The Wharton EMBA adcom shows a very clear focus in its set of essay questions (in black font).  It wants to understand your goals and how executive business studies support them (essay 1), it wants to get a glimpse of you as a person and a professional (essay 2), and it wants to make sure that once you commit to taking one of their precious slots, you’ll stay for the duration (essay 3).   This trio of essays comprises a clear, well-rounded picture for the adcom with no excess meandering about – they want straightforward substance. My comments are in blue.

Essay 1

Answer all of the following questions (no word limit):  What is your career objective and what do you see as the next steps needed to achieve it?  How will the Wharton MBA Program for Executives contribute to your attainment of these objectives?  Why is this the right time for you to undertake this program?

First a warning: don’t clap in glee or sigh in relief to see “no word limit”!  That phrase simply means you have to impose your own discipline, and failure to do so will doom your essay.  With that point in mind, I suggest keeping this essay to between 750 and 1000 words – long enough to address all the points but short enough to require focus, concision, and astute selection of content.  Also, resist the temptation to review your career progress, which seems to be a reflexive response but is not asked for. 

This goals question requires both the broad picture – “your career objective,” and specifics – “the next steps.”  You may want to start with where you are as a context, and discuss how the MBA learning will enable you to achieve your immediate goals in your current role.   Doing so will enable you to effectively answer the question “why is this the right time. “  In describing your goals at any given point, short- or long-term, be sure to clarify why you are taking that step or pursuing that role.   In discussing how the specific program will benefit you, be specific: about what skills and knowledge you need, and about how the program meets those needs.  Also refer to the structure and special features of the program, noting how you will benefit from them.

Essay 2

Answer one of the following three questions (500 word limit): 

• Describe the most significant way, either in or out of your job, that you have demonstrated leadership.
• In one of your Wharton MBA courses, you are given a case assignment to be completed in a study group comprised of six students. What is the most significant strength you would bring to the group process?
• As 'The Ethicist' in the New York Sunday Times Magazine often demonstrates, many ethical dilemmas are fairly complex with gray areas making the decision path a challenging one. Give an example of one such dilemma and how you handled it.

In selecting the question, keep in mind a few factors:  You want to write about something that is fresh and not redundant of other parts of the application; that lets the adcom get to know you as a person; and that shows an aspect of you that is memorable, distinctive, and relevant.  No one of these three options is inherently “better” than the others.   Pitfalls to avoid: The first and third questions are straightforward; if you choose one of them, after you complete your story add a short paragraph or even just a sentence or two with some summarizing, reflective point.  On the other hand, with the middle question, don’t be lured to just “talk” in abstract descriptive terms about your “significant strength” – rather, ground the discussion in actual experiences and examples.

Essay 3

While many factors (i.e. your academic background, the part of the semester you’re in) can influence the amount of time dedicated to the program, students have estimated that it’s approximately 20 hours/week. Given your already demanding job and the desire to remain committed to important family and personal obligations, how do you plan to handle this additional demand on you? (500 word limit)

A straightforward question that deserves a straightforward answer. Discuss the accommodations you will make at work, such as delegating more, adjusting travel schedules, etc.  You don’t have to go overboard and tell them every single thing you can think of – focus on the most significant two or three things.  Also discuss how you will meet your personal responsibilities – even acknowledging that you’ll have less time at the playground with your toddler or mentioning the support of your significant other will give them confidence that you’re facing this issue squarely.  If you’ve already had experience successfully balancing grad school and working full time, by all means mention it.

Essay 4

(Optional) Is there anything else you would like to add that would help us in evaluating your candidacy? (No word limit) 

This question’s wording indicates that you can use it not just to explain a problem (low GMAT, employment gap) but also to present new material that you think will enhance your application.  However, along with the warning about the “no word limit” for essay #1, I add another warning: if you are making the adcom read more than is required, there better be a darn good reason, not just that something is nice to know. First, succinctly explain any points that need explaining.  Then, if there is something you feel is important that you haven’t had a chance to discuss elsewhere, write about it, noting why it’s important for the adcom to know.  Examples might be details of significant community service or a particularly illuminating work experience. 

