MBA-ps写作建议

haiya

email比较长，讲的也非常全面，看完以后对我的帮助也很大。尤其是essay和ps方面。很多中国学生觉得这两个不是很重要，随便写写或者套中介的模板就行。我的看法是千万千万千万不要这么做，录取委员会的教授们每天阅申请无数，一个平凡的ps和雷同的模板式eassy他们一眼就能看出来，中国学生的gpa和tofel gre gmat成绩一般都不差，要想让自己stand out，核心竞争力我认为就在履历，ps和essay上。 下附翻译内容，我翻译的很粗糙，尽量看原文吧。

haiya

Hi Cassandra!



I've gone and written you a long, long email.  It has helped me to clarify some of my ideas about business school, and I thought it might be interesting to send to some of my friends in the future if they ever consider business school. I haven't discussed EMT at Stern specifically, because although that is my planned major, I won't start until September so I can't tell you much yet. I did, however, just finish the whole application process, so I am very familiar with that and have described my experience in detail below. So apologies about the length and lack of specifics on Stern, but I hope this is helpful.

haiya

The preamble:



You've got a long, long time to prepare, so my first piece of advice would be not to think too far ahead.  I know you probably hear this all the time, but the most important thing for your application is that you follow your interests, study what you're interested in, and do what you do best and do it well.  It also means making sure that you are well-rounded, that you take time to pursue hobbies and activities outside of class, and that you remember to push your boundaries and do some activities that will make you grow as a person.

haiya

One of the big differences between Business School and other graduate schools is that they aren't necessarily looking only at academic achievement.  B-Schools want to pick a class of well-rounded, experienced people from diverse and interesting backgrounds.  This makes for a much more equitable (or sometimes much more "random") selection process.  Unlike Law School, where a certain GPA and LSAT score can almost guarantee admittance, with B-School, you often find people with lower grades or lower scores but really strong experience are admitted to top programs.  It can be very difficult to predict or control where you stand in the admissions process.

haiya

With that general material out of the way:



Business School applications are all about "telling your story."  The schools want to see that you have a clear, organized plan for your life, and that you have a very specific idea about how business school fits into this plan and why. Of course, very very few people are lucky enough in their early or mid-twenties to have anything remotely resembling an organized life plan.  Therefore, business schools become all about the "story:" how do you shape, twist, make up, and imagine your experiences and desires into a coherent argument to present to B-Schools.

haiya

Some small basic things can help. Make sure you have enough Math, Economics or Statistics courses on your transcript to demonstrate that you are good with numbers and won't struggle with the academic side of B-school.  The level of Math in business school is pretty basic, so even just taking one or two classes in these areas would probably be enough to show you have the required skills.  If you are planning to major in Economics or Science, don't worry about this. But if you are a humanities student, consider taking a Micro Economics class or something similar. This will also demonstrate that you had an early interest in the Business field.



Following on that, you should try to demonstrate an interest in economics or business, or in how they relate to your chosen field of interest. If you are interested in Media and Entertainment, sit down and try to work out how going to business school would help you advance in that field.  It's important to remember that B-Schools see themselves as a means to an end, not an end in themselves.  They want students who are ambitious and plan to use business school to get them ahead in their chosen fields.  They DO NOT want students who are applying to business school because they want the credential on their record, or because they don't know what they want to do and need more time to figure it out.  That being said, B-School is full of those kind of people (who have no idea what they want to do yet), but all of them managed to tell a compelling story on their applications about how business school was the right place for them and how it would help them in their careers.

haiya

Try to display initiative and become a leader in an area that interests you.  Try to become the head of a club, the captain of a sports team, the editor of a magazine, or the director of a movie.  B-schools will look for that kind of engagement and "management" experience.  They want to know that you are good at interacting with people, that you have some "leadership" skills, and that you are invested enough in what you do to want to take ownership of it.



Now, about work experience.  It used to be the case that very few students came straight from undergrad programs into Business School.  Although schools now seem to be admitting more and more students straight out of college, it is still rare and you may find yourself struggling with many parts of the application.  Each application asks specific essay questions about "leadership" and personal experience, and the more varied and interesting your responses, the better your essays.  Since most undergrad programs are similar, it will therefore be harder for you, as an undergrad, to put the same amount of color and diversity into your application as someone who has been out of school for a few years.  It will also be difficult for your to argue convincingly that you understand how business school fits into your career, not having begun your career.

haiya

I would strongly advise looking for a summer internship at a company or NGO in the field that you are interested in during college.  I would also strongly strongly advise trying to find a job in your field for at least 2 years after college before considering school.  For many people, Business School IS NOT an intelligent choice.  If you already have a great job at a company you like, with opportunity for upward mobility, why spend $200,000 for a school that at best can only send you back into the same field with a small promotion?  I think business school is best for those who are interested in changing careers, or who have reached a ceiling in their upward momentum and need business school to help them take that next step. I feel the situation is slightly different in China, where graduate education is becoming more and more of a basic threshold for employment, but in the US it is certainly worth trying to succeed on your own before spending a lot of money to do so.



Those few years after college will also give you a chance to become a more well-rounded person, to travel places you've always wanted to travel, to see things you've always wanted to see, and to take some risks that might be harder later in life. Start a company, write a book, move to Peru--even if you fail, you will be demonstrating to schools that you have a passion and are independent and ambitious about pursuing it.  And if you succeed or discover something new that you really love, it will either give you a great story to tell on your application or maybe even make you so successful you don't need to apply at all!

haiya

If you finish college and you have a really strong idea that B-School is the place for you, then by all means, apply. Consider looking into the growing number of special scholarship programs B-Schools offer for students coming straight from undergrad programs.

Basics about the application:

Business schools considers the following: your transcript, your GMATs or GREs, your essays and your recommendations.

Transcript: pretty simple here, get good grades! But also remember that grades aren't quite as important to B-School as other grad schools.  The average GPA is usually somewhere around 3.5.

GMATs/GREs: Personally, I took the GMATs, but GREs are an option too.  My understanding is that the GMATs' math section is a little harder, while the GREs' verbal section is a little harder.  Take whichever you feel most comfortable with but make sure you study hard and do well, as this is by far the easiest part of the application.

haiya

Essays: And this is the hardest part of the application.  I applied to five schools and had to write somewhere around 40 essays by the end of the process.  These will take endless drafts and revisions.  Since you are thinking so many years ahead, my advice would be to start practicing now.  Not seriously, yet, but take a moment every once in a while to jot down essay ideas.  Try to remember the important moments in your life, what you felt and how they changed you.  What is especially meaningful to you and why?  The more you practice, the better a writer you'll become. The same subjects that make good essays might make good blog postings, diary entries, or even publications in a student journal somewhere.  Consider those options as a way to practice. When you start applying for real, make sure you send your essays to be read by friends who are in business school already.  They will know best what makes a good application essay.  The more people who read your work, the better it will be.