Business School

Improve Your Candidacy, Then Improve Your Application

stacy blackman July 29, 2010

For people applying to major business schools, October, November, and December will inevitably be months filled with typing, spell-checking, typing, editing, typing, proofreading…and then some more typing. But (depending on your deadline) July, August and even September can be very fruitful months both for your professional development and for improving your business school application – or, more precisely, for improving your business school candidacy. While many b-school aspirants see the spring and summer solely as a time to take a GMAT prep course, it can actually be the best time to begin planning for the application – and more importantly, to identify the elements of your candidacy that you wish to improve. Two easy ways to bolster your overall candidacy (before the final rush of the fall and winter when you are immersed in writing essays and compiling application materials) are to seek new responsibilities at work, and use travel to expand your personal and professional horizons. In the coming weeks we will tackle the many ways to bolster candidacy; below we discuss work and travel.

Seek Out New Responsibilities at Work

Applicants who take stock of their professional accomplishments in the months ahead of their application process may just end up seeing some holes. Scratch that: they will always see holes. Filling holes is what getting an MBA is all about. But we want to make sure we have demonstrated some skill and capability for growth in the areas we have targeted for our future careers. Sometimes, it makes sense to make progress in these areas before business school. Even just a couple of assignments in a new area can confirm that you are indeed interested and that you have the capacity to achieve at a high level in the future.

Travel

You’ve worked hard the last several years. You’re going to spend a ton of hours cooped up studying for that pesky GMAT, and in the fall you’re going to spend 50 to 100 hours in front of your computer writing and editing essays. You deserve a vacation. But instead of just making a quick jaunt to Vegas for golf and gambling, consider planning a vacation with a dual agenda of fun and personal enrichment. Injecting a bit of a learning agenda into your trip can expand your personal horizons, help more fully define your career objectives, and provide you more material for essays and interviews.

Founded in 2001, Stacy Blackman Consulting has helped thousands of MBA applicants gain admission to the most selective business schools in the world. The Stacy Blackman team, comprised of MBA graduates, former admissions officers and expert writers, editors and marketers, helps clients develop and implement a winning marketing strategy. Stacy Blackman clients have a significantly increased probability of admission to top schools and are frequent recipients of merit scholarships. The company is regularly featured in publications such as BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal and the Economist. Visit the Stacy Blackman blog for daily news updates and admissions tips, and check out the company’s e-publications for more in depth school by school guidance.

Joint Degrees

chase cairncross May 14, 2010

The time is now to start planning for a joint degree. Do not wait until you are halfway through business school to realize that your dream of working in medicine, public policy or even law is greater than your desire to use your MBA to become a consultant or banker. Knowing ahead of time allows you to plan properly and take advantage of any synergies or time savings.

If you are thinking about doing this you need to ask yourself the following questions:

Is it financially viable?

Unless money is no object this will at best cost you one more year of making zero income. Most joint degree programs which include an MBA can be thought of as adding one additional year onto the other program. For instance, law degrees typically take three years to complete, whereas a JD/MBA typically requires four years to complete.

Will the culture be right?

Having taken classes in multiple graduate programs I can attest to the fact that the culture is quite different. Law schools and medical schools tend to have younger students with less time devoted to networking than a typical business school. Public policy and Urban Planning schools might have students who have been out of undergrad for a longer period and who might be fully employed. These differences, good and bad, will take away from some of the features of business school.

Do I need both degrees?

Some people like to collect degrees or just hang out in academia. Without constraints it is not that bad of a gig, but most of us have to deal with reality. Think about what career you are seeking and if the additional degree is truly necessary or just something you would like to hang on your wall. If you want to be the corporate M&A guy at a law firm, then it might make sense, but on the flip side you might be the banker whose group makes him read every legal document it comes across.

Can I fulfill these interests with electives?

Most business schools are tied into universities that offer a slew of graduate degrees. Often these programs will allow a portion of your business school elective classes to be taken in other disciplines. I quenched my public policy interest by taking a couple of classes at that school and took a class at the film school just for fun. I doubt any of those classes will help my career, but they were a lot more interesting than another financial statement analysis class.

Can you get into both programs?

