美国教授对MBA申请的一点建议

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????:MIT BBS
???: lgw (asd), ??: Gowest

?  ?: ZZ: Adivce on Applications from a Chinese faculty

???: The unknown SPACE (Sat Feb 22 20:44:58 2003) WWW-POST



As a professor at a leading US university, I have some advice for those of you

who are applying to doctoral programs at top 50 B-schools (NOT for other

programs).



Some important tips:



Generally, you cannot make any mistake. One bad recommendation can kill you.

This is important to those of you who are studying in US: if you only know an

American professor for a few days, DO NOT ask him/her to write a

recommendation! -- even if you think you have really impressed him/her.



Secondly, you must have something that stands out. Usually doctoral programs

only admit fewer than a handful of students a year. Every faculty member is

asked to pick their one or two top choices and only those candidates are

discussed at the faculty meeting. So you must be top on someone's list,

otherwise even if you are generally strong, you may not even be included in

the picture!




Third, contact faculty members. If you are in US, visit local schools and call

schools (of course visit is better if you can afford it) in other cities. Even

if you are in China, emails and calls are always important.



About components in your file:



GMAT: at least 700 to be considered; there are exceptions, but that's VERY

VERY rare, almost inapplicable to any Chinese students. I'm talking about NOW,

not a few years back. Now competition is very keen. GRE is okay, though not

that comparable. If you use GRE, every part should be 90% higher. Again, GMAT

is important. And a GMAT of >750 can be the one thing that makes you stand

out.



Education & experience: A master's degree, or Work experience after you got

Bachelor's, is helpful. Where you get your bachelor's matters a lot.

Undergraduate GPA is not critical, but if too low, it can still kill you.

Years of relevant experience are a big plus.



Research experience or publications: not everyone has it and if you do, it is

certainly a big plus. By publication I mean publications in English,

especially in journals. But don't worry if you don抰 have any.




Statement: As you all know, it is very important. Some Chinese students make

the mistake of writing like a Chinese high school student. Some sentences seem

really weird in the eyes of American professors and they ask \what is he/she

going to say\ -- though of course I understand it comes from some bad habits

formed in high school. A moving statement can be really impressive, -- one

applicant from India won everyone in my department simply by her statement --

but that is very rare. And I suggest you don't try it. Play it safe and write

in plain English. Most American applicants write in very plain style and

that's okay! It seems that Chinese and Indian students like to \write

articles\ -- zuo4 wen2 zhang1, maybe because of cultural reasons. But Indian

students had their education in English and have their advantage.



More about statement:

1. The only thing matters in the statement is that: you should make it clear

that you love research and you are capable of doing research! Anything you say

should support this.

2. Be specific about the research areas. You can be admitted if your research

interests have a perfect match with one or two faculty members. You should

give good reasons why you have such interests (because of work experience or

you think it is important ...)



Recommendations: recommendations from unknown persons do not count and people


from a US professor or a high level executive in a well-known company, it sure

helps A LOT -- it can be the one thing that stands out. If you are not sure

what an American professor/employer will write, then you may not want to take

the risk. But if you are studying at a US school, you are kind of expected to

get at least one letter from your professors. Otherwise it is a bad sign. If

you are still in China, basically they don't count that much, but long,

strong, neat and well-written letters give a good impression.



I have said in the beginning that you should contact the departments you are

applying for. It's not in your file but it is important! One Chinese student

is the case that she is strong in everything but nothing stands out. But she

contacted me and other faculty members and we spoke for her at the meeting.

One guy is really strong but has never contacted us and we think he is not

interested in us and we can't take the risk to give him financial support.



That's what I can think of now. Good luck!





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