How much do I really need to know about an MBA program to prepare a strong application for it? It varies!

How much do I really need to know about an MBA program to prepare a strong application for it? It varies!

Aug, 09, 2023

My clients frequently ask me how much time they have to invest in learning about the MBA programs they will be applying to. That is, how many live or online information sessions, how many alumni and/or current students do they need to contact, and how much do they need to master the school’s curriculum and other offerings to write their applications? Now that Covid is over, some also ask if they should go visit the school.

 

Keep in mind that I am not discussing school selection here. This post assumes you know why you want to go to a school, not whether you do or not. This issue you confront is one of time management with respect to demonstrating your knowledge and engagement with the school in the application.

 

My simple answer is that at the application stage it varies greatly. Some schools require an immense amount of work to just learn about them while others only require a moderate amount and some require very little. Some schools have essays that require knowing a lot about the school, others don’t. Some have app forms that really require one to either show lack of engagement or show you went in deep. For some schools visiting can be very helpful, for others it is not critical.

 

 

Here is a summary of what I discuss in great detail below:

Schools that require minimal  knowledge and engagement to submit a strong application: HBS MBA, Yale SOM

Schools that require a moderate level of school knowledge and engagement to submit a strong application: INSEAD, ISB, MIT Sloan,

Schools that require high knowledge and at least moderate engagement to submit a strong application: Booth, HBS Joint Degree, HEC, Kellogg, Michigan Ross, NYU Stern,  Stanford GSB, Tuck, UC Berkeley Haas, Wharton

Schools were high knowledge and engagement is recommended to submit a strong application: Columbia Business School, Duke Fuqua,  IESE London Business School, Stanford MSx, UCLA Anderson, Wharton Lauder

 

 

Of course, at the interview stage, an applicant should have effective answers to such common questions as Why this school?  How will you contribute to this school’s community? Have you talked with any alumni or current students?  But the interview stage is the interview stage and the application stage is the application stage and one can usually make up for lack of knowledge or engagement between these two stages.

AT THE INTERVIEW STAGE (AFTER YOU SUBMITTED YOUR APPLICATION)  FOR ANY SCHOOL, I CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING GOOD GENERAL ADVICE:

-I highly recommend engagement with at least one alumni or current student (absolute minimum and not sufficient for some schools discussed below) from any program that you will applying to and attending at least one online info session.

-You should know what courses and other activities you want to participate in. For schools where you had essays that answered such questions, this is easier to prep for. If schools that don’t require such detailed and well structured analysis at the application stage, you need to do your research at the interview stage.

This will help when answering common interview questions: How did you learn about the program? Did you talk with alumni or current students? How will you contribute to the school’s community? Why do you want to attend this program?

 

 

NOW BACK TO THE APPLICATION STAGE:

While I am great believer in becoming an informed applicant, I am also highly pragmatic. I never try to make my clients waste their time on something unnecessary when they have so much to do.  So it very helpful to know where one must best allocate their time and when.

 

 

This rest of this post consists of two parts. The first is on the criteria for assessing the level of school knowledge and engagement required and the second is a categorized discussion of specific schools.

 

PART ONE: Criteria for Assessing the Level of School Knowledge and of Engagement Required at the Time of Application:

–Essays

-Application Form

-Importance and Timing of School Visits

 

1. Essays: At the heart of any answer to this question is knowing to what extent you need to know about the school to make effective essays.

A high level of knowledge is required if the school has essays that require the applicant to provide a detailed explanation on how the MBA program will help them achieve their goals and/or how they will contribute  to the school while attending the program.

A moderate level of knowledge is required if the essays refer to the school’s values, but don’t ask you discuss the content of the program in any detail and/or has essays that don’t necessarily mention the school, but offer the opportunity to mention it if you so desire.

A minimal level of knowledge is required if the essays don’t require talking about the school: The school’s essay(s) prompt(s) mention nothing about why this school or how you will contribute to it. In some cases, the essays are very short and have prompts that would seem to exclude discussing the school.

 

2. Application Form: Without consideration for what you know, schools have variable levels of interest in understanding your extent of engagement with them at the time of making an application.