Depending on your schools of choice and your test scores you might not be able to get into both schools. For example, a certain Ivy League college might have an up and coming business school that you could easily get into but their law school might be ranked at the top.

Do you want to take another test?

Most graduate programs use the GRE as their admission test, while business schools use the GMAT, law schools use the LSAT and med schools use the MCAT. If you love studying for and taking these tests this won’t be a problem, but it will add to the cost and the time it takes. Some test sites allow access to both tests so check that out too.

I am sure there are more but that is a good start. If you still want to go for both, good for you and best of luck.

To JD or Not to JD: Should You Pursue a Joint Degree? Part II

andrea alexander May 6, 2010

Pursuing a joint JD/MBA might seem like a daunting prospect, since it entails a significant investment of your time and energy (not to mention your tuition dollars). But one of the benefits of an established joint degree program is that the law and business schools have already organized a curriculum that will maximize your chances for success. Max Kozinn, a current JD/MBA student at Michigan State University, was kind enough to answer some questions and share his JD/MBA experience with Beat the GMAT.

What motivated you to pursue a joint JD/MBA?

I came to law school knowing that the JD/MBA program was what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted a career in sports and entertainment, a very competitive industry and one in which business and legal skills are very crucial and beneficial. I figured it would open up a lot of doors for me in diversifying my background and making me stand out from the crowd.

Why did you choose MSU?

There were a number of reasons I chose MSU. But I knew that MSU not only had a great law school but a top ranked business school as well. Both schools have excellent career services offices and placement rates with companies and firms. Both schools have outstanding reputations both in Michigan and nationally and I knew that would help me if I wanted to either stay in Michigan or work in another part of the country, because both my degrees would stand out.

How has the joint degree improved your networking opportunities?

Tremendously. Not only have I expanded my network with students in the law school and business school, but also attending different law and business school events, I have met so many different representatives from companies and law firms all over the country. Both schools put on fantastic networking events, such as “meet the lawyer” events at law school, and the business school speaker series in the business school, that not only help me in learning about areas of law and business, but opportunities to network and get your name out there. In addition, whenever I meet a new potential employer, they are definitely impressed with the degree and the skill set, and the degree itself is a great talking point. Employers are very interested not only in why I am doing it, but also how the program works and what skills I am building on.

Compared to your business school colleagues, how do you feel about the workload that results from the joint degree?

Both schools require a lot of work, but that’s why I am doing graduate school, right? It is a great challenge. Particularly in the first years of each program when you are studying all law or all business, quite a bit of work is thrown your way (I did year 1 law, year 2 business, year 3 both, year 4 both). The interesting thing is the differences in how the work is done. In law school, most of the work is done individually and you are tested primarily once a semester for each class to determine final grades. Most of your work in law school is done outside the classroom, too. In business school, we are organized on teams, and there are a lot more team projects, papers, group work–most of the work is done in these settings. Also there is more in class time in business school. Overall, the workload has been great, though, because I have developed the skill set to work not only individually but also on a team, and that is something employers look for.

Have you had any conflicts between your law school obligations and your business school obligations?

Well as I said, I did year 1 law and year 2 business and my last two years I am doing both. Being in my 3rd year of the 4 year program, I have noticed only a few conflicts. Occasionally, at the business school my team wants to meet at a certain time to work on a project where I have to do something for law school at the same time, but as long as I use good time management it works out fine. Also being removed one year from law school to do business school, there is a readjustment in getting back into the law school swing in year 3, but that has not been a problem. I have also stayed close with the law school even while doing all business school my second year. I served on the executive board for the sports and entertainment law society to make sure I was still active in the law school. I also made time to see my friends from law school!

What impact has the joint degree had on your career prospects?

Huge! Not only was I able to land an awesome internship in sports with the Detroit Pistons, but I have also had numerous employers tell me that both my degrees will put me in a very good situation upon graduating in May 2011. Employers have told me numerous times they want someone who can think critically and analyze problems while at the same time understanding business decisions and applications. Both degrees provide those tools and complement each other in that regard. Also, the experience of working on teams in the MBA program as well as the individual grind of law school has diversified my skill set and helped make me even more employable. Being someone who wants to work in sports and entertainment, to have already broken into this very competitive industry with my internship and succeeded greatly in my work, I feel I am in a great position and I owe a lot of that to the dual degree program.

