If you are planning on pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA)  or a degree in a related field, you will need to take the General Management Admission Test (GMAT). Preparing for an exam of this caliber can be a nerve-racking process, but fortunately there are a number of resources to help decrease your anxiety and come up with a successful GMAT study plan. The following are a few tips on how to prepare for the GMAT to increase your chances of success:

MBA Podcaster

A helpful resource for setting up a GMAT study schedule and applying for graduate schools is MBA Podcaster, which offers podcasts twice a week. All of the podcasts focus on the application process to get into an MBA program, and advice is offered on everything from how to complete an application that will get noticed to what types of jobs are currently available. The podcasts have a variety of guest hosts, including deans, recruiters, consultants and graduates. In addition to audio and video podcasts, the site has blogs with many helpful application tips.

“Building Your MBA Application Timeline”

Recently, MBA Podcaster aired an audio podcast called “Building Your MBA Application Timeline: What to Do and When You Should You Do It.” The podcast offered advice on preparing for the GMAT, and the guests included several CEOs and MBA applicants. The experts offered the following tips:

• Plan your application approach as an undergraduate. Your academic success and GPA will weigh heavily on your graduate application. Study hard, volunteer and get some early work experience.

• Not everyone performs well the first time taking the GMAT. Try to take it two years before your graduate application, if possible, so that you can retake it once, twice or even three times to achieve the highest score possible. The GMAT score is good for exactly five years.

• Break the test topics into small chunks when studying.

• Start networking. Talk to anyone you know who attended an MBA program to gain insight. Connect with others online. Attend MBA fairs, admission events and do research on your future career.

• Come up with a list of schools that you will apply to, including your “dream school,” two or three that you consider to be realistic options and one safety. Visit the schools far in advance, including observations of some classes.

• Do not put taking the GMAT off. Come up with a six-month study plan for your first testing.

• Complete your college application in advance of the due date. Write rough drafts of your essays several months in advance and identify your recommendations early.

Apps for Studying

You can download various apps to assist with your GMAT study schedule and test practice. A few good ones include:

• Veritas Prep offers a free GMAT Prep app. The app delivers timed practice tests with diagnostics so you can focus on your weak areas.

• For $14.99, the GMAT Connect app offers five complete practice tests, flashcards for reviewing, progress reports and the ability to set up “study events” with peers.

MBA Connect offers a list of “10 GMAT Apps for Test Success.” All of these apps are low cost or free and will help you establish the best possible study schedule and game plan.

Oscar Wilde said, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple,” and something similar could be said for words on the GMAT.  I think most would agree that the GMAT Verbal section is anything but simple.  Admittedly, recondite vocabulary is not necessarily the issue.  Indeed, in the comparison of GRE vs GMAT, the former, the test of poets and literary critics, is far more a verbal adventure than is the comparatively practical and staid GMAT.  While GRE vocabulary lists litter the web, “GMAT vocabulary” is scarcely worth discussing.  You should know your basic Economic 101 vocab, but beyond that, you need not worry about advanced vocabulary on the GMAT.

The challenge of the GMAT verbal section lies in grammar and in the power of argument.  On the GMAT, you will not see individual advanced vocabulary words (e.g. “fulminate“, “invective“, “recrudescent“), but you will see advanced grammatical constructions (e.g. “so wealthy as to…“, “if he were here…“, “far fewer than…“). You will see many grammatical forms in their most advanced form.  For example, in the sentence “I like cats and dogs“, the terms “cats” and “dogs” are in parallel —- this is the sort of parallelism you will never see on the GMAT.  No, the GMAT will hand you something like: “… not only opening the Japanese market to foreign trade, under terms dictated by the colonial powers, but also calling into question the fundamental Japanese values, such as the centrality of bushido in the organization of their government.”  Did you catch that “opening” and “calling” are in parallel there?

