MBA Indonesia

Old GMAT is your friend (until June 5, 2012)

This Strata-G post argues that: it’s best to either 1) take the GMAT now (before 5 June 2012); OR 2) wait and take the GMAT until after August 2012.

According to Businessweek, the new GMAT “will be different from anything students have encountered before on the test” — and that’s not good.

Why was it necessary to make the GMAT harder in the first place? Well, the story from GMAC was:

The most recent survey of 740 business faculty worldwide in 2009 revealed that they believed incoming students needed to assimilate, interpret, and convert data, evaluate outcomes, and listen.

I’m not sure about listening skills on the GMAT. I do know that GMAT is in dynamic competition with GRE (a similar test marketed by ETS). And since GRE just did a major facelift, it’s not surprising to find a “new and improved” GMAT product this year.

So what’s the difference? Just one thing — a mystery section called “integrated reasoning.” It will replace one of the writing essays (the “issue”). So your four four GMAT sections on the new GMAT are:

  • AWA (one essay)
  • Quant (maths)
  • Verbal (like TOEFL but much harder)
  • Integrated reasoning (charts and graphs + analysis)
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Focus on application essay this year: why it matters for MBA applicants from Indonesia

Summary: This article discusses the importance of essays in the application process, concluding with 12 points that will guide in conceptualizing the personal statement/ statement of purpose. And here’s tip 13:  Put your feedback/editing team on standby now (parents, professor, professional editor), so they’ll be ready when you finish your first draft.

No matter how good your marks and GMAT score, you can very easily be rejected by top programs like HBS, LBS, INSEAD, Wharton, Haas because you don’t fit the demographic (i.e. too many Asians, not enough Latinos, etc)

Personal Statement Sampoerna

Sampoerna Access' essay "boot camp" (no relation to Strata-G) is an example of this new local focus

Your personal statement (statement of purpose) is very important since it lets you identify and define yourself so you can fit in better.

In theory, MBA applications are counter-cyclical to the job market. In other words, when jobs are hard to find — supposedly — that’s when people go back to school.

But no one really knows. With a bad job market in the US and Europe applications actually fell last year (e.g. Harvard down by 4% and Wharton by about 6 %) .  And this general down trend will likely continue in 2011.

However, the schools say their quality standards and acceptance rates have not changed (they still have plenty of people to reject).

Take the U.S. for example. There, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) last week reported that students from Asia-Pacific  now account for 61% of all full-time b-school applications.  That could pose an demographic problem for some schools  (“too many” Asians).

What’s more, the GMAC data shows that the vast majority of finance programs — 83% — saw applications go up. Master’s in management apps. went up by 69%;  accounting programs were up by 51%.

There’s another reason why quality of your statement matters: this will help the school predict how you handle English language writing assignments. Do you have the skills  yourself?  Are you willing and able to seek out writing help?

Please comment on these 12 tips from Strata-G . You won’t find them anywhere besides this blog. We hope they’ll give you perspective and confidence. Please note that Sampoerna ACCESS  has essay-writing workshops coming up (28 Sept. and 1 Oct.)