See part 1 of this series: To JD or Not to JD: Should You Pursue a Joint Degree? Part I

Study Groups

chase cairncross April 23, 2010

Almost every top business school embraces the concept of the study group. The study group is simultaneously one of the more frustrating and beneficial aspects of business. This theme runs throughout the entire business school process, even beginning with your application.

Application = Team Player: Business schools are looking for people who have illustrated an ability to work as part of a team. You can best highlight this in your essays. If one of your essays involves work, then stress how you worked within a team or helped to bring each team member’s talents to the forefront.

If you are lucky, you have an ever more compelling story of how you made it out of the jungle and will be appearing on the National Geographic show “I Shouldn’t be Alive” only by working together with the rest of the group. If you are a member of the rugby team that the movie Alive was about, you might want to leave out some details. Short of that, a sports team that you still play on or the one you played on in college also makes for a good point to squeeze in somewhere. However you choose to express your “teaminess”, somehow underscore your great ability to work with a team and when needed be a team leader.

MBA = Group Projects: Once you arrive at business school you will be placed into a study group. Assuming your school is similar to most they will take four or five people of very different backgrounds and make them work together for a quarter on many different subjects and tasks. If you approach this correctly and do not get one of the few people in the section that no one can stand, this can be a great experience. This group allows you to make connections with classmates that seemed a bridge to far in undergrad.

Once assigned a study group you need to get together quickly and determine everyone’s strengths, weaknesses, career goals (trust me this matters) and schedules. During first quarter almost everyone has the same class schedule, but if your study group has a new parent, a just out of undergrad student and an international student their after school and weekend plans might be very different. Carve out group meeting times that everyone can commit to and treat that time as if it is another class.

Each member’s career goals matter because recruiting and grades will have varying importance to fellow classmates. A banker or consultant aspirant will place a greater value on grades, whereas other students might be looking to get a “gentleman’s B.” If this is not addressed tensions will rise as everyone gets the same grade for each assignment.

You will end up being much closer to your first study group than any of the following groups you have during the two years you spend in business school so enjoy it.

Good luck!

Paying for Business School, Part 2

chase cairncross April 20, 2010

This is the second article on Paying for Business School (click here to read Part 1). Short of having a rich uncle that has dreamed of you getting your MBA for years and wants to pay for the whole thing, there are a couple of options for you to help ease the burden.

Loans: Student loans. Most MBA students who are not rich or on a full scholarship use this option. There is not much to say as it is really your only way to borrow money for living and tuition and the rules are changing for these loans as the Federal Government assumes a larger role. I do suggest that you read the loan terms carefully and become aware of your obligations and rights, as it will be a lot of money. If you are coming from overseas this process can be a lot more painful and the Feds will not be there to help you out.

I signed up for one that gave a discount on the interest rate if you signed up for direct withdrawal for a year after school. That’s not a bad deal and something that is not very hard to do, although I did feel a bit surprised when the first withdrawal took place a month earlier than anticipated. Also don’t forget that you can defer these loans if you, like many current graduates, cannot find employment right after school.

Taxes: Tax write-offs exist for both your tuition and the interest you pay on your loans. Ask your accountant to determine if you qualify for the tuition write-offs, but almost all of you will be able to write-off your interest.

Jobs: The final piece of advice is to find employment. There are two types of jobs one can get during business school and I suggest both of them. The obvious one is the summer internship, and even if you don’t go into banking or consulting gigs you can still make a decent amount of money for three months of work. Some even offer signing bonuses. Secondly, there are many teaching assistant jobs for students, which basically consist of grading exams and leading some study sessions. At least at my school they paid fairly well for not being very taxing. If you want one of these you need to both excel in the class and become friendly with the professor.

I was fortunate enough to land an Economics TA position and it helped me at least stop the hemorrhaging from my checking account for a couple of months.

That’s all the advice I have on this. It will be expensive any way you run the numbers, but if you do some of these things it will be slightly easier.

Good luck.