Much as the grammar on the GMAT is never simple, it’s rarely pure.  Folks imagine that grammar is as black and white as math, and that how to learn GMAT grammar is analogous to how study for GMAT math.  This is simply not the case.  Grammar reflects language, and language is a living entity.  It can’t all be reduced to axiomatic rules.  You have to experience language in context.  I always tell students: read the Economist for the GMAT.  In addition to a wealth of information about the modern international business world, the Economist’s high level of grammar helps students to acclimate to the formal language they will see on the GMAT.

In addition to a high level of fine grammar, the Economist also provides students with an excellent sense of real world arguments.  Again, these arguments rarely follow the pure dictates of abstract formal logic — modus tollens and syllogism and all of that.  Instead, GMAT Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension present arguments that dive into the push & pull of the real world: incentives, motivations, risks, and expectations.  In its arguments, the GMAT is precise in its wording: the author speaks, for example, about the ineffectiveness of the commanders of the Army of the Potomac before Grant, we can’t assume that one of those commanders, such as McClellan or Meade, had a poor knowledge of military strategy.  In both the Critical Reasoning and the Reading Comprehension, the GMAT loves to catch unsuspecting test takers in their own assumptions.

Getting a good GMAT score involves mastering the “rarely pure and never simple” terrain of the Verbal section.  Students should follow a reliable GMAT study schedule and avail themselves of the best GMAT books and resources.  With diligent practice, one can master this realm.

This post was written by Mike McGarry, resident GMAT expert at Magoosh. For more advice on taking the GMAT, check out Magoosh’s GMAT blog.

Your employment brand is the aggregate of all of the things that employees, potential employees and their networks experience and learn about your company. Product quality, company reputation, desirability as a place to work, executive images, employment policies, benefits, compensation, consumer brand, industry influence, competitors and working conditions all influence the way that you are understood. Your employment brand is the summary of these variables.

You can control some, but not all of it. There are large parts of your employment brand that are beyond your direct control that you can influence. There are some parts of your employment brand that you can not control at all.

Formal employment branding programs, usually developed by advertising agencies, focus on consistency on color pallets, logos, and messaging. Great agencies do great work. This sort of thing is the most controllable part of your employment brand. Having a consistent look and feel creates the sense that you run a professional operation.

At the other end of the spectrum are the factors that you have no control over. Executive indiscretion, bad news cycles, product defects, awful economic conditions, exchange rates, weather and creeping technical disruption are all parts of the environment in which you recruit. The company’s reputation is shaped by these things.

The vast ground between these two extremes is where the real day to day work of managing the employment brand takes place. Your online reputation is shaped by reviews, commentary, employee behavior, job ads, the quality of your website (and career section) and outreach campaigns.

One way of thinking about this is that every job is its own individual employment branding campaign. Your brand is different to different audiences. The things that make your company exciting to civil engineers are rarely the same things that work for accountants.

Here are seven major components to consider when determining your Employment Brand:

• Ethnography
  Every bit of employment branding begins with two questions: who works for you and who are you trying to hire. The deeper your insight into these two questions, the more effective the message you can create. This art of the process can get very involved particularly if you are recruiting in a lot of different places or are trying to find new sources for existing jobs.
• Competitive Position
  Are you a hot new tech startup in a hip neighborhood or an aging insurance bureaucracy in a decaying part of the city? Are you growing because your product is just beginning its successful run or are you a cash cow being milked with little or no growth investment? Are you the top of your industry or the bottom? Competitive position makes it easier or harder to recruit new talent.
• Company Culture
  Is it fun to work in your company? Is advancement possible and profitable? Does everyone dress the same? Can you work from home? Do people curse in the office? Are gays, minorities and women in management positions? Nice desks or folding tables? Company culture is often best communicated in pictures and employee generated videos. Culture is how people tell if they fit.
• Types Of Openings
  Are you hiring across the board or only at the top or bottom. Both employees and prospective employees will scan the entire range of your job openings to get a sense of your growth potential and promotion policies.
• Working Conditions
  Light and cheery or dark as a dungeon. New equipment or old. Staff chef or bag lunch? Banker hours or 12 hour days? Hourly, salary or pay for performance? Personal growth oriented or controlling micromanagers? New ideas cheerfully accepted or you have to pay your dues before we’ll listen? These are the things people will tell each other about what it’s like to work for you.
• Company Reputation/Desirability
  Today, your company is transparent whether you like it or not. Sites like Glassdoor and many professional organizations track and monitor a variety of attributes of what it’s like to work in your company.
• Messaging and Channels
  Where and what you advertise (job ads) tells people a lot about you. One of the most critical and overlooked parts of an employment brand is the job ads that you publish. When you don’t pay much attention to them, candidates and employees notice.Procatively, you can tie most of these elements together with messaging, appearance and employee awareness to create the best employment branding possible.

