Sorry for the inconvienence. If by some crazy chance you have a copy of my missing blogs (like an RSS feed) please send me a copy so I can reupload it. I would be very appreciative. Thanks
Showing posts with label Application Process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Application Process. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Plant Trek Day -4 (day 5 of my unofficial trek)
My blog got the flu and about 10 posts were lost.
Sorry for the inconvienence. If by some crazy chance you have a copy of my missing blogs (like an RSS feed) please send me a copy so I can reupload it. I would be very appreciative. Thanks
Sorry for the inconvienence. If by some crazy chance you have a copy of my missing blogs (like an RSS feed) please send me a copy so I can reupload it. I would be very appreciative. Thanks
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Congrats!
New students! As I said in my past blog, I did not have the time I wanted to write a message to the new students. The best I could manage is a good luck to everyone when the packets went out. Now that I am traveling I have a little more time to reflect. As I have said before in my blogs, current students are very involved with the running of LFM and the New Student Recruitment Committee that I am on is in charge of welcoming the new students and setting up their first LFM experience after Interviewfest: Open House. I remember how excited I was when I found out that I got into LFM and how much fun I had and how much I learned at Open House, so I really wanted to be involved. Turns out one of my good college friends is getting married that weekend so I will not be in Boston for Open House. Bummer! I still get to help a little with the setting of up the website and some of the pre-planning things (mailing lists, matching admitted students to current students for answering questions, answering questions on message board forums, etc.) but it is still a disappointment. Either way, congratulations to those who got an offer. I sincerely hope that you enjoy yourselves at LFM and get a good feel for the culture and community of LFM. I think it is fantastic and I hope you do to.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Common questions from prospective students
We had a number of prospective students (future 11’s) in last week and I spent all day Friday (literally I was with prospectives from 8:30 AM to midnight) and most of Monday meeting prospective students and answering their questions about LFM. In this post I’m trying to cover the most common questions so that anyone interested could get my perspective on these issues (although I talked to so many of you I don’t know how many prospective students haven’t heard my opinion).
What is the Grading/Workload like at MIT? So this is NOT official Sloan or MIT policy, but I truly feel that you have to try (and I mean go out of your way) to get a C or lower in a non-core class. This has been my experience with Sloan classes and engineering classes. Now this does NOT apply to core (your first fall) classes at Sloan. In core, 40 % get As, 50% get Bs, and 10% get Cs. After that, it seems like everyone gets an A or a B. Please don’t let my statements make you think MIT or LFM is easy. It just boils down to the fact that to have been accepted to this school (and the LFM program) you probably have a different perspective of what a full-day is and what the minimum expectation level is…and that is saying something because you are competing against other people who did engineering for their undergraduate degree.
So what does it take to get a C here? You have to skip more than a couple of classes (some teachers don’t take attendance/class participation…it just depends) and not turn in a majority of your assignments. If you show up to every class, talk once in a while (I rarely speak in class), and turn in all of the assignments (even if you do a sub-par job) you will get a B. This has been my experience with Engineering classes as well. Now I am sure you can go out and find incredibly hard classes where half the class fails, but in general that is just not the case. MIT is incredibly open that way. Most teachers understand that sometimes you are just in a class because the subject is interesting and you might want to know more and sometimes you are completely engrossed by a topic and you want to spend 5 hours a day reading about it. The workload can be whatever you make of it. If you just want to breeze through a class, do a little light reading, and turn in a paper or two you can do that and get a B. If you want to deep-dive into something and spend hours with the TA perfecting your homework, you can do that as well and you’ll probably get an A. The level of commitment is up to you (understanding that the minimum is attending class and turning in every assignment which is maybe a couple hours per week per class).
Describe the interaction with LFM 09s, Sloan students, and Engineering students. This follows the MIT model of being whatever you make of it. Personally, I don’t know half of the names of the Sloan students from my fall ocean (an ocean is a group of 60 MBA who you share core classes with). I also don’t know any of the engineering students (aside from group members) in my engineering classes. But it does not have to be this way. I know a number of students who are heavily involved in Sloan activities (for example, participating on the Student Senate) and are good friends with a number of Sloan students. I also know a few LFMs who are fully engrossed with engineering and are taking many more classes than are required. The choice is up to you. The great part of LFM is that you have the option of choosing your commitment level to each degree and the networks from each school.
What are the living expenses like? Depending on where you are coming from, Boston can seem quite expensive. To me (coming from the middle of nowhere Florida) it is VERY expensive.
This is the first site that came up when I typed “cost of living Boston” in Google. You can type in your current salary to get an idea of how much more expensive Boston is compared to where you currently live. If you are coming from New York city or somewhere in California, you might find Boston’s prices to be quite pleasant. The no-nonsense answer is that Boston is an expensive place to live while you are living off of student loans. The good part is, the payback is awesome. This is a link to Forbe’s MBA payback calculator. Instead of MIT’s $76,694 tuition and expenses figure, enter your LFM tuition and expenses figure of $45,000. For you post-MBA salary enter $110,000. This is pretty close to the average LFM exit salary. All these numbers are not exact, but it is close enough to get an idea.