A high level of engagement  is required if the school has application form questions that specifically ask if you had contact with admissions staff, alumni, or current students and want names and possibly additional information about your level of engagement.

A moderate level of engagement  is required if the school asks if you attended an information session in the form of a yes/no question on the application form.

A minimal level of  engagement is required if the school asks nothing in the application form about engagement with the school.

 

3. Importance and Timing of School Visits:

As you will see, this is a real mixed bag of exceptions and complications.

No school expects you to visit. This is especially true since Covid.  While a small number of schools granted clear advantage to visiting in the past in terms of a guaranteed  interview on-campus, now such schools have remote interview options.

Still visiting is useful to a variable degree depending on the school. Lets consider a few factors:

 

Your Proximity to the School:

-If you live close to a school you want to attend, you should visit. Hence anyone living in London who is applying to Cambridge, LBS, and Oxford and can’t bother visiting looks rather lazy. Or if you are living in NYC and intend to apply to CBS, NYU, Wharton and Yale, you should certainly visit.  Exceptions to this statement:  Real lack of time based on work or personal issues, limited financial resources, and/or physical disability.

 

-If you don’t live close to the school but can take the time and have the money to visit, you should to the extent that it can be helpful for school selection, writing your essays,  for interview preparation, or giving you the opportunity connect deeply with admissions and current students.

 

-For schools in more remote locations (Cornell Johnson and Dartmouth Tuck are the most notable in this respect. I have visited both and it is inconvenient to do so.), visiting is especially helpful because it will give you a great opportunity to engage with admissions and current students and just visiting is proof of your real interest in the program. I have found it especially helpful for candidates with less than stellar overall profiles (test score or GPA issues for example) to go visit in order to make a strong personal impression on admissions.

 

Acceptance Rates:

With the notable exceptions of CBS, LBS and Wharton, I think a general rule of thumb is that the lower a school’s acceptance rate, the less important it is to visit and the higher the acceptance rate, the more important it is to visit. In this sense, I think HBS and Stanford GSB are the least important schools to visit because visiting has zero impact on the outcome.  One needs to learn about GSB to write Essay B, but that does not require a visit. Everybody loves Stanford, so telling them that means nothing.

 

On the other CBS and Wharton need to feel your love. Wharton’s HBS and Stanford inferiority complex and CBS’s HSW complex must be assuaged. Visiting is surely one very good way to do that.

 

Moreover, CBS and LBS have application forms like no other schools with respect to reporting on your level of engagement with adcom, alumni and current students.  So visiting is a great way to show super high level engagement. Just keep track of the students you talked with!

 

For schools with acceptance rates of 20% or more (meaning most US schools and all European programs), visiting is a way to signal that you have a real strong interest in the program and are likely to attend.  Especially for applicants with problematic test scores and/or grades, a visit can be impactful if you can get one-on-one time with admissions.

 

Timing of Visit:

 

-Visit the school when it is in session. Visiting when the students are on holiday and all you can do is talk with admissions is better than nothing, but it is not very effective because you will have not visited a class or engaged with current students. If you have serious one-on-one time with an actual admissions officer that makes visiting at any time significant, but keep in mind that not all schools will make that possible.

 

-For schools with an invitation-only interview policy, visiting prior to submitting your application is ideal. However R1 deadline timing may make that impossible. In such circumstances if you do choose to visit prior to interviewing indicate in your application that you will be visiting if you are comfortable stating that and make sure to connect with adcom when you visit.

 

-Visiting when you interview. If possible make sure you can do a substantive visit to the school prior to the timing of your interview so that you can use what you learned during the visit in your interview.

• Warning: It is not always an advantage to interview on-campus. For instance at HBS, if you are coming from specific regions that has the same adcom member almost every round visiting your regional hub, it is advantageous to interview at the hub because you can predict the interviewer’s likely line of questioning, but if you interview on-campus, you will not know who the interviewer is until you actually interview.  Another example, especially if you are a non-native English speaker and have a choice between a local alumni you might prefer that to interviewing on-campus with a 2nd year student.