Deadline for class entering May 2010: February 1, 2010

By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author of The EMBA Edge, and author of the free, email mini-course, "Ace the EMBA."  .

Jeff Thomas, LSAT Director for Kaplan, revealed his company's secrets to success.

How long have you been offering LSAT prep?

We have been offering prep for the Law School Admissions Test for the last 40 years, and we have prepped millions of students for the exam over that time period. We’ve been in the business of test preparation for an additional 30 years beyond that as well. So we’ve been around for a while.

Where are you located?

We are located where our students are, really, so we have thousands of physical classroom locations all around the United States and varying countries around the world, and we’re also located live online as well. We have our programs that are delivered in a virtual classroom environment, which allow students in some of the more remote areas or business settings to have access to our programs as well, wherever they have internet access.

Please describe your traditional in-class courses?

It’s interesting, we don’t really have a traditional in-class course for LSAT preparation, because we have a multitude of classroom options. One of the things that we have realized over the 40 years of prepping for the LSAT is that, frankly, not all students are the same. Every student comes to us with a unique set of challenges and issues that need to be addressed, and so we’ve learned that we really need to personalize the prep experience for the student, both in the class and outside the class.

So, in terms of our traditional in-class courses, we actually have three: we have our LSAT Classroom course, we have our LSAT Advanced course, and our LSAT Extreme course. The content taught in each of those classes is pretty much the same—we go through each and every question type tested on the exam; we cover each and every skill that is tested on the LSAT in logic games, in logic reasoning, and in reading comprehension, but we present them in different formats depending on the type of student that you are.

So, for example, we have a student who is coming to us on a very condensed time frame who needs to have comprehensive preparation—coming to class once or twice a week—that’s what our LSAT Classroom option is for. But we also have a cadre of students who want a lot of time in the classroom. They really want to spend a lot of time with their instructor, working through a variety of problems in the skills. That’s what our LSAT Extreme course is for—it’s our long course option, it’s 109 hours, it comes with four hours of private tutoring, because students really want extra attention with their instructor. And then we also have our LSAT Advanced course, which is for the student who walks in the door with a real sufficient understanding of the exam from the get-go. They’re scoring at a 158 or above; it’s a score-qualified required course. And we focus on the same skills, but looking at advanced questions along those skills.

Please describe your online options?

We actually deliver all of those courses both in class and online. So, we have our LSAT Classroom course live online, we have our LSAT Advanced course live online, which means the student still comes to class—it’s via the internet of course, but they still come to class with their instructor, with a TA present, they interact, they answer questions, they ask questions, etc. And then we also have in case a student can’t commit to a particularized class schedule, we have asynchronous options, or on demand options, the ability for a student to take our LSAT class via the internet on their own schedule, on their own time by watching videos on demand.

Do you offer a self-study option or study guides?

We certainly do, we have a variety of additional online workshops, and certainly a large publishing division for students to purchase study guides and supplemental prep opportunities. What we have found over the years, though, through the millions of students that we’ve taught, is that students motivate or benefit the most from the comprehensive prep options that we offer, because they often find the classroom experience is really one that motivates them to interact with the material, to engage with their instructor, to do the homework assignments as the course continues on, and they’ve found that to be the most beneficial to their preparation.

Do you offer any one-on-one or individualized tutoring?

We have a variety of private tutoring programs for our students as well. They come in a variety of different hour sizes, because we understand that students will have different needs and need to spend varying amounts of time on the various skills of the exam, so they come in 15- and 25- and 35-hour programs. And then we also have a summer intensive program, which is a residential academic program at Boston University for six weeks each summer, that really allows the student who is looking to inundate themselves or immerse themselves in LSAT preparation to go to one location with like-minded students for 300+ hours of LSAT preparation and get the whole fell swoop done together in a residential academic environment in Boston each summer.

What is the focus of your instruction?