What is the best part of LFM? - The best part about LFM is (in this order)
1) The summer with your LFM class and the relationships you build. When you start LFM you are pretty much the only students on campus (sure the doctoral students never leave, but they are always doing research…and the only other students on campus are the Sloan fellows and they are as busy as you, so you will never see them). You spend all day in the classroom with the same group of students (the same room actually, you stay and the teachers swap) and in the evening, you hang out with the same LFM students. This happens because you don’t know anyone else in Boston. The whole group is new to the city and dying to have fun together. For more on this, please read my blog about the transition from summer fun to Sloan fall.
2) The breakout/lounge area. The LFM and SDM departments share a large office space in E40 and within this area is a kitchen, individual desks, lockers, breakout rooms (this is key!), and a lounge area with a couple of couches and tables. This may not sound like anything special, but it is awesome. This area is shared by 100 LFM students (50 from each year) and a handful of SDM students (my wife is trying to get me a better number). The other 700 Sloan students (350 from each year) have to share a hallway and some random offices.
This is why MIT is building a new building (E62)…and while MIT claims that they will not increase the size of the incoming classes, my bet is that they will not be able to resist the money…and will increase the number of students until they are over utilizing the classroom and breakout room capacity. Back to what we have at LFM…those breakout rooms and the lounge area are awesome, and this is evident by how we are always having to kick Sloanies out of our rooms. Not that we mind sharing with the area with them when they are working with an LFM student, but the partner companies pay for that space and it is not right for them to use it without us.
3) The access to both the Sloan and Engineering network, facilities, teachers, etc. This is more or less discussed earlier in my blog post.
What are the negatives of going to LFM over Sloan? The two negatives about attending LFM rather than just attending Sloan are (in this order)
1) Having to move to Boston so quickly. This is tough. You find out that you get into LFM sometime in early March and you have to be setup (enough to get dressed and do homework) and living in Boston before the first of June. That is not very much time to find an apartment/house to rent. All I can say is that when you get into LFM, we (the students of the class before you) have an open house session where we do our best to help facilitate the move. We were there just a year before so we usually have good advice and sometimes we are looking for sub-letter or just someone to take over a house that is often in the LFM family.
2) Missing the fall semester. There are a number of classes that are only offered during the fall semester. Your one and only fall semester (assuming you are on-cycle) is your core semester. During core, you are taking a number of classes with the Sloanies. As an LFM, you are allowed to take additional classes (something 1st year Sloanies cannot do) but you only have room in your schedule for a couple of classes. You may choose to load up on Sloan classes but it is usually a good idea to get some of your engineering out of the way. Engineering classes tend to be tougher (or at least more work intensive) than Sloan classes. You really need to balance out your engineering classes because you’ll be writing a thesis during your last semester at school.
All I can say is that if you really want to take certain classes that are only offered in the fall (or you just have to be on campus for fall recruiting when you look for a real job) go after an off-cycle internship (internship spring-summer instead of summer-fall).
How collaborative is the MIT/Sloan environment? Extremely. I don’t know what else to say. Don’t get me wrong, we have our fair share of assholes…everyone had at least one (two if you go to Harvard)…but the jerks are a minority. Almost everyone here wants you to be successful and is willing to help you. Fellow students are always willing to explain a problem to you or help you with your homework even though this could potentially inflate the average and hurt the helping person’s grades. Some of this may come from the laid back attitude on grades I mentioned earlier, but I don’t think that matters very much. Students going into consulting are very concerned with their grades (some consulting companies ask for your grades all the way back to high school…your high school grade in pre-calculus is how to separate the good consultants from the bad ones), and you still find those students willing to help anyone. Most Sloanies even practice interviewing with each other, even though they are going for the same internships.
How easy is it for my spouse/Significant Other (SO) to find work? I believe all of the LFM 10’s spouses/SOs that wanted to work are currently employed. Having said that, the economy is tough right now. I would just say that it is feasible for your spouse/SO to either stay at your current residence until they can find a job or move to Boston with you to look for a job. I know people who successfully did both. I even know of some people whose spouse/SO stayed at their current residence for the full two years. Tough, but it can be done.
How flexible is Sloan/MIT with classes? In general I would say that both degrees are very flexible. The first semester (LFM summer) is decided for you…you have no flexibility. This is done on purpose so that the entire class is together all summer, and so you can complete your two degrees in two years. Also, there are no other students on campus, so what else would you take besides the LFM classes? The next semester is your fall core. As I described earlier, you have the option of adding a few classes (completely your choice of which classes). After that, there are more or less no rules. Some of the engineering disciplines (especially ESD) are more strict that others, but in general you can take whatever you want. I know someone taking supply chain classes and getting credit toward their chemical engineering degree. MIT takes the opinion that you are an adult, you know what you are interested in and what you want to get out of school, and you will take the classes that best help you achieve your school goals.
How do you picking an engineering degree/do I need this degree (pre-req) to get a SM in X? In general I would say don’t worry about this. When it is all said and done, you really choose about four of your engineering classes (you can always take more, but most people don’t)…and like I said in my flexibility paragraph you can mix-and-match from just about any discipline. As far as prereqs go, this is really case by case. One of our ChemEs was an EE in undergrad. He had to write a 1/2 page paper about why he wanted to switch and they said ok. Overall, just don’t worry about which engineering discipline. You can take whatever you want.
