Customer Reviews

Marketing Yourself to the Top Business Schools

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book covers many of the same ideas that Richard Montauk's book does: how to position yourself to business schools, the importance of knowing the school, etc. However, the advice is outdated with much of the advice written in reference to the early 1990s when the authors attended HBS. Further, most of the advice is given in the form of critiquing the essays of others, which is a somewhat tedious way to get the message.

I think that the Montauk book does a better job of addressing the positioning/marketing issues, and Montauk has is a more robust treatment of the rest of the application process. Save your money and skip this book.

THis book is useful but it is somehow outdated. I wish that the authors would write a new version that would be more up-to-date. I have the impression that the rules of the game have a bit changed.

The title offers the key to the MBA application process: Marketing.

1) Treat your application as a whole with each part adding a new piece to the jigsaw puzzle. Naturally, you must know the product (you) and the customer (school/admissions committee).

2) Know yourself. Determine your positioning statement first. What is the major theme that will pervade your application? What makes you different from the other 10,000+ Harvard applicants?

3) Know the school. Learn as much as you can about the schools. Each of them has a different market position and culture. You have to get past the information on the website or else you will bore the admissions committee to sleep. Visit the schools and talk to alumni.

4) Good tips on writing: keep it simple, write colorfully, edit mercilessly. (chapter 7)

5) 42 pages of essays, but if you want to see a lot of essays, read Richard Montauk's HOW TO GET INTO THE TOP MBA PROGRAMS (over 90 essays from 30 different people).

As other reviewers mentioned, this book is not a bad place to start, but it is terribly outdated - no mention of the internet.

The book written by two Harvard BS graduates, it is full of examples like "one of our friends who attended Princeton before applying did this," or "our Stanford fellow tried that..." Although it does contain the basic information about positioning oneself while applying to a business school, it seems to consentrate on the means of distinguishing one from a pool of the perfect applicatnts with 750 GMAT score, perfect ivy league undergrad records, and impeccable work experience... If you are not one of those, better search for other source of info. International students - you will hardly find any applicable advice in this book other than "try to emphasize your ethnic origins."

I thought this book was very helpful in its advice on preparing for the application process, brainstorming ideas etc. I would have benefitted from more help about the essays- need more details. Although they give examples of good essays, they are all from people with exceptional experience and some special ethnic or unique background- need some from a regular MBA applicant who needs some help. All in all though, an excellent guide to the entire process. I would recommend it for anyone looking to apply. The only other thing this book needs is an update- the authors graduated years ago and the bus school environment has changed a lot since then!

A "must read" if you are serious about getting into the top 3 business schools. Very insightful. It demystifies the admission requirement and helps me to start with the correct mindset in order to differentiate yourself from the rest of the extraodinary applicants. I made it to both Harvard and Stanford MBA programs and feel grateful for Carpenters' input.

This book was probably a killer a few years ago. It is now about 6 year old and it is easy to tell since most of advice are somehow not relevant to current application dossier. I would be ready to buy a new version of this book (if any) but I have to say that I was very disappointed buy this current version.

This is really an outstanding book in this area. I've read multiple books in this area, but so far, this one is the best. The only improvement I can think of is an update. It's kind of old now because it was published five years ago. I assume that a lot of things have changed since then. Anyway, this is a very good book.

If you skip over the parts where they tell you things like set aside time to call the school and request materials, this book is great. A new edition that recognizes the advent of that thing called a computer and its friend the internet, and this book would be five stars. Very valuable information.

Reading this book is an excellent way to start the MBA Application process. It lays out everything that you need to begin.

Before reading this book, I was lost and overwhelmed with the prospect of applying to business school. I didn't have any confidence in myself, though I went to a top undergrad, good gpa, etc.

Thank you Carpenters for your excellent book!