Networking and the MBA Admins Process
GP
The MBA program focuses on building you technically and building your personal skills. It also focuses on team building because you are trained on how to become a manager and it gives you the opportunity to work with different types of people and learn their ideas.
Ryan Hess
Networking is not just about looking to be given a job; but it is about making a connection. The first step is getting to know people. Find out who you connect with, things that you have in common with them, and learn from their experiences.
GP: Networking is like dating, where you are trying to show genuine intention to the person you are meeting. This will build a long-lasting connection with the person. Networking doesn’t end with you getting whatever job you were looking for; it’s a career-long skill you need to develop. Also, not everyone you reach out to would be willing to help you. So cast a wide net, and you will definitely catch fish. It is also very good to start networking as early as possible. Talk to people who have learned from the program and find out whether the program is going to meet whatever objectives you seek to achieve from the MBA program.
Samuel Adeoye: What are the mistakes that people make when trying to connect with the admission officers?
Ryan Hess
Some people are always afraid to reach out because they don’t know what questions to ask, or that they are wasting the admission officers’ time. It would be great to talk about whether the MBA program is good for you or not. The job of the Admissions officer is to answer your questions.
The most common mistake is people sending mass emails and forgetting to change the name of the school. You need to do a little bit of research and try to narrow down what schools you want to talk to. The easiest way to figure out what schools to try and narrow down to is what your post-MBA goals are.
Samuel Adeoye: What are you looking for in people you are excited to talk about?
GP: I would be looking out for anyone who is coming with a learning mind. A lot of people have some set emotions about what to expect in the MBA program and a lot of myths around the MBA program.
Samuel Adeoye: What is the best platform to use in connecting with the admission officers?
Ryan Hess
Emails are one of the best ways, but for alumni, LinkedIn would be appropriate because it is very difficult to get their emails. For the current students, it depends because some of them are ambassadors, and it might be difficult to connect with them. As for the calls, you might have asked through the email to set up a call, and the calls probably last like 30 minutes.
GP: You have to be prompt and stick to the allocated time for the call and in case you are connecting with people on LinkedIn, leave a note to inform the person on what you want to talk about.
Samuel Adeoye: How Soon Should Someone Follow Up?
GP
For recruiters or admissions officers, they get to talk to a lot of people each day. If you are building a relationship with them, you need to follow up after the conversation and even ask if you can schedule another call later on. Therefore you need to put time and resources into it.
Samuel Adeoye: How Does this correspondence of the students and admissions officers impact the MBA Decision?
Ryan Hess
The conversations do not make or break a decision for the admission process, but in one way or the other, it does have an impact. Mainly, when looking at the applicants, the main thing we are looking at is the impact you will bring about by joining the MBA.
Olamide: Advice for those applying during this COVID-19 Period?
Ryan Hess
Many people are changing the GMAT and GRE requirements, but Penn State is trying to keep our process the same apart from updating our waiver policy.
Kehinde: What would you advise people to do when applying for Penn State, being that it is difficult to get a transcript at this point?
Ryan Hess
We are currently accepting copies of official transcripts, and we may be able to start the process with unofficial transcripts. The graduate school at Penn State does not allow admission until there is a copy of an official transcript. If you get a chance to be admitted, you will have to offer an official transcript. Also, you can get a digital copy of your transcript.
Franklin: How visible is Penn State for people who have the initiative of starting new clubs to launch it as part of the program?
Ryan Hess
There are several clubs at Penn State, but the hard part of starting a new club out of those is the way we have things organized. But if you find something that you can bring in that all of our students are interested in, then it would be easier to introduce it. You can also make it part of another club which is easier.
Samuel Adeoye: What are the funding options available for African students?
Ryan Hess
For the past three years, we have been offering a full-tuition scholarship with a monthly stipend, and we also have the Miyamuna Mitchundati scholarship, which was put together by the alumni specifically for the students from Nigeria.