Online MBA Application Workshop

Welcome, everybody, to the AMBA Application Tips webinar. Before we get started, we're just gonna wait for people to populate into the event, and then we'll go over some housekeeping materials, and we'll introduce the speakers for today.

Mhm.

And here is the back.

Great, so now it is 12.01. We're gonna go ahead and start our application tips webinar. My name is Nelson Reyes. I am an admissions specialist. Joining us today is Addison Saviors, who is also an admissions specialist. We both work with the online MBA program here in the Office of Graduate Admissions. Today, we're gonna be going over how to submit an application in our application system. So before we get started, just wanna do some housekeeping stuff so everybody is understand or understands how to ask questions and what to do. This session will be an hour long. Thank you, Brendan, for reaching out. We ask that if you have any questions, you can just put them in the questions chat and then we will answer them as we go through this presentation. And then at the end of this webinar, we will answer some questions live. So with that being said, we're gonna go ahead and go in. So first things first is I'm gonna send you all a link. And this link is straight to the application page and where you can start an application. And we're gonna be walking through how to actually fill that out.

If you have already started an application, what you're going to do is you're going to log in to continue, and you'll input your email address. So in this case, I will be putting in my email.

This is a test one that I was given. Make sure I put in that one. Give me one moment.

Once you log in, it's not going to look like this, but this is a test application. Basically, what you're going to do is you're going to start a new application. And once you go in there, you're going to select which application type, and you're going to select Boston University graduate application. And you're going to go ahead and create application. Because I already did this a little bit before, what I'm going to do is just go to the active application that I've already started. I'm going to open it. So in here, the first thing that you're going to do is you're going to input your personal information. So your first name, the display name that you would like for it to say on your application, the last name, and if you have any application materials under a former name, yes, if so, what it is, and what your former last name might have been. Please note that there are some parts where there's a red asterisk mark, which is required for you to complete in order to move forward. If there is a field that is empty and you try to move forward, for example, right, I keep that blank. And you go down right after, you put in your mailing address, you put in information, this is optional, you put your email address, a contact number, biographical information, your citizenship information, the country of birth, city of birth, your citizenship status. Once you go down and you've selected all that you needed to select,

Can you try to continue?

Oh, it looked like it went through, I guess because the first name.

Either way, please fill out the red fields.

But I kind of went over this a little bit. I want to go a little bit more into depth with a certain section here. For example, if you were to...

if you were to put country of birth, city of birth, um, if you did dual citizenship, you can include that you're a dual citizen. You could include your Social Security if you'd like to, but you don't have to. If you plan to apply for U.S. federal loans, we ask that you indicate here yes or no. In this case, no. Or if you're unsure, you can do unsure.

Race and ethnicity, are you Hispanic or Latino? If you'd like to say yes or no, prefer not to say. Regardless of the answer above, please check one or more of the following groups in which you consider yourself a member. White, European. Additional information, if you're a first-generation graduate student. And then what is the highest level of education completed by any of your parents, legal guardians? And then you'll put in what is your first language and if you have any US military affiliation. And then you will continue. So once you continue, you'll then put in your BU affiliation if you have any. If you do, there are some options here. So you're either an alum, you're affiliated with a current faculty or staff member, you're a current student, affiliated with a current student. See here, please pick the current or most recent one. Students who work on campus should select current student. And then the other one is no current or prior affiliation. And then you're going to go ahead and continue.

So now this is the section where you select the program that you're applying for. Because this application tips webinar is for the online MBA degree, you're going to want to make sure that you're selecting the online MBA program. So the degree type that you would be selecting is a master's program. The term that you would be selecting, because this application is for spring 2027, if you are planning to apply for spring 2027, the location, online, and then any school or college, you're going to select Questrom School of Business right here, and then you'll search. And what will come up are two programs, the Specialty Masters in AI in Business, and then the MBA online. So because I've already started an application previously on this test, basically I can't do it again, but an application already exists for this program, so I can't create a second application because I've already started it. So something to note is you can't do more than two applications with one profile. You have to have one start one and complete one, and then that's it. So I'm going to continue here. Because I've already done this, I'm going to go back home and go to the active application that has the online spring 2027. Open this application here. And all the information is essentially the same.

So this is where we were last were at the program selection. You can see it goes down the list. The program we selected is MBA Online. If you wish to change your program, search for it above, select it, and click continue. But in this case, we are doing MBA Online. And we will continue down the list.

