►Foreword:
A gathering of students who were attracted by Smart seniors to study abroad in the pit PH! This Nicole cadet is one of the fans. From trusting Smart, to choosing PH, to providing emotional value from the class teacher, to the tutor using her professional ability to "level up the ground" for her essays, she has played a set of silky combos for the application. In the middle of the night when Dream Program sent an offer, I finally got a short word of congratulations! Let's take a look at how she won the Northwest IMC with a super high GPA!
►Introduction:
Name: Nicole
即将要去：Northwestern IMC
高中：St. Andrew’s Episcopal School
本科：Washington University in St. Louis
专业：Psychological & Brain Science, Marketing
Overall GPA：3.9+
GRE/GMAT：325+
申请研究生获得的所有offer：Northwestern IMC, Imeprial Strategic Marketing, LBS MiM, Columbia MPA
实习经历：国内小厂marketing analyst，国内PE industry analyst，互联网小公司content operation intern，银行marketing intern
The interview officially began
►Q: First of all, please share why you chose PH to study abroad?
I chose PH to study abroad because I have had a student who has obtained an ideal application result through PH and appreciates the professional responsibility of the teachers in PH. Before deciding to apply, I contacted the Smart senior, chatted with the project selection, and helped me analyze the advantages and disadvantages of my soft and hard skills, the senior is very professional and serious, which makes me feel that PH is a trustworthy organization.
►Q: During the application process, which tutors, homeroom teachers, and ministers helped you? What is the help given? What helpful suggestions or services have you made?
When I was far from deciding to apply, I contacted Smart through my classmates with the mentality of understanding it, and Smart answered my questions seriously, made suggestions for my follow-up internship and work, and also helped me roughly list the projects of my professional counterpart, which was very patient. After the chat, it successfully helped me to change from being confused to having a clear mind, and also strengthened my idea of continuing to apply for PH in the future.
My homeroom teacher, Ms. Jia, was also the one who answered most of my miscellaneous questions during the application process. From the early school selection to the online application form, from the essay format to the I-20 application, I can't count how many questions I asked, and Mr. Jia is always super patient to answer my questions, check each online application page for me, and help me collect the materials I need. In addition, Mr. Jia provided super high emotional value every time I was anxious and worried about rejection, telling me not to be nervous! This is really a great comfort to me who is fragile in my heart~
►Q: Tell me what impressed me the most in your application?
The most memorable thing may be the night when I got the IMC offer. After all, it is a project that has written a 3,000-word essay and prepared for an interview, and it is more important than other projects. In fact, I was always in a very unconfident state during the application process, although it was okay to comfort myself not to record, I could go to LBS to enjoy life in London, but I still woke up from my sleep and looked at my phone at the moment when the email was sent on the day of the list, a small congratulations shocked me at a loss, and when no one shared it in the middle of the night, I immediately received a reply from the teachers, and I felt that the teachers believed in me, super warm!
►Q: During the application process, how does PH Study Abroad help you determine your major choice and school goals?
Before deciding on my major and choosing a school, PH arranged a group meeting with my teachers, and after understanding my personal needs in detail, we made a rough list of suitable programs based on the teachers' experience. Due to the limited major of marketing itself, there are not many programs that can be applied for, and the teachers respected my choice and screened projects that met my requirements in the United States, United Kingdom, and Asia.
Later, during the application process, with the understanding of each school and program, I also proposed to change the program to be applied for, and the teachers gave me a very high degree of flexibility, as long as it was not a line to ask for a change of program, they would accept my proposal. Personally, I am a rather bad personality, and after receiving the ideal offer, I withdrew a lot of less favored applications, and the teachers did not put me under pressure to get more offers, which made me feel very stable and at ease~
►Q: How did the PH tutors and other teachers help you in the process of revising your essays? How to dig out the shining points and make up for the shortcomings?
