88 Great MBA Application Tips & Strategies to Get You into a Top Business School

Rating:
Summary: "Pleasantly Surprised"
Review: Before I got this book, I perused several other books on the MBA application process such as the Princeton Review's Book of Business Schools, the ABC's of Getting the MBA Admission Edge, and How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs. The best book, comparatively, was this book, "88 Great Tips". It helped me the most in my application process, and the tips I gleaned helped me to get into my top choice business school.

Rating:
Summary: Mona, My Top Choice
Review: Before I got this book, I was freaking out over how to write my essay. I think the difference for me was modeling a few great sentences for each essay package. I also relied on the discussions of extracurricular presentations because my weakness was lacking this element. The book talks about how to address this area if you have a hole in your application. These tips I gleaned helped me to get into my top choice business school. Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: This Book Deserves Six Stars
Review: For those serious about getting into a top MBA program, this book is GOLD.

This writer provides terrific information and treats the reader as a partner. Most books of this type are so general that the practical utility is lessened. In this book, the topics that count are all there, and handled with detail and in many cases brilliantly. The writer uses humor to help you remember his points. An example from the chapter on resumes: "You know your resume is ready when your mother looks at it and can't recognize who it is." Buy this book and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but it's the best out there
Review: I think it would be impossible to find a book about the MBA admission process that satisfies every single MBA candidate. Each candidate has his or her own strengths. Maybe, you are good in math, or have a superb writing. Furthermore, maybe you know someone, an MBA student or graduate, who has already provided you with important insights. But stop for a moment, think about the hundreds of candidates, especially international, who are not as lucky as you are, and who don't have access to valuable MBA admission insights. Do you think they are less capable ? Do you think it would be fair to compete with them for a seat at Wharton or any other top school ?

This book is the best single MBA admission resource available for ALL MBA candidates in the world. Mr Royal will make the MBA admission process a fair game.

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but it's the best out there
Review: I've read this book and the previous version. While none of the advice is wrong or bad, I didn't feel like any of it was earth-shattering, either. Most of what's in here is common sense to someone who has a decent shot of getting into a top business school. It's a catchy title, and you may pick up a few tidibits, but I've found other books to be more useful. Also, this version is longer than the previous one, but the additional content doesn't seem to justify the high price.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for mastering the B-School app process...
Review: Okay, here's the synopsis: I was fortunate to be accepted into the Kellogg Business School at Northwestern and earn my MBA there. It was during the B-school application process that I exhaustively studied the admissions "game" of the top schools, and learned that there are simple, but effective, steps you can take to dramatically improve your chance of acceptance.

In addition to purchasing some half dozen admissions books, I went to several b-school promotional seminars, a couple of MBA forums, numerous visits to MBA school websites, and informational interviews with alumni. So, for what it's worth, here is what I found on the book front.

I gave a five-star rating to "88 Great MBA Application Tips and Strategies" and found it to be the highest quality book in the market (notwithstanding a couple of books I might have missed). Probably what made the book a genuine pleasure is that it is so condensed. The author avoids the hyped-up writing style that shrouds most other books. A good example occurs in Chapter 2, Frequently Asked Questions, when he answers the question: "Is it better to apply early rather than late?" He states that, in general, earlier is better but says that it is not categorically correct to say "early is better than later". This is due to three different theories relating to the potential advantages and disadvantages of each of the three rounds. The advantage of round #1 is "vacancy" theory (lots of spots); the disadvantage of round #1 is "eager beaver" theory (i.e., strongest candidates may apply early). The advantage of round #2 is "middle-of-the-road" (i.e., it's not round 1 or round 3). Round #3 may be advantageous due to "theory of the diverse candidate" (i.e., truly diverse candidates may be favored in round 3 best because ad com members look most strongly here at tweaking diversity) but obviously this round is disadvantageous because of the "vacancy" theory (i.e., many/most spots are gone).

This is only one of many examples of crisp writing. Also, the book contains the best overall sample essays including some truly cool, longer, meaner sample essays written by determined candidates.

One of the books I purchased was "ABC of Getting the MBA Admissions Edge" written by Matt Symonds, as it appears to be one of the better selling books on Amazon.com. Many reviewers of this book said things like "five stars...it helped me with the application process." This struck me as a bit odd because any book will obviously help too some extent but the real question is, "how much did it help me relative to other books?" Isn't this what happens when applying to business school? We get accepted or rejected depending on how compelling our background and application is compared with those of others.

