Sunday, January 8, 2012

Just the beginning (iii)

Continuing with MBA application 'road-map', I will describe how was my personal experience with steps five and six. I would like to start this post with another sentence but will leave it for the end.
Step five is about selecting your reference. It doesn't mean to choose high-positioned executive in your current or previous job. What it involves is that you have to be smart to select two or three people (depending on what business school requires) who can 'talk' about you from a deep point of view, people who have been witnesses of your performance and progression during you professional path. Your references must agree with what you are mentioning on your essays. The reason for this advice is that admission officers must be able to identify a unique individual, not two or three of they find that your references show one applicant and your essays another. Be careful with that. It is recommended that you meet your referees in order to mention and discuss which kind of questions will they face and drafting a possible answer they could give. Do not obligate them to answer what you want. Let them to inspire. From personal and others experience, sometimes referees suggest to applicant to prepare a draft version for answer and them they read it and send a final answer to schools. In all situations, be prepared to select references and take advantage of the knowledge they have about you.
Next step, the sixth, comes on board only if you receive an admission offer from selected business school. So, assuming all previous steps were developed successfully, I will continue with number six. Note: important suggestion: try to apply by the first deadline (it will help you to do correctly next step). Continuing, in this part of the lane you have to arrange all documents necessary for Visa, housing, payments and that kind of obligations you now have with school. For this, it is implied that when you took the decision to apply you review some information on how to finance your studies. If you didn't, DO IT NOW!!!
Regarindg Visa, housing and payments, officers from school contact you to detail what documents you need for each instance, for example: original transcripts, passport with due dat longer than your expected permanence abroad, proof of enough income (here you have loans, savings, etc.), insurance, payment in advance to proceed with your documents and so on. There are many activities you have to do in order to have everything ready prior to your flight to destination. It is better to buy air ticket after your Visa has been approved but sometimes you find irresistible offers from air companies (especially if you have to cross an ocean) that you can bet you will get a positive answer from migrations and buy your ticket in advance. It depends on your instinct.
Finally, I have to talk about last step, named "enjoy the journey", but here I will dissapoint you because I don't have anything to say and the reason is that just recently, about three and a half hours ago, I arrived to Rotterdam, my home for the next twelve months -as a minimum- and I am just starting to write the next chapter of this story. So seventh step has a lot to be posted and I promise to continue updating the blog. That's why I started saying "would like to start this post with another sentence...". I am excited... really!

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