Velociti TM Advising - The Global Standard
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.
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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 TM Advisor.
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 TM Advisor 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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School Selection Part II : Refining the List - Insight, Action & Execution
A Global Admission Portfolio TM Solution by Walter Hutchinson
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"Fit" - more critical to your chances than superficial selection. For instance, if you do not know substantively why you want to attend a particular school, it becomes much harder to present a convincing argument to the admissions committee.
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INSIGHT
Applicants around the globe are in the unique position of being able to access tools which we developed specifically to help them with school selection, in conjunction with running feedback provided by an ApplicationAdvantage MBA Velociti TM Advisor. By this time, with the Global Uniqueness Assessment, Review & Development (GUARD TM) content survey completed, refinement of your list will be much more granular, individualized and revealing.
We encourage applicants to make an informed decision rather than one based on the popularity or "buzz" around a program. For example, we have compiled, in-house, over 40 criteria on 150 separate schools, which we integrate into our school selection guidance process. In addition to the perspectives you provide in your completed GUARD TM content survey, you have access to intelligence we gather on an ongoing basis from former clients about their experiences in business school.
Obviously, global school rankings do provide high-level perspective about how MBA programs are regarded within and between countries. Our pattern of success in placing of applicants may also provide a sense of confidence about targeting certain top programs. However, just because your profile numerically appears to be within range of a school, does not mean you should apply automatically - regardless of our ability to help you get admitted. For instance, if you do not know why you want to attend a school, it becomes much harder to present a convincing argument to the admissions committee.
ACTION
ApplicationAdvantage...
- Examines your personal brand on multiple levels, based in part on your customized GUARD TM content survey.
- Takes stock of how well your overall profile will engage admissions committees.
- Conducts a profile assessment for each school on your speculative list
- Compares your preferences and priorities with each program
- Draws granular conclusions and explains what factors influenced any changes in the list
- Explores new elements or new dimensions of personal stories that were organically developed via GUARD TM.
12 to 24 months in a program is a serious commitment that ought to be undertaken based on a variety of factors which match your goals. As part of that factor analysis, your MBA Velociti TM Advisor will conduct a detailed analysis based on the GUARD TM survey you completed.
EXECUTION
We provide you...
- An updated Impact Assessment Report (IAR) for your school selection list
- An optional essay completion Exit Session with your MBA Velociti TM Advisor
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