So, in terms of direct MBA application help, I give a 5.0 rating to "88 Great MBA Applications Tips and Strategies" while other comparable books receive scores of 4.0 or 3.0. Of course, it depends a little on what you're looking for. "ABC of Getting the MBA Admissions Edge" is a big book of some 600 pages. It contains a lot of general information, so if you're up on the curve, its benefits, frankly, will be diminished. Probably the most useful information in this book is the information about the schools and programs themselves. But then again, if you want to learn about the school themselves, then a great book is BusinessWeek's "The Best Business Schools" (8th edition). The "ABC book" is built around individual schools and its mantra is "figure out what the schools want and then target this." Initially this sounded like a stellar idea until I heard one admission director say that you should be leery about trying to presuppose what we (the school) want and then tailoring an application to our "strengths". She mentioned that "what the candidate might think is attractive to us might not be what we (schools) find attractive in a candidate".

"88 Great MBA Applications Tips and Strategies" describes itself as a pure application book and, although its appendix contains various useful contact information for all leading schools, I noticed it doesn't address information about programs themselves (e.g. what percent is female, international, what are some of the professors names, what the students, professors, or dean think). The book focuses steadfast on each of the seven MBA application components (GMAT, GPA, Resume, Letters of Recommendation, Essays, Extracurricular, and Interviews) with its mantra being "focus your 'career goals' essay and add creativity in your 'who are you' essays". Richard Montauk's "How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs" is also a fairly big book, approximating 500 pages. My overall criticism is that he doesn't have a real distinctive writing style and tends to waffle (he was a consultant in his former life!). Phil and Carol Carpenter's "Marketing Yourself to the Top Business Schools" is a nice little book with a clear writing style but it's outdated (the authors' claim it was one of the first of its kind in the mid 1990's) and the strategies and examples are not potent, particularly when put alongside "88 Great MBA Applications Tips and Strategies". Donald Asher's book entitled "Graduate Admissions Essays" is clearly written but includes only a few MBA admissions essays. Beware of buying books that try to cover all types of graduate admissions. As clearly brought home to me after studying "88 Great MBA Application Tips and Strategies", the writing of MBA essays is really a science all to its own. Hope this helps.

Rating:
Summary: Good Place to Start for B School Application Planning
Review: Overall, this book covers all the basics to getting into a top program. Many of these books cover the same content, but the format and the writing is very straight-foward. I recommend it for people who have time constraints. A few tips:

1) Submit applications to lesser schools first - It gives you practice writing your essays. (pg 11)

2) Build your application around a theme - Create a vivid and distinct picture of yourself. You want the application to be personal enough that the AdCom could even make a nickname for you. (pg 12)

3) When writing a "Why MBA" essay, think more in terms of what you can do with an MBA, rather than what an MBA can do for you. (pg 49)

4) For resume, quantify work-related accomplishments (pg 132)

** If you have the time, I would recommend "How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs" by Richard Montauk. It only costs $ and has over 50 sample essays (170 pages worth) from thiry different people. It shows how you can meld the different essays into a three-dimensional picture of who you are professionally, academically and personally.

Good luck, and hope you get into the B school you want!

Rating:
Summary: Do you want to be admitted by a top school?
Review: Then you must buy this book. This book is does not contain general information that you can find in school websites or online publications such as business weekly. It is designed for applicants who already know what schools they want. It focuses on the application process itself. For this reason, it is more concise and more thorough than other b-school books, despite it's small volume (250 pages).

I have also purchased "How to get into the top MBA programs" and "Your MBA Game Plan". While these other books are helpful, the "88 Tips" is better because it discusses several things that are not found in the other books:

First, a chpater on Resume or Employment Record. This chapter contains tips to fill out the Employment Record portion of the application. Believe me, there is much more to it than just filling in the blanks. Here is one tip from the book: "Add 'employment summaries' to explain what you found significant about each of your work experiences." By adding just a few sentence of summary, you significantly enhances your record.

Second, a chapter on "Presenting you extracurricular Activities/Awards and Recognition/Community Service". Again, it is not a simple matter of listing dates and the activities. You need to elaborate on what it means to you and what you learned.

Third, a chapter on the overall packaging of you MBA essays and application. The effort you put into your package is evident to the adComs, and it shows your seriousness. The quality of your packaging is extremely important. Read this chapter and find some tips.

Again, all these information are not found in any other books I bought. The other books are helpful, but this book is a must.


Rating:
Summary: You have better choices
Review: This book may help you to finetune your application. It was designed for Asian applicants but there are some good tips. I have used while preparing for Insead. Short to read (250 pages)vs the big ones that are above 600 pages ("How to get into top MBAs" and "ABC of getting the MBA Admissions Edge). Net, it is a quick and easy to start the process.