Category Archives: Admission Tips

Admission Tips

Is 2014 the ideal year to pursue your MBA? Time to start your research!

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DSC_9140If you’d like to start your MBA in 2014, this time around is the right time to start your research. Think it’s too early? Not really! All of the top tier business schools have already released their round deadlines and published their revised application processes. For Rotman, we have already announced our new essay questions.

Of course, targeting the right business schools is not limited to just the application process and rankings. There are many factors you should consider. Ask yourself: Why do I want to do an MBA at this point in my life? As an admissions professional, I can assure you figuring out the reason will help you with at least one of the essay questions to any business school.

When you ponder your reasons, you should think about your career. The MBA is a professional degree and will significantly improve your employment prospects. Think about what you have learned so far in your roles to date and determine if there is a gap — will your current role take you where you want to go? If the answer is no, I’d say it’s time to pursue an MBA to enhance your technical knowledge, improve your leadership capacity, and demonstrate you have the hard and soft skills necessary for senior level positions.

You can initiate your research online, but by no means should you limit yourself to only the websites of your target business schools. Always keep in mind: the most effective networks are developed in-person! All good business schools are quite active on campus and around the world. Even if you are not located in the same city where your dream business school is located, you can still meet with someone from the admissions team. At the Rotman School, we make sure all of our events around the world are published well before the actual date. Please take a minute to browse our events page to see if we will be in your neighborhood. If you see an attractive event, go ahead and register!

For those of you who are located in the GTA, or will be visiting us in the near future, I cannot emphasize the importance of booking a pre-application meeting enough. A one-hour meeting can help you get to know the school, understand the program you are considering better, and build your relationship with the person who might be reviewing your application — attending an information session is a great way to leave the admissions team with a positive impression! Furthermore, these meetings are the best venues to discuss your candidacy and identify potential growth areas to strengthen your application. This way, you can clarify all the admissions related concerns so that you can have more time for more in-depth questions during the admissions interview.

We also conduct meetings via Skype so that our candidates living outside of the GTA, or who don’t have the opportunity to visit us in person, can still take advantage of this great opportunity.

Last but not least, you should seek our students’ insight to complement your research! Take a look at this great article on Financial Times by one of our incoming students Alexandra Fitzgerald. She has some great advice for you.

 

Who have you connected with at Rotman?

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Sheldon DookeranI recently interviewed a Rotman candidate who impressed me.  What stood out about him was that he talked about Rotman’s culture and evolution from an insider’s perspective. As our discussion continued I discovered that he has a friend in the program. He also found a Rotman alum in his LinkedIn network and reconnected with him about his student experience.

Last week, Kobi Gulersen, Director/Leader Global Digital Marketing for MasterCard Worldwide, advised first year Rotman students to prepare for their careers by learning as much as possible about their potential employers. The same advice applies when considering business schools.  Websites serve as the best place to start researching, but once you’ve learned as much as you can online, you have to get an inside scoop from members of the organization. The impressive Rotman MBA candidate I mentioned at the start of this post did exactly that!

Engaging in meaningful interactions with students, alum, faculty or staff can help you get accepted and help you decide if Rotman is right for you.

networkingYou must decide on a school that will meet your academic and professional needs – plus everything in between.  Hearing personal stories from people at Rotman will give you deeper insights about the student experience.

Professor Walid Hejazi, who teaches International Competitiveness at Rotman, has done research on why some students get better returns on their investment in an MBA degree than others. He identified the ability to effectively network as one of the key factors that contribute to the success of MBA students. Connecting with current students now is a great way to start building your network – especially if you don’t yet have one in Toronto. If you aim to start at Rotman in 2013, then the second year student that you meet today will be a recent graduate with connections in the working world by the time you begin your Rotman MBA.

By revealing what you’ve learned about Rotman by reaching out to members of the Rotman community, you reveal to the admissions committee that you have the ability to network and that you are interested enough to go beyond the information found online.

I concluded the interview by asking the candidate if he had any questions. He said his friend, a first year student, told him that students have to bid for elective courses in the second year. The candidate asked “Can you tell me how the bidding system works and the best strategy for bidding?” Since the Rotman website does not mention the bidding system, his question demonstrated his research and networking skills.

Rotman-Ambassadors

If you do not already know a member of the Rotman community, I encourage you to engage with our current students by reading their Rotman Ambassador profiles and emailing any who appeal to you. You can connect with Rotman Ambassadors by phone, email, Skype or in person. If you’re close enough to visit our campus you can even sit in one one of their classes.

Attending one of our regularly scheduled guest speaker events is a great way to meet current students, alum and members of the business community while exposing yourself to new ideas from a global business leader. If any events interest you, you may attend at no cost by sending us a request via the contact form on this blog. You can also use the contact form to arrange to meet me, or one of my colleagues in the admissions team, before applying.

First year student, Christopher Van de Water learned about Rotman from a co-worker who graduated from here. However, he still reached out to a current student, Robyn Ross, through the Rotman Ambassador program.  He said “It was great to hear from someone straight up – not getting it [information] from the administration or from people who already know you.”  I asked him what he learned and he said that “Robyn was the first person who gave me the heads up that once here, you are exposed to so many different career opportunities and structures.”

By building relationships and staying engaged with the Rotman community you will discover how well you do or don’t fit into the Rotman culture. As an added bonus, you will impress me and the rest of the admissions committee with your insights!

