Let's look at a few MBA items:

• Accepted and Manhattan GMAT are teaming up for a free MBA admissions information session. on  Thursday June 26 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM at MGMAT's Santa Monica Center.
  

  During the first part of the session, I will explore the purpose of the MBA application essays, suggest an effective structure, and recommend writing tools you can use to craft distinctive, engaging essays that will personalize you and take you well beyond the boxes and numbers contained in other parts of your application.

  Then, one of ManhattanGMAT’s expert instructors will separate fact from fiction with respect to the grueling GMAT exam – you’ll walk out knowing how the GMAT works, what it tests, how business schools interpret scores, and why short-cuts and tricks will only get you so far. Sign up today! 

  Remember, if you purchase an MGMAT prep course or tutoring and enter  the coupon code  AACMG, you will get 10% off your GMAT prep.

• Beautiful B-School Photo Contest Winners.

• Last two days to save on MBA BlastOff: 45 Terrific Tips to Launch Your MBA Application to Acceptance. Enter "MBA" in the coupon code box during check out to save 20%. Discount ends tomorrow May 31, 2008.
  
  
• Wondering about Chicago's Powerpoint question? BW's Alison Damast interviewed Rose Martinelli, associate dean for student recruitment at The University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, about that very question in the new BW Getting In blog.  Here is an excerpt:
  
  
  The [powerpoint slides] that stood out were from the students who showed a side of themselves that wasn't in the rest of their application, Martinelli said. "You could tell when someone figured out how to work with the ambiguity and really embraced that, rather than saying, 'I'm going to play it safe and regurgitate what is in my application already.'"
  
  Hint: Every essay -- not just the powerpoint or creative ones -- should show "a side of [you] that wasn't in the rest of their application."
  
  
• Social Networking and MBA Admissions. The Wall St. Journal surveys the MBA social networking scene in "Internet Gives MBA Schools Global Reach." MBA forums, chats, Facebook, blogs all provide you with great ways to learn about the different schools. There is no shortage of information. Perhaps there's even a glut.
  

If you follow the news, you’ve probably heard the term “helicopter parents” by now—these are the parents of high-school and college-age students who “micromanage” their children’s admissions efforts—and lives. But you may not know that the helicopter parent has a lesser-known sibling: the helicopter spouse, a kind, loving person with the best of intentions, who can actually hinder the application process rather than smoothing the way.

So, here are a few hints for spouses/partners who want to help their significant others succeed in the application process:

First—and perhaps most importantly—be sure that going back to school is what your partner really wants to do, not just what you think is best. It’s great to be encouraging, but if your partner is convinced that he or she is not yet ready to take this step, please listen. It’s sometimes tough to see clearly through the rose-colored glasses of love, so you may not have a completely realistic understanding of how ready your spouse really is to go ahead and apply.

Don’t take on too much of the planning—be supportive without taking over. It’s great to have a willing helper to organize paperwork, fill out transcript request forms, set up calendar reminders of milestones and deadlines, and surf the Internet for informative forum posts, but it’s best if you ask “how can I help?” rather than just presenting your handiwork as a fait accompli.

This is especially important if your partner is considering working with a consultant. Coming up with a list of possibilities is definitely something you can assist with, but the applicant should be the one to have that initial discussion with the consultant, to get a sense of what their working relationship will be like.

Whether your partner will be working on the applications alone or with a consultant’s assistance, try to keep your hands (and eyes!) off the essays in their early stages. It’s fine to toss around story ideas, brainstorm about long-term goals, or discuss the strong points of the various programs (that last point is actually one of the key areas where you can be most helpful!), but when the actual writing and editing process starts, step back for a while. It’s important to give your partner the chance to create “working drafts” of those essays from start to finish in his or her own voice before you start offering constructive criticism as your contribution to the editing/polishing process.

About that criticism... what your partner needs from you right now is clarity and honesty. This doesn’t mean that you should rip the drafts apart mercilessly—“tough love” can backfire! Yes, you need to speak up if you truly believe that an essay isn’t working, but being dismissive or unkind about a draft that someone has spent hours or even days working on is something like telling a new mother that her baby is ugly. In your feedback, address a few simple questions: Is the essay an appropriate response to the prompt? Is it interesting and engaging? Does it make sense? Does anything seem to be missing? Are there any grammar or punctuation problems?