Originally posted on Glassdoor.com.

Guest Blogger John Sumser, a member of the Glassdoor Clearview Collection, is the founder and editor-in-chief of HRExaminer, a weekly online magazine about the people and technology of HR. Widely respected as an independent analyst, Sumser has been chronicling and critiquing the HRTechnology industry for eighteen years. During that time, he has consulted with more than 100 HR vendors on matters of strategy and positioning in the market. Prior to his involvement in the HR Technology industry, Sumser was a senior executive in Defense Technology. From large scale software development to naval architecture, he was the leader of tech development teams in a broad variety of settings. His passion is the intersection of people and technology.

Now that MBA programs at top schools like Stanford, Harvard, and UNC are accepting GRE scores as well, many students are weighing the relative difficulty of the two exams, especially for the Quantitative sections.

Both the GRE and the GMAT test math.  What’s the difference? There’s a lot to consider when assessing the GRE versus the GMAT.  Well, first of all, the GRE is a more verbal test — after all, it’s a test for poets and literary critics, people who live for obscure words and impenetrably sophisticated phrasing.  Correspondingly, the GRE has a truly stratospheric level of vocabulary.  By contrast, vocabulary is not a huge issue on the GMAT.  The GMAT is for folks going to business school, so it tends to have more difficult math than does the GRE.   Someone with stronger verbal skills might therefore contemplate taking the GRE for business school, but if you choose this somewhat unconventional path, you should check whether each school on your list accepts the GRE.

The Question Formats

Part of the difference on the Quant sections of these two tests involves questions of different formats.  Both feature five-choice multiple choice questions — no surprise here, as every standardized test in your life since before puberty has featured these same questions!  Beyond that common format, the tests diverge.  The GRE features a three specialized math question formats: Quantitative Comparison, Multiple Answer, and Numerical Entry; each of these demands a slightly different set of skills, so overall, studying for GRE math involves great intellectual agility.

The GMAT, on the other hand, has a unique math question format: Data Sufficiency.  This question, using basic math as the subject matter, tests skills that are pertinent to the delegating mindset of a good manager.  In addition to the Quant section, the GMAT also demands math-type skills in a whole other section: the GMAT Integrated Reasoning.  Studying for GMAT math involves learning these questions types as well as the demands of the sections.

In addition to the format of individual questions, there’s another important different in the format of the test overall.  The GMAT Quant section employs Computer Adaptive Testing: as you move through the section, the difficulty of the questions will dynamically adjust to how you are doing.   If you are doing very well, you get harder questions on average, and if you are struggling, you get easier questions.  This has the direct consequence: once you answer a GMAT math question, it’s gone forever — you can’t go back to it.  By contrast, the GRE gives you a whole Quant section at once, fixed once you get it, so you can jump around, skip questions and come back to them later.

The Content of the Quant Sections

There is tremendous overlap in the content of the GRE and GMAT Quant sections.  Both test basic number properties, fundamental algebra & geometry, and basic probability.  The GMAT goes a little more in depth with difficult algebra (e.g. variables to powers) as well as with word problems about rates, mixtures, work, and interest.  Percents are huge on the GMAT, because they are huge in the business world.  The GRE has Data Interpretation questions mixed into the Quant section, so a GRE Quant section will have more on graphs and charts than will the GMAT Quant section — but, then again, the GMAT test taker will see that material on the GMAT Integrated Reasoning section.

