How can you write essays that grab the attention of MBA admissions committees? With these thorough essay analyses, our friends at mbaMission help you conceptualize your essay ideas and understand how to execute so that your experiences truly stand out.

This week, we round up essay analyses for The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Columbia Business School, and Harvard Business School.

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How can you write essays that grab the attention of MBA admissions committees? With this thorough Columbia Business School essay analysis, our friends at mbaMission help you conceptualize your essay ideas and understand how to execute, so that your experiences truly stand out.

Columbia Business School (CBS) has just released its essay questions for this year, and the admissions office is offering applicants “a little bit old and a little bit new.” Its micro essay (really just a goal statement, to be fair) and first essay remain unchanged, while its second essay is a repackaging of a prompt from two years ago, and its third is brand new. In the past, for its third essay, Columbia Business School applicants could choose from two prompt options, generally pertaining to their personal lives and passions; now, candidates must respond to a question about a team failure instead. In short, this year, applicants have less choice with their essays (though the word counts have not changed), and the topics involved skew slightly in favor of the professional and academic and away from the personal. Let’s jump into our Columbia Business School essay analysis… Read more

How can you write essays that grab the attention of MBA admissions committees? With this thorough analysis, our friends at mbaMission help you conceptualize your essay ideas and understand how to execute, so that your experiences truly stand out.

For years, Columbia Business School (CBS) has been at the front of the pack of MBA programs that have been gradually shortening their application essays and requiring candidates to be direct and concise in their submissions. It was even the first school to incorporate a micro essay into its application. Last season, CBS gave applicants a bit more wiggle room with the essays, increasing the word count for each by a pretty significant margin (up to 100% in one case), but it has tightened the reins back down for this year’s applicants. Still, with a goal statement, three required essays, and an optional essay, you should have plenty of opportunities to convey a well-rounded impression of yourself for the admissions committee. Read on for our Columbia Business School essay analysis for the program’s 2017–2018 prompts… Read more

How can you write essays that grab the attention of MBA admissions committees? With this thorough analysis, our friends at mbaMission help you conceptualize your essay ideas and understand how to execute, so that your experiences truly stand out. You do not need to be actively working on a $5 billion deal or have won an Olympic gold medal to go to HBS. You just need to have done the everyday things remarkably well, and you must make sure that your essays reflect your actions.

A famous quotation, though one of murky attribution, states, “If I had had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Read more

Manhattan Prep is teaming up with mbaMission to cover every base in helping you prepare for the 2016–2017 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 Columbia, Yale, and other top B-Schools. Read more

We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2014-2015 application season. Here is their analysis for Columbia Business School. 

For the second year in a row, Columbia Business School (CBS) has kicked off the MBA application season. During an online event with mbaMission, Manhattan Prep and Poets & Quants, CBS’s director of admissions, Christina Shelby, told the audience that the school has added urgency in releasing its questions, because it has to meet the needs of its January-entry (known as J-Term) applicants, whose application deadlines come much sooner (October 8, 2014, versus April 15, 2015). Whatever its rationale for the “early” application release, CBS is basically staying the course with its essay questions, though it has again reduced the allowable character count in its “Twitter-like” goal statement; from 200 characters two years ago, it was cut to 100 last year and now stands at a mere 75. Our analysis follows…

Short Answer Question: What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (75 characters maximum)
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Manhattan GMAT is very proud to announce its first business school admissions officer panels of the season.  We often partner with top business programs to give our students the inside track on what’s on the minds of school administrators even as many students are starting to work on their application essays.

In our Chicago center, on Thursday evening, September 24th, we will be joined by admissions officers from Kellogg, Chicago Booth, and Columbia Business School.  The moderator will be our own Chris Brusznicki, himself a Kellogg alum (though he promises to be impartial).  The admissions officers will present and then take questions from attendees. Click here to sign-up – attendance is free but space is limited.

The following week we will have an additional panel here at our New York center on Thursday evening, October 1st.  Admissions officers from Columbia, NYU Stern, and Kellogg will each be in attendance to convey their thoughts and take questions.  Click here to sign-up in order to attend.  Chris Ryan will be moderating the New York panel. 

If you can’t make it to either of these panels, we will be hosting other seminars later in the season, including online events with admissions consultants and others. You can also sign up for our free events mailing list to stay informed of future events.

If you’re in Chicago or New York, we’ll see you soon!

Manhattan GMAT is proud to host the 1st day of the 2009 AIGAC Conference (the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants) on June 17th. Admissions officers from Haas (Berkeley), Tuck (Dartmouth), Yale, Michigan, and Darden (Virginia) will all be participating, with presentations from officers from NYU and Columbia during the conference as well.

Though we’re obviously a test prep company, we know that the larger admissions process is of acute interest to many of our students. Hopefully we’ll pick up a few tidbits to pass along.