Finally, remember that the application process can be just as emotionally draining as it is intellectually challenging. Your partner is being asked to write about unfamiliar topics in a style that may be completely unlike the writing he or she does in the workplace. This can lead to crises of confidence, feelings of “burnout,” and almost certainly some grumpy moments (try not to take those personally!). Offer your love and support, as always, but resist the urge to swoop in, helicopter-style, and fix everything—you can’t. I hesitate to use jargon-y words like “ownership,” since I’m always scolding my clients for putting stuff like that in their essays—but at the end of this crazy, time-consuming, life-sucking admissions season, no matter what the results, your partner will almost certainly feel an intense rush of satisfaction, knowing that he or she has truly owned this process.

If you want someone else, a professional, to guide your significant other, check out Accepted's admissions editing and consulting.

The academic year is over for most universities. "On or about June 4" you will be able to submit your application to AMCAS. Many of you are working on your AMCAS essay. And you must have questions about your chances, your strategies, and your options.

The Accepted Medical School Admissions Telethon(TM) can provide answers. During two hours on Thursday, June 12, admissions consultants will stand by to offer advice to medical school hopefuls. Candidates can speak with one of these admissions experts -- FREE. 

Accepted.com editors Cydney Foote and Joan Davis will be on hand during the Medical School Admissions Telethon to advise applicants on strategies for essays and secondaries, mitigating weaknesses, and even which recommenders to choose. Says Foote, “I see so many applicants who overlook the more unique aspects of their lives, instead writing the more generic stories that they think the admissions committees want to hear. They just aren't aware of what they can do to make themselves more competitive.”

Consultants who have experience working with hundreds of medical school applicants can provide that awareness. Davis observes, "So many applicants forget that the AMCAS application requires lists of work experience, volunteer experience, research experience, etc. The essays they produce are often just expanded versions of the lists, and they share nothing of personal backgrounds which are often real attention-getters."

Foote adds that non-traditional students can especially benefit from an admissions consultant's advice. "Applicants who don't fit the regular cookie-cutter mold have an uphill battle. Even in a short conversation, we can share some of the proven steps that have helped past client get noticed -- and accepted -- by top medical schools."

The Medical School Admissions Telethon offers 2009 candidates a chance to obtain the knowledgeable advice that can help them stand out in a crowded applicant pool. And the June 12 telethon will be the last med school telethon for 2009 applicants.

For more information and to sign up, please visit Accepted.com Medical School Admissions Telethon. The telethon is free, but it does require registration for you to obtain the call-in information and the consultation.

The essay-writing process begins with introspection; there's no shortcut around it. Before you begin writing, even before you know the questions your schools asked, begin developing a short personal marketing message or "handle" that integrates the key themes (strengths, experiences, interests) you want your application to communicate.

Imagine the admissions process as a cocktail party. Your hosts' (the adcoms) time is limited. They must make the rounds with all their “guests” (applicants) before the night’s over. Since you can't give them your whole life story, everything you say must communicate a compact, multidimensional message that's distinctive enough for your host to remember long after other “partygoers” have made their pitch. Take your time, cast your net widely, and ask friends and family for their input, so the handle you devise reflects key uniqueness factors from your professional, personal, community, and academic lives.

As a rule of thumb, construct your self-marketing handle out of four or five themes, each one rich enough to build an essay around. If you come up with "a natural leader with strong analytical skills and a social conscience," you're thinking far too broadly. If your handle runs past a sentence or two, unless it's truly scintillating, business schools may lose it in the crowd. The blend of themes should emphasize your multidimensionality. That is, you're not only a testing team lead at IBM, but you’re also a Norwegian American raised in Ecuador who also loves taxidermy and tutoring immigrant kids for the Knowledge Trust Alliance.

Remember that your admissions "hosts" will be bringing a long memory of past conversations to your brief encounter. Simply telling them you're a banker or marketing manager will trigger all sorts of valid assumptions about your skills and professional exposures. If you’re applying from a traditional MBA feeder profession like consulting or investment banking, for example, your handle will come equipped with analytical and quantitative strengths. So round it out distinctively by including themes that B-schools don't automatically associate with your profession, such as creativity (e.g., your lifelong devotion to basket weaving), social-impact causes (e.g., that stint training subsistence farmers in Malawi), or out-of-the-box professional experiences (e.g., your first career as a geography teacher). Or look for unusual childhood or family experiences, distinctive hobbies, or international experiences that offset the predictability of your professional profile -- and incorporate these into your handle.

Although a distinctive multidimensional handle is ideal, it must truly capture who you are. Don't try to force a theme -- "internationalism," for example, or "creativity" -- onto your profile if you don't have the experiences to back it out. Again, each of your handle’s themes must be deep enough that you could write a full essay around it.

Excerpted from Great Application Essays for Business School by Paul Bodine (McGraw-Hill, 2006).