 

 

PART TWO:   CATEGORIZED ANALYSIS OF SPECIFIC SCHOOLS

ALWAYS KNOW YOU CAN GO BEYOND THE MINIMUM. BUT IF YOU ARE FACED WITH TIME ALLOCATION CRUNCH, BE AWARE OF WHICH SCHOOLS REQUIRE MORE OF YOUR TIME!

 

Schools that require minimal knowledge and engagement to submit a strong application are characterized by the following:

-Essays that don’t require talking about the school: The essays prompts mention nothing about Why this school or how you will contribute to it. In some cases, the essays are very short and have prompts that would seem to exclude discussing the school.

-You should know what the school is looking for in terms of applicant criteria, but you don’t need to have an extensive understanding of course offerings or other aspects of the program and mentioning alumni or current students is rather useless unless they play a key role in your story and are not mere name dropping.

-No place in the application form for mentioning detailed prior contact with admissions,  alumni or current students. The school may ask if you attended an information but does not want a list of alumni or current students you had contact with.

-Visiting prior to the application deadline is not likely to matter as the app is not even accounting for it.

Schools that fit into this category

 

HBS MBA: Even in many interviews, HBS adcom interviewers don’t ask Why HBS?  Most successful applications to HBS that I see whether from my own clients or from interview-only clients usually discuss HBS minimally if at all. HBS app form does not ask if you attended an information session.  HBS has made it clear for years that they want to learn about applicants, not HBS, in the essays. HBS KNOWS YOU WANT TO ATTEND HBS, SO THEY DON’T ASK WHY.  That is what means to be HBS. BOTTOM LINE: DON’T WASTE TIME ON NETWORKING FOR THIS SCHOOL, UNDERSTAND ITS CRITERIA FOR ADMISSION (see my blog post on HBS for an extensive discussion of that)  AND WHY YOU FIT, AND SPEND AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE ON WRITING A GREAT ESSAY ABOUT YOU.  UPPERCASE SCREAMING EMPHASIZED. 🙂 If you are applying for a joint degree, you will need to know more the program to write the joint degree essay and that it is why it categorized differently from the MBA program.

 

Yale SOM:  America’s two most elite East Coast schools share a lack of focus on discussion of the school in the application form.  Given the 150 word Career Interests statement (Briefly describe your career interests and how you arrived at them. What have you already done to pursue these interests? What do you need to do going forward?), the last part of the question about what you need going forward should surely refer at least briefly to Yale, but clearly there is no place here for much beyond a sentence on why Yale. It is also possible that you could discuss Yale briefly in the main essay, but certainly not required and in many/most cases it would be unlikely to fit in a way that will not look forced and cliche.  If you are a reapplicant, the 200 reap essay is not at all focused on why Yale (Since your last application, please discuss any significant updates to your candidacy, including changes in your personal or professional life, additional coursework, or extracurricular/volunteer activities.), so unless your update involves doing something Yale specific, it is not likely that this essay will discuss Yale.  The main essay really does not focus on why MBA or Why Yale, so not really a place to mention that there.  App form does not include any questions on attendance at info sessions.

Having recently visited Yale for a second time this year, I have to say that I can easily see what has climbed in the ranks. With an amazing unique integrated first-year curriculum, total flexibility in the second year, a super building (we will not discuss their old one) and an amazing network, Yale is, in my mind, the only school that might eventually require rebranding the M7, the M8.

 

 

 

Schools that require a moderate level of school knowledge and engagement to submit a strong application are characterized by the following:

-Essays that refer to the school’s values, but don’t ask you discuss the content of the program in any detail.

 

-Essays that don’t necessarily mention the school, but offer the opportunity to mention it if you so desire.

 

-No place in the application form for mentioning detailed prior contact with admissions,  alumni or current students. The school may ask if you attended an information but does not ask for a list of alumni or current students you had contact with.

 

Common Schools that fit into this category:

 

INSEAD: Arguably INSEAD could fit into the first category but given an open-ended optional essay that can be used for something positive, like how you will contribute to the school, how you learned about the program, or why you fit at INSEAD (especially important for those who lack international experience),  I place it in this category.  The app form does not ask for any information on your contact with INSEAD alumni, current students, or the admissions office. That said, I highly encourage my clients to interact with INSEAD admissions, alumni and current students so they know they will fit. Here in Japan, the INSEAD Alumni Association Japan, of which I am a Board Member (Executive Masters alumnus), has bimonthly drink get togethers that are open to applicants.  I can’t think of an easier way to meet alumni then over drinks. INSEAD also does excellent applicant outreach to help potential applicants assess their fit for the school, but this will not have a bearing on the outcome. Keep in mind that the actual admissions committee for INSEAD consists of a changing committee of faculty and alumni who are not public about their role.