Kicking off the 2013 Admission Cycle…

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Niki da SilvaIt’s an exciting time of year for us at Rotman-not only are we gearing up and welcoming our 2012 intake on campus, but we are also putting the final touches on our application and admissions process for our 2013 intake.  I thought it would only be fitting as my first point as Director, Recruitment & Admissions at Rotman to talk about the changes we are implementing to our admissions process this year.

Some of you may have noticed that we have moved from a rolling admissions cycle to a Rounds process and I wanted to share our rationale for this change.  We believe that evaluating applications with this batch approach will not only allow our Admissions Committee to make even better decisions about which candidates are the best ‘fit’ for Rotman, but will enable us to predict volumes and required resources to process and review applications so that we can support continued growth as we expand our Program size.  The added benefit from an applicant’s perspective is a more predictable process and guaranteed response time from the School.

The 2013 deadlines are included below:

Deadline Admission decision by
Round 1: October 9, 2012
Round 2: January 7, 2013
Round 3: March 4, 2013*
Round 4: April 29, 2013
Round 5: June 1, 2013**		 December 14, 2012
March 8, 2013
May 10, 2013
June 14, 2013
June 30, 2013

*Round 4 is the final deadline for international applicants, but we strongly encourage you to apply by Round 3 to ensure adequate processing time for study permits and loans.

**Round 5 is the final deadline for domestic applicants.

You may also be wondering how strict the ‘Deadline Date’ requirement actually is.  We  are committed to working through complete files submitted within a reasonable window in and around our Deadline Dates.  For example, if you submit your application October 9th, but it takes 5 additional days before your official transcripts arrive, we will absolutely still honour your submission as a Round 1 candidate!  Of course this is all within reason, to use a different example, if you were to submit the online application October 9th, but didn’t actually submit your transcripts to complete your file until December 1st, we simply couldn’t guarantee that your file would be reviewed in time for our Round 1 decision date.  If you have any questions about the specifics of your application – contact us anytime (mba@rotman.utoronto.ca)

One other point to note about our process – if you decide to submit your application in between Round deadlines, we will absolutely not delay the review of your file to the next Round – we will not have applications sitting ‘on hold’ between deadlines.  Our team will begin working on your application after we receive it.  Of course, if you apply mid-cycle we aren’t able to guarantee a specific decision date, but rest assured your application will get reviewed.

We are aiming to under-promise and over-deliver with our admission decision dates.  All candidates who apply according to Round guidelines will hear back from us no later than corresponding decision dates.  This was an important component of our admission process to try to alleviate some of the anxiety that comes with wondering when you will hear back from us.

Lastly, I wanted to provide you with a few tips on how to approach the 2013 admissions cycle at Rotman.:

  • When possible, beat the rush, submit a week or two prior to the deadline. This ensures that we begin working on your application before the wave of applications that come in right at the deadline so it will be likely that you will hear back with respect to next steps in the process (i.e. an interview invitation) even quicker.
  • Apply as early as possible since both scholarships and seats in the Program are awarded to the best candidates throughout each Round (Note: there is no allocation of seats that must be filled at each round! We simply make offers to the best candidates who apply throughout the admissions cycle.)
  • Plan ahead. Most candidates underestimate how much time it will take to complete the different components of the admissions cycle (which is precisely one of the reasons that we have multiple deadline dates.)  Identify which Round you want to apply for, and plan the key milestones you need to coordinate to hit that deadline (i.e. the GMAT, ordering transcripts, writing essays, and selecting referees).

We are very excited to start building the Rotman MBA Class of 2015 and look forward to reviewing Round 1 applications soon!

PS-Stay tuned for my next blog post, we are implementing some exciting new changes to our admissions process this year…

-Niki

The MBA Checklist

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Whether you are starting your MBA this September or next September, there are always some things you can do to prepare yourself for the MBA program. It is a multi-faceted preparation. You need to be ready both mentally and physically. Many employers already value the fact that you quit your job and go back to school to advance your career. It is a challenging process and beside the great quality of education you are receiving, you are enhancing your life experience. Not everyone is a good fit for an MBA and you are already one step ahead of the crowd; make the most of this great experience!

Some things to brush up on your study skills:

   

  • You can start with technical skills, especially your Excel skills. Every business education entails numbers and analytics. The good news is that if you know how to use Excel, you will be fine.  Apart from Excel, exploring MS Word and PowerPoint further will also be handy.
  • Start following the media. What is going on around you? Are you up-to-date? Keep an eye on the recent economic and political happenings in the World. You can gather some good tips to share with your classmates during class discussions.
  • Have some time to read a couple of books before the program? If the answer is yes, that’s great! You can start reading some good business books on leadership and management in general.
  • Make sure you complete the Rotman Pre-Program Assessment!

Some things to prepare yourself physically:

  • If you plan on working throughout the summer, probably it is a good idea to take a short vacation right before the start of the program. You will be embarking on a challenging journey and you might want to create some free time to relax before joining academia!
  • You can make yourself familiar with the physical environment in Toronto, Canada. The location of the school and what is available in the proximity will help you experience a smooth transition. One of my previous posts on location might be a good starting point J
  • Do your best to attend the Rotman Orientation camp before classes start. It is a great venue to get acquainted with your future classmates and some of the Rotman staff and faculty.

This is a brief checklist of some things we think you can do to prepare for your MBA education. Every individual has a different learning style and different expectations from the program. Figuring out what you really want to get out of this program will be very beneficial while you are in the program. It will not only put things in context for you, but also keep you focused all times.