Anyone studying for one of these tests could certainly gain some insight from the practice materials for the other.  If you haven’t done math since some time in high school, you have a good deal of math to relearn for either test, and with the right test prep material, you should master the Quant you need to know!

This post was written by Mike McGarry, resident GMAT expert at Magoosh. For more advice on taking the GMAT, check out Magoosh’s GMAT blog.

Full-Time MBA Programs: Still the most popular option, this is a two-year, full-time program with an internship in the summer.  It targets business (and sometimes other) professionals with roughly 3-8 years of experience.  Obtaining a new position post-MBA is often a major focus of students, and recruiting by potential employers is a significant benefit of attending a full-time MBA.  Pros: close and sustained interaction with other full-time students, ideal for career changers, internship opportunity, strong recruiting.  Cons: significant opportunity cost, time away from industries that are undergoing rapid change.

Part-Time MBA Programs: Ideal for people who don’t want to leave their company or industry for any significant period or who can’t afford to stop working.  Such programs usually target people who are employed full time, under the premise that students’ ongoing work exposure will inform classroom discussion and projects.  Part-time MBA students tend to be a little older than full-time ones.  The programs typically target local students, although increasingly they are offering varied structures and online components to attract distance students.  They do not generally offer access to recruiters.  Often admission is less competitive than for the same school’s full-time program, enabling part-time students to obtain a “brand” they may not qualify for otherwise.  Pros: can continue to work/earn, apply learning in real time, access to top-tier programs.  Cons: take longer, no internship, usually no recruiting. It is grueling.

One-Year MBA Programs:  Of course, most European full-time MBA programs are one-year.  Some top US MBA programs, e.g., Cornell’s Johnson and Northwestern’s Kellogg, have offered one-year options for a while, and others are joining the fray as demand for such programs grows.  Often these one-year programs have special requirements, such as some prior business education or an advanced degree.  Ideal for people who don’t need an internship and who have a strong base of experience; not usually the best path for career changers.  Pros: the intensity of a full-time program with less opportunity cost, usually regular recruiting, ability to quickly re-join a fast-moving industry.  Cons: no conventional internship.

Executive MBA Programs:  EMBAs are part-time programs targeting seasoned managers and entrepreneurs, typically people from mid-thirties to late forties (depending on the program) whose rise to senior manager level is imminent or who are already in senior management.  There is range within this category in terms of desired/required length of experience.  While coursework covers largely the same topics as regular MBA programs, it’s developed and presented with the higher level perspective.  A great benefit of EMBAs is the chance to network and form relationships with peers from a variety of industries and functions at a career phase when a fresh perspective is quite valuable but sometimes hard to obtain.  These programs don’t target career changers, but are increasingly used by them, even though most EMBA programs don’t offer formal recruiting.  Pros: can apply learning immediately at work, rich breadth of exposure at a pivotal professional moment, valuable credential.  Cons: challenge of school plus demanding career and personal/family responsibilities, usually no formal recruiting for career changers.

Specialized MBA Programs: These programs offer the MBA course with focus on a specific industry or function; there are such options among both regular and executive MBA programs.  They vary in their formats and approaches.  Boston University’s Public & Nonprofit MBA is an example of a two-year specialized MBA; UC Irvine’s Health Care Executive MBA (HCEMBA) is an example of a specialized EMBA.  Pros: intensive focus on area of interest with coursework adapted accordingly, network of colleagues with related experience and goals.  Con: missing out on the diverse perspectives from other industries/sectors that can refresh and invigorate your thinking.

While you can’t apply to two different types of MBA programs at the same school in the same admissions cycle, you can do so in different cycles.  And you can apply to different types of programs at different schools at the same time.  For example, if someone is on the border between regular and executive MBA in terms of age, length of experience, etc., he could apply to some regular MBAs that trend older and some exec MBAs that trend younger.  Or someone may apply to full-time MBA programs but also apply to a part-time program nearby as an acceptable back-up.