What is the Grading/Workload like at MIT? So this is NOT official Sloan or MIT policy, but I truly feel that you have to try (and I mean go out of your way) to get a C or lower in a non-core class. This has been my experience with Sloan classes and engineering classes. Now this does NOT apply to core (your first fall) classes at Sloan. In core, 40 % get As, 50% get Bs, and 10% get Cs. After that, it seems like everyone gets an A or a B. Please don’t let my statements make you think MIT or LFM is easy. It just boils down to the fact that to have been accepted to this school (and the LFM program) you probably have a different perspective of what a full-day is and what the minimum expectation level is…and that is saying something because you are competing against other people who did engineering for their undergraduate degree.
So what does it take to get a C here? You have to skip more than a couple of classes (some teachers don’t take attendance/class participation…it just depends) and not turn in a majority of your assignments. If you show up to every class, talk once in a while (I rarely speak in class), and turn in all of the assignments (even if you do a sub-par job) you will get a B. This has been my experience with Engineering classes as well. Now I am sure you can go out and find incredibly hard classes where half the class fails, but in general that is just not the case. MIT is incredibly open that way. Most teachers understand that sometimes you are just in a class because the subject is interesting and you might want to know more and sometimes you are completely engrossed by a topic and you want to spend 5 hours a day reading about it. The workload can be whatever you make of it. If you just want to breeze through a class, do a little light reading, and turn in a paper or two you can do that and get a B. If you want to deep-dive into something and spend hours with the TA perfecting your homework, you can do that as well and you’ll probably get an A. The level of commitment is up to you (understanding that the minimum is attending class and turning in every assignment which is maybe a couple hours per week per class).
Describe the interaction with LFM 09s, Sloan students, and Engineering students. This follows the MIT model of being whatever you make of it. Personally, I don’t know half of the names of the Sloan students from my fall ocean (an ocean is a group of 60 MBA who you share core classes with). I also don’t know any of the engineering students (aside from group members) in my engineering classes. But it does not have to be this way. I know a number of students who are heavily involved in Sloan activities (for example, participating on the Student Senate) and are good friends with a number of Sloan students. I also know a few LFMs who are fully engrossed with engineering and are taking many more classes than are required. The choice is up to you. The great part of LFM is that you have the option of choosing your commitment level to each degree and the networks from each school.
What are the living expenses like? Depending on where you are coming from, Boston can seem quite expensive. To me (coming from the middle of nowhere Florida) it is VERY expensive.
This is the first site that came up when I typed “cost of living Boston” in Google. You can type in your current salary to get an idea of how much more expensive Boston is compared to where you currently live. If you are coming from New York city or somewhere in California, you might find Boston’s prices to be quite pleasant. The no-nonsense answer is that Boston is an expensive place to live while you are living off of student loans. The good part is, the payback is awesome. This is a link to Forbe’s MBA payback calculator. Instead of MIT’s $76,694 tuition and expenses figure, enter your LFM tuition and expenses figure of $45,000. For you post-MBA salary enter $110,000. This is pretty close to the average LFM exit salary. All these numbers are not exact, but it is close enough to get an idea.
What is the best part of LFM? - The best part about LFM is (in this order)
1) The summer with your LFM class and the relationships you build. When you start LFM you are pretty much the only students on campus (sure the doctoral students never leave, but they are always doing research…and the only other students on campus are the Sloan fellows and they are as busy as you, so you will never see them). You spend all day in the classroom with the same group of students (the same room actually, you stay and the teachers swap) and in the evening, you hang out with the same LFM students. This happens because you don’t know anyone else in Boston. The whole group is new to the city and dying to have fun together. For more on this, please read my blog about the transition from summer fun to Sloan fall.
2) The breakout/lounge area. The LFM and SDM departments share a large office space in E40 and within this area is a kitchen, individual desks, lockers, breakout rooms (this is key!), and a lounge area with a couple of couches and tables. This may not sound like anything special, but it is awesome. This area is shared by 100 LFM students (50 from each year) and a handful of SDM students (my wife is trying to get me a better number). The other 700 Sloan students (350 from each year) have to share a hallway and some random offices.
This picture describes what it feels like when you are trying to find a place to meet with a Sloan group just after class gets out
This is why MIT is building a new building (E62)…and while MIT claims that they will not increase the size of the incoming classes, my bet is that they will not be able to resist the money…and will increase the number of students until they are over utilizing the classroom and breakout room capacity. Back to what we have at LFM…those breakout rooms and the lounge area are awesome, and this is evident by how we are always having to kick Sloanies out of our rooms. Not that we mind sharing with the area with them when they are working with an LFM student, but the partner companies pay for that space and it is not right for them to use it without us.
3) The access to both the Sloan and Engineering network, facilities, teachers, etc. This is more or less discussed earlier in my blog post.
What are the negatives of going to LFM over Sloan? The two negatives about attending LFM rather than just attending Sloan are (in this order)
1) Having to move to Boston so quickly. This is tough. You find out that you get into LFM sometime in early March and you have to be setup (enough to get dressed and do homework) and living in Boston before the first of June. That is not very much time to find an apartment/house to rent. All I can say is that when you get into LFM, we (the students of the class before you) have an open house session where we do our best to help facilitate the move. We were there just a year before so we usually have good advice and sometimes we are looking for sub-letter or just someone to take over a house that is often in the LFM family.
2) Missing the fall semester. There are a number of classes that are only offered during the fall semester. Your one and only fall semester (assuming you are on-cycle) is your core semester. During core, you are taking a number of classes with the Sloanies. As an LFM, you are allowed to take additional classes (something 1st year Sloanies cannot do) but you only have room in your schedule for a couple of classes. You may choose to load up on Sloan classes but it is usually a good idea to get some of your engineering out of the way. Engineering classes tend to be tougher (or at least more work intensive) than Sloan classes. You really need to balance out your engineering classes because you’ll be writing a thesis during your last semester at school.
