Chat Transcript September 14, 2008, 1:38PM EST

MBA Admissions Tips

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Sandip: One common question we international students face is that most of the college-nominated ambassadors are either too busy or bored answering lots of questions. Since we cannot always visit colleges in the U.S., is there anything you can suggest to get more info about colleges?

PaulBodine2008: I think you need to move past the official school ambassadors and do some investigating on your own. For example, contact the presidents of the school's student clubs and ask them questions (if you can't find them online, ask the school for contact info). Contact the alumni association and tell them you want to speak to local alumni or do Google searches on the school to see what kinds of names you can find. Even if you're only able to establish e-mail contact, these interactions can help.

TheOsho: Is it O.K. to use business-related words or phrases in the essays?

PaulBodine2008: Yes, but you want to avoid hitting them with too much technical language and terms (IT product terms, etc.) or jargon such as "value proposition." A lot of applicants do this, so if you don't you'll, be helping yourself stand out from the crowd.

Afshar: I would like to know about the criteria for applying for scholarships in business schools? What exactly do they look at [when] short-listing the candidates?

PaulBodine2008: Some schools award scholarships based on merit, so you can't do anything but hope you are a strong enough applicant that they'll want to offer you money to come. Obviously, this is more likely to happen at schools where your raw numbers (GMAT, etc.) are much higher than the school's average. There are also more specific scholarships, such as Stanford's Dhirubhai fellowship, where (aside from being Indian) you have to describe your vision for India's future, etc.

Sandip: A GMAT of 660, GPA 3.6, six years of [work] experience, three years international with two years in research in the U.S., currently project manager in charge of biz development for U.S. operation, average community involvement. What are my prospects?

PaulBodine2008: Everything looks great except for the GMAT score. Can you bring that up? If not, you will have trouble getting into top-10 schools.

Soni: Can you help us in writing our résumé? What should we do and what should we write and what shouldn't we write?

PaulBodine2008: You should omit the objective line and cut out most of the technical language. Focus instead on bullets that show your impact and quantify it. The bullets themselves should be "mini-accomplishments," not descriptions of job duties.

Make sure your résumé supports both the themes and the specific examples you're presenting in your essays and recommendation letters. You want every part of the application to reinforce every other part, while also providing new information not available elsewhere.

TheOsho: Selecting a school based on one's career interests and schools' strong area (say, finance) is how I have selected my target schools. But is it a good strategy? [I ask] because for example, this way, most applicants to a school known for finance will be the ones wanting to major in finance, and this means more competition as the schools want diversity.

PaulBodine2008: That's an excellent point. Yours is a good strategy, but to get around the difficulty you just mentioned, you could also add some schools to your short list that are not famously strong in your target field but do have resources to support your goals. Doing this might enable you to get in as one of its less traditional applicants. Another strategy would be to apply to well-rounded schools such as Michigan] or Wharton that are so strong in so many different fields that there's no "typical" applicant profile.

FrancescaBW: We have just a few minutes left. Paul, why don't you tell us about your latest book?

PaulBodine2008: Thanks, Francesca, I'd be glad to. Later this year my book Perfect Phrases for Business School Acceptance will be published by The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP).

FrancescaBW: We should note that McGraw-Hill is the parent company to BusinessWeek.

PaulBodine2008: The book aims to give applicants examples of effective writing for all of the main essay types and essay sections. For example, effective paragraph-length examples of challenge essays and goals essays, but also examples of essay introductions, conclusions, and responses to typical interview questions. The examples are meant to get applicants started writing their own material by showing them how many different ways it's possible to present material effectively.