budgets: application budgets-USD1,500 (application fee, GMAT/TOEFL application/delivery fee, postage/courier service fee, etc); certificate of deposit - USD40,000. Save the latter amount in two deposits, USD20,000 each, six months before your visa application (around Nov or Dec). After all, you are only required to show the first-year support to the Visa officer. Once your have a scholarship from the school (in most cases, a tuition waiver), a USD20,000 deposit certificate is Okay to the officer.
Bank of China is the only ideal choice for the deposit because of their fame and their seamless transfer and remittance services. Some small branches can issue as many certificates as you like, as long as you PAY them.
2. GMAT (15%)
GMAT scores are extremely important in b-school applications, in case that you're seeking financial assistance.
Tip 9: Carefully prepare for AWA
Some students got 6 in the TWE (Test of Written English along with TOEFL) and only 3.5 in the AWA. It seems that the way of writing for AWA is quite different. So, prepare more and be aware of this killer test.
3. TOEFL (4%)
Tip 11: Please regard Tip 10 as Bullshit
See the points I give for the TOEFL test: only 4%! Many students got their admission and even scholarship with a TOEFL score merely above 600. It is those high-value parts such as the GMAT and the work experiences that count! So, stop worrying about low TOEFL scores!
4. GPA (4%)
Not much to say about this, we simply have different GPA systems and it seems that the Americans don't care it as much as us Chinese do. One of my classmates got GPA as 3.2 and still got a tuition waiver.
5. TWE/GRE (1%/ -4%)
Tip 13: Please forget unnecessary tests
Forget these tests, it won't help. US B-schools are looking for enterprising people with social responsibilities and commitment, but not followers only to ETS!
6. Work Experience & Recommendation Letters (20%)
Work experience does count! Top-10s now require an average of 4-5 years work experience. Even the 2nd and 3rd tiers are asking for at least 2 years of work experience.
Tip 14: At least three years work experience with Big Names
Americans prefer to big names, such as US investment banks, commercial banks, consulting firms, the Big Five CPA Firms and Fortune 500s. Three years working experience in those companies will almost guarantee your admission to a 2nd tier B-school. If you have more than four years experience in these firms, you might even try the top-10 b-schools. Try to get in those firms even though you are likely to be treated as dog shit in the following 3 years.
Tip 15: Choose your reference carefully
Title sometimes matters. But most of the time, it is the working relationship that plays a key role in a reference letter. Please reject your CEO and ask the supervisors who know you well to write the recommendation for you.
Tip 16: Differentiation
Novel working experiences always prove to be eye-catching. One of my classmates quitted his Wall-Street jobs and became a bartender in London. If you are applying for the top-10, maybe such experience will be an edge over other applicants.
7. MBA Essays (20%)
I can't help trembling when am I writing these words. The MBA essay experiences were nightmares throughout my application process. Actually, they are so important and so demanding that I have to quit my job to prepare these essays wholeheartedly. So, my advice would be:
Tip 17 Make essay drafts as early as possible
Normally, you will need to have a draft a month before you hand in the final version of your essays. However, the brainstorming for the draft could also be very time-consuming. In this stage, you should jot down your strengths and weaknesses, your team experiences, some achievements, etc.
Tip 18: Read sample essays and take notes
Before my application, I had read about eighty MBA application essays. While reading, I kept my Excel spreadsheet open. Whenever I found a good phrases or a B-school lingo, I would "copy and paste" them to my spreadsheet. This learning process is beneficial in both idea and phrase collection.
When revising my plain MBA application essay drafts, I also kept my spreadsheet open and "copied and pasted" those phrases (Warning: not sentence and paragraphs; otherwise, it would be considered as "plagiarism", see Tip 20) to my essays and makes them integral but shining parts of my essays.
Tip 19: Find some advisors/proofreaders
I passed my essay drafts to the following group of people for their critique:
4 colleagues, 3 classmates, 2 MBA students, 2 friends in Wall Street, 2 English teachers.
All of them had fluent English and most of them had similar experiences as I did. They offered valuable comments and suggestions to me from different perspectives, which substantially helped to sharpen my essays.
Tip 20: Tailor-made your essay
Two common mistakes many applicants make are plagiarizing and using general version of application essays!
Remember, the officials in B-schools are not idiots. They may easily sense trails of plagiarism or proxies in the essays from mismatched tones, fragmented contents, and their previous readings. Also, they can tell whether an essay is tailor-made or simply generated by changing school names in a common template
The only shortcuts are those mentioned elsewhere in this section.
Tip 21: Strategy differentiation
You may take the risk to write some "weird" essays to top-10s. A plain essay will do nothing but to bore those already exhausted school officials.
On the other hand, the 2nd-tiers and 3rd-tiers schools are where conservatism rules. Your experience and your GMAT scores have already proved your achievements. They are eager to give you the offer to increase their average GMAT scores and diversify their student body. In this connection, an essay illustrating your work experience and your motivations well will leave them deep impression. It is simply not worthwhile taking the risk to write "weirdly".
Tip 22: Be specific
Judgment is a critical characteristic for an MBA applicant. Unfortunately, I myself devoutly read a lot of pointless essays instead of tossing them into my garbage can. It is strange that many essays full of bullshits are highly recommended by some greedy publishers. What we have seen in these essays are:
"Born in 19XX in ABC city, DEF province..." "I am creative, energetic and diligent." Blah, blah, blah....
I bet the admission officials have to turn up the volume of their CD-players, drink several cups of coffee, and watch dirty talk-show programs at the same time to keep themselves awake while reading these essays.
Please show them specific events, situations that can be visualized, vivid illustrations to spark their interests in you.
Tip 23: Be confident
I think . has a very good article demonstrating the importance of confidence. Please refer to Confidence, GRE, and Visa
Sorry, Jinbo, I did a lot of reference here. It is true that I am quite lazy these days. But this does not mean that confidence is a factor I do not care. Rather, if I were to choose only one tip from my article, I'd recommend this one. As a matter of fact, self-confidence is the only tip that is applicable and critical to every application process. Even in B-school, we are trained to be 100% self-confident even if we are actually dummies in certain areas. |
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