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 MBA candidates do not thoroughly consider and revise their resumes for their applications, often dismissing this element because an existing version may already be saved on their computer. We strongly caution you not to underestimate the value of your resume—the admissions committees, in fact, review applicants’ resumes carefully, because they serve as a road map of each candidate’s career. Read more

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

This application season, the University of Virginia’s Darden School is maintaining its single essay question approach, though the content of the query has changed. The school has been known to later add a few—much shorter—prompts, however, so you will need to stay alert for those, in case Darden does so again this year. In the meantime, focus your efforts on the program’s primary essay question, which prods applicants to discuss a past situation in which their opinion on a matter was changed as a result of input from and interaction with others. At first glance, we assume that with this prompt, Darden’s admissions committee is hoping to gain insight into applicants’ capacity for self-assessment and their openness and responsiveness to other viewpoints. You have only 500 words with which to convey all this, so you will need to be simultaneously thorough and concise. We offer our Darden essay analysis to help you achieve this. Read more

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

At mbaMission, we strongly advise MBA candidates to start the application process early by using the months preceding the release of applications in June and July to get organized and to proactively take steps to competitively position themselves. Here we present a rough business school timeline for the entire MBA application cycle to help candidates better manage the process so that all opportunities are maximized. Read more

This September, we’ll be on the road with the QS MBA Tour! Together with dozens of business schools, we’ll be giving advice and providing you with all the info you’ll need on your MBA journey. The following post will give you more insight into the MBA Tour; we hope to see you in Washington DC, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco!

The QS MBA Tour winds throughout North and South America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, providing thousands of future MBAs with the chance to learn more about and network with their target business schools. The MBA Tour is a way for us at Manhattan Prep to meet prospective GMAT and GRE students looking to take the test(s) and get into b-school, and it’s a way for you to ask us anything about the GMAT, GRE, and our offerings while connecting with schools you’re interested in. Everybody wins! Read more

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

At mbaMission, we get many inquiries from MBA candidates who are curious about whether visiting your target business schools is really worth the time and cost and whether doing so will impress or influence the admissions committees. Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that visiting an MBA program has tremendous import beyond the formal admissions process—doing so is essentially a chance for you to give the school a thorough “test drive.” Imagine, for example, that you were considering buying a $250,000 to $500,000 home. You would certainly want to check it out in person before you signed the mortgage papers, right? You might turn the taps on and off, open and shut the doors and windows, take a walk around the perimeter, and chat with the neighbors. Given that your business school education will likely cost you somewhere in that dollar range—when you take into account tuition, living expenses, and the opportunity costs of leaving your job—you should put forth the same level of effort inspecting and evaluating the place that will be both your work and home for the next two years. Read more

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

These days, the applicant pools for the top MBA programs are overfull with talented and experienced investment bankers, consultants, and software engineers. As a result, they are considered “overrepresented” MBA candidates and may have a much harder time standing out from the crowd. However, if you fall into one of these groups, do not lose hope. Although you cannot alter your work history, you can change the way you present yourself and your candidacy to the admissions committees. We at mbaMission can offer a few suggestions for ways to ensure that your essays grab an admissions reader’s attention. Read more

Manhattan Prep and UCLA Anderson will be co-hosting upcoming MBA information events. We hope you’ll sign up to learn about the Anderson MBA program’s admissions process, student life, career options, and curriculum, directly from their admissions staff and esteemed alumni:

• New York Event – 8/23

• Boston Event – 9/12

Read more

London Business School will be hosting MBA information sessions with Manhattan Prep across different locations in the US during the upcoming months. We look forward to connecting with prospective students to answer any questions you have about pursuing your MBA outside of the US. As you start your research, you may be asking yourself how an MBA abroad is different from a domestic MBA. The information below should offer introductory insight into the unique benefits of London Business School as a global MBA programme. We look forward to continuing this conversation when we meet!

This article was written by Stephanie Thrane, London Business School’s Senior Manager of MBA Recruitment and Admissions.

One of the first things MBA candidates should ask themselves when considering business school in general is: “Where am I now? Where and who do I want to be? And what do I need to get there?” Read more

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

“What if I don’t know the answer to a question I’m asked?” This is probably the number-one anxiety among business school candidates facing an MBA interview. Thankfully, however, it is largely an unnecessary one, because your interviewer will always be asking questions about a topic you actually know very well—you!—not questions that require applied knowledge or research. So, in an MBA interview, you will not need to know how to calculate a discounted cash flow or express your opinion about the U.S. interest rate policy. Instead, you must be able to reflect on and discuss your life experiences, why you want an MBA, the value you can add to your target program and how you expect to engage with it, and your reasons for wanting to attend the specific school at which you are interviewing. Read more

Did you know that we offer an Executive Assessment Masterclass? In one weekend, we’ll give you the tools you’ll need to ace the EA and take your career to the next level.

At some point in their career, many professionals decide to pursue a business degree. And these aspiring candidates often wonder, “Would I be a better candidate for an Executive MBA or a traditional MBA?” You may be pondering this issue yourself as you try to make the right decision to advance your career. In this post, we present some of the fundamental differences between the EMBA and MBA to help you clarify your options. Read more