Free GMAT Events This Week: September 16 – September 22
Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.
9/16/13– Boston, MA – Free Trial Class- 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/16/13– Dallas, TX- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/1613– Online- Choosing the Right B-School presented by mbaMission– 12:00PM- 1:30PM (EDT)
9/16/13– Minneapolis, MN – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/16/13– Atlanta, GA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/17/13– Madison, WI- Free Trial Class– 6:15PM- 9:15PM
9/17/13– Online- Free Trial Class- 8:00PM- 11:00PM (EDT)
9/17/13– Toronto, ON – Free Trial Class- 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/18/13– Online- Live Online GMAT Preview– 8:00PM- 9:30PM
9/19/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 8:00PM- 9:30PM (EDT)
9/21/13– Austin, TX- Free Trial Class- 1:00PM- 4:00PM
9/22/13– Boston, MA – Free Trial Class– 5:30PM- 8:30PM
9/22/13– Irvine, CA – Free Trial Class– 5:30PM- 8:30PM
9/22/13– Online- Free Trial Class- 2:00PM- 5:00PM (EDT)
Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page.
mbaMission: Yale School of Management Essay Analysis, 2013–2014
We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2013-2014 application season. Here is their analysis for Yale School of Management.
As we have seen several top MBA programs do this year, the Yale School of Management (SOM) has reduced its essay requirements for the current round of applicants. During the 2011–2012 application season, the school asked candidates to respond to six questions using 1,600 words; in 2012–2013, this was condensed to four questions and 1,050 words; this season, the SOM poses just two questions, for which it allots only 750 words (300 for Essay 1 and 450 for Essay 2). This reduction should not be taken as an indication that the admissions committee is less interested in what applicants have to say, however. Instead, the school is in the process of incorporating a video component into its application in which candidates will respond orally to typical essay-style questions in a spontaneous manner, without knowing the questions in advance. We therefore encourage you to make the most of your essays, for which you will be able to take your time and carefully plan and craft your responses.
Essay 1: What motivates your decision to pursue an MBA? (300 words maximum)
Yale’s first essay question for this season is very similar to the one it posed last year, but the school has doubled the word count and removed the query “When did you realize that this was a step you wanted—or needed—to take?” The focus and tone have also changed, in that the SOM had previously asked candidates what “prompted [their] decision to get an MBA,” which essentially emphasized a past event—in other words, what happened in the past to make you realize your need for this degree. This year, however, the school’s use of the word “motivates” carries with it a sense of positive, forward momentum and progression toward a goal—people are motivated to accomplish or attain things. You should therefore keep your focus forward as well and center your response on what you hope to gain from the MBA experience/education and what you plan to pursue after graduation. Identify the skills, guidance, experience and/or other factors that are key to enabling you to achieve your goals and that business school can provide. Then explain how gaining these will prepare you to succeed in your desired post-MBA position and industry.
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mbaMission: University of London (London Business School) Essay Analysis, 2013–2014
We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2013-2014 application season. Here is their analysis for University of London (London Business School).
London Business School follows in the steps of a number of top MBA programs this year in streamlining and downscaling its application essay requirements, going from six questions and 1,750 allotted words to three questions and 1,200 words. Two of the current prompts are reminiscent of several questions from last year—asking about applicants’ future plans and potential contributions to the school—but LBS throws candidates a curve with its unique third query, which takes a new angle on the relationship between MBA students and their school. Overall, LBS’s questions are much broader than ever before (and than most other schools’ prompts), which may be daunting to some applicants, but we encourage you to see this wide canvas as an opportunity rather than something intimidating. One of the school’s admissions officers explains on the department’s blog that the change in the scope and style of the questions was meant “to allow you more freedom in the way you go about constructing your essays.” We hope our analysis of LBS’s essay prompts will help you use this leeway to your advantage.
The essays form a major part of your application so we recommend that you spend a significant amount of time reflecting on the questions below and preparing your replies.
The essay questions for the class of MBA 2016 are:
What will your future look like after completing your MBA? (500 words)
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mbaMission: INSEAD Essay Analysis, 2013–2014
We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2013-2014 application season. Here is their analysis for INSEAD.
INSEAD apparently has not felt the pressure to alter its essay questions or requirements this season, as many U.S. business schools have done. Except for reversing the order of some questions, no changes have really been made to the school’s queries or allotted word counts. The program’s six “motivational essay” prompts are the primary ones, and we will examine those in depth in this analysis, but applicants must also provide two to three shorter “job description essays” that generally require (or allow, depending on your perspective) candidates to provide a fuller picture of their current positions and career progression to date than a resume or CV might provide. We will briefly address these essays first.
