Cornell Johnson MBA Program Changes its Core Curriculum

The Cornell Johnson MBA program will be updating their curriculum to tailor its education towards building leadership skills, and with a second goal of greater alignment with the recruitment process. Read on here for details.

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

Research MBA Programs using my Social Bookmarks

It is important that you, the MBA applicant, intensively research your MBA options prior to submitting the application to ensure you are applying to those programs that fit your needs and goals best.

Towards this, let my collection of bookmarks help!

I have spent years reading up on and researching business schools around the world. When I come across some new information about a particular course or new process in the admissions committee, I categorize that information using tags so that I (and you!) can easily locate the information. I do this using the social bookmarking system provided by delicious.com. There's a lot there, so below are some examples of how to navigate this site.

Examples:

http://www.delicious/com/johncouke/MBA

This will give you a list of 6,000+ articles tagged with "MBA". That's too much - I know. So narrow it down a bit.

http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,admissions

This is a list of articles I have tagged with both "MBA" and "admissions", and so it is a list of resources focused on admissions.

http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,admissions,interview

These links target the interview process for b-schools.

You can also search for topics like these:

http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,fit
http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,culture
http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,curriculum
http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,essays

..and of course you can search by specific schools:

http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,Harvard
http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,Stanford
http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,Booth
http://www.delicious.com/johncouke/MBA,Kellogg

Look around, and if you like start from the main page and drill down from there:

http://www.delicious.com/johncouke

NOTE: sometimes pages load a bit slowly..  if this happens don't worry, just refresh the page and it should come up.

Hope my own passion for researching MBA programs helps you learn more about your target programs, and/or find the right match for you.

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

Choosing an MBA Admissions Counselor

These days, more than ever, you have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing an MBA admissions counselor.  There are a lot of things to consider, not the least of which include the location and/or flexibility of the counseling service, and the availability of the counselor him/herself.  You want to make sure your partner throughout this process will answer your questions in a timely way and generally be available to you!

A bigger thing to keep in mind though is the feel you have when communicating with a potential counselor - is this someone I can work with? Will I respect what they have to say?  Do they seem to be listening to me? Do they understand what I want to accomplish and why? I think that clients, and often counselors themselves, are interested in the sense of "fit" they feel with each other, as the applications they are discussing together are of great importance and clarity and focus are needed to be successful.

However, beyond the flexibility of the scheduling, and beyond the comfort level you have with a prospective counselor, one thing stands above everything else.

Has your prospective counselor helped people gain admission to your top choice program(s) before? 

If they have, great. Ask questions. What years, and how many people? Ask them if there may be anything different about your situation (note: there definitely will be).

If they haven't, then naturally you are accepting some degree of risk if you elect to work with them.  This, to me, is simple common sense. What have they done? If you are aiming for a particular top MBA and they have a lot of experience with other top programs, then this could be alright. But what if they have little or no experience helping people get into MBA programs at all?  Maybe in such a case their selling points include transferable skills that they feel will help you with your application, such as their own admissions experience or their communication skills gained from a different kind of job. This may work or it may not, and the risk you assume is based on the idea that they will be able to figure things out and adapt well to this new situation as you work on your applications.

The key here is to look around, and talk directly to those potential counselors about their experience and your needs. Choose the one that offers the best fit for you, and don't settle at any stage of the process. This may take a bit of time - but in the end it will be worth it.

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com

MBA essay goals

My goal in 2014 is to provide a lot of (hopefully) useful information for MBA applicants. I am kicking this off this year with the write-up below about goals. This is because at the brainstorming stage of essays, people start to address basic questions such as "why do I need an MBA?", "what relevant skills do I have for this?" and "what schools might fit me best?". All of these questions need to be answered right alongside "what is it I want to do in the future." After all, it is your goals that are driving the process here - if you know what you want to do in the future, then you can figure out what skills you already have that will be useful, what you need to learn to get there, and which schools are best at providing those things to you. So, when developing your own goals, consider the criteria listed here as starting points.


Good MBA Essay goals:

are a logical progression of your experience and the MBA

The short-term goal should be relevant to both your experience and the MBA you'll get.  At the same time, any mid-term or long-term goals should be well-thought out and connected to the achievement of the short-term goals.

show you at your best

What is your potential, given your current level of experience and the MBA to which you are applying? This should be seen through your goals. If you can and want to position yourself to be running a company that is changing the world, then this should be in your goals.

confirm your passion

What kind of impact are you really passionate about having on the world? Where does that passion come from? The answers to these questions should be apparent in a well-crafted goals essay. 

are easy to explain/understand and therefore grasp

You don't want to have to spend 2 pages or 5 minutes detailing what your goals mean, or why they are important.  Good goals should be clear and impressive.

are strategic

This is perhaps the most important thing to remember. The goals you put in your application are not a promise, nor are they your father's wish or the instructions from your boss. They are instead a portrait of your potential, an advertisement of what you are positioning yourself to become, an introduction to who you are now and will be in the future that puts you in the best possible light and maximizes your chances of getting admitted to a top MBA program.

