A long way to my MBA dream

[fujen64]

Dear all,

It's glad to know this forum from Jamie Yeh who also got same offers as me. Haha...probably she will have better offers then me.
Although it's a pity that I didn't know this great place during my application and test preparation, it's never late to join this group and share my experience.

I am a little embarrassed to post my status and background here since there are many outstanding people here and this is my second year to apply b-schools. However, I hope my story can give some new comers courage. Also I would like to share what I think which part is important for getting in top business schools.

The information below is some brief introduction of me.

NCCU BS of Computer Science, GPA 3.0
NCTU MS of Computer Science, GPA 3.3
W/E: 5+ years software RD in an IT institute

2004: Admitted by Vanderbilt and UIUC; waitlisted by Darden and USC
GMAT: 660 TOEFL: 240->257
I know it is a huge investment to study MBA so I decided to give me one more year to try to get in my dream schools. I quitted my job to improve my GMAT score, enhance my English communication skills and prepare essays. I really appreciate my family give me totally supports to my decision even though I need to give up many things.

2005:
GMAT: 660 -> 680 -> 750
TOEFL: 257-> 287
Rejected by: Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Darden, Kellogg, and Wharton
Waitlist: Duke
Final offers: Duke and Berkeley
Before 2005 January, I didn’t get any offer from any school and I am very worried. It would not be possible for me to take the THIRD year to apply and I also feel very sorry for my parents since they have lots of expectations to me. I don’t want disappoint them. Maybe I was too confident that I didn’t think to apply any spare school. Anyway, only thing I can do is the last hope of Berkeley and try to improve something to give some impression for Duke adcom.

I get some feedback from UCLA that they concerned my TOEFL and AWA scores although at beginning I don’t think it does matter. I took the third time TOEFL to reach 287. I find a new job in a well-know international IT company. I write a short essay describing what I have improved and why this school.

Now I finally can relax and get offers from Fuqua and Haas (I made a big mistake that I wrote Hass in my essays^^). I am not a smart guy and I even can’t dream I can get in these prestigious schools. Although many people expect I can get better offers, I am satisfied.

During my application, I would like to give my personal opinion regarding what I think which part is important and what is my weakness.

Working experience and accomplishments (*****)
You won’t be in a famous company but a well-known brand will make your application easier^^ Since my working experience is longer than others, I need to give some impressive stories about my leadership and teamwork in my essays. However, I didn’t write much about my professional accomplishments in my essays. Haha…to be frank, I didn’t make accomplishments in my career so I can’t not give good examples and only wrote about my extracurricular activities. I think it is probably the reason that I rejected by top 5.

GMAT (****)
Not to mention the higher the better ^^ I think it’s worth to try some times to reach 700 and the only one part can be improved by your efforts.

Essays (****)
I think I have done well in some essays regarding teamwork and extracurricular activities. My why MBA and future career goals essays could do better. The weak part is my accomplishments essay.

Interview (***)
I sometimes lack confidence during interview. Furthermore, it’s a barrier for me to defend my opinion and deliver impression to interviewers because of my poor English oral speaking skills.

TOEFL (***)
250+ seems not enough for top schools.

GPA (**)
My poor GPA will affect my chance as comparing to other applicants with same backgrounds as me.

Hope my story can give people here some help ^_^ I would also love to answer any question and contribute something to this forum.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Chuang

[dock]

先恭賀一下~
fujen64大哥多等了一年 但有了更好的choice
真的是苦盡甘來
恭喜~

[micht]

感謝fujen64
分享珍貴的心得

[agk99]

真是太像我的遭遇了，講的太有道理了
我的AT690(今年三月才上)，toefl(250整)
申請起來就很辛苦，這兩個成績，大致決定申請成敗的50%以上
真的是越高越好，top10的學校這是一開始的關鍵
甚至這樣說，top10的學校不容許有一項是差勁的

我連工作長短也類似你，接近五年，只是少你一個master
我也認同，再努力一年，申請夢想的學校總是值得，真是恭喜
今年第四季，我再次申請，還請不吝指教.....去當你學弟也好
特別是reapplicant的essay該如何寫的問題

[bakekab]

恭喜阿!!

