What do MBA admissions directors want in applicants?

Schools report trends including an increasingly international mix of potential students and a rise in the number of women.

Crystal Grant, head of admissions at Imperial College Business School in London, says international diversity in the classroom has grown. She adds: “More candidates are also planning to launch entrepreneurial ventures or join start-ups immediately after their MBA rather than three to five years after.”

Ceibs, based in Shanghai, China, has a growing number of students who want to remain in Asia after graduation. “Sixty-four per cent of international students in the current class, to graduate in 2018, highlighted Shanghai and Asia-Pacific as their desired job locations,” says Yvonne Li, MBA director of admissions and career services. “This compares with 30 per cent in the previous class.”

MBA students are coming from a wider range of industries. Brandon Kirby, MBA recruitment and admissions director at Rotterdam School of Management, says more applications are from the non-profit sector, as non-governmental organizations start to behave more like businesses. “We have also seen an uptick in Latin American applications,” says Kirby. “And we are also seeing an increase in applications from the healthcare and legal industries.”

For more please the following article in the Financial Times

Why your GMAT score is important, and what it tells MBA admissions people about you

According to many MBA admissions people, the GMAT is a very important part of the overall application process. According to Yvonne Li, director of MBA admissions at CEIBS in Shanghai, a GMAT score can provide an admissions committee with a range of indicators about a potential MBA student's skills, as well as his or her overall fit with the school.

A GMAT score can also help a business school understand if an MBA candidate has the necessary quantitative skills, which can be a big part of the business school experience.

“Because our program is rooted deeply in analytics, a student's ability to process and solve complex problems is important,” says Kelly Wilson, the executive director of masters admissions at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.

But by and large, most MBA admissions staff agree that a competitive candidate is one whose GMAT score falls within the school's middle 80 percent range of scores – referring to the scores that the majority of admitted schools tend to get. For instance, the middle 80 percent range of admitted MBA students at Tepper is 630 to 750.

For more please the following article in Find MBA