How to Clearly Express an Accomplishment

Graduate programs, especially MBA programs value diversity of ideas and are extremely results-focused.  There is no one ‘right’ type of background for MBA programs - in order to create an optimal learning environment the admissions committee aims to fill the class with students from a wide range of industries and countries.  The admissions committee simply seeks students who are outstanding and the primary way applicants can to prove that they are outstanding is to provide clear explanations about some of their accomplishments.  Stories about key accomplishments will be first delivered in essays and eventually in the admissions interview.  

Many applicants struggle to identify and adequately explain their accomplishments.  In many cases, applicants have had an experience with a great result, such as completing a project that helped their company save US$250,000 per year - but they fail to help the reader deeply understand why this accomplishment should be viewed as impressive.  Other times, applicants fail to see that their stories could be viewed as impressive accomplishments, if explained in the right way.

Stories with an impressive result:  Achieving an impressive final result is obviously a great reason to tell a story but there should be much more substance to the story than the final result.  Providing an explanation of the challenges that you overcome to get to the result will give the reader some context into specific situation.  Explaining challenges faced can also allow the applicant to showcase the creative thinking and skills they applied to find a solution.  Most importantly, an explanation of challenges will heighten the drama in an essay and make the story more interesting - and more memorable in the mind of the reader.     

Stories without a really impressive result:  Even if a story does not have an amazing result (like helping your employer save US$250,000 in one year) it does not mean the story is not worth telling.  Sometimes the result of our actions cannot be easily quantified.  For example, perhaps you have had a volunteer experience teaching English to children and you created a unique learning method that the children really responded to and benefited from.  It might not be possible to quantify exactly how much their English improved, but as long as you can explain that you felt your idea had a positive impact on the children, the volunteer organization, or yourself then it could still be a great story.  Always look for ways to explain the impact on others, and also on yourself, such as something you learned or a skill (like leadership!) you improved.

By clearly presenting your accomplishments and the challenges you faced during the process you’ll be sure to help the admissions committee fully comprehend and value them.  Of course, if you are having trouble clearly expressing your key stories and accomplishments in your essays, using our Essay Analysis & Editing service would probably pay dividends for your business school applications.       

Selling Your Career Change to the Admissions Committee

As we noted in this past article, shifting functions or industries upon earning an MBA is very normal – ½ of an MBA class may be seeking a major career change.  Although this is common, a career changer faces the challenge of persuading the MBA admissions committee that they are not only a strong MBA candidate, but that they will be able to break into and succeed in their new field.

It’s no surprise that one of the most common questions we receive from our clients is how they can “sell” their career change aspirations to the admissions committee.  A good way to approach this issue is to think about it in terms of writing a standard cover letter when applying for a job.  An ineffective cover letter (or goal essay) might state that the person is interested in a job and then simply regurgitate basic information about their experience that can already be found in their resume.  An effective cover letter (or goal essay) would mention the job they are seeking and then draw connections between their past experiences and specific skills and how these could be applied to the new job & company. 

To summarize:

Ineffective cover letter = “I want x job and this is a basic summary of what I have done in the past.” 

Effective cover letter = “Here is why my past experiences and skills make me a good fit for x job.”

Now let’s think about the MBA goal essay like it is a cover letter.  After clearly explaining one’s future goal it would be important for a career changer to display the relevant skills and knowledge they have that would be transferrable to their new career.  If you are an engineer who wants to jump into consulting you should find ways to display that you have some of the teamwork, communication, logical reasoning and problem solving skills that are crucial for success in that industry.  And keep in mind that you don’t have to limit your explanations to skills that you have developed or experiences you have gained in a professional context.

Since not everything can be learned in business school it is up to you to persuade the admissions committee that you are a good fit for your new career even before the MBA program starts.  By approaching your MBA goal essay like a cover letter you might find it easier to tell a more compelling and interesting story about this new career that you are so excited about!

Tips for Getting an Outstanding Letter of Recommendation

We enjoy providing advice on this blog to assist potential applicants in their quest to gain acceptance to great graduate programs.  However, sometimes the best admissions advice comes directly from the universities themselves!  For example, the Graduate Student Recruitment Office at Purdue University recently sent out a helpful email about how to get a great letter of recommendation (LOR).