Balance is KEY!
All I can say is that if you really want to take certain classes that are only offered in the fall (or you just have to be on campus for fall recruiting when you look for a real job) go after an off-cycle internship (internship spring-summer instead of summer-fall).
How collaborative is the MIT/Sloan environment? Extremely. I don’t know what else to say. Don’t get me wrong, we have our fair share of assholes…everyone had at least one (two if you go to Harvard)…but the jerks are a minority. Almost everyone here wants you to be successful and is willing to help you. Fellow students are always willing to explain a problem to you or help you with your homework even though this could potentially inflate the average and hurt the helping person’s grades. Some of this may come from the laid back attitude on grades I mentioned earlier, but I don’t think that matters very much. Students going into consulting are very concerned with their grades (some consulting companies ask for your grades all the way back to high school…your high school grade in pre-calculus is how to separate the good consultants from the bad ones), and you still find those students willing to help anyone. Most Sloanies even practice interviewing with each other, even though they are going for the same internships.
How easy is it for my spouse/Significant Other (SO) to find work? I believe all of the LFM 10’s spouses/SOs that wanted to work are currently employed. Having said that, the economy is tough right now. I would just say that it is feasible for your spouse/SO to either stay at your current residence until they can find a job or move to Boston with you to look for a job. I know people who successfully did both. I even know of some people whose spouse/SO stayed at their current residence for the full two years. Tough, but it can be done.
How flexible is Sloan/MIT with classes? In general I would say that both degrees are very flexible. The first semester (LFM summer) is decided for you…you have no flexibility. This is done on purpose so that the entire class is together all summer, and so you can complete your two degrees in two years. Also, there are no other students on campus, so what else would you take besides the LFM classes? The next semester is your fall core. As I described earlier, you have the option of adding a few classes (completely your choice of which classes). After that, there are more or less no rules. Some of the engineering disciplines (especially ESD) are more strict that others, but in general you can take whatever you want. I know someone taking supply chain classes and getting credit toward their chemical engineering degree. MIT takes the opinion that you are an adult, you know what you are interested in and what you want to get out of school, and you will take the classes that best help you achieve your school goals.
How do you picking an engineering degree/do I need this degree (pre-req) to get a SM in X? In general I would say don’t worry about this. When it is all said and done, you really choose about four of your engineering classes (you can always take more, but most people don’t)…and like I said in my flexibility paragraph you can mix-and-match from just about any discipline. As far as prereqs go, this is really case by case. One of our ChemEs was an EE in undergrad. He had to write a 1/2 page paper about why he wanted to switch and they said ok. Overall, just don’t worry about which engineering discipline. You can take whatever you want.
Don't sweat it
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Interview Time
My blog got the flu and about 10 posts were lost.
Sorry for the inconvienence. If by some crazy chance you have a copy of my missing blogs (like an RSS feed) please send me a copy so I can reupload it. I would be very appreciative. Thanks
Sorry for the inconvienence. If by some crazy chance you have a copy of my missing blogs (like an RSS feed) please send me a copy so I can reupload it. I would be very appreciative. Thanks
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Big Time Snow Time
My blog got the flu and about 10 posts were lost.
Sorry for the inconvienence. If by some crazy chance you have a copy of my missing blogs (like an RSS feed) please send me a copy so I can reupload it. I would be very appreciative. Thanks
Sorry for the inconvienence. If by some crazy chance you have a copy of my missing blogs (like an RSS feed) please send me a copy so I can reupload it. I would be very appreciative. Thanks
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Letters of Recommendation
Lets talk about those letters of recommendation. My opinion on letters of recommendation is that it is MUCH more important to get someone who knows you and worked with you than it is to get someone with a big title or some fancy degree. If you read the type of questions they need to be able to answer (listed on the LFM application page) you will see that the recommender does not even need to be your boss...they just need to know you. Now I do think it is a good idea if one of the recommenders is your current boss or a previous boss (I understand that someone people don't want their current employer to know that they are thinking of leaving for MBA school), but it is NOT a requirement. Having addressed the supervisor issue, lets get back to that whole "personal knowledge" of you...thing. You want your recommender to be able to answer questions about you with actual real life examples. This means that they need to have worked with you on more than one occasion (sitting next to you in a meeting does not count as work). It is not a bad idea to sit down with your recommender and talk to them about why you want to go to back to school and what you hope to get out of it. This helps them understand where you are coming from and it gets the recommender to start thinking about your abilities (if they have not already). I am not saying that you should tell the recommender what to write about or focus on. I think that is overstepping the line. They need to be free to give an honest assessment of you and your abilities. I just think it helps them write about you if they have an idea about your career goals and the LFM program. Plus, this should be a good opportunity for you to talk about applying to business school and your career with someone you respect and hopefully have a good relationship with. This will help you with your application essays.
[caption id="attachment_267" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Why do you want to go back to school?"]