So now, the program details that we're applying for, the start term Spring 27, and the modality will be online. All online programs are part-time. Part-time in this case is 15 to 20 hours a week, but that is information we will not go into for this webinar. And then you will go ahead and continue. Next, you will be including your academic history. So you will enter all colleges that you attended. With uploading transcripts, you will be able to upload one document for each university or school that you enter into the table below. And so in this case, right, we have University of California and University of Bates College. I'm going to put one here. So I studied at University of Massachusetts Boston.

I think I might have to put UMass.

There we go. So UMass Boston.

You put the country, the country and the city and state will automatically populate. Am I currently attending this institution? No. When did I start? I think I started September 2000. I'm just gonna guess, 2018? Sounds about right. That's when I graduated. 2016, ended in May.

Two thousand.

So, like that. Level of study. This was an undergraduate program. And then once you, once you have selected, if you notice, right, once you select the level of study, more fields will populate. So then you'll include your undergraduate degree. If this was a program that you graduated from, you'll include what the program was. So I graduated with a bachelor's in Bachelors of Arts.

I'm pretty sure psychology is not in there, with my degree status, degree awarded, and then you'll want to include your degree confirmed date. It'll always be on your transcript, it'll also be on your diploma. I think for me, it was, I'm pretty sure it was May 2018. And then you'll include the major. What's easy, if you can just start typing in, you can just type in your major and then the list will kind of lead you closer towards what it is. If you did any minors, you can include your minors. You'll want to include your GPA and you want to include out of the scale that it was. If you do not have a GPA for this institution or degree, you can go ahead and just select that and it'll come. And then what is the primary language of instruction of this institution?

For our students who are international and studied at an international university, some schools are fully done in English, you can include English. If it wasn't in English, please indicate the language that it was the primary language of instruction. And then you'll go ahead and save.

There is a question here that came in, so what if we could add some classes from a local community college? And yes, we would actually like you to provide some requirements for, sorry, your transcript from your local community college. So if you studied at a university where you received 12 or more credits, so if you went to a community college and you transferred those over to your bachelor's program, you could add the transcript from that community college.

Once that institution or that university information is included, then you can go ahead and continue.

And if you added all of your universities that you'd like to add, you can continue. So next, then, you are going to indicate why are you applying to the online MBA program. First, the question that we're asking you that you are applying to this program. The first question that you'll get asked is, have you ever been disciplined by any college or university for reasons pertaining to academic integrity? If you say no, you can go ahead and move on. If you say yes, then this will happen. And you'll basically have to provide a brief description of the incident, related dates, consequences, and reflection of the incident of how the incident impacted your life. And then you can go ahead and continue.

Please indicate your current employment status, if you are currently employed or if you are not currently employed, or if you are a student. Please indicate your current employer. If you have one or more, list the one most relevant to your chosen program of study. So Liz Wagner, the Associate Director, Boston University would be ours, and then for me, I would be Admissions.

specialist

And then you could list any professional organizations in which you are currently a member. Please separate each one with a semicolon, so that could be like an honor society or you're part of a board, for example. Have you previously applied to a graduate program at Boston University? Yes or no. And then answering these questions about your previous applications is optional and will not impact any admissions decisions. These are the following. So how did you learn about the graduate program? There's a ton of options that you can go through. You can select multiple options by using control click on the desktop. So holding the control button and then just clicking the ones that resonate with you.

And then you'll continue.

Next, you'll include your professional experience. It's optional to provide your LinkedIn URL, but you can if you'd like to. The first question is, have you participated in any full-time work experience post-college graduation? Yes or no. Are you currently employed full-time? Yes or no. Please select the industry that best describes your organization that you're currently working for, which there are tons of options that you can include, accounting, consulting, in this case, we're a nonprofit. And then you'll indicate the primary industry for your current employer from the nonprofit, whatever industry sector that you selected. And then you'll go from there. Estimate the number of years that you have in work experience. And then if you have any gaps, you can say yes, if no, then no. But if yes, we ask total months not working full-time since completing your bachelor's degree. And then if you have any gaps in your employment history that are not, where you were not currently working, or you are not currently working, please provide any personal and professional context you'd like us to consider below. So it could be something like, you graduated school, but then you took a year off because you wanted to travel. You could say that. Or you were working and then you stopped in the middle of your career because you were laid off. Or you chose to leave the workforce because you wanted to raise a family. For example, these are some contexts in which people will have gaps in their employment. And then you'll continue.

