Melody Jones, Co-Founder of Vantage Point MBA Admissions Consulting, has been helping applicants get into top 10 MBA programs for over a decade. How does Vantage Point help applicants triple their chances compared to other applicants? Melody shares key learnings, examples and questions you can use right away to craft a compelling application.

• Introduction (0:00)
• Melody's MBA Story, Career & Co-Founding of Vantage Point (2:45)
• Vantage Point's Philosophy for Serving Applicants (11:00)
• Vantage Point's 3x Success Factors (13:00)
• Factor 1: Who Are You? (17:00)
• Factors 2 & 3: What Do You Want? Why? (23:00)
• Rejected Application Analyses for Columbia, MIT, Harvard, Stanford (34:00)
• What if you have the same career goals as everyone else? (41:00)
• Melody's Last Two Tips for Applicants (43:00)

Melody Jones is Co-Founder of Vantage Point MBA Admissions Consulting. Previously, Melody worked as a Marketing Manager for L'Oreal in New York City and prior to her MBA, Melody worked in finance at Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

Melody got her MBA from the Columbia Business School and her Bachelors in Marketing & International Business from the University of Virginia.

• Vantage Point MBA Admissions Consulting
• #221 Excellent Advice for Living (and MBA Applications!)

• Get free school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com
• Learn effective strategies to secure admission to top-ranked MBA programs with Touch MBA's Admissions Edge Course. Gain insights from successful resumes, essays, and case studies of admitted MBAs. Save thousands on consulting fees while optimizing every aspect of your application: https://go.touchmba.com/edge
• Our favorite MBA application tools (after advising 4,000 applicants): https://touchmba.com/favorite-mba-application-tools/

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.

• 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)

• 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

Don't want to pay thousands for admissions consulting? Take our online MBA admissions course w/ our best application tips and strategies. Members have gotten into ALL top 25 MBA programs: https://go.touchmba.com/edge

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.

• 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 Nakamura is 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.

• 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?

• 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)

Beau Gresham is 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.

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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)

• 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.

• 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.

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