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com

Nakoo and Epsilon Big Data Writing Challenge

I recently joined Nakoo.org as a volunteer consultant for those looking for alternative funding options to get them through school. The message below is from Nakoo, and introduces a scholarship opportunity for students with an interest in big data.



Do you know big data changed Google’s hiring process? Following the trend other companies have changed their job candidate screening process too.  So, it's time for academia to innovate scholarships offering process and keep up with the recruitment process. An action research on higher education started at Harvard, turned into an organization - Nakoo.org have teamed with a global marketing company Epsilon [http://www.epsilon.com ], to discover next generation talent, specifically those students who are interested in the potential of big data and are looking for unique opportunities to use it in the work place.  

This scholarship opportunity is unique because it is not only about winning a monetary reward but also about making a connection to a billion-dollar company for job recruitment—career guidance and insights first hand from Epsilon human resources and recruitment managers. The non-monetary reward that Epsilon is offering for Nakoo scholars is priceless. 

To see the details about the scholarship please click here.

The question/prompt:

How does big data affect your student life? 

Students are asked to complete submit a one-minute video or a 300-word essay to answer the questions.

The details: The deadline is April 15, 2014 and Epsilon will pay out the following prizes to the top winners: 

* 1st place: $1000.00 + virtual meeting with Epsilon HR and or University Recruitment Officer 
* 2nd place: $650.00 + virtual meeting with Epsilon HR or University Recruitment Officer
* 3rd place: $350.00 + virtual meeting with Epsilon HR or University Recruitment Officer 
* top 10 applicants virtual meeting with Epsilon HR or University Recruitment Officer
* everyone will benefit from being discovered by other employers who are  joining Nakoo.org's employer network

Our motivated team of young academics here at Nakoo is working hard to find solutions to the ever increasing costs of higher education for deserving students. We joined the moment of 'Higher Ed not Debt'.   

What is Nakoo.org?

Nakoo.org is a social enterprise that is helping companies to discover talents and helping universities to curate their aspiring scholars.  The organization is run by academics and professionals who graduated from Harvard, Cambridge, Johns Hopkins and Columbia.  Nakoo is paving the way as a novel social venture that provides alternative funding mechanisms and job placement opportunities that otherwise did not exist even a year ago. Forbes magazine featured Nakoo already and you can fine more details about us on the Nakoo website .

Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, comments, or requests for more information: admin@nakoo.org or nazia@nakoo.org. 

Thank you and good luck! 

The Nakoo Team

MBA Resume Workshop in Tokyo on Saturday April 5, 2014

I am passionate about sharing MBA admissions related strategies and advice, and as such I will be hosting a workshop on building a strong resume as a component of your MBA application.

The workshop will be held at E4TG from 14:00 to 16:00 on Saturday April 5th, 2014. The venue is near Tokyo station and the event will be conducted in English. It is designed for a small group of MBA applicants and there will be time for interaction and questions.

The cost for attending this session is 2,000 yen payable in advance.  This is a worthwhile investment - after the application process, the resume will be a useful document that you'll continue to add to and revise during and even after the MBA experience.

Email me to sign up and I'll send more details including the address. Otherwise if you have questions let me know.

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

MBA Admissions Survey for those targeting 2014 entry (participate for the chance to win $500!)

I enjoy sharing admissions-related information here on my blog. Now, I have a favor to ask of you, my readers in Japan and all over the world. I'd like you to spare a few minutes of your time to fill out an MBA admissions survey. If you have been admitted to or are applying to MBA programs with a 2014 start date, then this survey is for you.

We will share anonymous data with admissions offices from top programs. This is the chance to make your voice heard!

As a member of AIGAC, the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, I am highly motivated to get as many of you as possible to complete this survey.

I would love to have you complete this survey. Can you help? If you can, you'll be eligible to enter a drawing for a $500 cash payment (sent via PayPal). Your email address would be used only for prize notifications.

This survey should take only 10-15 minutes to complete and can be accessed by clicking this link or pasting it into your browser:

https://huron.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_5avUSpmdneTZakt&RID=MLRP_dj4gyokWqy9JX3n

Here's what we will do with the information you provide: In May 2014, we will hold our annual AIGAC conference in New York. While there, we will present anonymous data about MBA applicants to many top MBA programs. That data will come from these surveys, and we need a lot of responses to make the data useful. In doing so AIGAC helps the MBA programs, which leads them to like admissions consultants more and give us better information and access, which in turn helps us better serve our clients. If you are curious, you can read more about our survey here:

http://aigac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/AIGAC-2013-Prospect-Survey-Report-6-12-13-presentation.pdf

I truly appreciate your taking this time to read this message and help us improve the MBA admissions process.

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com