So next, this is information for contact and financial support. We may share limited contact information, name, program, and email with recognized questions student groups so that they can answer questions and welcome prospective students. If you do not want your information shared with student groups, please check this box, this box right here that says, please do not share information. The next question is if you have a family member or close contact, spouse, partner, significant other, roommate, colleague, who is also applying to this program, please include their name and the relationship below. So, for example, Addison, she's applying. Addison Saviors, I'm just gonna say she's my sister, which she's not, she's my colleague. But I'll say she's my sister. And then that you'll include it like that. That's how it will be displayed. If a member of your family has been associated with the university community, for example, an alumnus student or employee, please give the name and relationship both to you and the university. So that will be the name, the relationship, but also what relationship they have to the university. So Addison, sister, alum. Will you be receiving any tuition reimbursement or sponsorship? This could include assistance from an employer, government, external sponsor, military benefits, or other sources. Yes or no. And then what is the source of your tuition reimbursement? So if it's yes, it's either employer, government, military benefits, external scholarship, or other. If it's other, you'll have to specify.

How much will you be receiving per academic year? You can just put in a number or it could be a percentage amount. Is the tuition reimbursement or sponsorship above amount above in currency or percentage? And that's where you'll indicate. Have you already applied for tuition reimbursement or sponsorship? Yes or no. Have you already been granted tuition reimbursement or sponsorship? Yes or no.

Next is writing down your professional goals. So I always, in this part, I always tell prospective students or students alike that be really intentional about the goals that you are writing. You know, some people have short goals, like, I just want to get promoted, which is nice. A lot of people do want to get promoted. But we want to see kind of a deeper reasoning as to why you're making the choice that you're making and coming to get an MBA. So really trying to be intentional about the first goal, like, what is your immediate post-MBA career goal? Please include desired industry and role. What is your long-term career goal? Please include desired industry and role. Just trying to be intentional. And then the program question of what is the main reason why you selected this online MBA program? Max one to two sentences. And then once you've done that, you'll go ahead and continue.

So now this is where you're uploading some documents. The first document that you'll be asked to upload is a copy of your CV or resume. Please upload a resume that documents all postgraduate work starting from the date you completed your undergraduate degree, including full-time and part-time jobs, internships, freelance contracts, research assistantships, and significant volunteer roles. If you are currently completing your undergraduate degree, instead include internships, volunteer roles, and relevant club memberships from your undergraduate studies. So a question that some people have is, well, I didn't go the traditional route. I didn't go straight to school. I chose to work for 10, 15 years, and then I realized that I needed to go back to school or I wanted to go back to school and get my bachelor's degree program. And there are cases where this happens with students. In this case, we do want you to provide your work experience, everything that happened prior to you going to school, and then including the information about you going to school, and then any work that you did completing after you've completed your bachelor's program. Or if you're the type of student who had worked for several years and then went back to school and you're graduating in 2026, we would like to see that as well. And then you'll choose the file. So you'll go ahead and make sure that the file is within the file limit, but also it's either a PDF or a docx. A length may see one page if needed to accurately capture your experience. But we ask that you please use a clean resume. I'm going to go ahead and find my resume. Click. This is here because I was.

Playing with it the other day.

There we go.

You'll choose the file, it'll populate like that.

And then you'll go ahead and move on to the next section. So this, this is an optional item, the Kira Talent assessment. Basically, if you opt in to do this, you will receive an email that will bring you to the Kira Talent website. It will also be in your application status portal after you submit your application. So what to expect with the Kira Talent assessment? Essentially, it is a three-video question, three-question video submission portion of the application. Essentially, you get asked three questions. And in each question, you have a minute to prepare your response and then a minute to reply. And it's supposed to kind of mimic what it's like to speak in an interview. We ask that you treat it as so, right? So make sure that you are in a place where there's good lighting, you can actually speak clearly, and you're answering the questions at the best of your ability without trying to read off of a screen or a piece of paper. You can write your notes down or anything like that. But basically, you'll have some time to prepare yourself and then answer the questions. Some questions you get asked is like, why have you selected the Questrom School of Business? Why the online MBA program in particular? And then a third question tends to be more fun, like, you know, if a friend could describe you, what would they say? Or if someone visited your hometown, where would you go and show them part of your hometown? So those are some of the questions that you can do. It doesn't hurt your chances if you choose to not do the Kira Talent assessment. It is purely optional. So you can choose to like to do it or you don't have to do it. So say yes, or you could say no. And then the next part is an essay. So this is required. It is a 750-word essay explaining to us, the admissions committee, why you'd like to earn this degree from Questrom, specifically the online MBA program. We'd like you to address why an MBA, why the online MBA program, and how it aligns with your goals, your postgraduate goals, short-term and long-term. Once you have your essay written, you can go ahead and choose your file and input it there. And then an optional additional statement that you can provide. This is for students who'd like to address something that they might have some concerns to or just something that they'd like to additionally address in their application. So an example could be if your undergraduate GPA fell below the class average of like a 3.3 or it was like a 2.9, 2.6, 2.7, whatever it was, right? And you're concerned that the GPA is going to be held against you. You can write an optional essay basically stating like...