[/caption]
You will notice that you need one recommender to be able to speak to your technical abilities if you apply through MIT Sloan and two recommenders if you apply through MIT's School of Engineering. I know it says "academic source"...but this can be misleading...I say focus on the part that says "someone who can speak definitively of your technical skills." Personally, I don't think professors make very good recommenders unless you did research with that professor or spent extensive time with him or her. Again, this gets back to the recommenders ability to speak about you and your personal traits. Some professor that taught you a few days a week...and that you visited in office hours a couple times in a semester...does not really know you. Getting an A in a class is not a technical skill. The admissions committee has your transcripts if they are interested in your grades. (assuming you are currently in an engineering or R&D field) I think your supervisor or co-worker should easily be able to speak to your technical skills. This might be one aspect of the questions that you want to explain to them beforehand. Just let them know that technical skills include technical problem solving or really anything engineering related.
[caption id="attachment_265" align="alignnone" width="112" caption="You need someone who knows that you can navigate this chart to "No Problem""]
[/caption]
Also, I think it is a great idea for one of your recommendators to be from outside the work environment. This goes along with what I said about your application essays. I think it is important to show how well rounded you are. Show the admissions committee that you have a life and passion outside of work.
And once again (as mentioned in the application essay blog) when selecting a recommender, think about their ability to speak to your leadership abilities and potential. LEADERS for manufacturing. Lets just say the leaders part is kind of a big deal.
[caption id="attachment_267" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Why do you want to go back to school?"]
[/caption]You will notice that you need one recommender to be able to speak to your technical abilities if you apply through MIT Sloan and two recommenders if you apply through MIT's School of Engineering. I know it says "academic source"...but this can be misleading...I say focus on the part that says "someone who can speak definitively of your technical skills." Personally, I don't think professors make very good recommenders unless you did research with that professor or spent extensive time with him or her. Again, this gets back to the recommenders ability to speak about you and your personal traits. Some professor that taught you a few days a week...and that you visited in office hours a couple times in a semester...does not really know you. Getting an A in a class is not a technical skill. The admissions committee has your transcripts if they are interested in your grades. (assuming you are currently in an engineering or R&D field) I think your supervisor or co-worker should easily be able to speak to your technical skills. This might be one aspect of the questions that you want to explain to them beforehand. Just let them know that technical skills include technical problem solving or really anything engineering related.
[caption id="attachment_265" align="alignnone" width="112" caption="You need someone who knows that you can navigate this chart to "No Problem""]
[/caption]Also, I think it is a great idea for one of your recommendators to be from outside the work environment. This goes along with what I said about your application essays. I think it is important to show how well rounded you are. Show the admissions committee that you have a life and passion outside of work.
And once again (as mentioned in the application essay blog) when selecting a recommender, think about their ability to speak to your leadership abilities and potential. LEADERS for manufacturing. Lets just say the leaders part is kind of a big deal.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
LFM application essays
I am way behind on when I said I would write a blog about LFM application essays. Oh well, maybe they will be up for next year's students.
So what advice do I have? First, let me throw out some generalities like...be yourself...use gude grammah and propah spellin...followed by non-relevant pictures that hopefully motivate you
On to the serious stuff. Let me start by saying that these are just my opinions so don't take anything I say as the final or best way to approach the essays. This is just some things that came to mind when I remembered my essays.
How I started: When the essay prompts were posted I wrote each one down and started brainstorming. I had a thirty minute ride to work so I just thought as I drove and wrote down any ideas I had. I would say think about one prompt at a time and maybe write the first sentence or two and some of the main points for your favorite 3 examples that you brainstorm. This will help you get a feel for what your particular example will bring to a prompt.
Once you have some of these examples down on paper, start looking at all of the prompts together and decide which example works best for which essay. I am assuming that you want to use your best example and that your best examples could apply to multiple essay prompts. This is similar to what you do on interviews. You have a couple of key stories and find a way to apply your story to the question you are asked. Anyway, I am on the lower end of the experience pool within the class (I only worked 3 years) but I also had some volunteer/leadership work during that time. Some of my essays came from work and some came from my volunteering/leadership. I think it is a good idea to have some non-work examples. To me, undergrad/school does not count for this...think extracurricular activities when you were in undergrad...and if you do anything outside of work after you graduated, think about that. These non-work examples show how well rounded you are. You are well rounded aren't you? If you find yourself less than round, eat more. See the perfect circle:
[caption id="attachment_225" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Fat Bastard"]
[/caption]
So now you have thought of some of your best examples that answer the prompts...but before your write, there are some other things to think about. When you think about what life examples you use for you essays, you need to think about what does LFM stand for (psst...it stands for Leaders for Manufacturing). You would be on the right track if some of your stories talked about your leadership skills and the challenges you have overcome as a leader. I can't stress enough how important the leadership component is. Honestly, it's in the program name. They (LFM) have a whole page dedicated to it on their website. Let me say this about the sponsor companies...the partner companies stay involved with the LFM program because of the quality of leaders this program produces. They don't put up their cash for our degrees...or because we are smart and hard working (though those are added bonuses)...they put up their cash because of our leadership potential. Leadership is an investment that will pay off for years and years.
The next part, manufacturing. Now yours truly is interested in manufacturing...but MANY of the people in LFM are really interested in operations (think supply chain...though it is not fair to generalize, I'll do it anyway). Checkout the LFM career page for a taste of what I am talking about. It is important to remember that everyone applying for LFM is interested in manufacturing/operations (m&o) so you have to explain what about m&o really gets you excited. That is something you will find here at LFM. Everyone in the program is honestly excited about m&o. I take pride in being associated with manufacturing. Before LFM, I made toilet paper and I am proud of that. I like telling people that I made toilet paper. I am proud of the fact that I made something of value, something that someone wants bad enough to spend their hard earned dollars on (or as my high-school government teacher said...buying something is casting your economic votes for that thing). Back to you and your essays...what motivates you to want to be associated with m&o? Do you want to get involved because you have an interest in companies operating "greener" (hippy! Go hug a tree)? Do you want to ensure that Americans (or some other country) have jobs in 20 years? Love working with complicated systems? What motivates you about m&o? That passion is not something the admissions people will see in your resume, academic record, or GMAT. Passion needs exude out of your essay.
