Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Reneging on an MBA Job Offer? It May Cost You $20,000 (Bloomberg Businessweek)

As two MBA students from Georgia Tech learned recently, reneging on an internship offer can have consequences.

Wharton Drops Application Essay (Poets and Quants)

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has cut the number of application essays in its 2013/2014 application to two, down from three in the previous application cycle.

B-Schools Get Serious About Writing (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Many students come to business school with writing skills that are lacking, and few MBA programs do much to improve them.

2+2 Program- A Change in Eligibility (Harvard Business School Admission Director’s Blog)

This week, Harvard Business School announced a change to their 2 + 2 Program, which is designed to give college students an opportunity to apply to HBS before entering the world of work.

Mission Admission: The MBA Resume, Part 3 (mbaMission)

Here are some great tips from our friends at mbaMission on ways to cut down and format your resume concisely.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

Today’s Chart of the Week comes from our friends at mbaMission:

Although quantifying a school’s profile certainly does not tell you everything, it can sometimes be helpful in simplifying the many differences between the various MBA programs. Each week, we bring you a chart to help you decide which of the schools’ strengths speak to you.

With so many factors to consider when contemplating which business school is right for you, housing may present a hidden cost that can be easily overlooked when comparing programs. The cost differential between renting in a Midwestern college town and renting near Greenwich Village, for example, can be significant”up to almost $40,000 on a cumulative basis across two years. So how does each business school fare on the issues of affordable housing?

We spoke with students and examined market prices at a variety of top programs and identified economical one-bedroom apartments (after all, the sky is the limit in New York) in locations that are either popular among students or close to campus. Our list is thus an approximation of the lower end of monthly rental costs that one might encounter when attending each program. We then calculated the cumulative price differential between the cheapest housing option (at Michigan Ross) and all others, across two-year programs. As you will see in our chart, the savings can be significant!

Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

5 Tips for Writing a Concise B-School Admissions Essay (U.S. News Education)

Applicants who avoid flattery and learn to edit themselves can keep sentences tight, experts say.

Does Appearance Count in Grad School? (About.com Graduate School)

Being visible (in a positive way) is critical to being noticed and remembered, which are prerequisites for being offered opportunities.

Monday Morning Essay Tip: Consider Adding a Personal Dimension (mbaMission)

Looking for some admissions help? Our friends at mbaMission have a great tip when it comes to writing application essays.

Finding Your ˜Best Fit’ Business School (Bloomberg Businessweek)

As prospective students spend the summer evaluating business schools in search of that ever-elusive fit, it’s worth reviewing some general guidelines before embarking on the search.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Heading to Business School? An Essential Pre-MBA Strategy To Hit The Ground Running (Forbes)

Given your considerable investment of time, money, and effort in pursuing an MBA education, can you afford not to have a pre-matriculation strategy?

Business Schools Keep the Admissions Process Interesting (Graduate Guide)

Stiff competition between applicants has led some business schools to get creative in terms of how they select their ideal MBA candidates.

Business School Lessons From the Top of the World (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Professor at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business plans to integrate his experience of climbing Mount Everest into a required leadership course for MBA students. Pretty cool!

Learning to Appreciate the Nuts and Bolts of B-School (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Associate dean of corporate partnerships at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management asks grads which aspects of their MBA experience they enjoyed most.

Find Health Care Opportunities for B-School Students (U.S. News Education)

A business school residency can prepare MBA candidates to be leaders in health care.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

New York University’s (NYU’s) Stern School of Business jumps on the less is more bandwagon this application season by reducing its essay count from three to two. However, that is the only change”Stern’s essay questions are actually the same as last year’s, but for Essay 2, candidates can now choose between two prompts that were previously both mandatory.

For Essay 2, it will be interesting to see whether candidates favor Option A, taking the rather straightforward path and exploring their envisioned careers in greater depth, or the challenging creative essay in Option B, hoping to provide a far deeper personal picture for the admissions committee. Our guess is that most applicants will choose the latter”doing so will allow the candidates to differentiate themselves from many careerists in the applicant pool. We also suspect that some candidates will worry that if they choose Option A, they will be inadvertently revealing themselves to be uncreative and will therefore feel compelled to choose Option B. But do not try to guess what the admissions committee wants! If the school wanted everyone to respond to one option in particular, they would not have offered two! Let us reassure you that this is not some sort of test. Take the time to consider how you would respond to both questions,  and then select the one that you believe would offer the admissions committee the more compelling picture of you.

Essay 1:  Professional Aspirations

(750 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

• Why pursue an MBA (or dual degree) at this point in your life?
• What actions have you taken to determine that Stern is the best fit for your MBA experience?
• What do you see yourself doing professionally upon graduation?

The three points that make up Stern’s Essay 1 question this year basically constitute a Personal Statement, and because Personal Statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

And for a thorough exploration of NYU Stern’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, important statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Essay 2: Choose Option A or Option B

Option A: Your Two Paths

(500 word maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font)

The mission of the Stern School of Business is to develop people and ideas that transform the challenges of the 21st century into opportunities to create value for business and society. Given today’s ever-changing global landscape, Stern seeks and develops leaders who thrive in ambiguity, embrace a broad perspective and think creatively about the range of ways they can have impact.

• Describe two different and distinct paths you could see your career taking long term. How do you see your two paths unfolding?
• How do your paths tie to the mission of NYU Stern?
• What factors will most determine which path you will take?

Given that the school is asking about two possible paths for your long-term career, you may be wondering whether you can be vague or uncertain about your goals in this essay. Quite simply, No. In fact, you will instead need to present two feasible career options and relate your skills and experiences to them very clearly to create an effective, coherent statement and show both that you are versatile and that you know yourself well.
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Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Best Non-US Business Schools (About.com Business School)

Here is a list of the best non-US business schools. Each school offers at least one high-quality program for business students.

