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Write about all of it! More than the essays, the idea of figuring out what "fit" really means. At Fuqua, I think it is really fairly obvious, but when you looked at schools and thought about where you were going to spend time applying, you had to think about fit. It trumps rankings. OK, I'll be realistic: it goes hand and hand with rankings. Better?

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

I couldn't agree more, its incredibly important to visit all of these schools during the school year and speak with current students to get a feel for what life is really like there. For me, it became fairly evident pretty quickly where I could see myself fitting in after spending some time on several different campuses. For example there I felt there was a big difference between a school like CBS/NYU vs. Fuqua/Tuck due to their city location vs college town location. The city schools felt like students were a bit more independent and did not spend as much time outside the classroom together as opposed to the schools in smaller towns where community involvement was a big deal.

 

Thanks for the input! I'm in the same situation you were in, more or less (ok academic credentials and great test scores), so I'm really looking forward to your next post.

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Best Response

My splits on my practice exams were anywhere from Q47-49 and low 40s for Verbal if memory serves. I ended up with Q46/V39 the first time and Q47/V38 the second. It felt like when I took it the first time I missed a V40 by one question because I only got 4-5 wrong (The margin for error on verbal is pretty small as you probably know). I'm not really sure what caused the under-performance on exam day, I didn't feel nervous either time I took the exam, for whatever reason it seemed that maybe I ran out of gas by the time I got to the verbal section, I recommend getting up and walking around every break that you get during the exam just to wake up a bit.

I also did some digging around on the internet and it seems that there are numerous factors about the exam that can make you score +/-30 pts of your typical practice exam. For whatever reason, that type of range seemed normal.

Good luck!

 
"tOSUbuckeyes"

My splits on my practice exams were anywhere from Q47-49 and low 40s for Verbal if memory serves. I ended up with Q46/V39 the first time and Q47/V38 the second. It felt like when I took it the first time I missed a V40 by one question because I only got 4-5 wrong (The margin for error on verbal is pretty small as you probably know). I'm not really sure what caused the under-performance on exam day, I didn't feel nervous either time I took the exam, for whatever reason it seemed that maybe I ran out of gas by the time I got to the verbal section, I recommend getting up and walking around every break that you get during the exam just to wake up a bit.

I also did some digging around on the internet and it seems that there are numerous factors about the exam that can make you score +/-30 pts of your typical practice exam. For whatever reason, that type of range seemed normal.

Good luck!

Ya, I'm in a similar position where my verbal seems to be determinative of my swings more than my quant. My quant is pretty consistently 48. Sometimes 49 or 47 depending on the day but regardless of study amount it's right there. But on test day I scored a 40V after having practice tested anywhere between 43V to 51V .

Thanks, good luck at Duke.

 

great post... I am actually currently in a similar path, I am sorry if I missed out but which MBA school are you targetting? thanks

 

Definitely interested in hearing more about the application process as I'm going through it now. As another poster wrote above, write about it all!

Thanks.

 

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