MBA Essay Strategy Rating Ebook

A Note From Walter Hutchinson What is Velociti ^TM? Why is it fundamental to our process and to your goals? Velociti ^TM is our standard for working with applicants around the world. It targets a combination of characteristics which have attracted admissions committees to my clients every year. Not coincidentally, acceleration and momentum are hallmarks of our advising process, because both increase odds of admissions success - making the name of the standard mission-appropriate. Whenever I personally vet someone who wants to become an MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor at ApplicationAdvantage, having a degree from a Top-10 school, admissions experience or exposure to a particular industry are minimal requirements. The example I set directly through this standard at ApplicationAdvantage is higher and more discerning, because most of my firm's clients are preparing for global careers that stretch them, requiring exceptional versatility, multicultural insight, creativity, courage of conviction, and leadership savvy. That's what our clients expect. That's what we deliver.
The Meaning of Velociti ^TM to You V - Values Our principle, your challenge: Influence by multicultural experience, diversity both globally and locally, an unusual background, generally exposure outside of one's comfort zone, and how the challenges you faced contributed to who you have become. Admission relevance: Every top MBA and Graduate professional program is interested in what values shape you and how you will apply them. Your MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor will guide you on how to effectively communicate your values to admissions committees. E - Engagement Our principle, your challenge: In a word: *gravitas. Personal and professional charisma in your country, culture of industry. The degree to which you impact other people. Do you attract through what you do as well as who you are? Admissions relevance:* Will classmates want to know you? Will they see your participation in the school program as an enhancement of the overall quality of their experience? You can be 100% certain that admissions committees will examine your application for answers! Your MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor will guide you on how to effectively communicate your engagement to admissions committees. L - Leadership Our principle, your challenge: Aspirational. Global. Sectoral. The qualities you possess for getting people to either share or follow your vision. Proof of success or compelling evidence of potential. Admissions relevance: Perhaps the Number One criterion admissions committees seek in candidates. No application to a top school can succeed without being absolutely convincing on this point. Leadership is one of the key qualities which your MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor will assist you in communicating to admissions committees. O - Originality Our principle, your challenge: What makes you YOU. Lingering influences of your current locale or place of origin. The things you cannot go without. Habits. Instinctual behavior. Patterns of thought. How those elements converge to forge your passions, delights, flaws and anything else that distinguishes you as an individual. Admissions relevance: Committees want original personalities that contribute to the diverse mosaic of a class' composition. If 15 strong applicants are in the same profession with similar leadership track records, their best hope for differentiation and admittance, is to express originality. Demonstrating your originality to admissions committees becomes much easier with help from your MBA Velociti ^TMAdvisor. C - Credibility Our principle, your challenge: Aspirations anchored by a clear path to achievement whether aimed at goals in your home country or on a larger scale. Vision with context. Dreams tethered to a roadmap that can be traced back to where you are professionally and personally at this moment. Admissions relevance: Can you actually go where you think you want to go? is it believable? Before committees begin to get excited about the prospect of admitting you, they will want reassurance that you are credible. Your MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor will guide you on how to effectively project credibility - a cornerstone of strategies for winning over admissions committees. I - Innovativeness Our principle, your challenge: Moving past the "thinking out of the box"-type of corporate clichés and their equivalent. Applied imagination, relative to the resources and opportunities both within and outside your reach. Admissions relevance: Committees care more about how you applied your imagination or filled a creative gap than about how you followed through on some task that seemed to be a predictable next step or obvious remedy. SPECIAL STRATEGIC SUGGESTION: If you have a short leadership track record but out-sized career goals, you will need to demonstrate innovativeness in order to prevent your application from suffering a credibility gap. Your MBA Velociti ^TMAdvisor provides invaluable feedback on the extent to which your innovativeness will distinguish you with admissions committees. T - Trust Our principle, your challenge: Prove that you are who you say you are. Demonstrate your claims through the way your thought process works. Establish how a pattern of behavior which benchmarks your character and convinces that you are authentic. But achieve those goals without appearing to disingenuously "put on a show" - which would instantly backfire. Admissions relevance: Committees will not admit you if they do not trust you - a candid, unspoken truth which underlies their encouragement for you to show civic, professional, ethical and personal leadership in your application. On this point, your essays truly become key players in the fate of your candidacy. Evoking trust in admissions committees begins with the advisory relationship you establish with your MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor. I - International Outlook Our principle, your challenge: If you have none, argue how you will acquire it. If you have it, argue where you will take it. Outlook is relative to your profession and goals, so you must strike the right balance while being sure to underscore how you will continue to enhance your own. Admissions relevance: No 21st Century career can go very far without international outlook. Committees are interested in people who aspire to influence as much as having the capacity to adapt. Will you thrive in a class represented by more than 50 nationalities? Are you prepared to leverage that international diversity in your career and make it a positive aspect of your personal ethos? Your MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor is better-positioned personally and professionally than most people, to guide you on how to effectively project your international outlook to admissions committees. On a cumulative level, you will need to convey globally-oriented Values, Engagement, Leadership, Originality, Credibility, Innovativeness, Trust and International Outlook in order to strengthen your odds of being admitted to a top program. More than any other factor during your admissions season, your MBA Velociti ^TM Advisor will be an indispensable resource as you pursue the goal of persuading admissions committees that the sum of your profile far exceeds its parts.