Please do keep in mind, and address in your application, the nuances of the type of MBA as well as the particular program!

Originally posted on Accepted.com. 

By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author and author of numerous ebooks, articles, and special reports. Cindy has advised hundreds of successful applicants in her last fourteen years with Accepted.

In the infographic below, we have partnered with the Forte Foundation to examine the state of women in business and business school. We have examined how getting an MBA can dramatically impact women’s pay and position within their industry and organization. In addition, we highlight some of the top business schools that are creating programs and initiatives to better serve their female student body as well as profiling female executives who have received their MBA.

Some Key Findings:

- Women with their MBA see pay gains of 55-65% of their pre-MBA salary within five years of graduation.

- Companies with female board directors, experience on average, a 53% higher return on equity.

- 85% of MBA graduates attribute their MBA in advancing their careers.

What else do you think can be done to further advance women in the workplace? Please tell us in the comments below.

<a href="http://howtomba.com/women-and-mba" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2196" title="Women and MBA" src="http://howtomba.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Women-and-MBA-Infographic.jpg" alt="MBA for Women" width="600" height="3359" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">Via <a href="http://howtomba.com/" target="_blank">HowToMBA</a> and <a href="http://www.fortefoundation.org/site/PageServer?pagename=value_mba&utm_source=infographic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2tur" target="_blank">The Forte Foundation</a></p> <p>

There are many reasons individuals may be looking to get promoted: the staleness of their current position, the lure of a flashier title, or potentially just a reward for the infinite amount of hard work they’ve been putting in.

Whatever the reasoning, promotions are never promised. Getting promoted often involves time, effort, energy, and patience. But if you’ve been doing all of the aforementioned and have yet to receive the advancement you’ve been hoping for, it may be time to assess the situation.

Here are five things potentially stifling your chances of ever getting a promotion:

1. You fail to realize the importance of your interactions. Many individuals underestimate the importance of their on-the-job interactions. While it isn’t necessary to be your company’s social butterfly, the way you interact with your co-workers, managers, and customers is likely to play a large role in your potential promotion.

Make a point to build and maintain professional relationships with your co-workers and managers. This means never missing a company party or networking event. Developing an inter-company network will increase the number of people willing to share positive information about your day-to-day contributions. This interactive and engaging approach is similar to building a network necessary for a successful job search.

2. You’re not reaching your full potential. Patience may be a virtue when it comes to getting promoted, but it isn’t the only ingredient in the recipe for advancement. Overall excellence is absolutely required when it comes to taking the next step in your career.

Bosses can sense when their employees aren’t going above and beyond in their current positions, which certainly won’t motivate them to give out any promotions. Set yourself up for advancement by giving yourself a highly critical performance review, and assess the consistency of your efforts, punctuality, teamwork, and essentially everything you’ve been bringing to your position and company. If it’s anything short of outstanding, it’s time to work at perfecting your current position before you can expect a promotion.

3. You neglect to take initiative. Many workplace situations require a level of initiative to succeed. Stand out in your current position by showcasing your knack for taking initiative and becoming an expert problem solver. Oftentimes advancement comes with acquiring a position with more responsibility – it’s time you express your exemplary ability to follow through.

There are many ways you can take more initiative in the workplace. Consider attempting to increase the efficiency of your current position, offer a hand or idea when it comes to solving simple company-wide problems, or even increase your level of responsibility by volunteering to help out in another department.

4. You fail to produce results. When was the last time you quantified all you’ve accomplished in your current position? Showcasing your produced results is a great way to prompt a promotion or at least spark an important conversation. Producing results means doing more than the bare minimum. Be sure to keep concise records of your achievements in your current position.

5. Your self-presentation could use an upgrade. From your attitude to the way you handle stress, your overall presentation may be what’s ruining your chances of getting promoted. Simply putting in the necessary work to land a promotion doesn’t mean you’ve portrayed the demeanor or attitude to set you up for success. Take steps toward to energizing your attitude and overall approach to your current position, as well as placing a higher focus on an increased level of professionalism.