Basically stating, like, this is what happened in my undergrad. I was working full time to make ends meet, or I was supporting a family member, or I was just unfocused. Whatever the reason may be, giving us an actual reason as to what happened there allows the admissions committee to have a deeper understanding of what's going on with that section. You could also use the optional statement to address some work gaps or to address something that you're currently doing in your role as a professional. These are areas that you can use, basically, to talk about in an optional statement. And there are some examples here, too. Postgraduate work experience, choice of recommenders, concerns about academic test performance. And then the last optional item is the GRE or GMAT. This is fully optional. Less than 1% of students actually provide this portion of the application. So not necessary, but if you'd like to, you can provide it. If you have already taken the GRE or GMAT, say yes. When, what did you take? You could choose GMAT, for example, this, and then you'll include the test date, scores, and whatnot. But if not, no, and no, I'm not planning to take the test either. And you go ahead and continue.

So now this is where you're putting in your letters of recommendation. Essentially, you only have to provide one letter of recommendation, but you're allowed up to two. Essentially, what happens is you're going to add your referral. So Addison, I'm going to use you as a referral. You go ahead and put in their first name. You put in the last name.

put in the organization that they work for.

You put in the position and title.

Admissions specialist.

their relationships, colleague. You can include their phone number, but it's prefer that you use their email address. So something to note also,

I'm pretty sure I spelled that right.

Sometimes your your recommender's professional email, like your organization, might have some firewalls or some blocks that doesn't allow external emails to come through.

And they're not going to be able to receive it. So they'll reach out and be like, hey, I didn't actually receive anything. What can I do? In this case, we ask that you reach out to us. Addison, if you actually put in the chat our general umba email, omd at BU.edu. And you can reach out to us, basically state that my recommender never received their letter of recommendation form. Can you help them out? And basically, we'll follow up with some instruction. But if it's able to go through, what will happen is they'll receive an email either in their inbox or in their spam, and then they can reply to the recommendation letter by whatever they have to do. But you can give some notes if you want to. You can provide them a deadline if you'd like. Your name will display the recommender as your name. You can change your display name. You can waive your right to access this letter, or you do not waive the right to access this letter of recommendation. Please note, once you select the option of whether you want to waive your right or you don't want to waive your right, that's it. We can't make the change for you after it's gone through, unfortunately. That's just how it's gonna be. So please make sure that you read and you select the right option that you'd like. And then once you send this form to your recommender, you will no longer be able to change your decision about the right. Like I said right there, you will no longer be able to waive your right. And then you want to type in your signature, basically type in your name. And then you'll send to recommender. They'll get an email in their inbox. It'll say when it was sent, the date and the time. And then they can write their letter of recommendation. They can complete the form, and then they'll have a way to upload it in their, I guess, in your application portal. So you won't have to receive it or upload it on your behalf. Please note that if you do try to upload a letter of recommendation on your own, on your own application, it's not going to be accepted. Any letters of recommendation that are uploaded directly by the student themselves will not be considered. So something to keep in mind as you're in this process. And then you'll continue.

Once you're here, then you're basically, this is like the final part of the application. And so one of the big questions that people have is like the access code part. So basically, yes or no if you don't have an access code. Lucky enough for you, Addison has a special gift for everybody at the end of this webinar that will share some information about this stuff. But basically, if you have your access code, you'll say yes, and you'll type in the access code. If no, unfortunately, there won't be a field where you can type it out. But you can say yes, and then if you have that code, you'll type it out. And this will waive your application fee of $125. Once you put in that, then there's some policy statements that you can read. We encourage everyone to read them. They're very quick. The equal opportunity policy, the Boston University privacy statement, a certification and authorization statement, and then the Boston University matriculation policy. Once you have read through those, then you'll wanna place your signature and you'll please type out your full legal name. This is the test app. That's the way it is. And then you will continue.

Once it continues...

