The 2012 Best Book On Top Ten MBA Admissions (Harvard Business School, Wharton, Stanford GSB, Northwestern, & More)

By Kevin Gao

Our Elite MBA Insiders Share Their Secrets To Getting Into HBS, GSB, Wharton & More!

We know exactly how you feel. We've been through the grueling and stressful admissions process. As successful applicants to HBS, GSB, Wharton, and other top programs, we have the insider tips and strategies that take the guesswork out of MBA admissions.
Where you went to bschool will affect your entire career. A Wharton MBA can make the difference between earning 6 figures or staying in lower management limbo. If you're going to take 2 years off from work and spend $250,000 on your education, you'll want to get into schools like Wharton, Kellogg, and Booth. However, most of the admissions guides you'll find offer advice that's too general, outdated, and oftentimes completely ineffective.
Our strategies worked for us, and they'll definitely work for you. We each come from different educational backgrounds, so you can find specific stories and techniques that relate to you!
Read our book, implement the suggested steps, and HBS will be begging you to enroll.
HERE'S JUST A FEW OF THE THINGS YOU'LL LEARN!
-The 3 main strategies for exploiting the application rounds system
-How to hire the best MBA admissions consultants for cheap
-How campus visits at specific schools can increase your acceptance chances
-The 2 types of people you'll meet at business school, and how that affects where you go!
-3 questions you need to ask when considering dual degree programs like a JD/MBA or MD/MBA
-The 5 essay types that you'll want to master to get into HBS
-Specific test-taking strategies for getting an 800 on your GMAT
-The pros and cons of interviewing in-person versus on the phone
-3 specific steps for getting great recommendations letters

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING...

"I wish I'd had this book when I was applying to B-school. I would have gotten in everywhere... or at least I would have stressed a little less."
- An HBS Admit

"The The Best Book On Top Ten MBA Admissions shows that sometimes a simple piece of advice from someone who's been there makes the difference between getting in and getting rejected."
- A Wharton Alumni

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin Gao
• Release date: Jul 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465723451

Book preview

The Best Book On Top Ten MBA Admissions

Authors: Brian Nguyen, David Santos, Frank Tobler, James Hu, Jeffry Hu, Jessica Wang, Marquis Parker, Michael Medrano, and Steven Rao.

Published by Hyperink at Smashwords.

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Thanks for understanding. Good luck!

About the Authors

Brian is an incoming Wharton MBA student. He has worked in investment banking and the media industry.

David Santos was accepted to multiple Top 10 MBA programs, including Harvard Business School. He currently works in the high-tech industry.

Frank Tobler is a dual degree student at Stanford Law School and Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB).

James Hu is an MBA student at Harvard Business School. Prior to business school, he worked in management consulting. His undergraduate major was Electrical Engineering.

Jeffrey is a graduate of Harvard Business School. He grew up in China and migrated to the United States during middle school. For undergraduate school, Jeffrey attended Stanford University. After college Jeffrey worked both as a consultant and as a strategic planner for a real estate investment company in China before applying to HBS.

Jessica Wang is a first-year MBA student at Wharton. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she attended Stanford University, where she majored in Economics and minored in Psychology. Jessica began her career as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in the San Francisco office, where she worked on cases in a variety of industries, including biotechnology, utilities, consumer products, and private equity. Next, she worked at The Wall Street Journal as part of the Advertising Strategy & Operations Group, where she worked on driving advertising revenue through strategic initiatives and new product offerings. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, reading her Kindle, and watching bad reality TV.

Marquis Parker is a business strategist, coach, advisor, mentor, and award-winning blogger on topics of MBA student life and admissions, careers, and business concepts. Currently, Marquis is an Assistant Vice President of Global Strategy for a division of Aon Corporation, a $10B+ firm focused on risk management, reinsurance, and human capital advisory. Prior to joining Aon, Marquis developed his foundation of business, general management, and strategic skills through his work on critical issues in a range of industry and organizational contexts. After earning his MBA, Marquis worked for McKinsey & Company, the global management consultancy, as a Management Consultant in the firm’s Atlanta office. Following McKinsey, Marquis joined Waterstone Group Holdings, a Chicago-based strategic advisory and capital investment holding company

Marquis holds an A.B. in Computer Science from Princeton University, an M.B.A. and M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and a M.S. in Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia.

Reach out to him on Facebook and Twitter today!

Michael is an MBA student at the Booth School of Business. He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University. In the years after college, Michael started his own E-commerce store, worked at an investment firm, helped fundraise 50 million dollars for a startup called Spotrunner, and worked in online advertising for AT&T Interactive. At Chicago Booth, Michael plans on concentrating in entrepreneurship and marketing.

Steven is a Harvard graduate who was accepted into the HBS 2+2 MBA program. He currently works in the high-tech industry.

