One of the more challenging admissions essays this year has been HBS question 4: In your career you will have to deal with many ethical issues. What are likely to be the most challenging and what is your plan for developing the competencies you will need to handle these issues effectively? As Cornfed MBA points out, what makes this question so vexing for applicants is the forward looking aspect, asking you to predict future challenges rather than reflect on past experiences like the Wharton and Columbia questions.

While many applicants struggle with this exercise, HBS is not asking this question in vain. In fact, the ethics essay is just the first step in your ethical education should you attend HBS. Last year, Harvard Magazine covered the mandatory, full semester HBS course Leadership and Corporate Accountability. It is an interesting read and will give you insight into what HBS and other business schools are doing to augment future leaders’ standards of ethics. Tuck just announced the addition of a social leadership program. Stanford‘s new individualized curriculum includes ethical analysis. Kellogg also requires students to explore the ethical relationship between business and society. Business Ethics magazine has even profiled the top business schools for social stewardship.

In general, as an applicant, it is important to stay abreast of new program developments at business schools. You need to be able to show schools that you are prepared to help them build up academic programs such as Wharton’s international opportunities, professional clubs and conferences such as Columbia Women in Business, or even social organizations like the Haas Culinary Club. That way your essays will include specifics on why you are a great fit for their school and how you will contribute.

As we discussed last week, interview season is upon us for second round applicants. Many of the top schools such as HBS, Stanford, Wharton, and Chicago hold “invitation only” interviews. These schools seek to interview all accepted applicants, which means that you must receive and complete an interview in order to be accepted. Other schools such as Haas at UC Berkeley and Columbia may accept you without an interview.

Again, while Wharton had a deadline for releasing invitations to interview (Feb 15), HBS and Stanford do not have formal end date for interview invites. Often waiting for the invitation is the hardest part as Cyndi’s Journey mentions. Moreover, anxious applicants continue to question whether the timing of their interview invitation holds any significance. It does not. HBS unequivocally states this on their website. As you can see from AGirlsMBA and Stanford Life, you may be interviewing with an alum, an admissions officer, or even a current student depending on the school.

Regardless of when you receive your invitation or who is going to interview you, it is important to prepare for those tough interview questions. While you do not want to memorize answers so that you sound like you are making a prepared speech, you need to be the expert on all of your content. To that end, for the next few weeks we will feature suggestions for tackling common interview questions.  This week we are addressing a few of the common open ended questions that concern applicants.

Many interviews will begin with some version of “Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your resume”. It is hard to know where to begin with this.  One approach is to simply ask, “Where would you like me to begin?”  As an applicant, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for further clarification; this also makes the interview more of a conversation. Remember that the interview is a dialog, often with someone who could soon be your peer. Don’t feel like you need to read their mind and immediately “know” what they are looking for. In general, you will begin this question with college, and provide a brief chronology regarding decisions from there. Some applicants have reported being asked “Tell me about yourself – not the resume stuff”.  This is a different type of question, where you might start with where you grew up and provide more personal anecdotes about family and personal interests.

Another common question is, “Tell me about a typical day at work”. Here you can state that there is no truly typical day, but explain what you did yesterday, which is representative of the types of things you do at work.  Then you can provide a breakdown of some of the activities that you engaged in.  This is one to keep brief as you are not sharing your most unique selling points, but be sure to convey some nice diversity in your day.  An interviewer wants to understand more about your role at work and to know that you are not hiding in your cubicle all day.

Best of luck with waiting for the invitations and the interview themselves.  Check back next week for more tips on specific questions.

Pre-Participation Bliss writes that today he is off to a week of skiing in the Alps. This is a great feeling – knowing that you are admitted to a great school (in this case, INSEAD), the weight of applications off of your chest, and it’s time for a little celebration. You might be happy to know that the celebration does not have to end when school begins. There are many, many opportunities for fun throughout the MBA program. I would argue that the fun is an important part of the MBA experience. This is where you can forge friendships, bond with classmates, informally discuss business ideas or exchange world views. Many business plans are born over dinner at the local pub. Much of the important networking happens after hours, so if you are off to earn your MBA, don’t lock yourself in the library for two years! Here is a look at some of the fun, social activities you will encounter at various business schools.

Kellogg’s Ski and Snowboard Club – Each year approximately 700 Kellogg students and significant others travel to a different ski resort for a week of skiing, boarding and fun.

Yale MBA Soccer Cup – The Yale Soccer Cup attracts soccer clubs from many of the top business schools in the world for a weekend of competition and fun, and is one of the largest business school sporting events in the nation.

The Wharton Follies – The members of Follies write and perform an original musical comedy that exposes the funny side of business school and corporate life.

UCLA Anderson Chalenge for Charity (C4C) – Eight West Coast business schools compete in the Challenge for Charity competition for the coveted Golden Briefcase. The competition is comprised of fundraising, volunteering, and the annual Sports Weekend held each April at Stanford University.