Then you'll see review and say, well, there is an error here. There's a bunch of errors. We have detected the following errors in your application. The errors must be corrected before submission. So academic history, I'm required to submit more transcripts. I guess I didn't put in a transcript. My professional experience, I didn't provide a brief experience below my gap of employment. The professional experience section, I didn't specify how many months in total I've been unemployed. And then I didn't describe my immediate post-MBA goals. So you'll have to make sure you go back and clear these before you actually can submit. And then the last one, signature, the application access code I entered is not valid. So because I didn't put in an access code, it's not valid, it's not going to let me go. So I'm going to save for later. But essentially what will happen is, once everything is cleared, you'll be able to move forward and submit the application.

That being said, here.

Present.

And so that's essentially how you submit an application. Now what we're gonna do in the second part of this webinar is Addison is gonna go through, and she is going to kind of go deeper, deeper dive in different application components for what we're asking for you to provide.

When it decides to present, there we go. Go ahead, Addison, you're good.

Thanks so much, Nelson, for the overview of how to go through the application. If we want to click, yes, Nelson went over that. That was our review section. I have a visual checklist. There it is. This is just so you have a visual. This is also on our website. This is everything that will be required for the application. You'll see some things are optional. Some things will be only required for certain applicants. So it's really important to read through the checklist very carefully to make sure you're covering all of your bases and that you won't have any components of the application missing. So now I'm going to go through each section of the application and some helpful tips and tricks for each portion.

Perfect. So the first thing is your transcripts. I, there are some questions in the chat about transcripts, and I will answer those as I go along. So this is an example of a transcript. You can see here in this example, this is Erin, our associate director for the Online MBA program, transcript from her graduate degree that she did at BU. So as Nelson mentioned before, you only need to submit unofficial copies of your transcript. As you can see right at the top, I highlighted here, Erin has downloaded this from her student portal, making it unofficial. Anything that is unofficial works. It can be a download, a scan, a picture, a screenshot. I got this question about uploading transcripts where you didn't have an official degree, if it's a non-degree, if you didn't complete classes. We will need all university transcripts where you earned 12 or more credits. It doesn't necessarily mean that you graduated from that university and you have a degree from that university. As long as you have earned 12 or more credits, we need those transcripts as well. Since Erin completed 36 credits in this transcript, which you can see at the bottom, it's kind of small, but I highlighted it. She would need to submit this in her application. So for each unofficial transcript, you just want to make sure that your name, the university's name, the names of the courses you took, and the grades for each of those courses are visible and legible. It is also helpful if your transcript has a final GPA or course ranking if your university has that. But we also recognize that some universities do not provide that either at all or until the completion of the degree. We will only need a certification or translation if your transcript is not already in English. I get a lot of questions typically about this. You can work with any translation service in your area as long as they are a certified service. We don't have a preference of what you choose to use as long as they are certified. If you do have any questions on how to do that, you can reach out to us through that ONBA at BU.edu email and I'm happy to answer any questions. And one caveat at the bottom, if you are admitted to the program and you choose to enroll, you must be able to submit official transcripts. Those are transcripts from the university to BU before matriculation. If you cannot provide those, it will impact your ability to start the program. So I would be sure that you can obtain all official transcripts since we will need that, we will need that.

Now, looking through the resume portion, I also got a question about this in the chat. This is an example fake resume that I have pulled straight off of the internet, but it is a great example. Your resume should be about one to two pages. You can see here that this person's that I pulled is one page. It should have all of your professional work history and should highlight both the responsibilities of your role as well as the quality aspects of your work experience. For your resume, we are assessing both the quantity and the quality of an applicant's work experience, and I truly cannot stress that enough. So this person did a great job in this example resume, not only highlighting their role, but also what they accomplished, like implementing cost-saving initiatives, improved fulfillment accuracy, you know, things that demonstrate that quality piece. You should also use clear chronology in your resume, which includes the month and year for each of your roles' start and end dates. You can see here that they included that on the far left side, where it's really clear, it's really obvious exactly when they were at each position. This really helps us with our work calculations, especially if you're not filling in fully that work history portion in the application, which not everyone necessarily has to.