Top Ten MBA

I thought I had done well, but now I can look back and say I bombed it. I had no clue of how to actually interview and what an MBA interview is looking for.

Rules & Advice For MBA Applicants

By James Lipshaw

One of the questions that students thinking about applying to business school must absolutely ask themselves is, What would a business degree do for me? Students who cannot answer this question should think about pursuing work before they commit to spending two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on an MBA. Consult with real people in the industry, talk to your advisers, and see if you really need a business degree to get where you want to get in the world. If you’re in a technical industry and want to transition into business, then yes, getting an MBA is definitely a way to do it.

"At that point, I was had been working for 4 years. I knew if I stayed another year or two, I would be locked into being a tech lead. That was all I could see myself being when I looked four to six years into the future.

I didn’t feel that I had the confidence to chase my goals, so I drew a line in the sand. I told myself that I had to start looking at business schools, and I had to apply. I don’t even know if I was really ready when I applied. I just knew it was something I needed to do to move forward.

I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I guess I really didn’t know enough about the full scope of what I would get from an Ivy League business school. I did know it would teach me about business and allow me to press reboot and restart my career." –Marquis Parker

While some students coming out of their MBA program do head towards entrepreneurship, most use the recruiting and networking opportunities that present themselves to get a high paying job in consulting or finance. Graduates interested in starting their own company will often use the money they earn from working for two or three years as a corporate analyst to fund the costs of their own company until they can get an initial angel round. Most MBAs, though, want to begin moving up the corporate ladder to those partner and CEO positions at the top and with the top salaries.

"One of the main reasons people choose to go to business school is to find a job at a bank or a consulting firm or a big company. There are lots of opportunities to find this kind of position when attending a Top 10 Business school.If you are looking for something outside of these categories, you can always look on your own, You might choose to work for start-up or if there is a specific company you want to work for, you can pursue that independently. Of course, you could always start your own company, but that would be unusual for an MBA student." –Jessica Wang

Some business students enter business school expecting the next two years to be a vacation before their big start at McKinsey or some other large firm. While many students, especially those who have a large firm paying for their degree, can potentially coast through their classes, there are many opportunities for personal growth within these classes. Business schools are also looking to train the next generation of corporate leaders in ethics and corporate responsibilities to the general public beyond pure profit. Therefore, a high level of intellectual debate can take place within these classes.

"The last big surprise for me was that business school is much more touchy-feely than you would expect. It’s not so much really about the theory and the frameworks, though there’s a little bit of that. It’s a lot more of debating high level grey areas, like Should publicly traded companies disclose earnings every quarter? It seems like a mechanical topic but it gets kind of emotional, sometimes. We also have leadership class which asks you what you want out of life, and if you do the work it actually makes you reflect about yourself." –James Hu

MBAs are very useful for students who wish to rise rapidly within existing corporate structures. While many top executives do not have business degrees, for the most part these leaders came to prominence by starting their own companies or working in a new venture from the ground level up, and then potentially moving to a different CEO position once they gained some renown. A business degree is most useful if you’re looking to work your way up to partner or vice-president in a large, existing corporation rather than starting off as CEO of your own small company.

"After I had worked at Bain for a while, I took a job at the Wall Street Journal. I started out working in strategy and operations. I liked this position because it allowed me to use my consulting skills. At the Wall Street Journal, I was able to work on some high level projects and implement some actions at an operational level. I was able to see the impact of my work. This was quite different from my experience at Bain. After spending a year at the Wall Street Journal, I decided I wanted to work toward my MBA." –Jessica Wang

In this section, Top Ten MBA Admissions, you’ll learn the answers to questions you would never have considered asking about your potential MBA program, as well as some final advice for MBA candidates about their applications.

The Most Versatile Degree In The World

By Brian Nguyen

Of all of the professional degrees you can get, the MBA is the most adaptable.

I have a lot of work experience in investment banking and new media, and in both of those fields I noticed that nearly every one of my superiors had an MBA. Managers, directors, VPs, Chairmen, CEOs, and many other types of business leaders all had MBAs.

Regardless of what industry you’ll be working in, a large portion of the leadership will have business degrees from elite business schools. That’s no coincidence; a degree from Wharton will help you advance your career regardless of what field you’re working in.

When you have an MBA, people notice, so your bosses are going to promote you more quickly than a someone similar to you who doesn’t have your credentials. It really helps you accelerate your career.

If, instead, you want to switch careers, people will take you more seriously if you have a Wharton degree. They’ll know that you can pick up new skills and thrive in a new environment.

And those who want to start their own businesses will be able to use their connections with friends from business schools to help them raise money and attract key talent.

No matter where you want to go, your Wharton degree will help you get there.

Is Going to a Non-Top 10 Business School Worth It?

By Brian Nguyen

If you have extremely high ambitions and want to start the next world-changing business, then you shouldn’t settle for any business school but the best.

