Wharton 2012-13 MBA Essay Analysis

What follows is my commentary and analysis on the Wharton MBA essay questions for applying to the program stating in the fall of 2013.

Required Question:

How will Wharton MBA help you achieve your professional objectives? (400 words)

Analysis:

This is a typical goals essay, where you want to include detail about a) your current work and skill-set b) your short and long-term career objectives, c) a brief assessment of what skills or experiences you need to gain to achieve those goals and d) specific reasons why Wharton is the best place for you to gain those skills or experiences. 

For the past few years it has been difficult to find space in the Wharton essay set to write about why you want to go to this particular school. However, with this new why Wharton question, admissions seems interested in learning once again why you are attracted to their school, so be as specific in possible in addressing this last part of the question.

Respond to 2 of the Following 3 Questions:

1. Select a Wharton MBA course, co-curricular opportunity or extra-curricular engagement that you are interested in. Tell us why you chose this activity and how it connects to your interests. (500 words)

Analysis:

After completing the required question above, most applicants will have already shared a few specific examples as to why they are attracted to Wharton. Those who choose this question will then instead probably focus on one of their personal interests, rather than on why they are interested in Wharton, as the subject of their answer.  This essay is a good opportunity to reveal a) one of your interests outside of work, b) the strengths and skills you have gained or demonstrate from participation in this activity, and c) why you are involved in this activity or have this interest. Addressing all 3 parts is a good way to introduce a bit about yourself.

Next, in terms of the Wharton course, co-curricular or extra-curricular activity, find something offered by the school that you are interested in and capable of contributing to.  How will your presence in this course or activity benefit the experience of your fellow Wharton students?  Moreover, don't forget to address why you are interested in it - how will your participation broaden or refine the interest you have in this area?  A good answer will emphasize both how you can develop from the experience, as well as how you can benefit your classmates too.

2. Imagine your work obligations for the afternoon were cancelled and you found yourself "work free" for three hours, what would you do? (500 words)

Analysis:

This essay can be used to talk about a "personal passion" you are engaged in outside of work.  What do you love to do?  It is fine and natural to talk about heading to the community center to see if you can join a pick-up game of basketball, or going home early to figure out how to bake a cake that your wife and kids can eat after dinner that night. Whatever topic you choose, try to show how it demonstrates a part of your personality. Don't make the mistake in this essay of talking about your job.

3. "Knowledge for Action draws upon the great qualities that have always been evident at Wharton: rigorous research, dynamic thinking, and thoughtful leadership." - Thomas S. Robertson, Dean, The Wharton School   Tell us about a time when you put knowledge into action. (500 words)

Analysis:

An effective answer to this question will emphasize what you did, i.e. the putting into action part.  This is essentially a leadership question, where you should demonstrate a time when you were able to lead others to accomplish something of significance to your division, department, organization or industry. Be sure to describe the knowledge or research that led you to initiate this experience. Did you discover something about a customer need, or did you learn of a weakness in your company's strategy that needed to be addressed?  Add detail on the steps you took, the result, the significance of the result on those around you, and what you learned during the process.  

Additional Question for Reapplicants:

All reapplicants to Wharton are required to complete the Optional Essay. Please use this space to explain how you have reflected on the previous decision on your application and to discuss any updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, extracurricular/volunteer engagements). You may also use this section to address any extenuating circumstances. (250 words)

Analysis:

If you were dinged in the past and are reapplying, hopefully you have been able to spend the year addressing and improving upon the part of your application that sass lacking the first time around.  Use this space to detail those improvements as well as what you have learned about yourself through the process.

Optional Section for all Applicants:

If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, or questionable academic performance, significant weaknesses in your application). (250 words)

Analysis:

Extenuating circumstances usually applies to something that may be considered a negative within your application. Use this space to explain it, but be carefully in your analysis to finish on an upbeat note - as the last essay in the set, it is always desirable to leave your reader with a strong message about what you can offer to the Wharton MBA.

These essays questions can be found at the Wharton MBA admissions official site here.  

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com

UC Berkeley Haas Announces MBA Essay Questions for 2012-13 Admissions Season

In a recent posting to their blog, the UC Berkeley Haas admissions team announced that they have released their essay questions for applicants to their MBA program starting in the fall of 2013.