The focus of our instruction is to make students understand the varying skills that are required for success in each section of the test. The test is not just one skill; it’s not just the LSAT. It is a variety of skills tested in logical reasoning, for example, assumptions, and inferences, and strengthening the argument questions and weakening the argument questions. There’s a variety of skills within logic games, such as sequencing, and distribution and matching. And so what all of our classes do is they teach students the varying skills that are required to be successful on the LSAT as a whole.

But, importantly, each of those skills is personalized to the student. Every student who comes through our class receives personalized guidance. They have a Smart Reports prescriptive technology system that gives customized homework assignments for each and every student, because we very well may have a student who comes to our class who struggles in logic games per se, where another student might struggle in reading comprehension per se, and we give different homework assignments to each student based upon how they’re performing to make sure they’re successful on test day. It’s our personalized approach that’s really a hallmark at Kaplan.

Do you cater to any particular kind of student?

We cater to all kinds of students, really. I hope what you’re getting through the assessments of the different types of classes that we have, how we customize the homework experience, that what we do—as big as we are—we understand, as I mentioned, that all our students are different. And so when someone comes to us and says, “Hey, I want to take Kaplan for LSAT preparation,” our first question to that student is, “Well let’s talk about you.” And we really want to understand where the student is coming from, how much preparation they have done before their Kaplan experience, if any, and we prescribe the appropriate preparation program based upon that student’s experiences and that student’s expectations and goals.

What qualifies someone to teach for Kaplan?

A lot, is the short answer. Really two things make for a great Kaplan instructor. The first of which is a terrific LSAT score—someone who’s absolutely mastered the exam themselves, has knocked it out of the park. That is absolutely necessary to becoming a great Kaplan instructor, but certainly not sufficient.

The real key to being a great Kaplan instructor is just simply the ability to teach. The ability to communicate the skills in an effective, in an efficient, in a concise, in a compelling manner, so you get students to not only understand the material, but be motivated to work hard as well. And so we put our instructors through a very rigorous audition, interview, and training process to make sure only the best of the best make it into the classroom. In fact, fewer than one in six do.

To give you an example of that, I had two instructors who came to me personally in the past year and a half looking to teach for Kaplan, and they had both scored perfectly on the LSAT—perfect 180. And so you understand what that means—last year about 150,000 people took the test, 30 of whom scored a perfect 180. So it’s incredibly rare to have someone come to the door with a perfect LSAT score for law schools or Kaplan, and two of them had come to me personally, and many more around the country. Of those two, neither of them ended up teaching for us, because while they could take the exam themselves and score spectacularly well, they were not convincing in the classroom and couldn’t teach. And it’s important to us that our instructors are excellent communicators, in addition to excellent test takers.

What are your company’s unique strengths?

There are really three hallmarks to Kaplan that we promise our students: it is personalized preparation, it is unmatched expertise, and it is guaranteed results. In terms of personalized preparation, you heard the lines before how we personalize both the in-class and the out-of-class experience, different class options depending on the student’s wants, different out-of-class homework assignments based on the student’s needs.

We have unmatched expertise; you know, we’ve been doing this LSAT prep for 40 years, we’ve been in the business of test preparation for 70, we have been through test changes, we have been through changes in the admissions process, we have seen every possible type of student, every possible student concern come through our doors in the millions of students that have over the years. And so, there’s no surprises to us. We have been collecting data on our students for 40 years, we understand what makes them tick, we understand where their most likely strengths are, where their most likely weaknesses are, and we utilize that to inform the creation and implementation of our classes year over year. And so that’s something that we really pride ourselves on, on our ability to make sure that we have the absolute most relevant and most effective preparation methodology on the market.