My comments are in red.

Harvard Business School MBA Application Deadlines 

                    Application Submission         Notification Date

Round 1     October 15, 2008                             January 21, 2009
Round 2     January 6, 2009                                 April 2, 2009
Round 3     March 11, 2009                                   May 13, 2009

Harvard Business School MBA Essay Instructions and Questions 

All applicants must submit answers to four essay questions. The first two questions are required of all applicants. The remaining two essays may be in response to your choice of the next four sub-questions.

Joint program applicants for the Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School, and Kennedy School of Government must provide an additional essay.

Essays  Questions:

1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

This is practically Harvard's signature question. It has been around for years and it goes to the heart of Harvard's values. It wants highly accomplished students entering its program. It wants leaders.

At least one and probably two of the three accomplishments should show leadership and/or teamwork with the emphasis being on leadership. I also like to have this essay show some breadth. My ideal would be to have one professional, one community, and one personal accomplishment in this essay, but that breakdown is neither set in stone nor imperative.

2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
People of initiative err. They must learn from those mistakes to be effective leaders. 

A friend went to her daughter's graduation and quoted the valedictory address,  "In school you learn lessons and then take tests. In life, you have tests and then learn lessons." If you view  your mistakes as experiments, lessons, or tests, you can grow and make sure you don't repeat them. Show HBS through this essay that you are the kind of person who learns from your mistakes.

Again, try to have this question reveal you making your mistake, preferably in a leadership capacity, and applying lessons learned in a sphere of your life not covered by other essays. In the best HBS applications, each essay uncovers a different facet of the applicant and his or her experience. Together they paint a portrait of a dynamic, talented leader with initiative and exceptional ability.

3. Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

This question was optional last year and mandatory the year before that. When introduced, I thought it was going to produce monotonous, boring essays, but it didn't. To my pleasant surprise, I reviewed several of these essays as part of our quality control program, and they were revealing, excellent essays.

This question reflects Harvard's interest in early career applicants and really gives them a chance to shine. This essay represents HBS' attempt to see patterns over time.  What you choose to include here will obviously vary depending on your experience and the rest of your application, but my ideal answer will discuss  a leadership experience from your undergrad career to show that you are a natural leader with a history of leadership. Remember: HBS wants to develop leaders, not create them.

2. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.
New question. As you answer this question, once again keep in mind Harvard's single-minded focus on leadership. Did you motivate, inspire, plan, or organize? If you did, what were the results of your actions? Did you increase revenue? membership? communal impact? "Community or organization" is very broad so you could answer this question and relate it to work, but most of you will want to answer this question with non-professional initiatives in your community.

3. What area of the world are you most curious about and why?

New question. If you are curious about a region, that curiosity should manifest itself in action.  Visiting is one form of action, but it is not the only one. Also, don't neglect to answer the "Why" part of the question. Harvard seeks to understand what makes you tick.

4. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

Harvard is one of the few, if not the only, top business school that has made the goals question optional. And even this one is a little different than the typical "What do you want to do and why do you want to do it?" The interesting twist to Harvard's question is "career vision." With Harvard's focus on strategy, Harvard is asking you to develop your career strategy and discuss its importance to you. But don't leave your answer on an entirely theoretical plane. Bring it down to earth with your plan for implementing that vision. In other words writing that you seek "a career leading an innovative enterprise, providing work-life balance, and allowing me the opportunity to contribute to my community" sounds great. But it will also sound a lot like other people's visions. You need to have some idea of how to achieve that vision, define it more narrowly, and explain why it resonates with you.

For more on the concept of vision, please see "The Parable of the Three Stone Masons."I believe that HBS is attempting to identify those who are like the third stonemason -- perhaps with less religious fervor but with well... that kind of vision. They are still working hard, with feet on the ground, but they radiate enthusiasm for a distant goal and pride in their ability to contribute to something much larger than themselves.

If you would like help with your Harvard MBA application, please consider Accepted's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a Harvard MBA Comprehensive Package, which includes essay editing, interview coaching, consultation, and a resume edit for the Harvard MBA application. 

Other resources to help you with your Harvard Business School MBA application:

• The Consultant`s Guide to MBA Admission, an ebook by Cindy Tokumitsu and me with a focus on Harvard.
  
• MBA BlastOff: 45 Terrific Tips to Launch Your MBA Application to Acceptance, an ebook by Maxx Duffy and me with tips for H/S/W. 20% off during May.

Final suggestion, actually from Dee Leopold, Director of Harvard's MBA Admissions, watch the video Inside the HBS Case Method.