 

ISB: Only the supposed Optional Essay (not really optional in my opinion) requires knowing anything about ISB: Given your previous experience and future aspirations, how do you plan to use the PGP at ISB to fulfil your professional goals? Note: It is not necessary for you to write this essay. Please use this space only if there is something really significant that you would like us to know. This “optional essay” requires having a basic understanding of the program and relating it to goals. That kind of information is easily obtained from the website and an information session.  With respect to the main essays, you don’t need to know about ISB.  In fact Essay 1 (Provide an honest portrayal of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and weaknesses. Highlight the key elements that have shaped your personal journey. Give relevant illustrations as needed. ) and Essay 2 (Contemplate two distinct situations—one where you experienced success and another where you faced failure. Delve into the personal and interpersonal lessons you learned from these instances.) are on topics that really don’t require knowing about ISB. No app form questions on contact with ISB alumni, current students, or admissions.  

 

 

MIT:  The Cover Letter requires that you know why you fit at MIT, not why MIT fits you. Hence you need to understand MIT at the level of its values. Since they don’t ask about goals or why MIT in this 300 word essay, you really don’t need to know about the school in detail.  The 1 minute video is on introducing yourself to your classmates and does not require knowing about the program. As as long as you are familiar with the term “Sloanies” you should be good to go.  The application asks Y/N if you attended an info session, so attend one!

 

 

 

Schools that require high knowledge and at least moderate engagement to submit a strong application are characterized by the following:

 

-Essays that require you to know about the program. Wharton’s two required essays both are examples of two common question types that require knowing a lot about the school:

Essay 1: How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (500 words)

Essay 2: Essay 2: Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)

You can’t answer either of these questions without knowing quite a lot about the school.  Wharton is pretty extreme since they ask both types of questions. It was as though they had a complex about being loved or something.

 

Limited or no place in the application form for mentioning detailed prior contact with admissions, alumni or current students. The school may ask if you attended an information session but usually does not ask for a list of alumni or current students you had contact with. If they do ask for that and I have placed it in this category is is because you only really need to talk with one student or alumnus (just UCB here).

 

Schools that fit into this category:

Booth: Essay 1 requires knowing a lot about this school. Given that Booth has only one required course (LEAD) and 5 subject area requirements and is thus the most flexible program around, providing a plan on how you will focus your two years of study is a good idea.  While not required it is also possible to refer to contributions in Essay 2, especially to non-professional clubs and activities at Booth. App form asks  Yes/No about attending information event and a drop box about your source of primary info about Booth. So attend an info session for sure!

 

 

 

HBS Joint Degree: Unlike the MBA program where no information about HBS is required, anyone doing a joint degree certainly needs to understand more about both degree programs in order to write an effective joint degree essay:

Joint program applicants for the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School must provide an additional essay: How do you expect the joint degree experience to benefit you on both a professional and a personal level? (400 words) OR Essay Question: The MS/MBA program is focused on design, innovation, and entrepreneurship within a technical/engineering context. Describe your past experiences in these areas and your reasons for pursuing a program with this focus. (Recommended: 500 words)

HINT: If you are confused about whether to apply for a joint degree or not and have limited time, don’t and just apply for the HBS You MBA program.

 

 

HEC:   You certainly need to know about HEC to do Essay 1: Why are you applying to the HEC MBA Program now? What is the professional objective that will guide your career choice after your MBA, and how will the HEC MBA contribute to the achievement of this objective? App form asks you where you first heard about HEC (if alum, asks for name) but does not ask for details of info sessions or overall contact with HEC students/alumni.