上了好學校, 小弟也是跟大哥一樣的背景都是唸cs的,MS還是唸同一間的,想請問一下是什麼想法使你想要去唸MBA呢??小弟在 決定了要唸MBA的同時,看到同學們都在科技大廠努力工作賺大錢,老實說現在有時還會產生一點小小的遲疑,畢竟讀完都已經30歲了,唸書的學費加生活費加上2年唸書所損失的收入,我想至少6百萬吧,是什麼動力讓你想要去唸 的呢 ??
小弟現在是國防役3年級打算申請2007的秋季班,現在正在準備GMAT,有什麼可以給小弟一些建議的呢??


感謝分享

[kristayang]

Dear all,

It's glad to know this forum from Jamie Yeh who also got same offers as me. Haha...probably she will have better offers then me.
Although it's a pity that I didn't know this great place during my application and test preparation, it's never late to join this group and share my experience.

I am a little embarrassed to post my status and background here since there are many outstanding people here and this is my second year to apply b-schools. However, I hope my story can give some new comers courage. Also I would like to share what I think which part is important for getting in top business schools.

The information below is some brief introduction of me.

NCCU BS of Computer Science, GPA 3.0
NCTU MS of Computer Science, GPA 3.3
W/E: 5+ years software RD in an IT institute

2004: Admitted by Vanderbilt and UIUC; waitlisted by Darden and USC
GMAT: 660 TOEFL: 240->257
I know it is a huge investment to study MBA so I decided to give me one more year to try to get in my dream schools. I quitted my job to improve my GMAT score, enhance my English communication skills and prepare essays. I really appreciate my family give me totally supports to my decision even though I need to give up many things.

2005:
GMAT: 660 -> 680 -> 750
TOEFL: 257-> 287
Rejected by: Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Darden, Kellogg, and Wharton
Waitlist: Duke
Final offers: Duke and Berkeley
Before 2005 January, I didn’t get any offer from any school and I am very worried. It would not be possible for me to take the THIRD year to apply and I also feel very sorry for my parents since they have lots of expectations to me. I don’t want disappoint them. Maybe I was too confident that I didn’t think to apply any spare school. Anyway, only thing I can do is the last hope of Berkeley and try to improve something to give some impression for Duke adcom.

I get some feedback from UCLA that they concerned my TOEFL and AWA scores although at beginning I don’t think it does matter. I took the third time TOEFL to reach 287. I find a new job in a well-know international IT company. I write a short essay describing what I have improved and why this school.

Now I finally can relax and get offers from Fuqua and Haas (I made a big mistake that I wrote Hass in my essays^^). I am not a smart guy and I even can’t dream I can get in these prestigious schools. Although many people expect I can get better offers, I am satisfied.

During my application, I would like to give my personal opinion regarding what I think which part is important and what is my weakness.

Working experience and accomplishments (*****)
You won’t be in a famous company but a well-known brand will make your application easier^^ Since my working experience is longer than others, I need to give some impressive stories about my leadership and teamwork in my essays. However, I didn’t write much about my professional accomplishments in my essays. Haha…to be frank, I didn’t make accomplishments in my career so I can’t not give good examples and only wrote about my extracurricular activities. I think it is probably the reason that I rejected by top 5.

GMAT (****)
Not to mention the higher the better ^^ I think it’s worth to try some times to reach 700 and the only one part can be improved by your efforts.

Essays (****)
I think I have done well in some essays regarding teamwork and extracurricular activities. My why MBA and future career goals essays could do better. The weak part is my accomplishments essay.

Interview (***)
I sometimes lack confidence during interview. Furthermore, it’s a barrier for me to defend my opinion and deliver impression to interviewers because of my poor English oral speaking skills.

TOEFL (***)
250+ seems not enough for top schools.

GPA (**)
My poor GPA will affect my chance as comparing to other applicants with same backgrounds as me.

