What have you been told about applying to business school? With the advent of chat rooms, blogs, and forums, armchair “experts” often unintentionally propagate MBA admissions myths, which can linger and undermine an applicant’s confidence. Some applicants are led to believe that schools want a specific “type” of candidate and expect certain GMAT scores and GPAs, for example. Others are led to believe that they need to know alumni from their target schools and/or get a letter of reference from the CEO of their firm in order to get in. In this series, mbaMission debunks these and other myths and strives to take the anxiety out of the admissions process.

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation—a grueling, three-year financial program that hundreds of thousands of people pursue each year—covers many of the subjects included in a “typical” first-year MBA curriculum. A CFA aspirant must study basic economics, accounting, finance, and quantitative analysis—areas that echo aspects of many first-year MBA core curricula. So, could working toward the CFA designation negatively affect an MBA applicant’s candidacy by suggesting that he/she already has the tools an MBA education would provide and that additional studies would therefore be superfluous? Definitely not! Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

“Can we do another problem like that?” It’s one of the most common requests I get in both class and tutoring sessions. It’s a perfectly good request and a necessary part of studying, but I always chuckle a little as I ask in return, “What exactly is like that?” After all, it could be that it involves exponents like the previous problem or that it has a C trap like the previous problem or that it requires testing cases—or all of the above! Read more

Guess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

The University of Virginia men’s basketball team had an historic season. They were 31-2 going into the NCAA tournament as an overall 1 seed and had just won their third ACC title in 5 years. Of course, that won’t be what this season is remembered for.

For the first time ever, a 16 seed beat a 1 seed in the first round of the tournament. And because this is the life I’ve chosen, I found a GMAT analogy to make. Read more

Guess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

Our Founding Fathers are routinely lionized for their heroic war for independence and their ingenious creation of our Constitutional democracy.

But these boys also knew how to spit some verse. Read more

Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips from our exclusive admissions consulting partner, mbaMission.

One way to conserve words in your MBA application essays and short-answer responses is by pluralizing nouns whenever possible. Singular words often require an article such as “a,” “an,” or “the.” These words can add unnecessarily to your word count, thereby cluttering your page without contributing to your argument or style. Consider the following example: Read more

From aspiring business leaders to high-powered lawyers to education pioneers, our students come from all walks of life but are united by a common purpose: the desire to realize their best selves. For the next month, we’ll be sharing their Manhattan Prep stories with you. Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

Breaking the 700 barrier is no joke.

Maybe you’ve been studying a while and are in spitting distance of 700. Or perhaps you’ve always been a standardized test wiz and are starting out in the high 600s. If this describes you, take a look at our new GMAT Advanced Course! We’ve got one starting in March and one starting in April. Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

You could think about the GMAT as a pointless, frustrating obstacle. But you shouldn’t. Here are some reasons I like the GMAT, our favorite standardized test. Read more

What have you been told about applying to business school? With the advent of chat rooms, blogs, and forums, armchair “experts” often unintentionally propagate MBA admissions myths, which can linger and undermine an applicant’s confidence. Some applicants are led to believe that schools want a specific “type” of candidate and expect certain GMAT scores and GPAs, for example. Others are led to believe that they need to know alumni from their target schools and/or get a letter of reference from the CEO of their firm in order to get in. In this series, mbaMission debunks these and other myths and strives to take the anxiety out of the admissions process.

Some MBA applicants mistakenly view community service as simply a prerequisite for getting into a top program and sign up for volunteer opportunities without considering whether the organization or cause they are choosing is actually a reasonable fit for them. Community service is generally something positive to highlight in your application, given that it demonstrates altruism and frequently indicates leadership skills as well—attributes that may not be revealed in your work experience. However, it is not a panacea or a mere box to be checked. As you contemplate your involvements, be aware that “hours served” are not as important as the spirit of your participation and the extent of your impact. Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

Did you watch any of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang? If not, you missed out not only on some curling action that brought the house down*, but also on the most spectacular hockey shootout goal I’ve ever seen. If you saw it, you know the one I’m talking about! But there’s one other important thing you may have missed: an important lesson about GMAT timing. Read more