 

Kellogg: In prior years they would have fit into the previous category but they now have a contribution question so they fit into this category. See my essay analysis for that. If you are a reapplicant, you may also be able to mention Kellogg related content and engagement there as well. Still Kellogg asks no app form questions about contact with the school.  You may also encounter a video essay that requires explaining why Kellogg but as this is a 1 minute video, the amount you can say will be limited.  The real prep on why Kellogg itself is certainly required for the interview.

 

 

Michigan Ross: Based on essay content, you really don’t need to know anything about Ross, but I am placing Ross in the category because of the following app form question (bottom of page 3): Contact with Ross School of Business: Have you attended any Ross events (online or in person) or been in contact with a member of the Ross community in the past year? If so, please list event and location, and/or contact name and association with Ross. Please also share any referrals to the Ross program made by staff or alumni. Ross gives an effectively unlimited length text box for this.  DO NOT WRITE AN ESSAY!!  Just give them the facts of your engagement with members of the Ross community in the form of a list.  While there is nothing that requires one to have extensive contact with Ross community, significant engagement (talk with adcom, at least a couple of students and/or alumni) would be a safe minimum to convey that you are not just applying to this school as a safety choice. The Ross 150 word essay on goals (What is your short-term career goal and why is this the right goal for you?) certainly does not require discussing Ross and at most one could possibly include a sentence on that, though it is hardly necessary.

 

NYU Stern: This school barely fits this category and almost belongs in the prior one. While the Stern app has a bunch of checkbox questions on how you learned about the program, these amount to marketing questions and don’t ask for any specific details of who you engaged with. The reason I put it here is that you need to know a bit about Stern to answer the following essay:

Change: Dare It. Dream It. Drive It. In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice. Why does this word resonate with you? How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern? Examples:

• Change: Dare it.
• Change: Dream it.
• Change: Drive it.
• Change: Empower it.
• Change: Manifest it.
• Change: [Any word of your choice] it.

However, the essay is only 350 words, so you just have room here to discuss a few things about Stern.  Not much room in the application for name dropping, so save that for an interview. Stern wants to learn about you as a person based on the other main essay (6 things)  and the EQ endorsements but clearly they are not asking for something highly detailed regarding the school here.

 

Stanford GSB: The MBA program has no application questions regarding interaction  with admissions, students, or alumni, but if you are applying to MSx, see the next section.  Essay B (Why Stanford? Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your interest in both programs.) certainly requires that know why you want to attend GSB and this involves research and deep thinking about how the program will help you achieve..  I don’t view name dropping of alumni or current students as very helpful here because the school really wants to learn about how you want to use them. Feel free to visit Stanford, but if you think this will impact the outcome you are delusional.  Don’t waste your word count on the trivial or obvious but use it to showcase how you would specifically utilize Stanford.

 

Tuck:  I had anticipated placing Tuck in the next category because I do think engagement with at least a couple of alumni or current students (and if viable a school visit) is important, the application form itself does not require you to indicate all your points of contact with Tuck. Hence as long the two (out of three required)  300 word essays (Why are you pursuing an MBA and why now? How will the distinct Tuck MBA contribute to achieving your career goals and aspirations? AND  Tell us who you are. How have your values and experiences shaped your identity and character? How will your background contribute to the diverse Tuck culture and community?) highlight your big Tuck knowledge, you should be fine.  I do recommend name dropping of an alumnus or current student or two in one or both of these essays.  I think the school is best categorized here, but maybe this is my most controversial categorization.

The reason I have included Haas here and not in the next category is because they are not asking for multiple students or alumni and otherwise not asking for the kind of extensive details schools in the next section require.

 

 

Wharton: As discussed above the regular Wharton MBA essays require extensive knowledge of the school. It  fits into this category  and not the next one because the application form does not require any information about attending info sessions, alumni, or student contact. That said, I  recommend a lot of contact with Wharton students and alumni though it is not actually necessary if an applicant takes the time to dig deep into Wharton’s online content. See the next section for Wharton Lauder.

 

 

Schools were high knowledge engagement is recommended to submit a strong application have one major thing in common: A specific place in the application for mentioning contact with admissions, alumni or current students that asks for details.  In the case of Columbia Business School, Duke,  IESE,  London Business School, and UCLA Anderson this can be found in the application form.  In the case of Stanford MSx and Wharton Lauder, the reason they fit here is because of the level of interaction you should have with admissions prior to applying.