Once you get a first draft down on paper, read your essay and try to think about it from the admission group's point of view. Does your essay stand out? Does it pop? Remember, these people are going through thousands of essays. You want them to remember yours. Each essay needs to have a purpose, it has to be telling a story about you and what makes you special. Each essay needs to show what you will bring to LFM. Let me say that again...each essay must show what YOU bring to LFM...not what LFM can do for you. If one essay shows your problem solving skills, your next essay needs to show your leadership skills, and your next one should show what you are passionate about. Don't double dip on any subject. Between all of the essays, you only have a couple hundred words to define yourself.
The editing process: When you are ready to submit, I would recommend you have someone you trust read your essays for grammatical errors and overall cohesion. My wife came in very handy here. She gooder at grammer than me be.
Word count: I am always reading on business school message boards..."Does it matter if I go over the word count by X?"...my opinion, YES! If the point was to write the longest essay, people would just go on and on and on about all of their magical accomplishments. It takes a skilled writer to say more with less (hence my obnoxiously wordy blogs :-) ). All of my essays were at least 30 words (or much more!) less than the limit. I think you need to go through your essay and really ask yourself...is this word...is this sentence necessary. Am I saying anything new? Don't forget "Shift-F7" which pulls up the thesaurus on Microsoft Word.
[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignnone" width="97" caption="Think abridged"]
[/caption]
Other information: The admissions group really does want to get to know you...they really do read these essays. Don't rely on your credentials...everyone has amazing credentials. It won't be like a business interview where you come in and the interviewer reads your resume in 30 seconds and ask you a question about your interests to break the ice. If you interview at LFM, the admissions person will know your stories from memory and will ask you questions about what you wrote. I remember the first week of class, the teachers would see a name tag and say "Oh X, you worked at Y doing Z right?". Funny thing I heard at an LFM student recruitment committee shortly before the class of 08 graduated. Someone on the LFM staff said that "product ships on X" meaning the LFM class of 2008 graduates and goes out into the world. LFM is in the business of producing leaders (particularly those interested in m&o) and they are very interested in the quality of the raw materials coming in (you!).
So what advice do I have? First, let me throw out some generalities like...be yourself...use gude grammah and propah spellin...followed by non-relevant pictures that hopefully motivate you
On to the serious stuff. Let me start by saying that these are just my opinions so don't take anything I say as the final or best way to approach the essays. This is just some things that came to mind when I remembered my essays.
How I started: When the essay prompts were posted I wrote each one down and started brainstorming. I had a thirty minute ride to work so I just thought as I drove and wrote down any ideas I had. I would say think about one prompt at a time and maybe write the first sentence or two and some of the main points for your favorite 3 examples that you brainstorm. This will help you get a feel for what your particular example will bring to a prompt.
Once you have some of these examples down on paper, start looking at all of the prompts together and decide which example works best for which essay. I am assuming that you want to use your best example and that your best examples could apply to multiple essay prompts. This is similar to what you do on interviews. You have a couple of key stories and find a way to apply your story to the question you are asked. Anyway, I am on the lower end of the experience pool within the class (I only worked 3 years) but I also had some volunteer/leadership work during that time. Some of my essays came from work and some came from my volunteering/leadership. I think it is a good idea to have some non-work examples. To me, undergrad/school does not count for this...think extracurricular activities when you were in undergrad...and if you do anything outside of work after you graduated, think about that. These non-work examples show how well rounded you are. You are well rounded aren't you? If you find yourself less than round, eat more. See the perfect circle:
[caption id="attachment_225" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Fat Bastard"]
[/caption]So now you have thought of some of your best examples that answer the prompts...but before your write, there are some other things to think about. When you think about what life examples you use for you essays, you need to think about what does LFM stand for (psst...it stands for Leaders for Manufacturing). You would be on the right track if some of your stories talked about your leadership skills and the challenges you have overcome as a leader. I can't stress enough how important the leadership component is. Honestly, it's in the program name. They (LFM) have a whole page dedicated to it on their website. Let me say this about the sponsor companies...the partner companies stay involved with the LFM program because of the quality of leaders this program produces. They don't put up their cash for our degrees...or because we are smart and hard working (though those are added bonuses)...they put up their cash because of our leadership potential. Leadership is an investment that will pay off for years and years.
The next part, manufacturing. Now yours truly is interested in manufacturing...but MANY of the people in LFM are really interested in operations (think supply chain...though it is not fair to generalize, I'll do it anyway). Checkout the LFM career page for a taste of what I am talking about. It is important to remember that everyone applying for LFM is interested in manufacturing/operations (m&o) so you have to explain what about m&o really gets you excited. That is something you will find here at LFM. Everyone in the program is honestly excited about m&o. I take pride in being associated with manufacturing. Before LFM, I made toilet paper and I am proud of that. I like telling people that I made toilet paper. I am proud of the fact that I made something of value, something that someone wants bad enough to spend their hard earned dollars on (or as my high-school government teacher said...buying something is casting your economic votes for that thing). Back to you and your essays...what motivates you to want to be associated with m&o? Do you want to get involved because you have an interest in companies operating "greener" (hippy! Go hug a tree)? Do you want to ensure that Americans (or some other country) have jobs in 20 years? Love working with complicated systems? What motivates you about m&o? That passion is not something the admissions people will see in your resume, academic record, or GMAT. Passion needs exude out of your essay.