And then of course, our guaranteed results—we promise our students if they come and take our class and their scores don’t improve, we’ll give them every penny of their tuition back. But for LSAT students in particular, the two other things that we promise them is readiness and satisfaction. Because it’s a skills-based test, I’ve worked with many students for whom they’ll go through the class once and say, I just wish I had more time to study, I now see how this exam works, I need more time to practice logic games. If a student is not ready to take the test for whatever reason once they complete our class, they can take the class again a second time, no questions asked. And if a student goes ahead and takes the exam and they improve their score but they’re not satisfied with their performance, or they feel they can squeeze out another five questions out of logical reasoning, or another logic game right in logic games, they can take the class a second time for free, no questions asked again. In short, we like to work with our students and are committed to them, so long as they’re committed to their preparation. That’s what makes us unique.

The thing that I would probably like to add, we know this year that many students are interested in going to law school. By all statistical indicators, this fall’s application class is likely to be the greatest application class in quite some time. More students took the June LSAT then any other June LSAT in the history of the administration. Lots of folks are applying to law school this year, and it’s important for students to work hard to make themselves look more competitive to law schools than ever. But students need to understand this process takes time. They can’t wake up one day and decide they want to go to law school tomorrow and just apply. It takes several months of preparation for the LSAT—on average two, three months of time, 10-15 hours of week in my experience—and there are a lot of other factors that go into the admissions process as well. So for a student who’s really looking to be competitive, particularly for your tier one law schools in the country, understand that they need to start the process early, they need to understand all the things they need to do to make themselves look competitive, and understand all they have in their control to make themselves look competitive as well. The great news is that we routinely survey law school admissions officers every year around the country, and they tell us that the LSAT is the most important factor in the law school admissions process, which means by working hard, by studying hard, by approaching the exam from a smart perspective, they can do well and do wonders for their application portfolio.   

• Calgary, November 10, 2009
• Vancouver, November 12, 2009
• Toronto, November 14, 2009
• Montreal, November 16, 2009

Plus as an added bonus at the Montreal and Vancouver fairs, Accepted's own Cydney Foote and Sonia Michaels will provide MBA admissions mini-consultations to event participants. During these quick takes, MBA applicants can receive a profile evaluation and discuss school choice, their competitiveness at particular schools, how to handle weaknesses, or how to differentiate themselves so that their MBA application stands out and shines.

If you are an MBA applicant who wants to attend these fantastic events, please register online.

rishi4you / Rishi Singh

6 followers · Working on a product which caters to the Insurance , lending and mortgage industry.

Congratulations on winning your choice of Accepted.com Admissions Ebooks!

We want to thank our Twitter followers. Twice a month, we randomly pick one of our followers as a winner in our Thank You Thursday contest. The Thank You Thursday winner will receive an Accepted ebook of his or her choice. Just our way of saying - "Thanks for Tweeting with us"!

Not on Twitter yet? Join now to stay up to date on the latest admissions news and events and to have a chance to be our next Thank You Thursday winner.

The authors researched and identified the factors that cause communications to succeed or fail. They boiled their research down to "six principles of stickiness."  

1. Simplicity.
2. Unexpectedness
3. Concreteness
4. Credibility
5. Emotions
6. Stories

Over the next several weeks I am going to explore these SUCCES principles and apply them to personal statements and application essays. For today let's talk about Simplicity.

Your personal statement or application essay needs a core idea. That essence or central point becomes the driver of all content for that essay. When responding to specific questions, your core must directly and elegantly answer the question. When writing a less-directed personal statement, you still need a driving concept; you just have more choice as to what that concept should be. Everything else in the essay should support that concept.

If writing multiple essays for one application, each essay has to have a core. Those concepts should mesh and complement each other, but not duplicate.

The remaining principles of Making It Stick are means of effectively relating your core idea, but first you need to have a core. Unfortunately, many applicants treat their essays like many teenagers treat their bedroom closets -- as a place to put all kinds of "stuff" that may be useful or perhaps once was useful. There is no logic or organizing principle, no driving force. These messy closet essays then read like the mishmash they are.

Essays that are resumes in prose or that attempt to tell your entire life story descend into the mishmash category. Personal statements replete with irrelevant detail stray from their central mission.  They are not engaging or persuasive. In fact they bore.

When you write your essay, start with a central idea and then make sure that everything else supports it. That elegant simplicity is not simplistic. It is not even easy. It is highly effective. 