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Admissions Strategy Ratings Guide for Business School Essays

Simulating the impact of various essay strategies on 18 admissions demographic groups. Providing an individual applicant a clearer, holistic view of how much their momentum will slow or quicken during the admissions process, relative to other competitors.

10 strategies along with at least 55 tips that help you to not only figure out which strategies work best, but more importantly, why and for whom (analysis of admissions demographic groups are included).

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Table of Contents

The Strategies

01. Using a famous quote to set the tone for an essay

02. Praising the school's reputation as a primary reason for applying

03. An attention-grabbing opening line

04. Using industry terms and acronyms to demonstrate expertise

05. Using titles such as PhD or Doctor to convey seasoning and maturity

06. Telling the committee about accomplishments

07. Showing what you learned from an experience

08. Wanting to launch a company or become a CEO

09. Discussing your weaknesses

10. Developing content over weeks and months versus days and hours

Important Questions Answered

How can I overcome a lower GMAT?

What can I do about an average class rank or GPA?

What advantages do I have as an international or global applicant?

If I am from an under-represented group, what are my options when choosing one strategy over another?

How does a liberal arts applicant match up against a technically-trained one?

Do I have more or fewer opportunities as a non-native English speaker?

When I begin constructing my profile, what steps can I take to compensate for weaknesses?

How will my chances be impacted by fewer years of work experience and under what conditions?

Can I get in if I have a non-business or not-for-profit background?

Is there any relative advantage to being from one regional as opposed to another?

How competitive does my work experience make me relative to the industry diversity represented by other applicants?

How the Essay Guide Helps You

The Guide assesses the effectiveness of strategic ideas that applicants like you have either used well, over-used or seldom implemented effectively.

All strategies are identified on an Effectiveness Scale that sets the tone for the analyses which accompany them.

Strategies are assigned numerical ratings that indicate not only why they may be wise (or unwise), but also how much they might impact your application.

Each strategy provides at least 11 types of distinct information to help reveal how you should proceed with building your admissions portfolio.

Customized demographic analysis helps you to gauge how a strategy relates to your background and experience.

Comparative analysis grids help you understand how your implementation of the strategy you are interested in, is likely to compare with a diverse range of competitors who an admissions committee will also be evaluating.

Each strategy comes with a desired impact context summary which sheds light on why you would consider using it.

Each strategy's rating explanation provides you insight into its likely impact.

A multi-year snapshot of the evolution of a strategy, gives you insight into how strong, stable or weak it has been over time.

A quick explanation of comparative analysis outliers (exceptions) help you understand where and why effectiveness diverges most sharply from the rating score, which could be critical information if aspects of your background or experience are among those outliers.

And last but not least, wildcard summaries provide you advice on what you can proactively do to alter the effectiveness score and scale assessments in your individual favor, to either turn strategic disadvantage into advantage, avoid tactical mistakes or capitalize further on your strengths.

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