We often tell our clients that if they want to secure a great LOR, they should take a hands-on approach and support their recommendation provider as much as possible.  The information in italics below (written by personnel at Purdue University) supports this idea -- they give very clear advice about proactive steps an applicant might take:

Coach your recommendation providers. Try to select recommendation providers who can talk about various aspects of your potential and suggest to them what they could highlight. For example, a research advisor could talk about specific research skills while a professor could talk about your academic potential. This prevents you from having three generic recommendation letters. Most recommendation providers appreciate knowing what they should discuss in their letters.

Make the process as easy as possible. Provide your recommendation providers with:

•          a copy of your resume or curriculum vitae

•          a file that lists all of the institutions, program names, contact information, and application deadlines to which you are applying

•          a list of details they will need to answer specific questions about you

•          a friendly reminder of approaching deadlines

After reading this information one should clearly understand that it would be a mistake to simply hand the recommendation provider a form (or send them the recommendation system email) and send them off to write without any further discussion.  Professors teach hundreds of students and they get many LOR requests each year.  Therefore it is very difficult to expect them to: a) clearly remember everything you have done or every skill you have, and b) to spend a lot of time writing about these things.

The applicant who takes a passive approach will more likely have a generic LOR sent to the school by the provider.  And that won’t help your application very much will it?  Therefore we strongly advise that you get organized and plan a strategy far ahead.  If the recommendation is professional, analyze the LOR questions and then write down bullet points of projects you have worked on and the skills you have displayed at work that fit these questions. Then discuss your application strategy with the recommendation provider in depth.      

Here are a couple more pieces of advice regarding how to best manage the LOR process:

Give your recommender a clear timeline. Send the recommender a schedule with the schools you will apply to and the deadlines for each school.  Ask them to complete the LOR 4-6 weeks in advance.  If you feel they have forgotten you might send them a friendly reminder after two weeks, and one week in advance of the deadline.  It is always better to have everything finished earlier than later, so choose a deadline that helps everyone.

Remember to send a thank you note to all of your recommendation letter providers! A thank you letter gives you an open door to go back to them in the future with more personal updates and an excuse to stay in touch.  This isn’t the last time you’ll need your recommender’s help (probably) so be sure to maintain a positive relationship with them all throughout your graduate education. 

Application Strategy Review

Let’s review shall we?  At Transcend Admissions we are always immersed in admissions-related material so that we can have the most up to date knowledge on programs and applications strategies. We also make a point of reviewing all of the information that we think we know on a regular basis to ensure we are up to speed with what is important to our clients every single season.

In that spirit, we wanted to take a moment to create a summary that can link you to some important posts we have written in the past on application strategy. We often receive common questions from applicants and we believe that many of the blog posts below can answer those questions and help applicants start to plan their strategies. 

Undergraduate Application Strategy

Common Application Tips: The Activities Section

Common Application Tips: The Short Answer

Common Application Tips: The Personal Essay

Game Plan: Preparing to Apply

Game Plan: Details & Links for Application

Game Plan: Essay Questions

Please Follow the Word Limit!

Overcoming a Low GPA

Five Things Taiwanese Undergraduate Applicants Should Keep in Mind

When Grades and Test Scores are Similar, How Do Admissions Officers Choose?

Graduate Application Strategy

Should I Apply for MBA in the Early Decision Round?

Please Follow the Word Limit!

Guidance for Younger MBA Applicants

Advice for Career MBA Switchers

Should I Take a Break to Prepare for the GMAT?

Overcoming a Low GPA

Choosing Between a 1 and 2 Year MBA Program

Avoiding Common Resume Problems

Deliver Your Core Message

When Grades and Test Scores are Similar, How Do Admissions Officers Choose?

If you’re thinking about applying for an undergrad degree, an MBA, for Law School, or a graduate degree after this summer – you need to be thinking about all of this information now so you can lay your plan before the deadlines arrive.

If you know someone applying to school and think they’d benefit from reading these articles, feel free to share this article with that person!

If you’d like help thinking through your own application strategy you are most welcome to contact me personally at david@transcendadmissions.com.