The chat will take place in the Accepted chat room.

During our most recent MBA admissions chat, we hosted a busy event with the Consortium. Here are a few excerpts from the transcript.

Linda Abraham (Oct 20, 2009 7:05:14 PM)
To all the school reps, does the applicant ranking influence the evaluation of the application?

WendyHuberUVA (Oct 20, 2009 7:06:22 PM)
Linda, applicants should apply as if the schools do not see the ranking. Rankings are only looked at when we are deciding fellowships, they are not used in the admission decision.

JacquelynnDayROCHESTER (Oct 20, 2009 7:09:08 PM)
Linda: While we do consider an individual's rankings, we look at the application as a whole, therefore we encourage students to focus on submitting an overall competitive application

RTorres (Oct 20, 2009 7:05:50 PM)
What happens with applicants that apply to the Consortium and to the specific MBA programs at schools when they are not accepted into the fellowship? How are their MBA applications handled? Are they still considered by the schools?

ErinNicklesburgWISCONSIN (Oct 20, 2009 7:07:59 PM)
RTorres: Each applicant is evaluated independently by each school in terms of both admission and Fellowship decision. An offer of admission does not indicate a guaranteed Fellowship offer, as they are separate. The admission offer will stand regardless of the Fellowship offer. If a Fellowship offer is not given, the applicant will go into the general merit-based aid pool.

AmyPR (Oct 20, 2009 7:12:34 PM)
What is the difference between the November application date and the January application date? Do chances of acceptance increase one date vs. the other?

LaurieShunneyCORNELL (Oct 20, 2009 7:15:21 PM)
AmyPR- Competitiveness for admission and scholarship may increase in later rounds. In general, we recommend submitting the strongest application possible. If you are prepared to apply during the November round, it may help.

In fact, physician assistant ranks second and nurse practitioner fourth.  The study rated jobs on flexibility, benefit to society, satisfaction and stress, and PA and NP received identical scores in three of the four categories:  “B” for flexibility, “A” for benefit to society and satisfaction. 

The low grades (“C” for PA, “D” for NP), not surprisingly, were in the stress category. (Don’t let this scare you -- only six occupations received “B’s” in this category, and there were no “A’s.”)  The article also provides salary information, and the news there is encouraging. The median salary for PA’s is $90,900, with a top salary of $124,000.  NP’s come in slightly lower with a median of $85,000 and a top of $113,000. 

The best news of all, given today’s employment market, is that both professions are considered recession-proof.  The shortage of primary care physicians and the advent of stand-alone urgent care centers and clinics in retail establishments have created many new opportunities; in addition, both PA’s and NP’s are attractive to medical facilities looking to keep costs down.  A Winston-Salem PA quoted in the article considers flexibility the best part of his job.  To date, he has worked in family practice, public health and emergency medicine.  A New York City NP most enjoys teaching her patients about the small lifestyle changes which can lead to significant improvements in health.     

If you’re on the fence about medical school, or you know you want to work in health care but haven’t zeroed in on a specific occupation, these are solid choices to consider carefully.

By Joan Davis, who had 18 years of experience as a pre-medical adviser at the University of Rochester before joining Accepted in 2006.

What is the role of GMAT scores in job recruiting. Recruiters at certain elite strategy consulting firms and investment banks use the GMAT as an early-stage screening tool. BW makes clear that a high GMAT will not land a job offer, but a low GMAT could prevent you from getting that first interview at the most competitive banks and consulting firms. The article hints that 700 is the cut-off.

Steve, author of The 2012 MBA  Applicant blog, shrewdly observes in  The GMAT is becoming more important "So this is a heads up to all those who plan on 'making it rain' for the rest of their lives…you better have the GMAT score necessary to get into the club!"

He's so right. Firm reliance on the GMAT score as a screening mechanism has another consequence, not discussed in the article. Because admissions offices in our tough economy are weighing post-MBA employability more heavily, they want to admit applicants with realistic goals. If you have a 680 GMAT and say you want to work for Goldman or McKinsey, then you may be perceived as unrealistic -- particularly at programs with average GMATs at matriculation of over 700.

