The Touch MBA Admissions Podcast

Inspired by Kevin Kelly's Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I Knew Earlier, Darren shares 10 bits of wisdom that could materially improve your chances of getting into business school and building a successful career.

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• School Selection (3:00)
• Support Network (8:20)
• Positioning (10:30)
• Resumes (15:45)
• Essays (20:05)
• Interviews (22:00)
• Communication (26:10)

Show Notes

• Touch MBA's Admissions Edge Course
• Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I Knew Earlier by Kevin Kelly
• Kevin Kelly
• Outsight
• #93 Which Extracurriculars?
• #190 3 Timeless Application Strategies from MBA Admissions Strategy (2005) by Avi Gordon
• #131 The Quick & Easy Way to Effective MBA Interviewing
• #113 Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t
• #51 Stalking the Story for Your MBA Essays
• #4 Four Ways to Get and Keep the Adcom’s Attention
• #3 Six Ways to Make Your MBA Application Stick

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

Sometimes, it's hard to differentiate MBA programs. That is not the case with GLOBIS University, Japan's number 1 MBA, which prizes entrepreneurial skills, societal impact, and helping its students find their kokorozashi (personal mission).

Professor Tomoya Nakamura, President of GLOBIS USA, discusses what makes the GLOBIS MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more.

Started by Harvard Business School MBA graduate and entrepreneur Yoshito Hori in 1992 as a single marketing course in Tokyo, GLOBIS has grown to become Japan's largest MBA program, consulting with 60-70% of public Japanese companies with learning hubs in 5 countries. Listen on to learn what makes getting an MBA at GLOBIS - and in Tokyo - unique.

Topics

• Introduction to GLOBIS and Tomoya Nakamura (0:00)
• Program Highlights - What Makes the GLOBIS MBA Unique? (6:30)
• GLOBIS MBA Admissions & Scholarships - How to Improve Your Chances? (33:30)
• Career Opportunities after GLOBIS - What to Know & How to Prepare (55:00)

About Our Guest

Tomoya Nakamurais President of GLOBIS USA. Tomoya started his professional career at Marubeni Corporation, reorganized an investment company at Advantage Partners (a buyout VC firm), and was the Senior Managing Director of Sun-Life Corporation. He served as Dean of the English MBA Programs at GLOBIS University while also starting the GLOBIS global training business and continues to serve as the main facilitator for various corporate clients. He primarily lectures on leadership, kokorozashi, and globalization.

Tomoya graduated from the Hitotsubashi University with a Bachelors in Social Studies before getting his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Show Notes

• GLOBIS Full-time MBA
• Free Online President's Seminar: Leveraging Japan’s No.1 MBA to the World’s No.1 MBA with AI & Technovate, Mr. Yoshito Hori, March 12, 2024 (6:30pm-7:30pm PST)
• Schedule a personal consultation with GLOBIS MBA admissions advisors

Touch MBA's Summary of the GLOBIS Full-time MBA:

https://touchmba.com/globis-mba-program-admissions-interview-tomoya-nakamura/

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

Beau Gresham, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Mastercard and NYU Stern MBA '20, shares his journey as an applicant, student, and alumni of NYU Stern. How did Beau transition from the military to consulting through the MBA? How was the NYU Stern Full-time MBA experience? How did Beau break into mergers & acquisitions consulting at Deloitte, and then land his current job at Mastercard? And how does Beau view the MBA three years after graduating?

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Beau's Background (4:00)
• Beau's MBA Application Journey & Lessons: School Selection, GMAT, Career Goals (6:30)
• MBA Application Resources for Military Veterans (20:30)
• Beau's #1 Tip: Finding "Champions" (23:30)
• Beau's NYU Stern MBA Experience (33:30)
• Breaking into Consulting- How Beau Landed his Internship & Job with Deloitte (39:00)
• The NYU Stern Network in NYC & Study Abroad Trips (53:00)
• Beau's Post-MBA Career with Amazon & Deloitte (1:00:00)
• Advancing at Deloitte & Transitioning to Mastercard (1:07:00)
• Beau's Last Tips for Applicants (1:21:00)

About Our Guest

Beau Greshamis Director of Strategic Initiatives in Cybersecurity at Mastercard. Previously, Beau worked as a Senior Consultant & Manager in M&A Strategy for Deloitte. Prior to his MBA, Beau served in the US Army in a variety of leadership, operational and combat roles, including as a Company Commander in Afghanistan.

Beau got his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business with specializations in Finance, Strategy & Management, his Masters in Management and Leadership from Webster University and his Bachelors in Political Science & Government from the University of South Florida. He currently serves on the Stern Alumni Council.