When Grades & Test Scores are Similar, How do Admissions Officers Choose?

Let’s examine a hypothetical situation. Two students from Taiwan are applying to master’s programs in the United States: Terry, and Sharon. Terry and Sharon both went to National Taiwan University and achieved high grades throughout their undergraduate careers. They have both volunteered at the community service organizations and studied abroad at good universities in the United States.

Here’s a breakdown of Terry and Sharon’s grades, and scores.

Terry

GPA: 3.7

GMAT: 710

TOEFL: 103

Sharon

GPA: 3.58

GMAT: 730

TOEFL: 101

If Terry and Sharon, who are so similar on paper, are applying to the same school, how will the admissions officers decide between them?

Making the Decision

Admissions officers have a very difficult task. They need to understand the kind of person both Sharon, and Terry are by looking at their applications. Admissions officers have to inspect thousands applications every year and it is your job as the applicant to communicate the type of person you are as effectively as possible so that you stand out and make their decision easier.

Your Motivations

Admissions officers want to understand what motivates you. Why do you want to get a graduate degree, and will it really help you achieve your career goals? What drives you to get out of bed in the morning, and what would you spend your time doing for free on the weekends and late into the evenings? What passion do you bring to the master’s program? If Sharon seems more passionate and motivated than Terry, that will be a point in Sharon’s favor.

Your Character

Admissions officers need to understand how you make decisions, and that you have high ethical standards. If Sharon writes about how she faced an ethical dilemma and made a difficult choice that cost her in the short-term but clearly explains that maintaining her integrity is most important to her, she will have painted a very attractive picture in the minds of the admissions officers. Admissions people need to see that you have a long-view of ethics, and that you will consistently make good decisions which will benefit their University brand, and the companies you work with down the road.

How Do You Work in Teams?

Master’s programs involve lots of group work and projects. You want to be mindful to structure your application to emphasize that you work well individually, but also in group settings. If Sharon somehow gives the impression that she prefers to work independently and Terry talks about a time where he led a group to success by listening to everyone’s input and helping the group make an informed decision - that will be a point in Terry’s favor. It is really important to emphasize your respect for the group process, and ideally communicate to admissions officers that you are a leader who works well with and brings out the best in your teammates.

Conclusion

Admissions officers need to understand your uniqueness and core values so that when they make a decision, they will have a compelling reason to choose you, instead of Terry or Sharon or thousands of other qualified applicants. In order to help the admissions officers get to know you, focus on communicating your passions, motivations, character, and attitude towards teamwork.

If you’d like to read more freely available content with strategies to optimize your graduate school application, please refer to other articles in this admissions blog. If you’d like more personalized attention and coaching through the application process, arguably one of the most important applications of your life, please feel free to reach out to me personally at david@transcendadmissions.com.

Deliver Your Core Message

Many admissions officials have agreed that about 80% of the applicant pool is fully qualified to do well in their programs.  But as we all know, the admission rate for most top MBA and other graduate school programs is quite low.  

Good academic performance and test scores are critical to gaining admission.  And beyond this, applicants with plenty of great professional and other (leadership and international) experiences have a big advantage in the graduate school application process.  The application essays are the key vehicle that applicants can use to deliver a powerful message about these experiences that can differentiate them from the other 80% of qualified applicants.  

However, many graduate school applicants that have abundant experiences and many skills struggle to use the essays to differentiate themselves.  Applicants often attempt to squeeze too many details about their experiences and explanations about all the incredible skills they have into a short essay.  The result can be a cluttered message: the person has mentioned so many things that it is hard to clearly understand their core value.

The purpose of this blog post is to encourage MBA and graduate school candidates to first carefully think about their core value (or value proposition) and then build the essays around that message.  Perhaps your core message is related to your international perspective, entrepreneurial mindset or ability think proactively and solve problems.  If so, find ways to weave these concepts into your essays by explaining how this mentality affected your past decisions and future plan.  