Wonderful. Now we are going to chat through the required and optional essay. Nelson said a little bit about this in his first section walking through the application, but I'm going to go into depth a little bit more. So the required essay should be no more than 750 words, as listed here. And in this essay, we are looking for four things. It's very straightforward. We don't want anyone to be confused. So it is these four questions. Number one, why Questrom, or why the Questrom School of Business at BU? And that makes sense, because we are asking you to answer why Questrom and why the online MBA. I will say, some candidates can sometimes spend the whole essay talking about why Questrom, why the online MBA, why the program. And I walk away from reading their essay not knowing about the applicant, their goals, what this program means for them professionally, the value that they'll get out of it. And that's a bummer, because as we're reading your applications, we want to know about your interest in the program and about how getting an MBA fits into your goals and your career journey. So with the 750 words that you have for the essay, I like to tell people that you want to make sure you strike a balance between explaining why Questrom and why the online MBA and talking about yourself and your goals. I get some questions often about, you know, won't that make me seem airheaded or like I'm not humble? No, we want to know exactly what your goals are, the things that you want to accomplish, where you've been, where you are now, and where you're going. Additionally, I will say that when you're crafting those short and long term goals, we do not expect you to have a specific role or function that you would like to be at at a specific time. Just indicating the industry and maybe the function area that you would like to be in would be helpful to know. So we want to see something more specific than my goals are to get a promotion. While we would all love a promotion, we're looking for something a bit more thoughtful and intentional, kind of about 5 to 10 years maybe down the road. Then moving on to the optional essay. The optional essay really is optional, as Nelson said previously. We only recommend writing one if you need it. This should not serve as an addendum to your required essay and should be on a different topic that's related to something you feel that the admissions committee needs to know regarding your candidacy. It should be no more than 250 words. And that, like Nelson said, would be the ideal place to talk about things like a previous low GPA, academic performance, a work gap, or something that just doesn't naturally fit or flow into the components of the required essay.

So the letter of recommendation for our application to the online MBA, only one letter of recommendation is required. You are able in the application to submit up to two. There's no preference given to students who submit one or two letters, so please do not feel any pressure to submit two letters. One is perfectly fine. However, your letter should be from a professional connection rather than an academic one. So we're looking for a letter that can speak to your professional work experience, your strengths, your weaknesses, your reasons professionally for pursuing an MBA. You can see here at the bottom I've included examples of who would be a good person to choose, such as a current or former supervisor, a colleague, a mentor, or a client if you have your own business or something like that. So in terms of formatting, either the common letter of rec or a standard letter are both acceptable. The common letter of recommendation is kind of a standardized process that has behavioral questions as well as short answer questions for your recommender to answer, and they would receive a link to that in the email they receive once you input their information in in the application portal like we showed you. They can also submit just a standard letter of recommendation and upload that. We do not have a preference for one or the other. It really is whatever is easiest for them. A lot of folks, recommenders are people who are very busy, so whatever is easiest for them works for us. They can either submit the letter through the secure link through the application portal, or if they're having trouble with that, they can email their letter to ontheappdocs at bu.edu. I have it listed here on the slide, and we can upload their letter manually. So we do need to get the letter of recommendation from your recommender. We cannot accept letters of recommendation from you, the applicant, yourself. They must email it to ontheappdocs at bu.edu if they are having trouble.

And then we have the CuraTalent assessment. We usually get a lot of questions about this in webinars of, should I do it? Should I not do it? Will it help my chances of admission? The CuraTalent is optional but recommended, and the reason for that is because we like having the opportunity to see you face-to-face off of the paper components of your application to see how you think on your feet and respond to questions. Some folks like to give verbal answers on the CuraTalent assessment, and they prefer that to the essay. While the essay is required, the CuraTalent can be a way for you to do whatever is comfortable. If you find that talking to a camera is more comfortable than written communication, then I would recommend doing it. It really is up to you, but I want to reiterate that this component is truly optional. It will not disadvantage your application at all if you choose to not submit it. I'd say statistically maybe around 60, 50 to 60% of our applicants do submit one, but again, I really want to stress it is not required. As Nelson said before, the assessment itself is just three recorded video responses. They're one minute each and there's three randomized questions. You will have unlimited time to practice, but you will only have one time to record your actual answers. Some possible topics that I usually see are the things that we talk about in the essay. Why Questrum? Why the online MBA? Why did you choose an online learning program as opposed to a residential one? How do you think your professional experience will benefit you and others in the program? What's something exciting or adventurous you've done? Things like that. So I do want to stress this is not an interview per se, but it really does allow us to see how you think on your feet with interview style questions. I want to emphasize, we want you to utilize the practice function of the CuraTalent assessment if you feel like you need it until you're comfortable with the software. So like I said before, you can practice an unlimited amount of times, but you only get one chance to record your actual responses to each question. So I recommend that anyone do that until they are very comfortable with the software. Something I also wanna note before moving on is that once you start the formal assessment, you cannot leave and come back. So please just be aware of that.

