Chicago GSB Admit: Any Questions Anybody??

[varunk]

Was just wondering about the essay word limit of 1500 for Chicago's 1st essay:

My draft is coming to about 1380. While that is within the limit, does it make more sense to shorten this somewhat, to engage the reader's attention a little more over a shorter span?

Admitted people: what were your word counts?!

[deba_s56]

Originally Posted by varunk

Was just wondering about the essay word limit of 1500 for Chicago's 1st essay:

My draft is coming to about 1380. While that is within the limit, does it make more sense to shorten this somewhat, to engage the reader's attention a little more over a shorter span?

Admitted people: what were your word counts?!

In Chicago's set of essays, this is the only essay that asks you about your career, career goals, why MBA, and Why Chicago etc. Other two essays are more to show your personality.

I think one should utilize the entire 1500 word limit. You can even add what you will do for Chicago in that essay. I wrote somewhere around 1490 words. To me, writing in 100-200 less words, that too in the main essay, is wasting an oppurtunity to add some more gist to your application.

[maxwriter]

Originally Posted by deba_s56

In Chicago's set of essays, this is the only essay that asks you about your career, career goals, why MBA, and Why Chicago etc. Other two essays are more to show your personality.

I think one should utilize the entire 1500 word limit. You can even add what you will do for Chicago in that essay. I wrote somewhere around 1490 words. To me, writing in 100-200 less words, that too in the main essay, is wasting an oppurtunity to add some more gist to your application.

Hi Deba,

Can you please look at my profile on the last page and give your opinion on the same.

[deba_s56]

Originally Posted by maxwriter

Hi deba, kunal, iday,

I am listing my profile here. I wanted an idea as to whether my school selection for my profile is realistic. I have put this up at jeremy's thread as well. But, I would love to have opinions from you guys as well.

Academics
X- 90.8% (CBSE)
XII- 86% (CBSE)

B.Tech. (Information & Communication Technology) - 3.1/4 (81%)

GMAT
Score : 770 (V:44 Q:51)

Experience
Worked for more than 2 years (3 years by fall 2008 ) in semiconductor industry in Circuit Design in India. Have been pretty successful at work, earning top grades at office and also a promotion. Seen significant increase in work responsibility over the past 2 years as well as have done mentor ship of new trainees. Recently, won an award for my work at office.

Have held a teaching assistant post for a course in Interactive Design in my final B.Tech semester. This opportunity was given only to the brightest in my undergrad school.

Extra-curricular activities
- Not a lot during college. But was a member of various communities at college.
- Wrote a couple of papers at work and a paper at my undergrad school which was selected at the IEEE student paper contest from R10SPC area (ASIA)
- Am the champion of the hardware community at my organization which is a community of 250 members
- Taken up courses in Japanese language and plan to write a certification exam in Dec, 07
- Am involved in teaching under-privileged refugee children through the community service efforts of my organization for the past 2 years.

In my profile, what I see as my most weakest links are the extracurriculars, especially at my undergrad. Also, the number of years of work experience is a little less. I am confident that I can write good essays and manage decent recommendations.

I plan to apply to following schools:
Wharton, Chicago, Kellogs, Stern, Sloan and Tuck.

I wanted to know if my list of schools is realistic and if I have a decent chance of getting through any of them.

I am looking for a MBA and have an interest in the consulting domain. I am not sure whether my past background can be a hindrance and whether my list of schools accurately mirrors my needs and is realistic.

As I have said earlier, please do not ask me to evaluate profiles. I have not seen many profiles to evaluate any profile. Run your profile freely through various consultants available over internet. They will give you a very realistic evaluation.

However, you may research few other schools such as Ross, Duke, Darden , UCLA etc to spread your risk better. The schools that you have mentioned are in general very tough to get in irrespective of profile.

[nitiman]

Hi,
M not a chicago applicant but I want to ask a very general question.

