Looking Back on 2008-9
2009年05月11日
Without a doubt, 2008-9 was the most challenging year for Japanese MBA applicants. The global crisis led to a massive influx of high caliber applicants from the US, UK and Europe. This had the affect of crowding out many otherwise outstanding Japanese candidates.
Some students who easily would have gotten accepted by 4 or 5 top schools in years past had to settle for 1 or 2 this year. Others are still battling as I write to go from waitlist to accepted. Still others are gearing up to try again next year.
Especially hurt were self-sponsored candidates, as schools were afraid that such students could not get loans. And I know of some candidates who in fact could not go to the US because they could not get the funding. With so many applications, schools looked for any excuse to eliminate candidates. In particular, candidates with lower GMAT and TOEFL scores had more difficulty this year than ever.
For those candidates who got accepted, I send my heary congratulations. Even if you did not get into your dream school, you will still greatly benefit from your international MBA. And for those of you still waiting or planning to try again next year, I urge you to not be discouraged. Trust me, you are not alone this year. Many, many great candidates are in your position. The key is to learn from this year and make yourself a stronger candidate this season. Alone or with the help of an admissions counselor, carefully analyze your scores, your interviews, your essays, etc., and launch an action plan to make improvements. For example, perhaps your career goals were not clear enough or you lack extracurricular activities. And if you need to improve your test scores, you should start studying ASAP. There are many excellent schools in Tokyo. For those of you who are struggling with the iBT Speaking section, I strongly recommend Donald Miller. He helped several of my clients this past year boost their scores. As for GMAT, my clients tell me that Affiance and Meister are good options here in Tokyo.