Once you get a first draft down on paper, read your essay and try to think about it from the admission group's point of view. Does your essay stand out? Does it pop? Remember, these people are going through thousands of essays. You want them to remember yours. Each essay needs to have a purpose, it has to be telling a story about you and what makes you special. Each essay needs to show what you will bring to LFM. Let me say that again...each essay must show what YOU bring to LFM...not what LFM can do for you. If one essay shows your problem solving skills, your next essay needs to show your leadership skills, and your next one should show what you are passionate about. Don't double dip on any subject. Between all of the essays, you only have a couple hundred words to define yourself.
The editing process: When you are ready to submit, I would recommend you have someone you trust read your essays for grammatical errors and overall cohesion. My wife came in very handy here. She gooder at grammer than me be.
Word count: I am always reading on business school message boards..."Does it matter if I go over the word count by X?"...my opinion, YES! If the point was to write the longest essay, people would just go on and on and on about all of their magical accomplishments. It takes a skilled writer to say more with less (hence my obnoxiously wordy blogs :-) ). All of my essays were at least 30 words (or much more!) less than the limit. I think you need to go through your essay and really ask yourself...is this word...is this sentence necessary. Am I saying anything new? Don't forget "Shift-F7" which pulls up the thesaurus on Microsoft Word.
[caption id="attachment_231" align="alignnone" width="97" caption="Think abridged"]
[/caption]Other information: The admissions group really does want to get to know you...they really do read these essays. Don't rely on your credentials...everyone has amazing credentials. It won't be like a business interview where you come in and the interviewer reads your resume in 30 seconds and ask you a question about your interests to break the ice. If you interview at LFM, the admissions person will know your stories from memory and will ask you questions about what you wrote. I remember the first week of class, the teachers would see a name tag and say "Oh X, you worked at Y doing Z right?". Funny thing I heard at an LFM student recruitment committee shortly before the class of 08 graduated. Someone on the LFM staff said that "product ships on X" meaning the LFM class of 2008 graduates and goes out into the world. LFM is in the business of producing leaders (particularly those interested in m&o) and they are very interested in the quality of the raw materials coming in (you!).
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
LFM Application Process
So I have created a new category for my blog, LFM - Application Process. Since this blog is primarily for incoming students, to give them my interpretation of LFM, I wanted to cover the stressful process of applying. Generically I wanted to outline the time line I used for applying and anything I took from my experience. First I will start out with a little more background about myself.
It may seem silly but I have known that I wanted to get an Engineering degree and an MBA since high school. I am one of those nerdy people who was thinking about job security, salary ranges, and other fun words that are both incredibly important and unimportant all at the same time. In high school, my dream job was to be a 3D movie animation person (think Industrial Light and Magic, ILM, or Pixar) but I decided that it would be difficult to be successful in such a niche market. I was in high school when the whole dot-com thing was going on and I knew that it could not last...and then there would be a ton of computer trained people with nothing to do, which would limit my escape options if the animator role did not work out. Right or wrong..smart or stupid...I picked engineering plus MBA. Why did I select chemical engineering? It had the highest exit salary for undergrads. Its as good a reason as any and how was I supposed to know at 18? Anywho, I knew I wanted the MBA from my work experience in a chemical plant during high school. In high school I worked in a chemical plant for a specialty chemicals company entering data and helping out wherever necessary (driving the forklift, mixing batches of chemicals and distributing the product into drums, etc.). The manufacturing facility where I worked was next door to the main office so I also interacted with the company management. From talking to a number of people about what they did, I felt like I would enjoy working in a manufacturing facility in some type of managerial role and the degrees that I needed to acquire to get to that position were an engineering degree and an MBA.
Fast forward to undergrad. I took some business classes in undergrad along with my engineering classes. Engineering was tough but fun...business was laughably easy. At one point I thought about taking a 5th year to get a business degree as well as a chemical engineering degree which would allow me to get a 1-year MBA. In the end I ruled it out because I wanted to get work experience as soon as possible. I think this shows where I expected to get my MBA from. Some college located near wherever I was working.
Fast forward to the GMAT. I spent about a month studying for the GMAT. I actually spent three months, but the first two were so on and off that I ended up going back over the material I covered and so I don't count it. I purchased both the Kaplan books and the Princeton books. The Princeton books were good at talking about the strategy and generic topics to study and were the most useful for studying. The Kaplan books had a ton of examples for practice and were good for getting experience with problems. The GMAT is NOT that hard of a test. Given time, most people could figure out just about any problem in the GMAT (especially if they read the problem VERY carefully). What makes the GMAT difficult is the time constraint. I highly recommend spending about a month doing practice problems. The point here is to get to a point where you can work the problems out quickly and really to just get used to the test format. Don't practice with a calculator. Get used to estimating and multiplying things out.