 

Columbia Business School: While Columbia’s 250 word Essay 3 (We believe Columbia Business School is a special place. CBS proudly fosters a collaborative learning environment through curricular experiences like our clusters and learning teams, an extremely active co-curricular and student life environment, and career mentorship opportunities like our Executives-in-Residence program. Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you academically, culturally, and professionally? Please be specific) does not require extensive engagement to write effectively, the app form does. Welcome to one of the most detailed app forms with respect to your level of engagement with adcom, alumni, and current students.

NOTE:  The boxes for detailed info appear only if you check YES. 

 

The great thing about this app form content is that frees one up from needing to mention alumni or current students in Essay 3 because there is a specific place in the application to provide such details.  You should certainly contact a student (or more than one) via the Hermes Society. In addition, I would recommend reaching out to alumni as well as current students who are officers in the clubs you are interested in. I would consider listing at least two and ideally 4 or more current students and alumni in the app form.

 

 

Duke Fuqua:  You want to show your deep interest in Duke, a school that is typically treated by clients as a safety or backup.

—————————————————

If you really want to be a part of Team Fuqua you had better show them big love.

 

 

IESE: IESE’s app form certainly asks in detail about your engagement with the school and its community:

—-THIS IS LONG——

———————————————————————————-

Given that level of detail and based on my own conversations with IESE admissions, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND extensive engagement with admissions, current students, and alumni. If visiting is viable and this is a high priority school for you, consider doing so.

The essay is short but does require you to know about the program: Career Goals Essay: What are your short-term and mid-term post-MBA goals? How will the IESE MBA program help you achieve them? (word limit 300 max).

 

 

London Business School:  While CBS and IESE might seem to ask a lot of questions about engagement, LBS is really in its own category for this. This is because of its MANY app form questions:

App form questions:

-How did you first hear about London Business School? (Max 200 characters)

-How did you hear about this programme? (Max 100 characters)

-Have you attended an event on or off campus, or online where you met with representatives from the school? If yes, please tell us when, where and who you met. If you know any London Business School Alumni or Students, please give their names, graduating class and tell us how you know them. (300 words max)

-We encourage applicants to take into consideration the impact of study on family and friends. Who have you discussed your plans with and what was the response? (300 words max)

No other school is asking for this level of detail.  That is why I highly encourage any client who wants to attend LBS to engage in extensive networking with current students and alumni, to visit if it not an undue burden and the timing is right, and to attend information sessions.  A critical key to getting admitted to this school is showing you want to attend and have taken a lot of time to learn about the program. Try to talk to at least two alumni and two current students but the more, the better.

 

You must show deep engagement through the above in addition to what you write in the essays below:

Question 1 (500 words): What are your post-MBA goals and how will your prior experience and the London Business School programme contribute towards these?

This essay requires knowing about LBS at the same level as schools in the previous category like Wharton or Booth. Keep in mind that since you have to alumni and current name drop heavily in the application questions above, you don’t need to do that in this essay.

Question 2 (500 words): (This question is optional) Is there any other information you believe the Admissions Committee should know about you and your application to London Business School?

In theory this essay need not be written but I always advise clients to write it, unlike most of the US schools that want positive essay content, but just the discussion of problems, LBS is giving you the opportunity to tell them more.  Given their extensive essay-like content in the application form, including a question on academic performance, you should use this essay to give them additional reasons to admit you.  Most of my  LBS admits use this either for a contribution essay like Wharton Essay 2 above or to highlight one or more major accomplishments that they could not communicate in the application form in any detail but want to highlight. Of course, discussion of any problems can always be mentioned here and it is fine to use the 500 words for multiple and distinct purposes.

 

Also note that the alumni interviewer at LBS will have full access to your application, so it is important they see a high level of engagement in the application.

 

There is not any significant difference between applying to LBS in R1 versus R2, so if you are finding you don’t have enough time to do a high level of engagement with students and alumni in R1, it is better to apply in R2.

 

UCLA Anderson: SURPRISE! I bet you were not expecting this one. I will make the case for why I think it fits here.