Ross at Michigan’s M-Treks – Outdoor adventure trips which take place in mid-August and introduce incoming students to the culture and team based environment at the Ross School of Business. Treks visit locations such as Alaska, Costa Rica, Iceland and China.

Georgetown Ultimate Four – The Georgetown Ultimate Four is a two-day basketball tournament involving students from top MBA programs. The tournament raises funds for the “I Have a Dream” Foundation.

Tuck Winter Carnival - From ski racing and snow sculptures to the famous Kneissl Cup, the Tuck Winter Carnival is one of the country’s premiere MBA events. Each year over 300 skiers and fans from 20 of the top business schools gather at Dartmouth for a weekend of competition and revelry.

Last week BusinessWeek.com reported that several business schools have announced that their classes this Fall will be smaller than in the past. New curriculums at Yale and Stanford mean that both schools will be have slightly smaller classes next year. Stanford will be aiming for a class size of exactly 360. (This has always been their stated target, but they have recently been running up to around 378.) At Yale they are aiming for 195 in the new class of ’09. Darden and Syracuse’s Whitman School are also reducing class size for various reasons, and Columbia is considering a similar move, though it will not take place this year.

The size of a program is an important consideration when selecting schools. A larger school can, of course, lead to a larger business network once you graduate, and a larger pool of friends and peers while in school. A smaller program can allow for a more customized curriculum, and more personal interactions. This is the reason behind Stanford’s scaling back – small seminar classes and one-on-one advising are important aspects of their new curriculum.

A student experience at HBS, which had full time enrollment of 1,821 in 2005 (first and second years combined), will be completely different than the experience at a school such as Yale, which had enrollment of 438 during the same time. As you consider which schools you will apply to, think about the type of environment that you will enjoy, thrive in, feel comfortable in and benefit from.

US News published a complete list of full time program sizes and part time program sizes, when they published their 2007 Graduate School Rankings. It’s definitely worth a look as you put together your school list.

Wharton will release their final interview invitations for Round 2 (and deny without interview decisions) tomorrow, February 15. Harvard, on the other hand, may keep you waiting until their final decisions are released on March 28. Stanford also may keep you waiting a bit longer – they invite up until their Round 2 notification date on April 5. In addition, if you are waitlisted, both Harvard and Stanford may invite you to interview after Round 2 decisions have been released.

So, there are different degrees of “agony” attached to the waiting part of this process. Know that when you receive your interview is not a predictor for whether you will be admitted. If you are invited to interview, take this opportunity and run with it! You have passed a major hurdle, your written application was considered competitive, and you are still very much in the running. This is true if if you are invited on the first day or the last.

I know that many applicants out there can sympathize right now with Designer imperfect, who writes about failing hope, after applying to an extremely competitive group of schools, and not yet receiving any interview invites. The key is “not yet”. There is still time, and it’s best to focus on the schools where you are able to interview – concentrate on what you can control right now.

It’s also important to recognize that if it does not work out this year, it may be for a very good reason. Sometimes a school can recognize that you are not quite ready for business school and it really is in your best interest to wait, rethink your goals and apply again when you are more focused. To this end, I liked a line that Dave for MBA has running on his blog: “An MBA is a tool, not a goal.” It is important to keep in mind that the MBA is one tool (and yes, it can be a very important tool), but it is a means to help you reach your goals, and not the end goal itself. This may help to keep things in perspective and also help you when you are thinking about why you really want an MBA, what is your true goal, and how can the MBA help you?

For those of you who do not end up getting the answer you are looking for from Wharton tomorrow, and like Designer imperfect, are scratching your heads wondering, “what happened?”, feel free to schedule a free consultation with us, to help think through what might have gone wrong this year.

Good luck to all of you who are still waiting!

I read AGirlsMBA blog with interest, as she chronicles her very condensed MBA timeline. I struck me that while we generally encourage applicants to take their time and not cram everything into too short of a timeline, everyone has their own style and you need to figure out what makes the most sense for you, your goals and your schedule.

In reflections on the application process thus far, she explains that she completed 9 applications in three weeks! WOW! This is a very tight schedule, with little room for poor writing, or indecision about schools or strategy. Not to mention, it does not give recommenders much time. That said, if fast and furious is your style, you should also know that if you plan to apply, it is always to your benefit to plan ahead with regards to your candidacy. Candidacy is something that you can start working on NOW, as early as possible, and it is something that you can work on continually until you submit your applications. Jeremy Dann elaborates on this in a prior posting: Candidacy First, Application Second.

Candidacy is something that you really cannot cram into a few weeks before deadlines. Forexample, starting to work at a non-profit for just two weeks might be a bit suspicious. So be sure to put your best foot forward by working on candidacy now and setting yourself up for success in the future regardless of how you approach the tactical portion of your application process.