Graduate school programs definitely look for well-rounded students - but you don't need to convince the admissions committee that you are good at everything.  If the admissions committee can clearly understand your core value, they will more likely have a memorable impression of you.  A lot of people have a skill or knowledge area that they are particularly strong in or a personality trait that sets them apart.  First analyze what sets you apart and develop a core message. Then, instead of trying to persuade the admissions committee that you are good at everything, maximize your core message and subtly highlight your key experiences and stills related to it.  

To use an analogy from business, the clothing giant Ralph Lauren now has a prominent product line in almost every possible fashion category and distribution around the globe.  However, Ralph Lauren didn't become a global icon overnight – this brand had humble beginnings as a necktie producer.  The company’s exceptional necktie designs and elegant brand image allowed them to accumulate a dedicated customer base that eventually led to a partnership with a major department store and then rapid expansion from that point forward.  The bottom line is that Ralph Lauren was not a top designer in all product categories from the beginning; it all started with neckties and then everything was built from there.

Thus I challenge graduate school applicants to find their core value (their “necktie” so to speak), and then build their own “brand image” in the essays around those key selling points.  By taking this approach you will be able to deliver a memorable impression to the admissions committee, and increase your chances of acceptance.          

Avoiding Common Resume/CV Problems

Anyone who has heard me speak about graduate school applications knows that I put a lot of emphasis on creating a fantastic resume/CV.  The resume provides the first impression that the applicant will make on the admissions committee (or human resources personnel when applying for a job).   Thus the writer must seek to maximize the impact the resume will have on the reviewer.  With this in mind, here is a list of common mistakes that graduate school (and job) applicants should keep in mind when crafting their resumes:

Crowded Information - The reviewer might only spend 30 seconds reading your resume the first time.  And the first time might be the last time.  If the text is crowded and hard to read the reviewer might miss critical information.  If you are struggling to fit your resume into one page - it's time to find an editor!

Unappealing Formatting - You never get a second chance to make a first impression.  Unappealing, inconsistent or sloppy formatting makes a strong statement about your work quality and professionalism.  A sloppy resume infers that you would produce sloppy deliverables in the future.

A Simple List of Responsibilities - Perhaps the most common problem with resumes is that they often only contain a simple list of responsibilities.  It is necessary to briefly list your responsibilities, but it is more critical to point out what you have achieved.  The reviewer will want to understand not only what you were responsible for, but most importantly what you achieved when handling those tasks.

No Impact - Graduate school programs and employers are looking for individuals that have made a positive impact on the organizations they were part of.  If you made an impact in the past, you are likely to make an impact in the future.  Most resumes give no indication of the impact the person had during their experiences.  Find a way to show that you made a difference at your job or in other involvement.

Failure to Make Connections to the School/Employer - Most people use a "one size fits all" resume.  However, to achieve the best results the resume should be tailored to fit the target.  Analyze the graduate school program or employer and get a sense of the skills and types of experiences they value.  Then analyze your background and put extra emphasis on the skills and experiences that are a good match.  By doing this you will market yourself to the school/employer in the best possible way.

We hope this list of resume tips are helpful!  There are many more subtleties to creating an effective resume.  If you would like to ask resume-related questions or understand our resume editing services, feel free to contact us at david@transcendadmissions.com.



      

Waitlisted? - The Glass is Half-Full!

This is the time of year when we congratulate many successful MBA and graduate school applicants on receiving their acceptances.  This is also the time of year that many people receive an often somewhat unpleasant surprise - that they have been placed on the waitlist.

For many people who have been involved in the application process for many months being placed on the waitlist seems like a terrible thing as they will need to continue the agony of waiting indefinitely. While being placed on the waitlist is not the wonderful news many people are anxiously waiting to hear, there is still hope, and applicants are often admitted from the waitlist eventually.

Besides this past article we wrote about planning a waitlist strategy, the best advice we can give to those on the waitlist is to be optimistic and most importantly, be patient.  You should not be bothering the school's admissions committee once a week asking for updates.  While being patient is easier said than done, the best way is to distract yourself by working on a new project or focusing on making quick improvement to a test score.  The most important thing is to focus on continual improvement and becoming a stronger candidate.  This action might help you take the small step you need to gain admission in the short-term, or if you decide to apply again in the future.            

