MBA Admissions Wire by "Tad Holbie"

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Friday, June 27, 2003

Posted 6:02 PM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105675173638661593:

Third Feedback Session
Pretty much in line with the other two (discussed here and here). Nothing really new or earth-shattering, but I did start to see a very, very slight difference in the take that each school had, which was good to see. It reflected the (slight, in my opinion) differences in flavor for different MBA programs. I'll discuss this more at a later point.

I did go out of my way to ask the AdComm member how important recommendations were in deciding applications. As I expected, the answer was "not very". The main reason for this is that AdComm members don't want to penalize individuals for the poor writing/disinterest of their recommenders (although you could argue that it shows poor judgement to choose such a recommender, but I won't push that point). The unspoken reason is that a lot of applicants write their own recs.

Basically, recommendations cannot do much to help an app, but can do much to hurt it. No matter how great your recs are, if your essays don't sell yourself, you won't get admitted. If you have great essays and your recs back up or deepen the message of them, then the recs help a little. If you have good essays but your recommendations tell a different story, you can be in big trouble.
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Posted 5:55 PM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105675121713430221:

Summer Recruiting
Those of you that want a leg up in recruiting for next year's summer internship, a good resource to turn to is your schools career center. That may seem like common sense advice, but the thing to know is that some companies with close relationships with your school may already have scheduled their on-campus sessions.

I was rummaging through UMBS' career center website, and decided to check the job database. Lo and behold, there are already a bunch of IBanks with summer associate interview slots already confirmed and scheduled. I see Deutsche, Lehman, Merrill, and Bank of America, in there, with some old postings for JP and Morgan Stanley (I assume from last year, but considering that UMBS is tight with JP, they're pretty certain to be a lock for this year).

The point is that I can already start doing research on these firms, maybe calling them up to do informational interviews, before I set foot on campus. Then when they come for the campus info sessions/tailgating parties [in Sept/Oct.] I'll hit the ground running.

Message: check your school's job database early and often.
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Posted 12:23 PM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105673105376459036:

I've been in a conference all day for the past two days (it's funny, I'm leaving the team in a month but was the one asked to present our project during the expo). I've gotten my last feedback batch and will have a wrap up of all that early next week, then hopefully wrap up the site by the 4th of July.
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Posted 11:34 AM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105673169258949314:

Alex Brown has written a white paper on the use of online tools (message boards and chat rooms) to achieve higher yields, something that Wharton obviously excels at. Worth reading, especially because there's a screen shot of this website in it ("you like me, you really, really, like me!").
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Posted 8:31 AM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105671720249187302:

Urgent Reminder
Today's the last day for incoming UMBS students to purchase season tickets to football.
See: http://www.mgoblue.com/ticketoffice
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Posted 1:02 PM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105656108942281520:

Adam posted his tips for b-school applications (beating me to the punch--mine will be done next week). As with most good advice, it's fairly generic.

The only point I disagree with completely is his fifth, that recommendations are hugely important. I agree completely with his analysis--the list of reasons why they should be important. But based on what I've read and my own feedback, I don't think schools put that much stock in them (probably because many applicants write their own).

In my own case, I know that my recommendations were very good. First, because I didn't write them myself, meaning they offered a new perspective on my candidacy. Second, because I read a few of them (well after submitting). And third, because in both of my feedback sessions the adcomm went out of their way to praise the recs, saying how they conveyed the recommender's affection and esteem of me, gave a personal perspective on me as a candidate, and were very strong.

Ultimately, despite these personal testaments to what it's like working with me in a team or as a manager, the school(s) didn't feel satisfied about my teamwork/interpersonal skills. If recommendations were hugely important, I would think that they could have covered up for this (minor) lacking in my essays. They didn't.

As you can tell, I'm bitter, damn, damn bitter. ;-)

Update: I'd also like to second his points #3, #4, and #6 (especially the latter). I would guess that #6 is the one that trips up a bunch of strong candidates.
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Posted 8:41 AM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105654500719157619:

Thoughts on Laptops
Ayr sums up his experiences using a Mac, Adam weighs the pros and cons of IBM's X-series versus T-series.
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Posted 6:50 PM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105649525980488615:

As I work on spiffing up my current resume, I'm going back through some of my older resumes (trolling for good bullet points). To my chagrin, my habit of misspelling "led" as "lead" ("In 1995, I lead the team through thick and thin") has been around awhile.

I said it in October and I'll say it again: the past tense of "to lead" is "led".
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Posted 5:15 PM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105648988849835922:

Post-Notice Life
It's sweet, man. No, I'm not sitting on my laurels and coasting through the workday (at least no more than usual ;-). But it's just cool that every conversation with someone now ends up with them congratulating me about the MBA (it's all about me, after all). The fact that I kept the news secret makes it all the more exciting to coworkers and acquaintences, as if all of a sudden, their highly paid colleague with a promising future jumped the tracks and trammelled off into parts unknown. They look at me with a mix of "wow, what guts" and "wow, what a nutcase", which, upon further reflection, is pretty much how they normally look at me (the latter part, at least).

I'm furiously prepping my resume for passing out before I leave; I'm spreading it far and wide, leaving no stone unturned, etc., etc. The Michigan alumni network is already helping out in this regard, as is my commute (huh?), etc.

Getting my last batch of feedback shortly, hope I won't get a curveball ("...candidate great in all aspects, except for hygeine, which is distressingly bad..."), probably will wrap up this weblog in the next week to ten days, looking forward to it calling moving companies oh and yeah health insurance gotta run...
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Posted 6:45 AM EST by Tad Holbie, Post #105645165236339818:

According to the Census Bureau, "Tad" is the 935th most popular boy's name in America. I take full credit if it moves up after the next census...
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