Getting promoted isn’t an easy task, and it certainly isn’t a given. Be sure to evaluate your attitude and work habits to ensure you’re truly taking the right approach.

Originally posted on Glassdoor.com.

Heather R. Huhman is a Glassdoor career and workplace expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder & president of Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for job search and human resources technologies. She is also the instructor of Find Me A Job: How To Score A Job Before Your Friends, author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships (2011) and #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.

“Which kitchen utensil would you be?”

“How would you direct someone on how to cook an omelet?”

“Have you ever stolen a pen from work?”

Job interviews are tough no matter what questions the interviewer asks, but interview questions like these can certainly throw job seekers for a loop.

In this case, these wacky questions are just a few coming from Glassdoor’s annual Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions list. On this year’s list are a slew of different companies representing a variety of industries, including big name employers like Google, Dell, and Urban Outfitters.

Oddball questions may seem to have nothing to do with an open job position, but companies are increasingly asking these types of brainteaser questions to determine a candidate’s ability to think on their feet, think critically, problem solve, and effectively talk through a response. Keep in mind, there aren’t always right or wrong answers to these questions, but they can still be tricky. Here are a few tips to help you respond to four oddball interview questions:

1. “How many cows are in Canada?” This question is asked at Google. Don’t worry, you don’t need to have advanced agricultural knowledge or start pounding out math equations. Simply think of a creative way to respond without crossing the line into a lack of professionalism. One job seeker said she’d answer this question with, “Enough to make sure we have enough cheese and milk!” Just remember, if you’re stumped on any interview question, the last thing you want to say is “I don’t know.”

2. “How many quarters would you need to reach the height of the Empire State building?” This one’s asked atJetBlue. Remember–don’t say “I don’t know!” You don’t need to answer with a number, just a response that’s interesting and shows your ability to think on your feet. This question may be asked to test your problem solving abilities, but more likely, these types of odd questions help interviewers to determine cultural fit. So whatever you do, don’t start sweating it – just let your personality show.

3. “A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?” This one’s asked at Clark Construction Group. Amanda Lachapelle, director of HR and talent acquisition for Glassdoor, says, “My penguin is going to come in the door and say, ‘You should hire Amanda — she’s organized and she has her stuff together. You want her to lead your team.’” And the sombrero? “He had a margarita before he came in!” These questions determine if you fit company culture -so don’t be afraid to be funny!

4. “What songs best describes your work ethic?” Asked at Dell, this question allows tons of room for creativity. Remember, if you’re thrown off, take a second to collect your thoughts before answering. It’s better to give a clever and creative response than to brush it off, stammer, or otherwise show that you’re nervous. Some creative responses to this question? “‘I’m a Rolling Stone,’ because I take it as it comes!” one man said in this video. Another woman chose “She Works Hard for the Money!” Get creative.

Remember, if an interviewer asks you a wacky question, try not to get knocked off your feet. The point of such questions is to see if you can keep it cool under pressure, so don’t be afraid to answer in a creative way. You want to make the interviewer remember you -and these types of oddball questions offer a great opportunity to do so. Good luck!

Originally posted on Glassdoor.com. 

Heather R. Huhman is a Glassdoor career and workplace expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder & president of Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for job search and human resources technologies. She is also the instructor of Find Me A Job: How To Score A Job Before Your Friends, author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships (2011) and #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.

• 1-Year Programs vs. 2-Year Programs

“In general, for career changers, internships really, really facilitate that career change. Now, if you take, let’s say, INSEAD’s one-year program and you start it in January, there is time for a six-week internship in the middle of that program. So it also depends on how the program is structured whether you can get that internship in…So an internship is very important for career changers, but I’ve interviewed many of the European one-year programs in particular, and they say that they facilitate career change just like two-year programs do, just with much lower opportunity cost, and I think lower tuition cost also.”