Hope my story can give people here some help ^_^ I would also love to answer any question and contribute something to this forum.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Chuang

不知道為什麼 看完有種想哭的感覺
大概是這段路我們大家都是這樣走過 雖然目地不太一樣 哈哈
但是這標題 其中的艱辛 真是不足外人道也

[bear]

感謝樓主分享經驗....

雖然可能寫的文章看不出有多激情.....
但是爾等走過之人卻能明白大哥您所講的箇中酸甜苦辣....
不過您的堅毅精神,實在值得我們小輩們多多學習.....

熊妹要向您看齊啦~~~~~
希望熊妹有機會能跟您當同學

[魚]

謝謝 fujen64 無私分享

果真堅持為王道

[liwuu]

感謝fujen64讓我看到什麼叫做"堅持努力後將有收穫"
恭喜你!!

[QQcandy]

感謝 Jimmy 大哥的心路歷程的分享

真讓人感動 i57

這也告訴我們 要堅持大自己的理想

大家都不要放棄ㄛ

(聽到了厚 ~ 大哥~~~)

[Calvin]

謝謝分享

真的很受鼓舞

辛苦了，成功的果實想必無敵甜美

[william]

Really moving article.. good work... thanks for sharing

[estelle]

Jimmy你寫得真好啊!
我想你的申請故事
真的是一波三折 高潮迭起 很適合讓後來者做為參考
而且那天聽到你一再努力的毅力也令我十分佩服
一切都苦盡甘來 congratulations!

[fujen64]

真是太像我的遭遇了，講的太有道理了
我的AT690(今年三月才上)，toefl(250整)
申請起來就很辛苦，這兩個成績，大致決定申請成敗的50%以上
真的是越高越好，top10的學校這是一開始的關鍵
甚至這樣說，top10的學校不容許有一項是差勁的

我連工作長短也類似你，接近五年，只是少你一個master
我也認同，再努力一年，申請夢想的學校總是值得，真是恭喜
今年第四季，我再次申請，還請不吝指教.....去當你學弟也好
特別是reapplicant的essay該如何寫的問題

加油囉∼真的要堅持，雖然放棄一些東西，但是還是值得

呵呵∼∼因為第一年我實在太鐵齒了∼總不相信GPA, GMAT, TOEFL這些成績能決定一切，我相信一定會有學校認同我，當然我也看到一些沒上700的人申請到top10，只是考越高對申請真的越容易，不過也不保證高分就能進top10.

另外，我重新申請的學校像是MIT, Darden都要我重新交新essays，只是省了要推薦信和成績單的麻煩。

Jimmy

[fujen64]

恭喜阿!!

上了好學校, 小弟也是跟大哥一樣的背景都是唸cs的,MS還是唸同一間的,想請問一下是什麼想法使你想要去唸MBA呢??小弟在 決定了要唸MBA的同時,看到同學們都在科技大廠努力工作賺大錢,老實說現在有時還會產生一點小小的遲疑,畢竟讀完都已經30歲了,唸書的學費加生活費加上2年唸書所損失的收入,我想至少6百萬吧,是什麼動力讓你想要去唸 的呢 ??
小弟現在是國防役3年級打算申請2007的秋季班,現在正在準備GMAT,有什麼可以給小弟一些建議的呢??


感謝分享

我相信一定很多人跟我們背景相似，我覺得我申請時真的太封閉了，只一昧往前衝，沒有多收集資訊，多請教前輩，不懂MBA申請的遊戲規則，或許就是engineers的世界，沒人想花二年去唸MBA，只想好好作個工程師，奮鬥幾年，待在上市上櫃公司，當個科技新貴領股票賺大錢，所以我周遭根本很少人有這種經驗，真希望能早點在這認識大家^^

哈哈∼我現在就是30歲的中年老頭了，當然會覺得唸完後好老了，不過出國唸書是我的夢想，我家中也沒有能力供我出國唸書，所以我才考慮工作個四五年存點錢減輕家裡負擔，不過我相信在申請過程以及以後的MBA生活，你一定可以學到不少東西。

另外想清楚Why MBA，還有衡量是不是符合你的career goals，再申請吧^__^
不然我覺得好好作工程師也是大有前途喔。