Good luck to all applicants on the waitlist!  And if you would like to discuss a specific waitlist strategy, feel free to reach out to us at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.

Smart Practice: Adapting Your Best Stories to Multiple Interview Questions (Part II)

In Part I of this series, we asked you to think about how to adapt one sample story to three distinct MBA interview questions. In Part II, we’re going to show you how to use almost exactly the same story to answer three different questions, just by tailoring the conclusion.

The three distinct MBA interview questions at hand are:

Question 1: Can You Tell Me About a Time You Demonstrated Leadership? Question 2: Can You Tell Me About a Time You Overcame a Challenge?           Question 3: Please Tell Me About a Time You Worked Well on a Team, and What You Learned.

Our sample answer without the conclusion was:

“Sure, that’s a really interesting question, Mr. Interviewer.
 The biggest challenge I’ve overcome was the time that I started a nonprofit in college to collect used musical instruments to donate to a needy school with gifted musical students and not enough musical instruments. I drove all over Taipei to collect the used musical instruments. I established a not for profit organization to make the donation legally, and also worked with my schoolmates to put on a charity concert where we raised enough money to buy a brand new Tuba – the most expensive musical instrument. This experience helped me to realize how valuable and rewarding it is to help people less fortunate than myself, and that I can be successful in leading my peers to have a positive impact on society.”

Sample Conclusion Question One: Leadership

This was a critical leadership experience and I learned a great deal about myself in the process. One important thing I learned was how to best interact with a team while trying to motivate them to do something they were not being paid to do. I realized that I prefer positive reinforcement to negative reinforcement, and prefer to include people in a team environment to motivate them to help each other rather than to demand they complete tasks. I believe that I can develop this positive style of leadership at your MBA program when I take _______ course on leadership, and intend to pay it forward by using my leadership skills to make an impact in more community activities during my MBA studies.

Sample Conclusion Question Two: Challenge

What surprised me is that the biggest challenge I faced in this entire experience had nothing to do with motivating people as a leader, or finding resources. The biggest challenge for me was in finding the inspiration and idea in the first place, and once I had that everything else naturally fell into place. I know that by attending your MBA program I’m pursuing the strongest passion I’ve ever had in my life. I truly believe that my life will fall into place after graduation, with some careful planning, just like my musical not for profit fell into place after I found the inspiration to start it.

Sample Conclusion Question Three: Teamwork

Achieving success in this project was truly a team effort. During the course of organizing the charity concert with my peers we met many times to discuss different ideas and how they could be effectively implemented to have the maximum impact on donations. I learned that people from backgrounds different than my own had unique insights to contribute that really helped us reach our goal, and that I enjoy the collaborative teamwork process a great deal. In fact, since then I have gone out of my way to volunteer for group projects at work because I feel that I’m not only helping the company meet its goals, but educating myself about how to interact with and learn from other people in the long run.

Conclusion

Notice how all three of these answers fit neatly into place at the end of our sample story? They build off of each other, and many of the conclusions continue to touch upon multiple points from the questions (leadership, teamwork, overcoming a challenge). Although your story will different, the principle behind these questions is similar.

When you practice for your interview, keep in mind that you will want to try to use your best stories. Thus, find a way to make your best stories fit multiple questions. Like these stories above, you'll find that many stories have elements of teamwork, leadership, overcoming challenges, etc., and that you can make slight adjustments to the stories to directly address the question. 

I hope this was helpful for those of you preparing for MBA interviews. If you have any additional questions about preparing for your MBA interviews, feel free to reach out to me, David, at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.

Smart Practice: Adapting Your Best Stories to Multiple Interview Questions (Part I)

There are hundreds of possible questions that the interviewer could ask you in your MBA interview.  But you only have a few days to prepare!  

Preparing for every possible interview question will take a huge amount of time and effort. You can save yourself time, and answer interview questions with more impact by speaking to the meaning behind the questions, and adapting the same story to multiple questions. That way, you will make sure that you can discuss your best story, no matter what question you are asked.

Let’s look at the meaning behind three different questions.

Question 1: Can You Tell Me About a Time You Demonstrated Leadership?

Question 2: Can You Tell Me About a Time You Overcame a Challenge?