I have spoken with many admissions directors who would reject otherwise admissible applicants whom they deemed unrealistic. Others view applicants with a mismatch between their GMAT score and their goals as candidates who hadn't done their homework and consequently are uninformed. In either case, the lack of information/realism seemed more damaging than the GMAT score itself. 

When presenting your goals, be informed. Be real.

My comments are in red:

All essays should be double-spaced using 10 point font. Prepare your attachments offline in separate document files and upload them individually. Please follow the instructions regarding length of each attachment, and label each page with your name.

ESSAY ONE (Required) - Limit: 750 words
A) What position do you plan to obtain upon graduation from the MBA program? Please include both industry and function in your explanation.
B) How will the combination of your past experiences and the Georgetown MBA position you for this new opportunity?
C) Please describe how you envision your career progression beyond your initial post-MBA position.

NEW- This is a goals question broken down into more specific sub-questions than last year's. It remains a straightforward, connect-the-dots MBA goals question.  Click on the link for tips on writing an essay that both distinctly reflects You and demonstrates your knowledge of Georgetown.)

 ESSAY TWO (Required) - Limit: 750 words
A) What does leadership mean to you? What are the personal characteristics and skills required to be an effective leader?
B) Provide a specific example of when you demonstrated leadership skills. Describe a challenge that you faced and the results that you achieved.
C) What areas do you wish to develop in order to become a more effective leader?

Again, similar to last year's question, but more specific.  There are several critical elements to this question: Your definition of leadership, your personal example of leadership, the challenge you faced, the impact you had, and how you would like to develop further. Don't feel compelled to respond in exactly the order given in the questions; just make sure you answer all elements.

ESSAY THREE (Required) - Limit: 750 words
How will your classmates benefit from your presence in the Georgetown MBA program?

What talents are you going to bring to Georgetown, and where to you intend to contribute them? Do your homework on McDonough before you answer the question. What clubs will you want to participate in? What initiatives will you want to take? This a great essay in which to show both self-awareness and your knowledge of Georgetown.

ESSAY FOUR: COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS - Limit: one page
A) Please provide a bulleted list of your post-undergraduate involvement in the community. Indicate the nature of the activity or organization, dates of involvement, offices held, and average number of hours spent each month.
B) What motivates you to continue contributing to the community? Limit: 250 words

A is a list and not an essay, but in your description focus on achievement, contribution, and impact. If you were membership chair of a particular organization, don't just list "Membership Chair." Also note that membership increased 20% during the year that you were membership chair.

B is a short essay and you don't have a lot of room. Discuss your motivations and reference your past or ongoing community service.

OPTIONAL ESSAY ONE - Limit: 500 words
If you are not currently employed full-time, use this space to provide information about your current activities.

Please see "Laid off! How Will It Affect Your Application"

OPTIONAL ESSAY TWO - Limit 500 words
Please provide any information you would like to add to your application that you have not addressed elsewhere.

If you don't need to address any of the issues suggested above, please see "The Optional Question: To Be or Not to Be."

For help with your McDonough MBA application, please consider Accepted.com's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or one of our Georgetown Comprehensive Packages.

Georgetown McDonough 2010 MBA Deadlines

*Students wishing to be considered for merit-based scholarships should apply no later than round 2.
**International students are strongly encouraged to apply by round 2 in order to have sufficient time to secure a student visa.

The Top 10 per Aspen:

1. York (Schulich)
2. Michigan Ross
3. Yale SOM
4. Stanford GSB
5. Notre Dame (Mendoza)
6. UC Berkeley (Haas)
7. RSM Erasmus
8. NYU Stern
9. IE Business School
10. Columbia

If you are not the least bit interested in the topics Aspen is highlighting, then this ranking is irrelevant to you. However, if you are interested in sustainable development or social entrepreneurship, then you will want to review the profiles contained in Beyond Grey Pinstripes.