The new essay topics include one about a song that expresses who you are, replacing their greatest joy essay from last year. Be sure to read the blog post to get some information about why they made this particular change (last year's prompt resulted in some over-thinking) as well as some general tips on the essays themselves.

Essays:

At Berkeley-Haas, our distinctive culture is defined by four key principles — Question the status quo; Confidence without attitude; Students always; and Beyond yourself. We seek candidates from a broad range of cultures, backgrounds, and industries who demonstrate a strong cultural fit with our program and defining principles. Please use the following essays as an opportunity to reflect on and share with us the values, experiences, and accomplishments that have helped shape who you are.(Learn more about Berkeley-Haas' Defining Principles).

1. If you could choose one song that expresses who you are, what is it and why? (250 word maximum)
2. What is your most significant accomplishment? (250 word maximum)
3. Describe a time when you questioned an established practice or thought within an organization. How did your actions create positive change? (250 word maximum)
4. Describe a time when you were a student of your own failure. What specific insight from this experience has shaped your development? (250 word maximum)
5. a. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How have your professional experiences prepared you to achieve these goals?
   b. How will an MBA from Haas help you achieve these goals? (750 word maximum for 5a. and 5b.)

Supplemental Information:

1. If you have not provided a letter of recommendation from your current supervisor, please explain; otherwise, enter N/A.
2. List in order of importance all community and professional organizations and extracurricular activities in which you have been involved during or after university studies. Indicate the nature of the activity or organization, size of the organization, dates of involvement, offices held, and average number of hours spent per month.
3. List full-time and part-time jobs held during undergraduate or graduate studies, indicating the employer, job title, employment dates, location, and the number of hours worked per week for each position held prior to the completion of your degree.
4. Please explain all gaps in your employment since earning your university degree.
5. If you have ever been subject to academic discipline, placed on probation, suspended, or required to withdraw from any college or university, please explain. If not, please enter N/A. (An affirmative response to this question does not automatically disqualify you from admission.)

Optional Essays:

1. (Optional) Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven't addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)
2. (Optional) If not clearly evident, please discuss ways in which you have demonstrated strong quantitative abilities, or plan to strengthen quantitative abilities. You do not need to list courses that appear on your transcript. (250 word maximum)

The application will be available in August.  Please double-check all essay questions within Berkeley's official admissions site here.


John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

Dartmouth Tuck Announces MBA Essay Questions for 2012-13 Admissions Season

In a recent posting to their admissions blog, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College released their essay questions for students applying to the program that starts in the fall of 2013.


Instructions:

Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. Compose each of your

answers offline in separate document files and upload them individually in the appropriate

spaces below. We encourage applicants to limit the length of their responses to 500 words for each essay. There are no right or wrong answers.

Please double-space your responses.

Essay Questions:

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you, and what will you uniquely contribute to the community? (If you are applying for a joint or dual degree, please explain how the additional degree will contribute to those goals.)

2. Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?

3. Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?

4. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.

5. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.

Please confirm all information directly at the school's own admissions website.

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com

John Couke or ジョン カウク

My family name is difficult to pronounce.  The English spelling - as if often the case - causes a lot of misdirection, and leads people to say things like "coke" or "kook".  The correct pronunciation is something more like a combination of the word "cow" and the "k" sound that comes at the end of "book".

Thankfully, in Japan the katakana character system is phonetic, and so once people here learn how to write my name using katakana characters, they pronounce it well.  In katakana my family name is written using these three characters: カウク.

So where does this name come from?  Apparently, the family name Couke goes back 8 generations in Canada, and 4 more generations before that in what is now North America. Prior to that, someone arrived in North America on a boat from somewhere else (probably in Europe). There are two ideas as to what happened next:

1) They used the opportunity of moving to a new country to change their name from whatever it actually was to Couke.
2) Off the boat, they were asked for their name, and while they said something like Louk or Locke or Louche or Couche, it was taken down incorrectly as Couke (it seems a lot of things were done by ear then).

Whatever the case, a new family name was born.