I have the first draft of my essays ready. But I m not able to understand how do I refine them. What details do I look out for while editing? How and when can I say that my essays are perfect and I can submit them now?
I know, stupid questions but this editing thing is really driving me crazy. Would u guys recommend going for professional essay editing services especially considering the fact that I am not a very good writer?

[deba_s56]

Originally Posted by nitiman

Hi,
M not a chicago applicant but I want to ask a very general question.

I have the first draft of my essays ready. But I m not able to understand how do I refine them. What details do I look out for while editing? How and when can I say that my essays are perfect and I can submit them now?
I know, stupid questions but this editing thing is really driving me crazy. Would u guys recommend going for professional essay editing services especially considering the fact that I am not a very good writer?

I have just jotted down what came to my mind. I am sure there are more things to take care of.

- Ask few of your friends (if you know anybody who knows the international b-school application process, you must ask him for review) to review your essay and give their feedback. Consider their feedback in detail and decide which of them you want to implement. Ask them whether they are clearly getting what you wanted to present in your essays.
- Leave the essay for few days and then revisit it. You will find some mistakes and some ways to improve the essay by yourself.
- Usually, the number of words in your first draft would have most likedly exceeded the word limit by a good amount. Try to revisit each line and paragraph and see if it is possible to remove any redundant words and/or sentences. Basically, try to utilize your word limit to the maximum.
- Check against wordiness. See if any of your sentences are too wordy and how you can rewrite them in simple English.
- After you are done with the content of your essay and your way of writing, you can solely focus on correcting the grammar. Use the tricks that you learned during GMAT preparation to correct your sentences. Ask somebody who is really good in English, if you know, to correct your sentences. There are free grammar checker softwares available in internet. You may use them for checking basic grammar along with the previous steps.

I do not really know about the Essay editing services. It will depend a lot upon how much cash you are ready to spend on your essay editing. Ask people in this forum or outside who have taken essay editing services to see the value they have got. Just see to it that the quality of the essay editing service must be very good.

[california]

hey.....would like to know about the admission procedure...m willing to do my masters from chicago.....n lemme tell ya...m not carrying any work expereince...or stuff like that...i'm in my final year of BBA...moreover i dont wish to drop 2-3 years in order to gain work experience...so is there any possibility that i can apply.....immediately after completing my bachelors..??

[deba_s56]

Originally Posted by california

hey.....would like to know about the admission procedure...m willing to do my masters from chicago.....n lemme tell ya...m not carrying any work expereince...or stuff like that...i'm in my final year of BBA...moreover i dont wish to drop 2-3 years in order to gain work experience...so is there any possibility that i can apply.....immediately after completing my bachelors..??

You can very well apply. But realistically speaking, you have minuscule chances of getting an admit unless you have a super-duper profile, which you are welcome to share here if you think so.

Moreover, you do not really drop 2-3 years just to gain work experience. Those 2-3 years, or even more, of work experience will prove invaluable for you to gain the maximum out of an international MBA program.

Regarding detailed admission procedure, you can visit University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (Chicago GSB) - Business School, Full-time, Part-time, Executive MBA Programs to get all the nuances of admission procedure.

[california]

yeah....i do understand....but trust me..m really confused man....honestly speaking.......i dont carry super duper-profile....if u tok bout my high school result....i secured 60% and 65% respectively...in class 10th and 12th....and regarding my graduation result ..i can give you an idea..that an aggregate of 55% can be expected at the end of my 3rd year.....now cherry on the cake is...i am doin my BBA from a private institute...now tell me wot are my chances.....???

[deba_s56]

Originally Posted by california

yeah....i do understand....but trust me..m really confused man....honestly speaking.......i dont carry super duper-profile....if u tok bout my high school result....i secured 60% and 65% respectively...in class 10th and 12th....and regarding my graduation result ..i can give you an idea..that an aggregate of 55% can be expected at the end of my 3rd year.....now cherry on the cake is...i am doin my BBA from a private institute...now tell me wot are my chances.....???

If you apply now, I think your chances are almost close to zero.