Paying for Business School (part 1):

chase cairncross April 12, 2010

We have already covered the NPV (Net Present Value) of business school, so if you have decided that it is in your interest to attend, how do you pay for it? Short of having a rich uncle that has dreamed of you getting your MBA for years and wants to pay for the whole thing, there are a couple of options for you to help ease the burden.

Save: The first of course is to save ahead of time and the best way to save is a tax free way. The option that I took advantage of is the 529 plan. Every state has different rules on this so please check, but you can open a college savings plans even for yourself. You will save on taxes and if you end up not going to school, you can always transfer the money, tax-free, to another 529 plan for your children or spouse. Your parents or even that rich Uncle can also set one up and if you end up not going, or even not using all of what they saved they too can transfer it to another person.

Clearly I did not save enough to cover the whole two years, but it felt good to spend tax free money from when I was actually making money during that long two year period of being without a paycheck.

In-state: The next step is only comes into play at certain state schools. The UC system offers great in-state deductions and if you are planning on going to UCLA Anderson, UC Berkeley’s Hass or any of the other UC schools you should establish residency as soon as possible. Even if you do not qualify for in-state rates in the first year, you can apply in the second year and save almost $10,000. The best way to establish residency is to open a local bank account, register to vote, get a driver’s license, register your car, get a summer internship in California and pay some taxes (which will happen if you get a summer internship). You will have to apply during the summer in between school years, but it is well worth the effort.

When I received the letter from the state of California I was more nervous opening it up than opening the acceptance letter. It felt like the lottery, and in many ways $10,000 difference really is.

Fellowships: The next step is to seek out scholarships or fellowships. Go onto the school’s website and view the list of fellowships and scholarships available. Sometimes they will be offered to you if you are a stand out applicant, but for some writing a letter or calling the school has paid off. If you believe you are uniquely qualified for one of them go for it. It does not hurt to ask, especially once you are been granted admission and before you have accepted.

If you are lucky enough to receive one of these make sure to find out of the person giving it is still alive. I almost lost mine for not writing him a thank you letter, because for some reason I assumed it was in honor of a person who had passed away and not a generous living breathing alum.

Core Class Success, Part 2

chase cairncross April 5, 2010

In part 1 of Core Class Success we covered Finance, Econ, Marketing and Accounting, in this section we will cover Operations, Organizational Behavior and Stats.

How does this operate?

Operations class will be one of the most interesting classes you take at business school, but you will find it difficult to apply most of what you learned in the real world. You will find it hard to apply because you will not often have the data required to make a proper calculation. If you want to get a jump start on what you will learn read the book The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. As far as business books go this one is mildly entertaining and will provide a great foundation for understanding most of the concepts covered in class. For a sneak peek at what you learn in this class, the next time you are waiting in a line start to think about which parts of the process you are waiting to go through could be changed to improve the total time and which ones, even if improved, would have no impact on total time. And of course why that is. If that does not interest you, try to figure out how many seats you would sell, on average, for a flight on a plane with 200 seats. If you knew that on average 4 people failed to show up would that change your answer? At what point would you start to discount the price?
What’s the probability I pass?

Stats class is a tricky class for most MBA students for a couple of reasons. First of all it falls under the umbrella of math or quantitative methods and thus most business school students, who are very capable and confident in math, feel like they should do well. What most people like about math however is not true in Stats. Math appeals to my brain and most MBA seekers because there is an answer and for the most part you can find it. You don’t have to put a range on it, or talk about it, or generalize; you do the work and find the answer. You either got it right or you got it wrong, black and white. Stats involves putting confidence intervals around approximations, rejecting null hypotheses, adjusting your Type I and Type II error rates and similar grayish results. For a sneak peek at stats, try to figure out the following odds (with a standard deck of cards). If you draw three cards from a deck of cards, what are the odds of pulling AT LEAST one ace.
Now I need to organize my behavior?

