Welcome to high education network

Winning Strategies for Applications to Global B-schools Programs

Step two: Prepare a Winning Application

Resume

Your  resume is a brief  overview of your past.  As  such it is best used to tell the admissions committee about  a  variety  of  past  experiences  in  a  way  that  demonstrates  career  progress.  Without  stating  them directly, you will be able to hint at some skills and knowledge you have gained through these experiences. However,  your  resume  won't  tell  anything  about  your  vision  of  the  future,  nor  will  it  give  much information  about  your  personality.  The  following  are  some  tips  from  our  resume  manual  to  get  you started. For more advice, contact RnA about our resume class and custom resume production service.

TIPS FROM OUR RESUME MANUAL

1. A well-formatted application resume should be:

  1. one page long, in which only the best things are shown (quite different from a job resume,
    which is longer and more thorough)
  2. divided into 4 or 5 sections, which is standard format and helps to make your resume easy
    to read
  3. concise, using bullet pointed phrases and including only selected items about your past (a resume is often read in 30-60 seconds so it needs to be exceptionally clear)

2.     In addition, an effective application resume :

  1. shows growth: it should show, in reverse chronological order, an increase in skills and
    knowledge, leaving no unexplained gaps of time
  2. shows  balance:  it  should  contain  both  professional  and  personal  experiences  (more professional  than  personal,  but  both  are  important),and  experiences  demonstrating  avariety of skills and/or knowledge

3. An application resume should not include:

  1. Standardized test scores
  2. Common office computer skills (Excel, Word, etc.)
  3. Height, weight, race or ethnicity, family information
  4. Salary (unless it is requested)
  5. Photograph
  6. The word "Resume" at the top

Essay

Application  essays  are  your  best  opportunity  to  tell  the  admissions  committee  what  you  want  them  to know. Essays are thus ideally suited for interpreting your experiences for the committee. By illustrating your answer to each question with a limited number of well-selected past experiences, you will be able to call attention to the skills and knowledge you have gained that will be useful in your future. Essays are also the ideal place to elaborate on your vision of the future. The following are some tips from our essay manual  to  get  you  started.  For  more  advice,  contact  RnA  about  our  essay  class  and  one-on-one  essay counseling services.

  1. Start  by  working  on  essays  for  a  second  choice  school.  Your  writing  will  improve  as  you  go along, so begin with a school that is either less selective or less important to you.

  2. Work on only one school's essays at a time. All of the essays for a single school work together to show your strengths and your selling point, so you should work on them as a package.

  3. Give yourself LOTS of time. Essay writing requires planning, introspection and reflection, and as a result, effective essays only come about as a result of many revisions.

  4. Identify  the  Question  behind  the  Question  before  you  begin  to  write.  What  is  it  that  the admissions committee really wants to know about you from this question?

  5. When  you  start  to  write,  make  an  organizational  plan.  It  is  likely  that  your  essays  will  be  read quickly, so it is important that your main points not be missed. Use the question itself to help you organize.

  6. Follow  your  organizational  plan,  and  write  in  paragraph  style  with  a  topic  sentence  at  the beginning of each paragraph. Then illustrate your ideas in detail.

  7. After you're done with each essay, go back and revise the content. Re-read the question and make sure you've answered every part of it. Read your essay and look for general statements - add detail or supporting stories to these sections. Look for parts of the essay that are not really about YOU and shorten or eliminate them.

  8. Finally,  revise  the  structure  of  each  essay.  Make  sure  you  have  a  topic  sentence,  smooth

    transitions between paragraphs, and the correct page, paragraph or word limit. You can exceed the word limit by up to 10%, but do not exceed the paragraph or page limit. At this point, make sure your  font  is  10-12  point,  your  margins  are  no  smaller  than  1  inch,  and  your  lines  are  double- spaced.

 

previous next