I had a 30 min commute to and from work so I used that time to study flash cards for the month I studied. I found this to be very useful for the grammar part of the GMAT. For practice problems, I spent about an hour a night for two weeks and did two crash days (8 straight hours) the weekend before I took the test.
I took the GMAT late in May (which makes this blog quite late, but I had to start somewhere) and boy was I surprised. I scored very well and all of the sudden new options were opening up. Could I make it into a top B-school? Somehow I did.
On to the time line. I applied to three top B-schools and I allocated about 2 months to my essays and applications. I was able to reuse one or two essays, but basically it meant I had to write about 12 different essays. My due dates ranged from the end of October to mid December, so I was working on my applications from early October to mid November. I did not want to be rushed for something THIS important so I deliberately finished with a few weeks to spare for each deadline. I'm sure LFM does not advocate this, but I am perfectly willing to say that my work suffered slightly during this time period because I focused heavily on my applications. I'm certainly put in my hours at work, but I was not putting in anything extra. Your LFM application is due on December 15th, see the LFM FAQ for more information, so I would recommend you plan to use the month of November to write and edit your essays, get your recommendations, and to fill out your application.
This leads us back to the GMAT. If you have not already taken it, I would recommend signing up for it immediately. I talked to some people today who did not take the GMAT until later in the year (November/December) and I am glad I did not do that. Commit to a date and spend the money on the test. That will force you to start studying and stop putting it off. You don't want to be distracted by the GMAT while you are working on your applications, get that out of the way now!
When we get closer to the dealine I will write more about how I approached my essays, recommendations, and application.
It may seem silly but I have known that I wanted to get an Engineering degree and an MBA since high school. I am one of those nerdy people who was thinking about job security, salary ranges, and other fun words that are both incredibly important and unimportant all at the same time. In high school, my dream job was to be a 3D movie animation person (think Industrial Light and Magic, ILM, or Pixar) but I decided that it would be difficult to be successful in such a niche market. I was in high school when the whole dot-com thing was going on and I knew that it could not last...and then there would be a ton of computer trained people with nothing to do, which would limit my escape options if the animator role did not work out. Right or wrong..smart or stupid...I picked engineering plus MBA. Why did I select chemical engineering? It had the highest exit salary for undergrads. Its as good a reason as any and how was I supposed to know at 18? Anywho, I knew I wanted the MBA from my work experience in a chemical plant during high school. In high school I worked in a chemical plant for a specialty chemicals company entering data and helping out wherever necessary (driving the forklift, mixing batches of chemicals and distributing the product into drums, etc.). The manufacturing facility where I worked was next door to the main office so I also interacted with the company management. From talking to a number of people about what they did, I felt like I would enjoy working in a manufacturing facility in some type of managerial role and the degrees that I needed to acquire to get to that position were an engineering degree and an MBA.
Fast forward to undergrad. I took some business classes in undergrad along with my engineering classes. Engineering was tough but fun...business was laughably easy. At one point I thought about taking a 5th year to get a business degree as well as a chemical engineering degree which would allow me to get a 1-year MBA. In the end I ruled it out because I wanted to get work experience as soon as possible. I think this shows where I expected to get my MBA from. Some college located near wherever I was working.
Fast forward to the GMAT. I spent about a month studying for the GMAT. I actually spent three months, but the first two were so on and off that I ended up going back over the material I covered and so I don't count it. I purchased both the Kaplan books and the Princeton books. The Princeton books were good at talking about the strategy and generic topics to study and were the most useful for studying. The Kaplan books had a ton of examples for practice and were good for getting experience with problems. The GMAT is NOT that hard of a test. Given time, most people could figure out just about any problem in the GMAT (especially if they read the problem VERY carefully). What makes the GMAT difficult is the time constraint. I highly recommend spending about a month doing practice problems. The point here is to get to a point where you can work the problems out quickly and really to just get used to the test format. Don't practice with a calculator. Get used to estimating and multiplying things out.
I had a 30 min commute to and from work so I used that time to study flash cards for the month I studied. I found this to be very useful for the grammar part of the GMAT. For practice problems, I spent about an hour a night for two weeks and did two crash days (8 straight hours) the weekend before I took the test.
I took the GMAT late in May (which makes this blog quite late, but I had to start somewhere) and boy was I surprised. I scored very well and all of the sudden new options were opening up. Could I make it into a top B-school? Somehow I did.
On to the time line. I applied to three top B-schools and I allocated about 2 months to my essays and applications. I was able to reuse one or two essays, but basically it meant I had to write about 12 different essays. My due dates ranged from the end of October to mid December, so I was working on my applications from early October to mid November. I did not want to be rushed for something THIS important so I deliberately finished with a few weeks to spare for each deadline. I'm sure LFM does not advocate this, but I am perfectly willing to say that my work suffered slightly during this time period because I focused heavily on my applications. I'm certainly put in my hours at work, but I was not putting in anything extra. Your LFM application is due on December 15th, see the LFM FAQ for more information, so I would recommend you plan to use the month of November to write and edit your essays, get your recommendations, and to fill out your application.
This leads us back to the GMAT. If you have not already taken it, I would recommend signing up for it immediately. I talked to some people today who did not take the GMAT until later in the year (November/December) and I am glad I did not do that. Commit to a date and spend the money on the test. That will force you to start studying and stop putting it off. You don't want to be distracted by the GMAT while you are working on your applications, get that out of the way now!
When we get closer to the dealine I will write more about how I approached my essays, recommendations, and application.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)