Okay, the GMAT and GRE is another of our optional components of the application. And I put it here at the top in full transparency, less than 1% of all of our applicants for this program choose to submit a GMAT or GRE. I have seen a handful of GREs and GMATs in my several years tenure at BU. So please, it is completely optional. If you do choose to take and submit the exam, you can submit your official scores to us with the information on the slide, or you can enter unofficial scores and an unofficial copy of your score report into the application. Like your transcripts, we only require an unofficial copy of those scores. If you do elect to take one of the exams, we don't have a preference between the GMAT or the GRE. I often get some questions about that too. But really, I kind of just want to focus on this paragraph I included at the bottom. Both the GMAT and the GRE help showcase your quantitative aptitude. And that is something we look for in the application. You don't have to have a previous quant exposure academically, meaning taking courses about that, you know, kind of specifically. But we have other methods of assessing your quantitative ability, such as some prep courses available. So if this slide makes you a little nervous because you weren't planning to take the GMAT or the GRE, but you are also hesitant of your exposure to quantitative courses, you're like, maybe I didn't have lots in college, or I went to college for something not related to business. We have processes in place to make sure that all of our students feel prepared for the program. So please do not let this slide stress you out.

Okay, the English language proficiency exam. This slide will only be applicable to some students who do not meet the criteria for a waiver. Most students are usually eligible for a waiver for the English language exam. To meet the criteria for a waiver, applicants who've earned or completed two years of a bachelor's or master's degree at an institution where the language of instruction is English qualify for a waiver, as well as applicants who have or will have worked in the U.S. for at least two years full-time are also eligible for a waiver. These waivers are automatic, meaning if you fit the criteria and we can clearly see that from your academic transcripts or your resume, you will automatically be granted the waiver. When you submit your application, you just need to click the boxes in that professional experiences section. You do not need to reach out to us or do anything beforehand to get that waiver. If you do not meet this criteria, but you would still like to be considered for a waiver, you can submit a request highlighting your English proficiency to our general email, umba at bu.edu, prior to the submission of your application, and we can look at that on a case-by-case basis. I want to stress that you would need to reach out prior to the submission of your application. Sometimes I see people submit the application, they don't include an English language exam, then we have to reach out and say, your application is incomplete, and you have to provide us with an exam, and then they email us saying, hey, I don't meet the criteria for a waiver, but I would like one. If you think that you might need that and need to reach out to us about getting a waiver, you must do so prior to the submission of your application. Otherwise, if you do not fit any of the criteria for a waiver, you will need to provide us with an English language proficiency exam in your application, and as I have put on the right, we've provided the minimum scores for each of those exams. English language and proficiency is very crucial in the likelihood of success for the program, so we really do adhere to these minimums. It's a big BU rule, so I wanted to put that out there as well.

Okay, and then for application deadlines, this information is definitely on the website, but we are in our last round for spring 2027 admissions starting in January. We are just a week away from that final deadline, but if you submit your application by October 1st, you will receive an admissions decision by November 5th. While our other two deadlines were extended for round 1 and round 2, we are not foreseeing our final round deadline being extended, so I would really try to get your application by that October 1st deadline if possible.

And finally, I wanted to give a little bit of context around how we make admissions decisions. The first thing I would like to mention is, we review applications holistically, meaning we are evaluating all individual components of your application together. There's rarely one singular part of your application that can make or break your chances of admission. We look at your essay, your letter of rec, your academic performance, the quality and quantity of your work experience, all together to form one picture of you as a candidate. Decisions are largely made based on the competitiveness of the applicant pool for that specific cycle. So we, as the admissions committee, have a specific set of criteria we're using to evaluate applicants, but your chances of admission are partially dependent on who's applying at the same time as you. Some cycles are more competitive than others, and that is important to keep in mind. I often get questions about if we have any different criteria when we get to the last round, if it's harder to get in. We really do look at the same criteria and assess students the same way, no matter what round we are in. But round three, I think the one thing to keep in mind is it is based on space available basis. So we often have less space available in round three. We don't score applicants any differently per the rounds, but I would be mindful of that, especially as we're looking at the knowledge that some cycles are just more competitive than others. And lastly, the two things I included are, we are assessing both how much value you will receive from the MBA experience based on your stated goals in the application, your background, your desired industry, and we are assessing how much value you will bring to the classroom based on your own expertise and background and real world knowledge. So that is why I think I stress that quality piece so much, not just the quantity piece, in your application, through your resume, through your essay, because we are looking at both how much value you will receive and how much value you will bring to the program.