Show Notes

• Beau Gresham on LinkedIn
• Avanti Prep Admissions Consulting Team (mention Touch MBA + Beau Gresham)
• NYU Stern MBA Programs
• Hiring Our Heroes - Connecting Military to American Business
• Service to School - Helping Veterans Apply to Best College or Graduate School
• What's Next? A Military Veteran's Guide to Maximizing Your MBA by Matthew Cowsert
• Deloitte's CORE Leadership Program
• American Corporate Partners (ACP) Mentorship
• MBA Veterans Career Conference & Expo
• GMAT Club Panel on Breaking into Consulting, featuring Beau Gresham
• #136 Military to MBA to Management Consulting with Alex Tuininga, Harvard MBA ’18
• Touch MBA's Admissions Edge Online Course

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

Darren shares more hard-earned application lessons from four listeners (now graduated MBAs): drawing a roadmap for the admissions team, prioritizing conversations when picking schools, "prematurely applying" and being strategic yet flexible

Want to share your hard-earned application lessons? Contact us at https://touchmba.com/contact

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Tips for the Untraditional Applicant - Kate, Texas McCombs MBA (2:30)
• Rankings Don't Matter. Go Where You'll Find the Conversations You Want to Have - Eileen, Oxford Said MBA (10:00)
• Five Things I Learned When I Applied to Business School - Anonymous, NYU Stern Tech MBA (13:50)
• Be Strategic, Yet Adaptable - Jasper, McMaster DeGroote MBA (20:15)

Show Notes

• My Application Journey - Touch MBA Listeners Share Hard-Earned Lessons
• Share Your Journey and Lessons Learned
• Surprise, I’m Going to Business School! (tips for the untraditional applicant) by Kate Galloway, Texas McCombs MBA '20
• Rankings Don’t Matter. Go Where You’ll Find the Conversations You Want to Have by Eileen Chen, Oxford Said MBA '19
• Five Things I Learned When I Applied to Business School by Anonymous NYU Stern Tech MBA ’22
• The Key to MBA Success? Be Strategic, Yet Adaptable by Jasper Isip, McMaster DeGroote MBA Jasper Isip '23
• PESTLE Analysis
• Touch MBA's Admissions Edge Online Course

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

Touch MBA's goal has always been to offer you evergreen content that will help you shortlist and get into best-fit MBA programs. We invite listeners to share lessons from their MBA application journeys not just on the podcast, but in written form, too. These short reflections are full of timeless application wisdom!

Darren shares three lessons from three listeners that have stood the test of time: how to overcome working for a relatively unknown company, how to research and find best-fit b-schools, and how to deal with dings.

Want to share your hard-earned application lessons? Contact us at https://touchmba.com/contact

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Working for an Unknown Company - Daming, Northwestern Kellogg MBA (4:30)
• Determining Best-Fit Schools - William, Texas McCombs MBA (10:30)
• Dealing with Dings - Bren, Emory Goizueta MBA (17:30)

Show Notes

• My Application Journey - Touch MBA Listeners Share Hard-Earned Lessons
• Share Your Journey and Lessons Learned
• Admitted to Kellogg, Insead, Ross, Fuqua, Johnson – Here’s How I Did It
• I Got Into 8 Top MBA Programs; These Are My Top 3 Tips
• 2 Years, 8 Dings and 2 Scholarships Later  –  My Reflections on the MBA Application Process
• Touch MBA's Admissions Edge Online Course

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

How are top business schools using the GMAT Focus exam, which will replace the GMAT in January 2024? What do you need to score and on which sections? Do schools prefer the GMAT, GMAT Focus, or GRE?

Darren asks Admissions Directors from two top schools – Toronto Rotman (#1 in Canada by the Financial Times) and IESE (#1 in Spain by the Financial Times) – tough questions about the GMAT Focus test and GRE. Listen on to get your GMAT Focus questions answered and to understand how top b-schools use standardized test scores when making admissions decisions.

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Toronto Rotman MBA - Agnes Mak (4:20)
• IESE MBA - Tomofumi Nishida (30:20)

About Our Guests

Agnes Mak is the Assistant Director, Recruitment & Admissions managing the East Asia region for the Full-Time MBA program at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management. She has over 20 years of professional experience in higher education and business advisory. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, she was a Partner at KPMG Canada and held numerous leadership roles to attract and promote international talent.

Tomofumi Nishida is Deputy Director (Asia, MBA Admissions) for IESE Business School, where he has been since 2016. Prior to IESE, Tomo worked for NTT DOCOMO as a strategic investment analyst and account manager in corporate sales. Tomo got his B.A. in Occidental History from the University of Tokyo and MBA from IESE.

Professor Adrian Buss, Associate Professor of Finance and Academic Director of MBA Programs at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, discusses what makes the Frankfurt School’s MBA unique, the school’s admissions process, career opportunities and more.