Tweets, Slideshows and Social Media”The New MBA App (Poets & Quants)

The University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Management revamped their application to connect with candidates in their own space “ social media.

14 Simple Ways to Get Considerably More Done (Inc.)

Don’t think it’s possible because you’re already working in overdrive? Here’s a new way to look at your to-do list.

Applicants Invest 90 to 140 Hours to Apply (Poets and Quants)

Find out just how well b-schools get to know you through the admissions process.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

MBA Salary Expectations: Sober Reckoning or Wishful Thinking? (Bloomberg Businessweek)

New research suggests that business school applicants have ratcheted back their post-MBA salary expectations, but in the U.S. and elsewhere they may still be wildly optimistic.

Warren Buffett Shared Some Great Career Advice For Millennials (Business Insider)

Here are some highlights of Warren Buffett’s interview with Levo League, a networking and career advice site.

The Graduation Advice We Wish We’d Been Given (Harvard Business Review)

Harvard Business Review reached out to some of their favorite writers, asking them: What do graduates really need to know about the world of work?

10 Business Schools With the Most Full-Time Applicants (U.S. News Education)

Of the top schools, all except Stanford University and UCLA saw a drop in full-time applicants.

Triangle B-School Leaders Lend Wisdom to Graduates (Triangle Business Journal)

Here are some tips from Triangle business school leaders. While they are directed at the graduating class, they could certainly apply to anyone out there looking for a job.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

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 Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) is apparently content with its essay questions, because it has made no changes to them or to the allowed word count this season. Having made slight tweaks to its prompts in recent years, the GSB’s MBA admissions committee seems to have found an approach that elicits the information it wants.

With respect to word count, Stanford is unique in that it asks you to limit yourself to 1,600 words total but allows you to determine how you would like to distribute them among the various questions. Stanford does offer some guidance”recommending 750 words for Essay 1, 450 words for Essay 2 and 400 words for Essay 3”but you can take the school at its word (small pun intended!) and use a different distribution if you feel that you can better reveal yourself through, for example, a 650-word Essay 1 and 500-word Essay 3.

Stanford’s admissions committee offers some great advice on how to write its application essays here://www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba/admission/dir_essays-p.html. We feel that the committee’s most important guidance is the following:

Because we want to discover who you are, resist the urge to package yourself in order to come across in a way you think Stanford wants. Such attempts simply blur our understanding of who you are and what you can accomplish. We want to hear your genuine voice throughout the essays that you write and this is the time to think carefully about your values, your passions, your hopes and dreams.

In truth, this is good advice not just for Stanford’s essays, but for all business schools’ essays. Rather than trying to portray yourself as something in particular (which you may or may not in fact be), focus on showcasing who you actually are and give the admissions committee the information and picture of you it needs to make its decision. Stanford is not interested in classifying its applicants as certain types but in discovering individuals and what they have to offer.  And now, on to the essays

Essay 1: What matters most to you, and why?

When candidates ask us, What should I write for what matters most to me?, we offer a pretty simple tip”start brainstorming for this essay by asking yourself that very question: What matters most to me? This might seem like obvious advice, of course, but many applicants get flustered by the question, often believing that an actual right answer exists that they must identify, and never pause to actually consider their sincere responses, which are typically the most compelling.

So, we advise that you brainstorm in depth and push yourself to explore the psychological and philosophical motivations behind your goals and achievements”behind who you are today. We cannot emphasize this enough: do not make a snap decision about the content of this essay. Once you have identified what you believe is an appropriate theme, discuss your idea(s) with those with whom you are closest and whose input you respect. Doing so can help validate deeply personal and authentic themes, leading to an essay that truly stands out.

Once you have fully examined your options and identified your main themes, do not simply provide a handful of supporting anecdotes”or worse, recycle the stories you used in a similar essay for another school. A strong essay response to this question will involve a true exploration of the themes you have chosen and reveal a thorough analysis of decisions, motives and successes/failures, with a constant emphasis on how you conduct yourself. If you are merely telling stories and trying to tie in your preconceived conclusions, you are most likely forcing a theme on your reader rather than analyzing your experiences, and this will be transparent to any experienced admissions reader. In short, be sure to fully consider and develop your most sincere answer(s), outline your essay accordingly and then infuse your writing with your personality, thoughts, feelings and experiences.
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Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Great Problem to Have: I’m InNow What? (Poets & Quants)

After getting into business school, you enter a unique phase of your life. Here’s how one accepted MBA student spent the 7 months prior to the start of b-school.

What Don’t They Teach You At Business School? (Forbes)

Brian Kane, who holds a BBA and an MBA in marketing, shares some valuable real world skills that he didn’t learn in business school.

Does An MBA Make You Happy? The MBA Happiness Index 2013 (Forbes)

The results from a recent survey deliver an overwhelming message that the MBA itself is a considerable source of happiness.

Joseph Stiglitz on What Business Schools Teach That’s Wrong (The Motley Fool)

Nobel Prize-winning economist answers the question, What is something that is taught in the modern business school that gives a flawed sense of how risk and financial markets work?”

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Business School Rankings (About.com Business School)

Here’s the low down on how business schools are ranked, the types of rankings, and how to find and use the most reliable systems.

An MBA Mom’s Survival Guide (Poets & Quants)

Find out what’s like for a mom with two kids and a management consultant husband to decide to go to business school.

Prospective Students May Want to Attend A Business School Graduation (Graduate Guide)

For prospective business school students, attending a commencement could help you learn a lot about various MBA programs and give you the chance to listen to some notable speakers.

MBA Applications Surge at Top Schools (Bloomberg Businessweek)

The three-year decline in applications to the top business schools appears to be over, reports Bloomberg.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT