GRE vs GMAT

I guess a lot of you might have already started thinking about this. GRE goes for a makeover this August and for the first time, comes closer to the pattern and format of GMAT. Why is this important?

A lot of you might already know that GRE is accepted by almost 400 b-schools, including some of the biggies like Yale, HBS, Stanford, MIT, Insead to name a few. I am sure with this change, more b-schools might consider accepting GRE scores. Basically, ETS is going for a makeover with the change in GRE format. According to Clearadmit, the follwoing changes in GRE are significant:

Quantitative Section
• More data analysis
• Less geometry
• The introduction of numeric entry questions that require test takers to provide a specific answer rather than select from multiple choices
• An on-screen calculator, which could mean more complex math questions

Verbal Section
• No more antonym or analogy questions
• The introduction of in-context questions designed to test both reasoning skills and vocabulary
• New “strengthen/weaken” reading comprehension questions, similar to those on the GMAT

Does the above changes sound similar? Yes, GRE is coming closer to GMAT. It would be interesting to see how GMAT responds to this change when it goes for a makeover next year. As of now, it is good for the applicants if more b-schools start accepting the GRE scores.

But here is one catch. It seems that people taking the GRE test in august won’t be able to get their scores till November. Personally, I feel that it is not fair and I would like to take this opportunity to appeal on behalf of all test-takes from August to all the b-schools accepting GRE scores or are planning to accept, kindly make some changes to your deadlines to accommodate special cases like this for the current year. I feel that any step by b-schools to address this concern of applicants would play a big role in their fairness to the system and the candidates.

I would also request my readers to support this appeal by just clicking on the like button or sharing this post across. Additionally, I would also request the admission consultants and Admission Committees of all b-schools, if they are reading to consider the applicants taking GRE in August fairly and not to discard them right away just because they are yet to get their scores.

Source: 
http://blog.clearadmit.com/2011/02/important-information-for-prospective-mba-applicants-considering-the-gre/

BTG First Week Essay Webinars

As I mentioned earlier in my post, BeatTheGMAT began its webinars on breaking the essays. I attended both the webinars of Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business. Though I have taken notes for each of them, I feel they are kind of same from the video links. Hence, I am posting the video links directly rather than giving the gist.

Harvard Business School:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/harvard-business-school-essays

Stanford Business School: 
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/stanford-business-school-essays

Personally, I had to re-work on some of my essays after these webinars. Some of the tips are very useful and the presenters, including David Park, have done an amazing introspection into the essays.

BeatTheGMAT $100K Challenge Pre-Registration

Hello All, this is an amazing contest by BeatTheGMAT: $100K Challenge. Why I am applying: I want to win the first bumper prize. What is it? Well, it is something I feel is going to interest everyone out here in the MBA Aspirant Community. The Grand Prize is:

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Guided Tour of 5 Elite Business Schools — $25,000 Value

• Visit 5 Elite Business Schools: You’ll visit Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, Haas and one add’l US b-school of your choice.
• Network with Current MBA Students: You’ll meet with at least 2 current MBA students at each of the schools to gain perspectives on life at the schools and what it takes to get in.
• Get All Expenses Paid by Beat The GMAT: We’ll pay for everything – flights from anywhere in the world, hotels, transportation, food and entertainment. Think of it as an awesome one-week vacation!
• Receive Personal Coaching: Throughout the week that you’re here, Eric (Beat The GMAT’s Founder, Stanford ’04, ’05) and David (Beat The GMAT’s CEO, MIT ’94, Harvard Law ’99, McKinsey, BCG) will provide advice on your application strategy.

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I don’t know about you but I am definitely in the race. Can’t have any better opportunity.

What are you waiting for? Go and try your luck the only thing you must have is a facebook account.

Registration Link:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/100k

One more reason to go to HBS

Well, this post is going to give a funnier side of joining HBS. Barum Moitra advertised (not sure if owns) in her post, and gave one more reason to go to HBS: yes Dating. Want to Date Harvard Graduates from Harvard in Harvard, you got to be in Harvard and try this:
http://www.dateharvardsq.com/
FYI, Harvard Square is the most famous and happening place in the Harvard University for young enthusiastic lover and also budding lovers. So, are you tempted now to go to HBS? Do let me know

Blog featured in ClearAdmit

This is going to be a quick short post. MBADreamz featured in ClearAdmit for its review post of Harvard Business School Guide.

Thanks again for the kind words, ClearAdmit and I, truly, feel the guide is a gem possession for me.