Organization behavior will be viewed by most of your classmates as best case an easy class and worst case a joke class. This is true in most respects, but most non-current alumni will say that looking back it is the class that they need to reference the most in their day to day tasks. They say this because they have advanced to the point where they manage people and managing people becomes an increasingly frustrating and time consuming portion of their day. The class itself covers human behavior in the work place, negotiations and conflict resolution. For an amusing sneak peek at the class try the following experiment. In a group with more than a handful of people offer to sell a $20 bill to the highest bidder with the condition that the second highest bidder also has to pay what they bid. So, if person A bids $5 and then person B bids $6 and there are no more bids then person A gives you $5 and receives nothing and person B gives you $6 and gets your $20. The final two bidders in my class were $121 and $120 for the $20. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but then you will find out nor do most human heuristics.
What is my strategy for passing this class?

In an attempt to tie it all together your Strategy or Policy class will be either your most valuable or most hated class. If you are going into consulting, pay attention in this class. You will most likely be challenged with a lot of case studies and looking for that “ah-ha’ moment when the analysis shines a bright light on the answer and you know your recommendation. You will cover entering markets, switching costs, Porter’s five forces, SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and be called on to use many of the tools you have previously learned. For a sneak peek at strategy, try to determine why cancellation fees on your cell phone bill and airline mileage accounts are the same type of business concept.

If you put in your time and understand that these concepts are new to a majority of your fellow classmates you will be just fine and proceed onto the elective classes. If you are struggling please ask for help from your professors and your study group. It is normal that most people who make it to graduate school have been high achievers their whole academic life, do not let pride stand in the way of passing a class and getting your MBA. Half an MBA is not worth a whole lot.

Read other articles in this series:

Core Class Success, Part 1

chase cairncross March 27, 2010

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Every MBA program will hit you with the same sampling of core subjects: Marketing, Finance, Stats, Economics, Accounting, Operations, Strategy and Organizational Behavior. The names might change slightly but in some form you will have to address each of these topics.

Marketing has math in it?

For a lot of people marketing and advertising are synonymous, but in practice they are not. Marketing branched off from economics and while it does examine advertising as a small component of an overall picture, you will not be working on story boards for ad campaigns. The marketing classes at business school will focus on the Four P’s (Product, Price, Place and Promotion), the three C’s (the corporation itself, the customer, and the competition) the Bass diffusion model and conjoint analysis. For a sneak peek at marketing, think about what the graph would look like (with time on the X-axis and users on the Y-axis) for a couple different products (microwaves, the internet and facebook maybe). Do some take longer to get popular? Do some depend on a minimum number of users to become viable and then surge in usage? Are there stages?

Will this help me Finance my education?

Finance is a key concept to understand during and after business school. Both corporate and market finance will be a major building block for a lot of your future classes as well as careers in finance, consulting, CPG or even start-ups. The major take away from corporate finance will be NPV calculations and a major concept of market finance will be the minimum variance portfolio. For a sneak peek at corporate finance check out my article on NPV analysis and for market finance try to think about investing in multiple stocks with different expected returns. If you set your goal, which you should, at getting the highest return for the lowest risk, how do you go about calculating that?

What is a debit and a credit?

This should be an easy class because it is basically addition and subtraction surrounded by a handful of new vocabulary words, but once the debits and credits start flying even Ivy League engineers get confused. This class starts with the basics of the three (or four) common financial reports: cash flow statement, balance statement and profit and loss statement (also shareholders equity statement). These are the reports you will see if you read any public company 10-K or 10-Q. It is vital that you graduate understanding the components of each. Much less important, but much more confusing is the debits and credits portion of this class. Accountants, because they don’t have a lot of excitement, created this system which in my opinion only serves to confuse the layman. For your accounting sneak peek, a debit transaction indicates an asset or an expense transaction, a credit indicates a transaction that will cause a liability or a gain. If that is confusing keep reading as a debit transaction can also be used to reduce a credit balance or increase a debit balance. A credit transaction can be used to decrease a debit balance or increase a credit balance. Just memorize it, take the test and forget it. Kind of like the GMAT.

What is the marginal cost of skipping this class?

Economics is the most theoretical of all the business school core classes in my opinion. That is not to suggest that the concepts you learn are not extremely valuable to both running and understanding businesses. This class will most likely cover consumer surplus, marginal revenue, cost and profit, minimum efficiency scales and general economic theories. If you want a sneak peek into the type of thinking you will do in this class the recent US health care rules are a great example. If you mandate that people cannot be denied coverage for insurance due to pre-existing conditions (in other words you control the price at which an insurance company can sell a product) what is the logical response of the companies in this market place? Secondly, if you also mandate that the consumer must purchase said product, how will this change incentives and supply?

