The 29-year-old girl won a scholarship to America's No. 1 Business School

Bich Tram, 29 years old, won a master's scholarship to the top 6 business schools in the US thanks to her knowledgeable essay about the school and excellent GMAT scores.

Among these, the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and Northwestern University's Kellogg at the top of the rankings published by US News at the end of April.

The remaining four schools are Ross (University of Michigan) at number 8, Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley) and Fuqua (Duke University) at joint 11, Goizueta School of Business (Emory University) at number 17. .

The scholarship that Tram receives at each school ranges from 80,000 - 150,000 USD (1.9 - 3.5 billion VND), for two years, equivalent to 50 to 100% of the tuition fee.

Bich Tram started researching to apply from August 2021. At that time, she spent 4 years working in customer strategy and data analysis at a number of domestic technology companies. Seeing the potential from data, Tram believes that it is necessary to learn more to go deeper in this field, as well as increase leadership and expand the network.

While college transcripts or past experience can't be changed, she focuses on the essay and GMAT score - two other important components of the application.

Essay about school

Tram wrote 12 essays for 6 schools. According to Tram, understanding the school's culture is very important to come up with the right writing strategy and show your suitability.

"American universities often attach great importance to culture and based on that, consider whether applicants are suitable for their environment," Tram said, for example, Booth Business School is usually academic, while Emory University is often inclined towards soft skills.

To understand this, Tram searched on the job network LinkedIn, looking for people with similar careers, having attended the schools on the list she applied for. Tram then emailed them for a short appointment, about 60-70% of the recipients agreed. The Nghe girl assessed that these appointments not only help her understand the culture of the school, but also provide more detailed information.

"A Taiwanese friend who studied at Haas told me about a few courses that you really enjoyed at the school, and I named these courses in my essay to show that I have done my research." , Tram said.

In addition, in the essay, Tram clearly expressed her long-term goals in the future. That is to become a management consultant after graduation.

"What schools care about is the goal after 10-20 years, who you become, and this MBA program will be a springboard for you in what stage and how," Tram said, saying that if the goal The goal is only a short-term promotion, the profile will not stand out.

When reading the questions of the schools, Tram analyzes and determines the elements that need to be included in the essay. From there, she tells small stories of herself, which link to the topic of the essay. For example, in her Haas school essay titled "What makes you feel alive?" Tram talked about a 14-day solo trek in Nepal to the foothills of Annapurna mountain. of the Himalayas. Thereby, she demonstrated her willingness to accept challenges, the ability to connect and expand her mind.

Bich Tram on a trip in 2019. Photo: Provided by the character

Focus on GMAT Reading

Tram started studying GMAT (standardized test for graduate application) from August 2021 and got 750/800 points after one year. Normally, GMAT scores in the 700-740 range have been considered good and are also popular among students at the world's most famous business schools.

The GMAT test consists of 4 parts: Verbal (Language), Quantitative (Quantitative Math), Writing (Writing), Integrated Reasoning (Integrated Reasoning).

Having been a student of English class, Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted, Nghe An Province, Tram has many advantages. However, she considers that the GMAT is not an English test but a logic test, so the most important thing is reading comprehension with a systematic thinking. Therefore, she invests most in Reading skills.

Unlike IELTS, learners often choose to read skimming (read quickly) to get an overview, the GMAT test contains many small details, so it is imperative to read and understand the entire idea of ​​the lesson to be able to do well. Tram's way of learning is to always evaluate the author's purpose and the way they argue to prove it. After reading each sentence, each paragraph, Tram will imagine how it complements and plays a role in the author's conclusion.

"After reading an article, I can draw an argument diagram in my head, so solving the question will be easier and less time consuming," Tram shared, saying that good reading comprehension skills help she does well in Integrated Reasoning and Languages.

With the Math part, Tram said just focus on the vocabulary part to understand the question correctly because the difficulty is only equivalent to that of high school math in Vietnam.

Regarding documents, Tram chose to search from the organization that made the GMAT test, for example, the GMAT Official Guide. In addition, she joins the GMAT learning community on social networks to refer to sample papers. This, according to Tram, if you know how to be selective, will help expand and improve your way of thinking.

About 10 days before the exam, Tram takes a mock test every day for three hours to get used to the pressure of the exam room, time the test as well as practice intense concentration.

When taking the exam, Bich Tram chooses the sections with strengths to do first. She believes that test takers need to accept to ignore difficult questions instead of staying there forever, affecting the test time.

CV emphasizes effectiveness

With Curriculum Vitae (CV), Tram said that it is not too complicated because it mainly lists basic information. However, not every examiner has gone through the candidate's work to be able to understand all the technical terms. Therefore, Tram seeks to simplify the terms of the work that she has been doing.

Tram recognizes that MBA programs value candidates' leadership, negotiation skills, teamwork style, critical thinking and networking. These should be included in your CV.

"You should show how what you do affects the company and create value for the team," Tram said. In her CV, she told about the process of connecting departments at Gojek or Shopee to work effectively.

In addition, Tram also connects to ask for letters of recommendation from former colleagues. Overall, she thinks it's important that candidates understand their own worth and have a clear plan for the future.

Tram will attend the University of Chicago Booth next summer.