Job Description Essays
Essay 1: Briefly summarise your current (or most recent) job, including the nature of work, major responsibilities, and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, clients/products and results achieved. (250 words maximum)
Essay 2: Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words maximum)
Essay 3 (If applicable): If you are currently not working, what are you doing and what do you plan to do until you start the MBA programme? (250 words)
For these essays, we would encourage you to very carefully parse what data the school is requesting in each and then provide all of the relevant facts. For example, the first job essay prompt requires that you outline as many as seven different aspects of your current/most recent position. Make sure not to leave any out just because you would rather write more about others. In addition, take care for all the job description essays to avoid using acronyms or abbreviations that would not be easily recognizable to most, and consider providing some description of your company or industry, if the nature of either might not be readily clear. Using shortcuts (in the form of abbreviations) and skipping this kind of information could make your descriptions less understandable and therefore less compelling and useful to an admissions reader, so you are in fact doing yourself a favor by more completely depicting your situation—while adhering to the maximum word counts, of course. To make your responses to these rather straightforward queries more interesting to the admissions reader, consider framing them in a narrative format rather than simply outlining the basic information. Strive to incorporate a sense of your personality and individuality into your submissions.
Motivation Essays
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mbaMission: University of Texas, Austin (McCombs) Essay Analysis, 2013–2014
We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2013-2014 application season. Here is their analysis for University of Texas, Austin (McCombs).
By asking candidates to submit three essays of 250 words each, the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin, has drastically streamlined its essay questions this year compared with last year—and in concert with what many other MBA programs are doing this season. Then, the length requirement for Essay 1 alone was 800 words, and applicants had roughly 600 words for the school’s three-part Essay 2. Overall, McCombs’s questions appear to have taken a more personal tone, asking candidates to introduce themselves to the student community, explain what they can contribute to the program other than professional qualities and describe how they expect to develop during their two years in the MBA program. Gone are any explicit references to short- or long-term goals and one’s career history, so the applicant’s more internal aspects and soft skills are highlighted instead.
1. Imagine that you are at the Texas MBA Orientation for the Class of 2016. Please introduce yourself to your new classmates, and include any personal and/or professional aspects that you believe to be significant. Select only one communication method that you would like to use for your response.
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GMAT Challenge Problem Showdown: September 9, 2013
We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:
A semicircular piece of paper has center O, as shown above. Its diameter A’A is coated with adhesive. If the adhesive is used to fuse radii OA’ and OA along their entire lengths (so that points A and A’ coincide, points P and P’ coincide, and so on), a cone is formed as shown above. If point B divides the original semicircle into two identical arcs, what is the measure of angle AOB in the folded cone?
Free GMAT Events This Week: September 9 – September 15
Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.
9/9/13– Online – Free Trial Class- 9:00PM- 12:00AM (EDT)
9/10/13– Santa Monica, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/10/13– New York, NY- Accessing Your MBA Profile presented by mbaMission– 7:00PM- 8:30PM (EDT)
9/10/13– Philidelphia, PA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/10/13– Durham, NC – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/10/13– Arlington, VA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/11/13– Westlake Village, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/11/13– Santa Clara, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/11/13– Bellevue, WA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/11/13– Glendale, CA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/14/13– Santa Monica, CA – Free Trial Class– 2:00PM- 5:00PM
9/14/13– San Francisco, CA- Free Trial Class- 2:00PM- 5:00PM
9/15/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 7:00AM- 10:00AM (EDT)
9/1513– West Hollywood, CA- Free Trial Class- 5:30PM- 8:30PM
9/15/13– San Diego, CA- Free Trial Class – 2:00PM- 5:00PM
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Free GMAT Events This Week: September 2 – September 8
Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.
9/4/13– Washington, DC – Free Trial Class- 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/4/13– San Francisco, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/4/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 8:00PM- 11:00PM (EDT)
9/5/13– Encino, CA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/5/13– New York, NY –GMAT Preview at New York Center– 6:30PM- 8:30PM
9/5/13– GMAT Preview at Madison Center– 6:00PM- 8:00PM
9/5/13– Irvine, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/5/13– Los Angeles, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM
9/7/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 2:00PM- 5:00PM (EDT)
9/7/13– Madison, WI – Free Trial Class– 2:00PM- 5:00PM
9/7/13– Boston, MA – Free Trial Class– 2:00PM- 5:00PM
9/8/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 10:00AM- 1:00PM (EDT)
9/8/13– London- Free Trial Class– 5:30PM- 8:30PM
9/8/13– Bellaire, TX- Free Trial Class – 6:00PM- 9:00PM
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GMAT Challenge Problem Showdown: September 2, 2013
We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:
At 8am on Thursday, two workers, A and B, each start working independently to build identical decorative lamps. Worker A completes her lamp at 5pm on Friday, while Worker B completes her lamp sometime during the morning on Friday. If both workers adhere to working hours of 8am to 12pm and 1pm to 5pm each day, at which of the following times might the two workers have completed a single lamp had they worked together at their respective constant rates?
GMAT Challenge Problem Showdown: August 26, 2013
We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:
If three different integers are selected at random from the integers 1 through 8, what is the probability that the three selected integers can be the side lengths of a triangle?