Otherwise, you can continue working, and you can gain skills and experience that way. After another year of acquiring new success stories in business, your application will be that much better.

If you’re less than 30 years old, there’s really no rush to go to business school. There’s always next year to try and get in.

When you finally do get into business school, you’ll have more industry experience to share with other people, and you’ll get more out of your interactions with other students because you’ll have a better overall grasp of the business process.

I got into Wharton during my first application attempt, but if I hadn’t gotten into a top school, I would have continued working and tried applying again another time.

The 3 Types of People Who Go to Business School

By Michael Medrano

There are three types of people who come to business school.

First, there are entrepreneurship people who have an idea. They have some type of experience. They’ve at least tried their idea out and had some type of entrepreneurial experience.

Second, there are the engineers. If you’re an engineer in business school, and you’re interested in entrepreneurship, you will have a lot of power, especially if you’re on the software side. You can handpick your team and people are going to be dying to work for you.

So for engineers, business school is a different type of beast. They have the most power.

I’ve found that, in terms of finding people to work with, most of the best people to network with already have ideas coming in to business school.

Especially in the first couple of months, when people are trying to find teams, there’s this weird dynamic where you meet other people who like you and want you to work with them, but they have their idea, and you have yours, and neither of you is willing to give up on their own idea to work on the other’s. So there’s a lot of mashing together of different ideas.

Third, there are consultants, and God bless them, but if you did two years of consulting, or if you’ve only had one job and it’s consulting, then unless you have deep industry knowledge, you don’t really add much value to startups.

And I know that consulting people are going to read this and get mad at me. I have nothing against consultants. Many of my friends work in the consulting industry. However, although I have found that they all really want to help, and they’re super bright people, it’s just hard to find a place for them on the team when you have only three or four people, many of whom are multi-competent.

If you’re running a startup, you might pick up a consultant to help you do some marketing, but it’s tough for them to strongly justify themselves as an asset to a startup, and I think those are the people most that really need to evaluate whether going to business school before getting more in-depth experience is a good idea.

Advice for Consultants Looking to Enter a Startup

If you’re coming straight through from a banking or consulting program, and you’re dead set on going into startups, I would really suggest trying to get a year or two of startup experience with a more maturish company to flesh out your skill sets and increase your competitiveness when applying to startups in the future.

And also those people don’t necessarily know if they’re even a good fit for startups. Startups offer an extremely different work experience that most likely doesn’t mesh with their traditional work backgrounds. So I would encourage those people to do some strong evaluation of themselves and see if working for a startup is something they really want to do.

Business School Locations & Job Hunting

By Michael Medrano

If you want to work in startups, Chicago is one of the best places to be.

There’s a great sense of intellectual vitality there. When I’m speaking with other people here, I don’t always have to explain what an advertising network is. That’s a huge plus for people working in specialized industries.

Now, if you wanted to work in Chicago, but you went to a school like Harvard Business School, you might have trouble breaking into the Chicago startup scene.

The Parable of the HBS Student

I ran into a friend from Harvard the other day. He’s from Chicago and wanted to work in Chicago. But because he went to HBS, he ended up having a really hard time finding good Chicago job positions.

He told me, If I had known what I know now, I would have just gone to Booth, because I knew I wanted to work in Chicago, and the Booth network there is just stronger.

Even a Harvard Business School guy wasn’t able to get around the regional hiring biases.

Basically, if you want to work in Silicon Valley, Boston, LA, Austin, or any other great startup hubs, you should go to business school in that location. If you do that, your school’s alumni network will help out a lot in your job searches.

3 Great Approaches to Getting a Startup Job as a Business School Student

By Michael Medrano

1. Starting With a Geographic Focus

Most people start their internship search with a geographic focus. The best place for you to concentrate your efforts is the area surrounding your school.

I applied to a Silicon Valley startup, so my Chicago Booth network wasn’t nearly as important as my Stanford undergrad network. Applying for a position in an area far from your school will always be at least somewhat more difficult than focusing nearby.

A lot of my friends at Chicago Booth were able to land internships at startup companies significantly before I was able to land my Silicon Valley internship. That’s because their local network is so powerful.

At your business school, you’ll also have access to a lot of companies who recruit students on-campus.

Personally, I find that the most truly exciting internship opportunities don’t come to you. You have to seek them out.

2. Finding Startups Through Investors

It is a venture capital firm’s job to know the details of new companies and whether they have potential.

If you have any contacts with any investors, you should be able to find people who can refer you to different notable startups. A lot of people I know were introduced to their companies through investors like Angel Investors or Venture Capital Investors.

3. Student Groups

Your business school, even your undergrad school, should have a different student groups dedicated to different business fields. There should be a high tech student group, a venture capital student group, an entrepreneurship group, and other useful business groups.

You can often find job listings compiled by your student group, which