Review of ClearAdmit HBS Guide

Sometime back, I won a ClearAdmit HBS guide on twitter contest. I did win again the Haas Guide too but ClearAdmit did not give the guide to me as I had already won . Not Fair. Anyways, here is my take on the guide:

1. An Amazing resource, no doubt.
2. All information about HBS in 36 page guide-almost like an encyclopedia in one pocketbook.
3. Very well organized. Once read, you need not have to take much time to find the information.
4. Chapter 1 : Introduction to Harvard highlights HBS history with focus on MBA history in the USA and the role HBS played in shaping it. An Excellent Timeline comparison on MBA History comparison to HBS is followed by very detailed description of the demographic distribution of students in HBS.
5. Chapter 2: Academic Programs stresses on the Academic Curriculum with the a very detailed analysis of the RCc and ECs. It is followed by student body, grading system policy and faculties of HBS.
6. Chapter 3: Special Programs concentrates on special programs of HBS such as SEI, EI, HI and the Global Initiatives.
7. Chapter 4: Life at Harvard is one of the most interesting read as I felt to be literally being in HBS organizing events and living a fruitful life at Boston.
8. Chapter 5: Life after Harvard concentrates on the career aspects and the massive role that the school plays in shaping the future of the students.
9. Chapter 6: Admissions concentrates on the admission aspects of HBS. The facts are basically the same but the earlier chapters add so much value to this chapter that one gets a feel of why such essay questions are asked at HBS.
10. Chapter 7: Further Resources ends the book with further information on key persons related to admissions at HBS.

Overall, I feel it is one of the best resource guide for any applicant applying to HBS and saves a lot of your time that otherwise one would have spent researching the school. Thanks a ton, ClearAdmit for such a wonderful guide to my dream school.

Interview of Kaneisha from ArtofApplying

Hey folks, how are you doing? Today I bring you someone special for a guest post. Well, not exactly a guest post but an interview of hers: Kaneisha Grayson. Some of you might have noticed her in few of my posts earlier sometime: a notification post followed by a debrief about her webinar that I attended. Apparently, we felt she got good amount of publicity through this blog and hence, we decided to do a quick post about her and her aspirations. She is really kind enough to give a short interview for my blog. In past few days, I have come in contact with Kaneisha and I can tell you that she is really smart and can make wonders for you. She is an HBS alumni and has recently started a consulting firm, The Art of Applyin g. So, here we go with the interview:

1. For the benefit of readers, can you give us a summary of your background? Education, current job, previous jobs, interests, etc

Kaneisha: graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, California in 2006, lived in Ghana for a year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, and then went on to earn my MBA & MPA from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. My current full-time job is running The Art of Applying, my essay and career coaching company. I call myself a lifestyle entrepreneur, because my main goal is to use my gifts, skills, and talents to work for myself, provide a valuable service to people, and maintain the income and autonomy over my time that I desire. I don’t hope to grow this business into a huge company. I want to stay nimble, flexible, and responsive to the needs of my life and my customers.

2. You run a popular blog:crazygirlnations. What inspired you to start “artofapplying”?

Kaneisha: I started The Art of Applying so that I could finally start getting paid to do what I had been doing for years for free!

3. You went to HBS for business school. Can you tell us why you chose HBS?

Kaniesha: I knew since I was a senior in high school that I wanted to go to Harvard not for college but for graduate school. It was the summer before my senior year of college that I realized I wanted to go to Harvard to study policy and business.

4. What sparked your interest in MBA consultancy as a career? Can you tell us about your entrepreneurial experience with the artofapplying?

Kaneisha: It was a very natural transition. I had been coaching my friends and classmates into competitive schools and programs for years before I ever got paid to do it. Last summer, I held a free conference call about the Harvard MBA/MPP joint degree, and I got my first major client shortly after that. Once I realized how much I enjoyed coaching people–as well as how effective I was–I decided to give it a try. I fleshed out the concept initially in an HBS class called Managing Service Operations. Then I wrote the full business plan when the HBS Entrepreneurship Center announced that students could get a $10,000 grant for submitting a business plan for a venture they planned to start post-graduation. Once I received the grant, I knew I was truly going to pursue the entrepreneurial path.

5. How different it would have been if artofapplying would not have happened?

Kaniesha: If I had not started this company, I’m not sure what I would be doing. I love working for myself, so I probably would have found another way to do that!

6. What do you think are the most important lessons you took away from HBS?

Kaneisha: Even if you don’t have all the time, money, or information that you’d like, sometimes you have to sit down with what you do have, make a decision and move forward. That’s what we do everyday when we use the case method to learn. I’ve realized that this is a principle you live by in business. You’d always like more money, more time, more clarify about what you should be doing, but you have to analyze what’s in front of you and then act.

7. I know this question is huge for readers, and you seem as well-placed to answer it as anyone: what would you say is the single most important thing one must keep in mind while applying to a business school?

