How to choose schools? - 工管

各位，在去年申請前收到一封朋友給我的轉寄信，我覺得很得很好。

為尊重原作，我會註明出處與作者。

作者為願景代辦Envision的Mark Hsu，但是事先聲明三點:

1.我曾找願景接觸過，但是後來我的申請不是給願景辦的，而是自己弄得。

同時我也沒有認識的人是給願景辦而辦上的。

2.這篇文章應該是很久之前的，因為他裡面寫到的托福，滿分不是120分

3.轉貼純粹是認為文章的內容對申請者很有幫助，所以轉貼，並非為願景背書。

內容請各位板友自行審閱判斷。

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Q. How to choose schools?

A. Despite the availability of information on the Internet,

I still find Taiwanese students are still at a loss when choosing

an MBA program.

There are various publications ranking business school,

but I would suggest sticking with Business Week and the Financial Times.

Also, I'd say the rankings (as perceived by recruiters) do not change with time.

Basically, I'd divide the US schools into three groups:

I. HBS/Stanford/Wharton/Kellogg/Columbia/MIT/Chicago
II. Berkeley, Duke, Cornell, Yale, UCLA, Tuck, Michigan, NYU, Virginia
III CMU/UNC/Emory/USC/Austin

On the bubble: Georgetown/Indiana/Olin

Finance Schools (If you want to work in Asia):

1. Wharton 2. Chicago 3.Columbia 4. NYU 5. MIT


There is no doubt in my mind that Wharton is the #1 school if you

want to do Finance in Asia. It seems to me that half of the people

in investment banking in HK are from Wharton.

Based on my observations, finance in Asia is very prestige driven

so if your interest is in finance, your best option is to go to the

"core" finance schools.

Consulting:

To get into consulting, shoot for groups I & II. I don't think consulting

is as picky as investment banks. It seems to me that consulting firms value

"raw intelligence" more than past experience. I am not saying that to work

in IB you don't need to be smart, but not having prior experience in IB/finance

is a definite liability.

Corporate (staying in the US):

I'd say that if your intention is to stay in the US, then almost any of

the aforementioned schools would fit your needs.

To stay in the US, you'd (most likely) need to accept a middle/back office role.

If the three career paths don't sound appealing to you, you gotta seriously

reconsider why you want to spend so much money on an MBA.

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Q. Why male admissions are only less than 1/3 of female admissions?

A.
In all top business schools there is a huge imbalance of men vs. women.

So, a qualified woman spplicant has an advantage in the sense that she

adds diversity to a class. Taiwanese women have an additional advantage

being international students so in a way she scores two "points," one for

being a woman and another for being international.

I'd say to the Taiwanese men out there, this is just the reality of the

situation so don't be upset at something you can't change.

Are Tw women more qualified than Tw men? Obviously, this is difficult to

answer. Let me frame my answer this way, in the context of MBA applications

I'd answer "yes." Let me identify a few reasons why I think this way.

1. Military. Most Tw men must fulfill their compulsory military service.

This impacts the men in many ways. One example is that many men do a graduate

degree to avoid immediate military service. The additional 2-3 years of

graduate school hurt their career progress immensely because it pushes back

when a Tw man can get meaningful full-time employment and because (in my

opinion) a graduate degree obtained in Tw does not add to an applicant's

credentials and CAN in fact hurt an applicant. (Blame this

on the stupid Taiwanese universities that call every degree that the

business school grants an "MBA." ) Add to this fact that many in Tw perceive

"30" to be a ticking time bomb so rather than work a bit longer, many men feel

that they have to leave the country before they turn 3-0 and rush into the MBA.


2. English. I have met many Tw women who can speak English at near-native

fluency. I have not met many men who can do this. Based on my own data, I think

the % of female applicants who get interviews and the % of male applicants who

get interviews are actually similar. However, when we look at male applicants

the number of admissions as a percentage of applicants who interviewed is

significantlly lower than the percentage found in the female pool.

This leads me to believe that the difference in English abilities is also a

differentiating factor. I believe the degree of spoken English has a strong

correlation with other attributes that are associated with admission success,

such as the number of women vs. men who work at a multinational (MNC) and

also degree of open-mindedness.

3. Degree of Westernization: This is often an overlooked part of the

application especially among applicants to top schools. For a program

outside of the top 15-20, an applicant can usually hide behind a phone

interview, but for a top program where an alumni interview or worse yet,

an adcom interview is required, there is no hiding. Not only is your

English closely scrutinized, but your whole presence, including the way

you dress, your hair style and how you carry yourself, is under a microscope.



Now for the last part of the question: what can Tw men do to better their

chances?

I actually think it's not so bad to be a Tw man and let me explain why.

Don't think it's the boys vs the girls. It's not. After knowing some of

the Tw girls that were admitted to top 15 programs, I would hate to be in

the women's pool. In the women's pool, getting a 280 on the TOEFL would

only be considered fair. Instead, focus on being the best male applicant

in Taiwan.

Develop your own BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY.

Do less GMAT, more TOEFL

Instead of spending 12 months cramming for the GMAT and trying to push

your score to 760, I'd instead focus on English.

Just think to yourself how many times you have seen someone asking

"Is my TOEFL 243 enough?" on this board. You don't think the adcom knows

that something fishy is happening in China and Taiwan? My point is how b

elievable is a GMAT 700+ if the applicant can't get a good TOEFL score?

Imagine, if you are a male applicant and have a 280 on the TOEFL, you can

essentially "cross your legs and twirl your mustache" (this has to be in

Taiwanese for it to be funny) because you would stand out instantly from

your peers.

So in a word, I'd say "English."


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