Question 3: Please Tell Me About a Time You Worked Well on a Team, and What You Learned from Teamwork.

Although these questions are distinct, the meaning behind the questions are similar. These questions are all mechanisms that your interviewer is using to try to get inside of your head, figure out what type of a person you are, and how you make decisions under pressure. They are trying to evaluate your character, attitude, and ability to adapt to difficult situations.

Now, since the meaning behind the question is similar, we might be able to use the same story to answer all three questions. We just need to ensure it’s an answer which shows what type of person we are, how we make decisions, and then tailor the last part of the story to the question.

Sample Answer

“Sure, that’s a really interesting question, Mr. Interviewer.

"I started a nonprofit in college to collect used musical instruments to donate to a needy school with gifted musical students and not enough musical instruments. I had to drive all over Taipei to collect the used musical instruments. I had to establish a not for profit organization to make the donation legally, and also worked with my schoolmates to put on a charity concert where we raised enough money to buy a brand new tuba – the most expensive musical instrument. This experience was important to me because it helped me to realize how valuable and rewarding it is to help people less fortunate than myself, and that I can be successful in leading my peers to have a positive impact on society.”

At this point, the story above could answer any of the three questions we touched on. As you can see the story contains elements of leadership, elements of a challenge and elements of working on a team. Depending on which question was asked, the story could be adapted to focus more on teamwork, leadership or overcoming the challenge.  

Spend some time considering how you would change this answer to fit these questions. If you’re going to be preparing for an MBA interview yourself, the mental preparation and time you spend thinking about your answer will help you. In our next blog post we will show you precisely how we would customize an ending to this story for all three sample questions above.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about how best to prepare for your MBA interview or optimize your application, please feel free to reach out to me, David, at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.

Making Your Game Plan: Preparing to Apply to Multiple Undergraduate Programs (Part III)

This is the third, and last part in our three part series on making a game plan to apply to multiple undergraduate programs abroad as a high school junior, or senior in Taiwan. In Part III, we’re talking about why it’s so important to have all of your essay questions in one central place.

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Ok so you already know that you need to have your dates, details and links centralized in your “My Game Plan” document. You already know that you should have both a print, and an electronic version so that you can have your plan with you everywhere you go, in case you need to refer to it. But before you head down to the print shop, there’s one last, massively important section that you have to include in your Game Plan document. That section, of course – is essays.

Essay Questions

Essay questions are the most cumbersome part of any college application, regardless of whether you are a native English speaker, or not. At Transcend Admissions Consultants, we often advise that our clients make one master document with all of the essay questions from every single school they are applying to, like an "essay packet." This way, you can read all of the essay questions you need to answer in one place. You can see which essays you might be able to modify to suit other schools, without having to write an essay from scratch, and saving yourself time.

Here’s an important, time saving question: Do two of the schools you're applying for ask a very similar question, or have an open ended question? If you invest a lot of time into writing one extremely good essay that conveys your strengths and passions, you can modify it slightly to suit the values of those two schools. Where you might write "… for all of these reasons, School A is the perfect fit for my interests, and personal motivations to attend university in America," you can change "School A" to "School B" while keeping the majority of the essay unchanged.

This Essay Questions section includes Letters of Recommendation, personal statements, and any other long-form written content that you need to take control of. Do not, we repeat, do not forget about your Letters of Recommendation (LORs).

Get all of your essay questions in the last section of your Game Plan, and you will save yourself immense amounts of time and effort down the line, when your time would be put to better use writing essays and clicking “submit” on your finished applications.

Conclusion: What does your "My Game Plan" Document look like?

It contains the

- Dates

- Details & Links

- Essay Questions

Necessary for you to stay on top of all of the information you need to apply to your target schools. Have some fun with it! Customize it and personalize it with pictures and quotes that inspire you. Put in the logos and colors of each school that you like so that you feel connected to the schools and their values when you write your application and essays. You should have your “My Game Plan” document available on your computer, smart phone, tablet, and in print so you can carry it around with you in your backpack.

If you ever have any questions about how to tailor your “My Game Plan” document, or how to approach the application season for your target schools this year, feel free to reach out to me at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.