What’s the best low-key summer project?
June 27th, 2007
What’s the best low-key summer study project if you’re looking at a monster exam this fall? Whether the standardized test in your future is the SAT, GMAT, GRE or yet another of these big rocks in your road, there’s a little something Athena Mentor recommends you do every day: add a few new words to your vocabulary. Give it a try with this little story. There are a couple of helpful hints at the end.“The GMAT is an abomination,” grumbled Randy. “Why any MBA program would subject us to the enfeebling process of fabricating essays on egregiously pointless topics . . .”“It’s an enigma,” agreed Sandy.“The vocabulary is arcane, the critical reasoning exercises are abstruse and the reading comprehension questions are just . . .”“An enigma,” agreed Sandy.“Who can we get to illuminate this morass?” mumbled Randy, irritably.“That would be Athena Mentor,” confided Sandy. “She’s a monomaniac on the subject of building one’s vocabulary over the summer.”If you need to, ah, brush up on some of these words, Athena Mentor recommends the dictionary at Merriam-Webster Online. Click on the little loudspeaker icons to hear each entry pronounced with an American accent.Athena also recommends the Cambridge Dictionaries Online. If you are studying for an American exam, be sure to use the Cambridge Dictionary of American English. If you’ve been brought up on British English, you can compare usage on this, ah, invaluable site.
Last Day of Classes at Brown
June 19th, 2007
A first-year student is ready to wrap, though his esteemed professors could go on forever.
A propitious moment for improving your vocabulary, not to mention your social skills
June 17th, 2007
Athena Mentor has an unequivocal predilection for exercising her prodigious vocabulary at inopportune moments.
Actually, she doesn’t; she’s just willing to talk like a twit in order to help you build your vocabulary.
unequivocal: definite, firm, with no shilly-shallying around (which see) and no two ways about it
predilection for (-ing): tendency to (infinitive), liking for (noun)
prodigious: very large, great, formidable (hmm, check it out)
Athena Mentor finds it delightful when her favorite well-bred Anglo-Irish friend calls on the phone and asks, “Am I inopportune?”
inopportune: inconvenient, unsuitable, and in other contexts, unpropitious
Your turn to look up “propitious.” May this summer be a propitious time to improve your vocabulary!
MBA, Jr.: Business After College
June 12th, 2007
Thinking about a career in business, or getting an MBA some day? If you’re a college junior or senior, or have recently graduated from college, check out the Business Bridge Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. It’s designed to help you make the transition from liberal arts to the business world. Paul Doscher explained it to Athena Mentor during her recent visit to Tuck.
In the background is the eponymous bridge. Go ahead, look up “eponymous” and add it to your vocabulary.
What makes Tuck tick?
June 7th, 2007
The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth invited Athena Mentor to an Educational Consultants’ Conference in late April. It was a truly international gathering, with consultants from Brazil, Columbia, Chile, Jordan, Morocco, Ghana, China, Italy–and yes, Germany.We brushed up on “What makes a great application?” “Steps to Obtain a Student Visa,” and “Ways and Means for Financial Aid.” Presentations on Tuck’s distinctive Research Centers stressed opportunities for MBA students to work on research projects in close cooperation with professors, often on projects of global scope.By the end of the conference, we were fully prepared to play, “You Are the Admissions Committee.” Stellar numbers earned our admiration, but in order to get our vote, an applicant had to have enthusiasm for the close-knit community that is Tuck.What’s the best way to find out what makes Tuck tick? Study the website! Visit the campus and attend a class! And since many international students may find it a bit of a hike to Hanover, New Hampshire–consider meeting up with an alum in your country. If you need help finding one, send email to Tuck or to athena@athena-mentor.com.Will international students feel welcome at Tuck? Thirty-five percent of the class of 2008 comes from outside the United States. Thirty countries sent superbly-qualified young people to ramp up their skills at Tuck–and leave Tuck to turbo-charge international business.
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Why is work experience crucial for MBA students?
June 4th, 2007
Today I took part in a conference at the Vereiningung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (Federation of Bavarian Industries) in Munich, Germany. MBA students and professors from Arizona State University met with Munich business people. In a plenary session and in small groups, we examined cross-cultural issues in doing business globally. Many thanks to Kelvin Strausman for organizing the event!Athena Mentor suspects that many of our American readers don’t yet know that in Germany, not only workers have unions. The VBW is a sort of union for–employers! So you see, we all have a lot to learn about how business is done in different countries.We discussed differences in labor laws, education, marketing–and even the importance of accepting an invitation to the home of a German colleague. It’s an honor! Be sure to bring flowers . . .Though this may have been the first trip to Europe for some of our guests, the visiting MBA students all had considerable business experience. In this video, Prof. Laurie Anderson of ASU explains why work experience is crucial to success in an MBA program
Welcome to Athena Mentor Audio
June 1st, 2007
On Saturday, June 2, Dr. Marlena Corcoran-that’s me-will give a free workshop, “Return on Investment: Financing your American MBA or Bachelor’s Degree.” The workshop will take place in Munich, Germany, as part of the Knowledge Exchange presented by the American German Business Club of Munich. The event is sponsored in part by KPMG and Paulaner.Paulaner, you ask? A beer company?Well, the event is in Munich, and includes a free traditional Munich breakfast, namely veal sausage, pretzels and beer. So you see, applying to university is not always all work and no fun.
Stanford vs. Berkeley
May 23rd, 2007
Did you know that Athena Mentor sends out a weekly (weakly weekly) admissions quiz? The answers are posted here on the blog. In fact, this post answers the quiz question, “Which Tower is Which?” You blog-only readers tend to get the answers before you get the question. Why not add some suspense to your life and sign up for the newsletter at: http://www.athena-mentor.com Of course, the blog contains the quiz and more, because all of life cannot be fit into the quiz genre–except perhaps on Judgment Day, when we will all face the Big Question: “Why were you so . . . inadequate?” For now, let’s stick to a question that can be answered: “Which Tower is Which?” Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley are located on opposite sides of San Francisco Bay. Stanford’s Hoover Tower (left) is the crowning glory of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. “Its largest bell is inscribed, ‘For Peace Alone Do I Ring.’” http://www.stanford.edu/home/welcome/campus/hoover.html The University of California at Berkeley’s Sather Tower (right) houses The Class of 1928 Carillon. It is a full concert carillon with sixty-one bells. If you are looking for a break from your studies at Berkeley, you can apply for free carillon lessons. No, really! http://music.berkeley.edu/carillon.html
