The MBA Tour: Inside the GMAT Podcast
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What if I told you there was a way for you to connect with admissions decision makers from the world’s top MBA programs, all in one place, from your home?
Too good to be true, right? Wrong! Amid the pandemic, The MBA Tour pivoted the previously in-person tour model to an entirely online, interactive experience. The free events give you the opportunity to chat live with admissions reps, current students, alumni, and other prospective applicants.
In this episode of the Inside the GMAT™ podcast, we discuss the upcoming MBA events hosted by The MBA Tour. Our guest is Danielle Boland, Managing Director of The MBA Tour.
Episode 18: What to expect at The MBA Tour
Here are some highlights from the conversation:
On the unique value of The MBA Tour events.
“The MBA tour is just this perfect opportunity to explore business school options and find out which program aligns best with your career goals. There are very few opportunities to have the world's leading business schools, all in one place at the same time, and accessible for you to speak with so that you can compare and contrast in real time.
We have a range of business schools that come to our events, and all of these business schools bring along representatives who are full time staff members so you get maximum interaction with actual decision makers in the admissions process.
What's unique about the MBA tour is that we carefully screen all business schools who attend our events, so you can be assured you're meeting with leading accredited business schools. We have schools on tour with us from the US, UK, Europe, as well as leading schools in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa. But education is global, so it doesn't matter if you're wanting to study in your hometown or region, or wanting to study abroad we always have both global and local schools represented at our events.
On how candidates network during these virtual events.
“Because our events are designed like a conference and networking is often a key part of a conference, we have created this virtual networking lounge. So you can come, you can post your questions and comment on other candidate questions, or like a comment—it's very much like a social media wall, very interactive.
And you hear a range of perspectives at our events. You of course hear from the admission directors, who will be front and center, but also schools will bring along their alumni and current students to share their voice—really a more authentic voice—and these will normally be alumni or students from the country where the event is being held.
In addition, we have admission consultants, finance companies, embassies—truly a diverse mix of perspectives that will help you on your journey to business school…I've heard stories of candidates who have met other candidates at our event and join study groups to help prepare for the GMAT exam, for example, or to help them with other aspects of their application. So, it's a great way to virtually connect with candidates who are on the same journey as you at the same time, which is at this time is really invaluable as a way to connect, when you might not have that opportunity in person.”
On tips for your the MBA Tour event.
“So, first of all I would encourage candidates to download the Candidate User Guide. It's got a wealth of information to help prepare for event day… The User Guide will tell you how to access the event, how to set up your profile, how to access help, and really lay out all the different features of the event…
…One thing that I will encourage candidates to remember when they're setting up their profile is to add a headshot. Your headshot is a great way to identify yourself—you've come to this event, you want to represent yourself to schools in the most professional way possible, so have a professional headshot picture…
🙌 Read more: Top 10 Tips for Virtual MBA Events
Also, when you're attending an MBA Tour event you want to be camera ready, and what I mean by that is be prepared to have your camera on so that you can network and talk to people face to face.... I would say is a few tips I guess that could maybe help you is to write down your questions on a post-it note and post it on your computer so that you're still maintaining eye contact with the school when you're talking to them but you have some of those little cheat sheets that you need them.
Definitely put your phone to the side, there's sort of nothing worse for someone in a conversation to be talking to you and you're sort of distracted or looking at your phone or what have you… Really give yourself the time to dedicate to this event and this moment to talk to the school.
You want to make sure you're dressed appropriately. We often get asked the question: “What should I wear to a virtual event?” I'd recommend wearing business casual attire.
Lastly, you're there to evaluate the school as much as the school is there to evaluate you, so please come prepared with any number of questions that you might have, take the time to think through what you want to learn about the school, what you want to get out of the event for yourself, and what's important to you and then you will get the most out of the event.
❓ Read more: 7 Questions to Ask During Business School Admissions Events
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