MBA for Career Switching Part 4 (Final)

chase cairncross March 15, 2010

The summer internship is a big part in switching. Not only will you be able to decide if this is in fact an industry you would like to be in, it is a long-term job interview. If you like the job and you do well it in, your second year of business school could be a breeze if they make you an offer. If you find out that you love it but they don’t love you, then at least you are part of the way home and now have good experience. If you find out not only do they not want you, but you don’t want them, then you have a lot of work in front of you.

Lets deal with the latter two, as the former is pretty easy. If you love the field, but they do not offer you a job, you will find yourself in a large camp of fellow business school students. A lot of firms simply do not have the budget to make an offer at that time, so the key is to keep in touch with the firm and specifically a person who liked you there. Try to meet up with them throughout the second year to see if things have changed on the hiring front. Make sure you are LinkedIn with them and have them write a recommendation for you when you are still fresh in their memory.

The next step is to get back to the informational interview grind. Get back in touch with your solid contacts, let them know about your internship and get back into their minds. Secondly, don’t fret too much as there will be a lot of companies coming on campus and not getting an offer is not a scarlet letter that should cause problems for you.

If you realized during your internship that you do not really want to go into that field, you are both lucky and disadvantaged. On one hand you got paid for three months of work to save you from getting into a lifetime of something that does not interest you, but on the other hand you now are back at close to square one with less time on your hands. You need to really focus on developing a new list of alumni contacts to speak to and possibly push for an academic internship.

Either way stay involved in the community, because you never know what type of opportunities will arise by just speaking to classmates, professors or people in the field.

Finding your job will be a job and you need to treat it as such. Do not get bogged down looking to get all A’s and graduate owing Sallie Mae and without a job. Make sure you continue to prioritize your time in a way that allows you to take advantage of all of the help you will have during this time, because it will recede after you graduate.

To sum it all up, business school is basically about getting you a job and the resources and time are set up that way. Do yourself a favor and use these resources fully and find that job that just cost you a pretty penny.

See my other articles in this series:

MBA for Career Switching, Part III

chase cairncross March 8, 2010

The internship. After a couple months of developing a solid network of industry alums, recruiting season will kick off. If you are going for the big three banking, consulting or CPG this will be a very structured process and take place in January to February generally.

The internship is very important for a couple reasons. First of all it will be nice to make some money again after taking almost a year off, and secondly it will be your first chance to establish yourself in your new industry of choice. At this point classes need to go on the back burner, but you need to be honest with your study group about this and make up for it later when they are going through the same process.

Once again you need to be well prepared for these interviews. You need to do plenty of background research on the company, as well as be well versed in the details of your resume. Be prepared to answer questions on the size, profit margin and revenue on past companies. If you do not know it, have a reason in hand as to why you cannot provide that answer. If you are going into banking for example, you need to have clear logic as to why, other than the huge paychecks, you want to spend 20 plus hours a day working in excel. I do not have the answer for you, so you need to come up with that one on your own.

If you are trying to do something that is outside of the common business school internships (my congrats first of all), this is when all of those contacts you developed will really come in handy. Hopefully at this point you have cultivated at least a handful of good contacts from the many informational interviews you have had. These good contacts are the people you should be corresponding with periodically to let them know you are ramping up efforts to find an internship and would appreciate if they would keep their eyes open for an opportunity. If the career you want is really hard to get into and you have limited relevant experience, you might also want to take a more aggressive step of trying to set up an academic internship. These internships are easier to sell to companies and a great way to get your foot in the door, plus your resume does not need to state “unpaid” on it.

In the mean time continue to go to industry event nights, which should be hosted by the clubs you are in. At this point you should be starting to narrow down your career path, which should enable you to drop some of the clubs and focus your efforts on the others.

If your career path is really a difficult industry to get into you might need to continue your academic internship through the summer and hope that they take some pity on you and pay you for your efforts.

See my other articles in this series:

Business School

Improve Your Candidacy, Then Improve Your Application