John Couke
(ジョン　カウク)
john.couke@gmail.com

Mixing Responsibilities and Accomplishments in the Resume

This post is cross-posted in my new "Next Step Resumes" blog, that is focused on providing resume advice for people aiming for the next step (job or school) in their life.

I am often asked how to combine accomplishments with responsibilities in a well-organized and easy-to-read resume.

Accomplishments are the attention-grabbing and impactful things you have done. Describing your responsibilities, on the other hand, helps to make the nature and scope of your job clear. 

Describing Responsibility:

Let's use a management consulting position as an example. In this case, the job description is obvious, something like "provide management consulting to clients".  This information is not necessary on your resume.  But detailing the nature of clients, for instance, could be more useful, and add a new layer of detail: "responsible for planning strategy for automotive supply companies; specialize in cross-border acquisition cases".  In this case, the explanation of the responsibility that comes with this particular job serves to add detail and focus. So, thus far we have this information ready for the resume:

Management ConsultantResponsible for planning strategy for domestic heavy equipment and automotive manufacturers; specialize in cross-border acquisition cases

Describing an Accomplishment:

This is the core of your resume.  In any job, you want to show the key accomplishments you have had that impacted your customers and organization.  This is the best way for you to represent what you have done, and provides the most effective basis for the reader of your resume to assess your career. Using the same management consulting example, our consultant may have helped a client purchase an overseas parts supplier:  "Led multinational team of 4 completing due diligence on target as key part of US$35M purchase of French automotive parts supplier". This would give us this:

Management Consultant

Responsible for planning strategy for domestic heavy equipment and automotive manufacturers; specialize in cross-border acquisition cases

• Led multinational team of 4 completing due diligence on target as key part of US$35M purchase of French automotive parts supplier

The completed example leads with a title, and then offers a description (i.e. job responsibility) and then has accomplishments as bullet points.  This is one effective way to include both types of information on the resume.

Questions:

1) Doesn't listing both responsibilities and accomplishments create too much overlap between the two?

Answer: It is natural for there to be some overlap, as your responsibilities should be connected to your accomplishments in some way. If you feel that the responsibility line is totally and completely redundant, obviously you can remove it, and just focus on the accomplishments.

2) Won't this method take up a lot of space on the resume?

Answer: It is most effective to list responsibility for recent positions, positions where the responsibility is important detail, or for positions in which the nature of the work may be unclear.  I'd recommend not listing detailed responsibility for older positions, especially starting positions.  If you were a "Junior Marketing Analyst" 5 or 6 years ago, for instance, I think the responsibility description would be less necessary, although the accomplishments would still be important.

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com

Harvard MBA Admissions Director Clarifies the Post-Interview Reflection Essay

In a recent posting to her blog, Dee Leopold, the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Harvard Business School, has offered clarification as to the new post-interview reflection exercise that will be required of all students shortly after completing their interview.

She notes that the question will be, "You've just had your HBS interview. Tell us about it. How well did we get to know you?"  and that no word limit will be placed on the response. In addition, she states that her admissions team will not be strict on grammar, typos, etc, as this is an exercise in "real-world" writing, rather than essays, which can often be over-prepared.

Read more here.


I've written before on how an applicant feels a natural inclination after completing an interview to reach out to their interviewer and attempt to relive the whole thing, correct mistakes and give themselves a second chance to answer questions. This post-interview reflection is, simply, a chance to a) emphasize 1-2 key elements about yourself you feel you got across well, and b) introduce 1-2 key messages you feel you didn't have the chance to emphasize, but that are important to you.


John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

INSEAD Deadlines for January 2014 Intake

Here are the application deadlines for the January 2014 intake at INSEAD:


Round 1:

Deadline - 4/3/2013
Interview Notification - 5/17/2013
Decision - 6/28/2013

Round 2:

Deadline - 6/12/2013
Interview Notification - 7/19/2013
Decision - 9/6/2013


Round 3:

Deadline - 8/7/2013
Interview Notification - 9/13/2013
Decision - 10/25/2013

Completed applications are due by 11:59pm (23:59) Central European Time on the day of the deadline.

Be sure to confirm all deadlines at INSEAD's official admissions site.  Other deadlines, including the deadline for applying to the program starting in the fall of 2013, and are available here.  

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com