Articles published in MBA

MBAs Go Back to School

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Most people tend to think of business school as a step en route to a corporate job and a higher salary. While for many MBAs that is the elected life path, a recent article in Business Week would suggest that more and more MBAs are making use of their degrees in other ways.
Original photo by Jens Rötzsch from //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BMS_classrooms.jpg Read more

MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Business School Stereotypes

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Business School Stereotypes by mbaMission

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.


Many business school applicants believe that the MBA admissions committees have distilled their criteria for selecting candidates over the years and have in mind a specific “type” of individual they want. For example, within this world of business school stereotypes, applicants believe that Harvard Business School (HBS) is looking only for leaders, Kellogg is looking only for marketing students, Chicago Booth is looking only for finance students, and even that MIT Sloan is looking only for “eggheads.” Of course, these business school stereotypes—like most stereotypes—are inaccurate. Chicago Booth wants far more than one-dimensional finance students in its classes, and it provides far more than just finance to its MBA students (including, to the surprise of many, an excellent marketing program). HBS is not a school just for “generals”; among the approximately 950 students in each of its classes, HBS has a wide variety of personalities, including some excellent foot soldiers. So, at mbaMission, we constantly strive to educate MBA candidates about these misconceptions, which can sink applications if applicants pander to them. Read more

GMAC Debuts Immigration Resource Page for International MBA Students

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - GMAC Debuts Immigration Resource Page for International MBA Students by Manhattan Prep

With immigration being a current hot-button issue in the U.S., many international MBA students are understandably concerned and confused about studying there. For those who find themselves with questions on immigration and studying abroad, the people at GMAC (the makers of the GMAT exam) have dedicated a page on their website to providing resources on those topics.

These resources include: Read more

Laying the Foundation for Your Business School Application

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - Laying the Foundation for Your Business School Application by mbaMission

Each week, we are featuring a series of MBA admission tips from our exclusive admissions consulting partner, mbaMission.


By being proactive and doing some advance planning, aspiring MBA candidates can remove a great deal of stress from the business school application process and substantially bolster their candidacy. We have several big picture recommendations for applicants to consider to help them be as competitive and prepared as possible when admissions season begins in earnest. Read more

MBA Application Tasks to Consider Completing Early

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - MBA Application Tasks to Consider Completing Early by mbaMissionEach week, we are featuring a series of MBA admission tips from our exclusive admissions consulting partner, mbaMission.


The MBA application process is really more of a marathon than a sprint, but many candidates make things harder on themselves than necessary by ignoring certain tasks until late in the game. Here we will cover some pragmatic and practical steps you can take to avoid feeling rushed and to ensure that all the parts of your MBA application are as strong as you can make them before you submit. With some foresight and planning, when the schools start releasing their essay questions in June and July, you will be able to focus solely on them, without the distraction and demands of some of the other parts of your MBA application. Read more

Why College Is a Great Time to Prep for the GMAT

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - Why College Is a Great Time to Prep for the GMAT by Manhattan Prep

Undergrads get our best prices on classes, up to $400 off. Click here to find out how!


If you’re in college, business school might sound like a faraway, almost ominous concept. Do you have a dream business school that you want to attend one day? Do you know what it takes to get into a top b-school? Have you heard about the GMAT, or Graduate Management Admissions Test?

It can definitely be an overwhelming experience, but it doesn’t have to be. If you give yourself enough time to prep the right way, the test starts feeling less scary and easier to understand. You’ll stop breaking into a sweat at the sight of an exponent or a sentence with five commas, and you’ll feel your confidence building. Read more

MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Do Alumni Connections Help You Gain Admission?

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Do Alumni Connections Help You Gain Admission? by mbaMission

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.


From time to time, we at mbaMission visit admissions officers at top-ranked business schools, which gives us the opportunity to ask rather frank questions. On one such visit to a prestigious MBA program, we pushed an admissions officer on the extent of alumni connections in the admissions process and ultimately received a surprising response: “We get ten letters each year from [a globally famous alumnus], telling us that this or that MBA candidate is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He gets upset when we don’t admit ‘his’ applicants, but what makes him think that he deserves ten spots in our class?”
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Mission Admission: Start Early on Your MBA Resume

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - Mission Admission: Start Early on Your MBA Resume by mbaMission

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


We at mbaMission try to encourage business school candidates to get as much “noise” out of the way as possible before the schools begin releasing their essay questions for the next admissions season. We want our applicants to have the freedom to reflect on their experiences, formally and thoroughly brainstorm, choose ideas, prepare outlines, and then focus on crafting powerful essays. Essentially, we want them to be unfettered as they engage in what is, for many, one of the most significant creative challenges they will ever face. Read more

Your Dream MBA: 5 Steps to Getting In – Free Webinar Series Featuring Columbia and Yale

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Manhattan Prep is teaming up with our friends at mbaMission to cover every base in helping you prepare for the 2017-2018 MBA admissions season. Join us for a free, five-part webinar series, Your Dream MBA: 5 Steps to Getting In. Get expert advice from our test prep masters on how to approach your prep in order to maximize your score, learn all the nuances of MBA applications and admissions from mbaMission’s Senior Consultants, and participate in a Q&A session with admissions officers from Yale, Columbia, and other top b-schools.

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MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Yikes, a Typo – I Am Done!

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Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Yikes, a Typo—I Am Done! by mbaMission

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.


You have worked painstakingly on your application. You have checked and rechecked your work. You finally press the Submit button only to discover—to your horror—that you are missing a comma and you inadvertently used “too” instead of “to.” The admissions committee is just going to throw your application out, right? Wrong. Read more