During the follow-up application process, my supervisor was Z, and after fully understanding my background, she analyzed that my soft skills were relatively lacking, especially in terms of internship experience. Based on this, she helped me build a tall building through her professional strength and rich brainstorming, and packaged my ordinary internship experience into a small but precise sense of immediacy, so that each experience can be related to marketing and can be logically connected. In addition to resumes, Tutor Z will always put forward accurate suggestions in the process of document revision, and accurately grasp the characteristics of each project. In each school, Tutor Z and I will have at least an hour of voice calls to plan the specific structure and content, which can make my thinking clear after each conversation. During the application process, she will also share her experiences and experiences, which made me more and more aware of what programs I am more suitable for if I do not pursue a prestigious school, which is simply a "good medicine for the soul" in my application process.
►Q: How did the PH tutors and other teachers help you during the interview process? How to dig out the shining points and make up for the shortcomings?
Most of the content in the interview is actually formed when writing essays and revising resumes. LBS and IMC's real-life Smart and Mr. Jia both helped me find my previous seniors for mocking, and on top of the content I had prepared, the seniors helped me put forward suggestions on how to narrate and express the key points through their own experience, so that I could feel confident during the formal interview.
►Q: What was the dream program I applied for at that time? Why did you choose this project among the many offers? What are the pros and cons of this project?
At first, I applied for CBS MSM and Northwest IMC, but after an in-depth understanding of the program, I found that MSM was relatively intense in terms of curriculum and high requirements for quantitative ability, which was not very suitable for me, so I removed it from the dream program. In the end, the main ones that are tangled are LBS MiM and Northwest IMC, the former I personally think has no shortcomings, but the relevance of the curriculum to marketing is relatively low, and the content overlaps with what I learned in business school as an undergraduate. The more obvious disadvantage of the latter is the sky-high tuition fee, and the cost performance needs to be considered, but it is undoubtedly the best choice for marketing students. Considering that I don't plan to venture into IB or Consulting, LBS is a bit inferior to IMC.
►Q: How do I get a letter of recommendation? How do you develop a good relationship with your professors?
Since I didn't think about applying for graduate school at all when I was an undergraduate, I didn't deliberately build a good relationship with my professor early, and I barely spoke in class, and most of them ran away after class. I was nervous before I asked for a letter of recommendation because I was worried that the professors wouldn't remember me at all. In the end, I took the plunge and chose professors who were easier to talk in my professional courses, and my grades in their courses were very good, and my face was relatively high. I have been graduating from undergraduate for more than a year, so in my first email to them, I wrote about what I did after graduation, why I wanted to go to graduate school, what direction I wanted to study, why I chose them to write letters of recommendation, and the impact of their courses on me at that time. The email should not be too long, but the key content should be mentioned and show your sincerity. If the professor agrees, he can make an appointment for a meeting to chat, or integrate the characteristics he wants to show and send it to the professor, and if necessary, you can refer to it. In short, be cheeky, don't worry about rejection, and take the initiative. I believe that most professors are happy to help students with clear and sincere goals.
►Q: How do you divide your energy between hard power (GPA, GRE, TOEFL) and soft power (internship research recommendation letters)? What advice can you give to juniors?
GPA and internship are accumulated over a long period of time during the undergraduate period, so it is necessary to have stamina and maintain a good state of study continuously during the undergraduate years. I spent a month studying the GRE and a week preparing for the duolingo exam after I decided to apply for graduate school, and although the final score was not particularly good, it was enough in the application process.
My GPA is relatively high, and it gives me a lot of security when I apply, so I personally think that maintaining a good GPA during my undergraduate years is the foundation, and it is basically not a problem to put GRE and language score preparation into a vacation or the second half of the undergraduate sprint.
►Q: Tell us about the overall feeling of being a student studying abroad at PH and joining the PH family?
The feeling I get as a student at PH is that everything revolves around my goals, and the advice and assistance given to me by the teachers is so that I can achieve my application goals. I am very grateful to the teachers for accepting my slightly sloppy personality, and in the direct and sincere communication, I feel that I have become friends with everyone, and I hope to keep in touch after the application is over!
►To Nicole:
Blessings from PH:
Nicole is a sincere and excellent girl paper, with clear goals and a very organized way to do things, and the teachers in the team are very fond of you~ The whole application season is also very efficient and tacit with our team, and the admission results are also expected by us, very successful, we are really happy for you! We look forward to Nicole always shining in the field she loves in the future! If you have anything to do in the future, please contact us often, welcome to make an appointment with us when you are free!