UCLA does not call their goals and why UCLA essay an essay.  They have another essay that they call an essay- UCLA Anderson seeks to develop transformative leaders who think fearlessly, drive change, and share success. We believe the ability to persevere is an essential component of effective leadership.  Please share an example from your personal or professional life where you demonstrated perseverance to accomplish a significant goal or milestone. (250 words maximum)– that does not require knowing about UCLA, but this non-essay sure does. 1600 characters in total is around 350-400 words.  Given that they want 1000 of these characters on why UCLA, you had better know about that program in detail.

But what makes me say this is a high engagement school is the application form:

 

Given that most of my clients treat UCLA as a safety back-up place as many applicants not addicted to living in LA do, the inclination will be to put minimal time into this school, but I actually think the opposite is warranted. Make UCLA feel that it a school you really want to attend even if you don’t.

 

Stanford MSx:For MSx I do highly recommend engagement with an admissions officer as they will provide relatively personalized interaction unlike the MBA program. In this sense, the MSx requires a high level of engagement with admissions. MSx works with applicants to really determine whether they fit the program prior to application, which is very common for such mid-career MBA programs. You should make extensive efforts to engage directly with MSx admissions.

The MSx program does have a very specific app form question:

They don’t ask for details and say this information will not be considered in the application process, which I am sure is true and yet personal engagement with admissions here can have a positive impact because you will be engaging with the people who make the admissions decisions.

Essay B (Why Stanford? Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your interest in both programs.) certainly requires that know why you want to attend the MSx and this involves research and deep thinking about how the program will help you achieve.  I don’t view name dropping of alumni or current students as very helpful here because the school really wants to learn about how you want to use them. Feel free to visit Stanford, but if you think this will impact the outcome you are delusional.  Don’t waste your word count on the trivial or obvious but use it to showcase how you would specifically utilize Stanford.

MSx also has  specific additional 500 character (about 100-120 words) essay: Because the Stanford MSx program is for mid-career managers, it is valuable to have clear career goals in mind when you begin. Beyond a sentence or two, tell us about any specific career goals you have for the next few years, and how you believe the Stanford MSx Program, combined with your experience, education or background, will help you achieve them? If you choose to explain this in your essay or other portions of the application, you can reference that here (no need to repeat), but be as specific as you can. 

This gives a bit of additional space to expand on what you have written in Essay B and is a good place to highlight more about why MSx is right for you.

 

Wharton Lauder, the MBA/MA (International Studies-Lauder) is a program for those with strong international focus to their future goals.

Beyond making sure you meet the foreign language requirements and take any necessary tests for that, deep engagement with admissions staff is critical. Ask any current student or alumnus from Wharton Lauder and they will tell you to talk to Marcy (taken from https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/admission-team/):

“Marcy Bevan

Director, Admissions & Alumni Relations

For more than 30 years, Marcy has been overseeing admissions, alumni relations, and the coordination of special events for the Lauder Institute. Born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, Marcy earned her B.A. in English from Mills College and her Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Email: bevanm@wharton.upenn.edu “

 

The first thing I tell my clients who apply to Lauder is talk to Marcy. She is the soul of the program, highly supportive of applicants and the single best person for helping a potential Lauder applicant figure out whether they apply.  Additionally one should talk with at least few Wharton Lauder alumni and/or current students.

The Lauder essay- Discuss why you are applying to the Lauder Institute, detailing specific reasons, experiences, and background for choosing your Program of Concentration, as well as your interest in further study in that Program. Applicants to Programs of Concentration involving language study (Africa-French; East and Southeast Asia; Europe; Latin America; South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa) should also discuss what they hope to gain from advanced language and cultural education, as well as describe how they have learned the language they will study (e.g. undergraduate courses, undergraduate major, etc.). Finally, please describe how you see yourself benefiting from, and contributing to, the Lauder community.  (800 words) – absolutely requires you know a lot about Lauder, how you would use it, and why it is right for you.

I think Lauder is an amazing program for the right candidate and given the close knit Lauder community, it offers a level of community beyond what one would get from the Wharton MBA. Just make the effort to find out whether you are right for it.

 

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This took a long time to put together. Hope you find it useful.