Kaniesha: Be your authentic self and not who you think Admissions Committees want you to be.

8. Any personalized tips for readers applying to HBS,in particular?

Kaniesha: Don’t recycle essays you’ve written for other schools for HBS.

9. Any last words of advice to prospective applicants?

Kaniesha: Make sure you apply to at least two dream schools. Sometimes, it’s better to be a dreamer than to be so realistic as to clip your own wings. It breaks my heart to hear about people who really wanted to go to HBS or some other top school and didn’t apply because they didn’t think they’d get in. Don’t take yourself out of the game by your preconceptions of what they are looking for! You might be just what they need to make the class whole.

10. How should readers get in touch with you?

Kaniesha: Go to the contact page on my website: 
http://theartofapplying.com/contact/

PS: The interview was done via email communication and I declare that all the answers were as Kaneisha emailed to me.

De-Brief of Kaneisa’s webinar

As mentioned to you earlier, I attended the webinar of Kaneisha on July 8.  I did logged in bit late. It was 5.30 am Indian Standard Time and I am not a kind of early morning bird but still managed to get in 10 min late. The webinar was very informative and as expected, Kaneisha was at her best. Here are my quick few takes from the webinar:

About Kaneisha:

1. Seems to be an amazing girl: very good at speaking. I exchanged few emails with her and she is just terrific. I, highly, recommend her and her style.
2. Seems to have complete control and knowledge of the MBA application process: was visible from her preparation of the webinar and approach.
3. An interesting person to me with a helping nature, similar to what I found in my friendship with Marquis.

About the webinar:

1. Very well planned.
2. Very well organized.
3. Nice usage of color and theme of presentation, considering this is her first webinar, though I am sure she would have done numerous such presentations in HBS. perfect start.

Some take-aways from the webinar:

1. Don’t dwell upon GMAT too much. she mentioned how one of her client got admitted to Kellogg despite a score of 640.
2. Concentrate on your essay and always bring the best of yourself in your essays.
3. See if you can get some alumni to review your essay, if possible.
4. Networking is the key. I, too, feel the same but sometimes take networking to another level because that’s where it gets interesting.
5. If you have done 3 attempts to the GMAT and did not get your desired score, either work hard on your essays or move on to GRE.
6. A special webinar for Indian MBAs in planning. Visit
   http://bit.ly/IndianMBAGuys
   for details. Will highly recommend for all my Indian Readers. Do go and register for this special webinar by Kaneisha right-away.
7. Kaneisha announced two packages: individual, where she is going to work on the essays on individual basis and guide the clients thorugh each process, and a group-based, where she is going to address the concerns in a group. Kaneisha has still not updated her payment mechanisms right on her website but one can look forward to her packages at
   http://theartofapplying.com/services/packages/
   . The group program details are at
   http://theartofapplying.com/bdo/join/
   
8. No matter whether you are from traditional or non-traditional background, believe in yourself and your stories in your essays.
9. Last but most important, irrespective of any webinar, always be look out for information. I got one amazing information for my HBS essay, will keep it a secret for my essay. but again this is one of my take-away from the webinar.

Contact Kaniesha at
http://theartofapplying.com/contact/
or follow her on twitter at
http://twitter.com/kaneishad

Good Luck Kaniesha for your venture. I feel it was a perfect start and I look forward to interact with you more in future.

HBS Dean Message

So, finally Indian origin Dean, Nitin Nohria, took office earlier this month at HBS. It makes all of us so proud when someone like him has achieved such an amazing feat after moving to US in 1984. Do look into this video. The hint is the video is really good and if you are smart enough, I can tell you that you are going to get some smart tips for your essays. So, Good Luck!!!

Link is:
http://www.hbs.edu/dean/

Upcoming Webinar: B-School Despite the Odds by Kaneisha Grayson

Hi Guys, Recently, I received a promotion offer through a forwarded email from my friend, Marquis Parker. People who have been reading my blog for sometime do know Marquis Parker and his blog. In fact, anyone serious about his MBA would have definitely heard him at some moment of time. Anyways, this post is all about an upcoming Webinar on “B-School Despite Odds” by Kaneisha Grayson. Kaneisha is a 2010 graduate of Harvard Business School and has jumped into her Entrepreneurial pursuits after winning $10K grant from Harvard Business School Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. You can find details about her here and you can also follow her at twitter too. The webinar details are at this page. I am going to attend this webinar and I would strongly recommend everyone reading this post. Do refer my name or blog when you choose to register (would help me build my reputation, you know ).

Timing of the Webinar: Thursday, July-08-2010, 5.15 PM PST

Register for the event at 
http://theartofapplying.com/2010/07/b-school-odds-webinar/

I will definitely be posting a debrief about the webinar later. Watch out for it.