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Program Highlights – What Makes the Frankfurt School MBA Unique? (4:20)
• Frankfurt School MBA Admissions & Scholarships – How to Improve Your Chances? (20:45)
• Career Opportunities after Frankfurt School – What to Know & How to Prepare (36:15)

About Our Guest

Dr. Adrian Buss is Associate Professor of Finance and Academic Director of MBA Programs at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Prior to joining the Frankfurt School, Adrian taught as an Associate Professor of Finance at Insead for over 10 years.

Adrian graduated from the University of Mannheim with a Masters of Science in Mathematics and Business Informatics before getting his PhD in Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Show Notes

• Frankfurt School of Finance & Management MBA Program

Touch MBA's Summary of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Full-time MBA:

https://touchmba.com/frankfurt-school-finance-management-mba-program-admissions-interview-adrian-buss/

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

Professor Wan Wongsunwai, Associate Dean of MBA Programmes and Director of MBA Programmes at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, discusses what makes the CUHK MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more.

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Program Highlights - What Makes the CUHK MBA Unique? (4:30)
• CUHK MBA Admissions & Scholarships - How to Improve Your Chances? (27:30)
• Career Opportunities after CUHK Business School - What to Know & How to Prepare (47:20)

About Our Guest

Professor Wan Wongsunwaiis Associate Dean of MBA Programmes and Director of MBA Programmes at CUHK Business School, where he has worked for over 7 years. His research interests include financial reporting quality, corporate governance, entrepreneurship and private equity. Before coming to CUHK, he taught and researched at Insead and Northwestern Kellogg

Professor Wan earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Imperial College and later received his Doctor of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. Prior to obtaining his doctoral degree, he worked at KPMG in London, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Hong Kong and then as an equity analyst with ABN AMRO Bank in Hong Kong, covering software and information technology.

Show Notes

• CUHK Full-time MBA

Touch MBA Episode write-up and overview of the CUHK Full-time MBA:

https://touchmba.com/chinese-university-of-hong-kong-cuhk-mba-program-admissions-interview-wan-wongsunwai

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, discusses what makes the Duke Fuqua MBA unique, the school’s admissions process, career opportunities and more.

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Program Highlights – What Makes the Duke Fuqua Daytime MBA Unique? (6:55)
• Duke Fuqua MBA Admissions & Scholarships – How to Improve Your Chances? (29:10)
• Career Opportunities after Duke Fuqua – What to Know & How to Prepare (59:30)

About Our Guest

Shari Hubertis Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She has been with Duke for 6 years. Previously, Shari served as Associate Dean of Admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business as well as Director of Recruitment for the Peace Corps. Shari has also worked at Citi, GE, NBC Universal, The Boston Consulting Group and Merck in a variety of recruiting, consulting and marketing roles.

Shari graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA and majored in French at Dartmouth University as an undergraduate. She serves on a number of HBS Alumni Boards, Pyxera’s Global Board of Directors and is a Forte Partner Advisory Council Member.

Show Notes

• Duke Fuqua MBA
• The Fuqua Show on Spotify
• The Duke MBA Admissions Interview: What to Expect and How to Prepare

Touch MBA Episode write-up and snapshot/stats of the Duke Fuqua Daytime MBA:

https://touchmba.com/duke-fuqua-mba-program-admissions-interview-shari-hubert

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA:https://touchmba.com

"We pride ourselves in being at the center of business and technology... We've asked employers, 'How would you describe our students?' and most often the words we get back are 'humble, hardworking and good problem solvers.' I think that's fantastic and that's how I would describe our students as well."

Dr. Jonathan Clarke, Interim Dean at Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business, discusses what makes the Scheller MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more.

Topics

• Introduction (0:00)
• Program Highlights - What Makes the Georgia Tech Scheller MBA Unique? (4:00)
• Scheller MBA Admissions & Scholarships - How to Improve Your Chances? (17:20)
• Career Opportunities after Georgia Tech Scheller - What to Know & How to Prepare (32:20)

About Jonathan

Jonathan Clarkeis Interim Dean and Associate Professor of Finance at Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business. From 2012-2018, Dr. Clarke served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, where he helped raise the school's profile. Dr. Clarke was named to the Poets and Quants 2018 list of Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors, and also voted the 2009 and 2013 MBA Core Professor of the Year. He has taught custom programs for NCR, Clorox, Georgia Pacific, Lockheed Martin, and the National Football League. Dr. Clarke is on the board of the Eastern Finance Association, on the editorial board of The Financial Review, and edits the Handbook of Modern Finance.

Dr. Clarke received his PhD from the Katz Graduate School of Business and the University of Pittsburgh and his undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Indiana University in Bloomington.

Show Notes

• Georgia Tech Scheller Full-time MBA Program
• Tech Square Atlanta
• Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) - Georgia's technology business incubator

Episode write-up and snapshot/stats of the Georgia Tech Scheller MBA: https://touchmba.com/georgia-tech-scheller-mba-program-admissions-interview-jonathan-clarke/

Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com