You commit nearly $200,000 (not counting opportunity cost) for a two-year MBA program. Imagine, you struggle to land a job of choice after this investment!
Although this can happen to anyone, the chances of international students facing this is generally higher (relative to those with work authorization) at most schools, including the top ones.
If you are a non-traditional applicant to MBA programs, you’re an attractive bet to B-schools, on the first glance at least. However, when they dig deep into your profile, they may have some concerns, which aren’t uncommon among non-traditional applicants.
If you take proactive steps to allay these concerns, you can be – even to your surprise – a strong applicant.
Ecstatic!
One step close.
After few weeks you receive your AWA score.
3.5.
Disappointed!
You start wondering, “How is 3.5 going to affect my odds of getting admission? And should I retake the test just for that?”
Average age of the class at HBS is 27 years. At Columbia, it’s 28. That’s usually the range for most U.S. B-schools: 27-28 years. Some schools, however, don’t provide average age of their class; instead they provide average work experience, which usually is 5 years (to name a few: Wharton, UCLA, and MIT – 5, Stern – 4.5, and Stanford, a relative outlier – 4). The average work experience too points toward a similar average age.
Though the average age of most programs is not too far from 30, B-schools do have some specific concerns about the candidature of applicants falling in 30+ age bracket, though very few air it openly. (There is nothing sacrosanct about 30; it’s just a metaphor for older applicants.)
A low Quant score in GMAT/ GRE can hurt you more than a low Verbal score can.
It’s not difficult to see, why.
Are you an international applicant with undergrad grades which is either in percentage or GPA on a scale different from 4.0, and wondering how does it compare with the average GPAs of your target schools?
If that’s the case, then read the following commonly-asked questions in this regard:
You’ll only obscurantly come across the two, almost in conjunction with each other, in few MBA admission-outreach events, articles comparing MBA programs, and MBA program websites.
Nevertheless, these are two of the most keenly monitored and, often, proactively-managed indices by MBA programs.
Why?
Because they are strong, market-determined reflection of popularity of their programs.
How many times last week you got uninterrupted four hours at work? (Uninterrupted means uninterrupted – no meetings, impromptu chat from boss or colleague, phone calls, and similar disturbances.)
Two hours?
One hour?
You’ll have to really stretch your memory to recall when you last got even one hour of uninterrupted time.
Not surprisingly, there are days when we wonder, “Did I get anything solid done today?”
Jason Fried, co-founder of 37 signals, in this satirical TED Talk argues that blocking Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube at workplace isn’t the solution. The solution, according to him and rightly so, is to have less meetings and less interruptions. And in the end, he suggests three solutions to get more done at workplace.
If you look at enrollment figures (class size, in other words) of MBA programs, you’ll notice variations from year to year – mostly small, but few large.
Why does class size change?
Is it planned? Is it impacted by external factors? Or, sometimes it’s just random?
Let’s look into the reasons behind:
If you’re an international applicant (to MBA programs), then you may not have to necessarily write TOEFL or similar tests such as IELTS or PTE, measuring your fluency in English. Instructions by schools regarding who needs to write and who doesn’t are quite clear in most cases, but most instructions aren’t very clear on what…