• Older Applicants

“First of all, when we talk about older applicants, realize that most MBA programs, there are some differences among the programs, Stanford tends a little big younger, for example, Kellogg, INSEAD, IMD tend to older. So you want to look at the school’s average amount of work experience in particular and average age of matriculation and see what the range is, especially, again, that 80% range…If you’re above the 80% range, then you are getting in that area of experience–it’s more experience level than age – where the schools will question whether you can benefit from the program and benefit from the career placement.
…If you really want the traditional MBA program, then one thing you can do is let the school know that while you need the education provided by the MBA, you have the career contacts and connections to get a job afterwards or maybe you even already have a job…The other thing you can do is apply to programs that are friendlier to older applicants and more experienced applicants. Apply to those programs that have higher average ages of matriculation because those program tend to value experience more.

See if those programs, which are aimed at older applicants…may just be a much, much better fit for you. You would be taking classes with people at your level of experience who it would be easier for you to learn from. The classes would be geared for people at your more experienced applicants and you would simply belong much better.”

• Jargon in Essays

“In general, you want to minimize use of technical jargon…So if your mother understands it, it’s probably okay for a general audience. But if your mother is technically minded, then try your grandmother or your aunt or your father or somebody who is not technically minded and see if the jargon is such that they understand it or don’t. If they don’t…you should get rid of it… You want to talk in terms that your reader will understand…if you can’t express it without jargon or without very technical terms that lay people are unlikely to understand, then my suspicion is that you are writing an essay that is not going to be effective in a business school context because you’re talking about technical achievements, and not the kind of leadership management, teamwork skills that business schools value. So big warning there on jargon.”

• Reapplicants

“If it didn’t work last time, you have very little reason to believe it will work this time….No, reapplicants are not at a disadvantage as long as they can show improvement and growth since their last application. In general, reapplicants are actually at a slight advantage provided they can show growth and improvement in their applications.”

Read the rest of the Spotlight On You MBA Q&A transcript or listen to the MP3 audio file for more info on choosing schools, mitigating weaknesses, displaying leadership experiences, and much more!

Originally posted on Accepted.com. 

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

Onlines MBAs

Online MBA programs in particular have seen remarkable growth and improvement within the last year, starting with the introduction of the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School’s online MBA program, MBA@UNC. This summer Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management announced the debut of its online MBA program, the Online Fully Employed MBA; the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business and Economics’ online MBA premiered this year; and George Washington University’s School of Business plans to launch its online MBA next year.
Business degrees are among the most popular for online students, with approximately one-third of all students enrolled in online programs pursuing a degree in business. The appeal of an online MBA lies in its ability to offer students a high level of flexibility that is unattainable at a standard brick-and-mortar school, especially for students with families or full-time jobs who want to attend school without upheaving their personal and professional lives. Some schools let students stream on-campus classes, while others conduct classes, typically comprised of 12 to 15 students, via virtual classrooms, allowing students to interact with peers and professors through video conferencing and online chats. Another convenient feature of online MBAs is 24/7 access to course material, recorded classes and other resources, which gives students the freedom to dictate their own study schedule.

MBA Cost

While an online MBA and brick-and-mortar MBA differ immensely in regards to convenience, the differences do not extend to tuition. Like a brick-and-mortar tuition, the cost of an online MBA varies from institution to institution, but the price tag tends to closely mirror the cost of pursuing an on-campus MBA at the same school. Business school can be quite expensive, and the cost of an entire program can range from Southern New Hampshire University’s $24,453 to $91,225, which is the current all-inclusive tuition for an MBA@UNC student. Many schools offer financial aid to online students to help them cover their online MBA costs.

Reputation

Online education has received a less-than-stellar reputation due to the prominence of unaccredited, for-profit institutions (often called diploma mills), but the introduction of programs like MBA@UNC are lending a validity to digital education that had been previously lacking. Many people have believed that online MBAs lack the academically challenging environment and face-to-face interactions that standard MBAs provide, but a Businessweek article titled “Employers Warm Up to Online MBAs” shares the results of a Wisconsin study that found an increase in the number of employers willing to hire graduates of online MBA programs.