Oh, this is everyone's favorite slide. As Nelson said previously, I do have a gift for you all. As a thank you for your time today and your interest in our program, we'd like to offer each of you an application fee waiver. It's valued at $125 US dollars. You will receive a follow-up email, likely tomorrow, with information about how, about the access code for this. It is the same access code that is listed on here. It will not be a different access code. So feel free to either write the access code QST, which stands for cluster event. It is case sensitive, or we will also email you the same code in an email tomorrow if you don't have the time to write it down right now. So you will need this to successfully submit the application. Please do not input any credit card information. As we are unable to provide refunds, it is a system limitation of ours. This is the same code, so you shouldn't have any reason to not have it, but if you forgot the code or you lost the email where you have it, you can always email us at omba@bu.edu. Tell us that you attended this workshop and we're happy to give you another one. But please, remember that if you do not put any credit card information in, we cannot charge you for anything. So please, please, please use this access code.

Okay, finally, wrapping up with some next steps. Number one, keep an eye out for a follow-up email with the application fee waiver instructions. That is basically the code that I said in the QST event. That's just the same access code, but you will receive a follow-up email with how to put that in, instructions on where to put that if you're confused in the application. Number two, apply. Like I said, we have our final round deadline for January 2027 in about a week, and we would love to see your application. Number three, after you do submit your application, someone on our operations team will let you know via email if your application is complete or if we require any additional materials or information from that application's checklist that we previously looked at at the beginning of my section. And then number four, if we are missing any documents, please be sure to submit those fairly quickly so that we can process your application and hopefully still get you a decision within our timeline. And then five, once your application is complete, the admissions committee will review your application and will release decisions by November if you apply by our October 1st deadline.

Wonderful. This is the end of our presentation before we open it up for questions. And this is our team. We have Aaron, who's our Associate Director of Online MBA Admissions. We have Liz Wagner, who's our Senior Director of Online Admissions. We are here to support you and help you throughout the entire application process. So please feel free to reach out to any of us, myself and Nelson, uh, we'll put in the chat our own email so you can email us specifically. In addition, my little plug at the bottom is to follow us on social media. We post lots of takeovers from students, cool events and panels we host. We have lots of on the things going on around the globe where we post about on LinkedIn and Instagram, so please give us a follow over there. And then finally, thank you all so much for your time and attention today. We look forward to receiving your application in the near future and at this point, we're going to open it up for questions. We have like five or six minutes that we can answer questions in a Q&A. So Nelson and I will go on camera and we can answer some of your questions in the chat.

So it's great, and actually there are no questions in the chat, but what we can do is we can go over some frequently asked questions regarding the application or the admissions checklist. So one question actually that gets frequently asked for international students has to do with translated transcripts or like, if I'm an international student, but my transcript is not in English, can I just provide my actual transcript? And the question, the answer to that is yes, you can, but we also ask that you provide a translated copy of your transcript because we need to be able to read it in English. If you have to use a like a service like WES, or you could have a notarized organization do it, that is also accepted for the purpose of the application. There's a question that came in, so how many applications do you usually get and how many are accepted? In a given cycle, we can get upwards of like 1,200 to 1,300 applications. And historically, we have accepted about 50%, so just above 50%. Addison, do you want to take on the marks question?

Yes, so what is your average intake or number of students per year for the online MBA? That is a great question. It does depend cycle to cycle. Typically, we admit between 600 and 650. Some of those students are one-off case spaces and they end up deferring to another cycle, so that number can kind of fluctuate. Rest assured, you will not be in Zoom classes or anything with that amount of people. It is a very large amount of people, but we typically do admit about 600 to 650 students per cycle for both fall and spring.

I'm trying to think of what are some other frequently asked questions. How many seats roughly would be open by round three? Unfortunately, we don't have that statistic that we can share with you, but we say it is a more competitive cycle in the third round because there are less seats that are readily available. If we believe that you are a strong applicant, and we would like to accept you for round three, then you'll be accepted for round three. But it does get very competitive, so keep in mind as you are submitting those applications.

Ooh, I got another question. If we are not admitted for this round, can we reapply? Absolutely, you can reapply if you were not admitted for this round, and we have a section on the admissions tab of our website called reapplicants. If you decide to reapply for the program, number one, we strongly would recommend that you do reapply for the program. We love to see reapplicants. But we have different criteria. You don't have to submit certain things that we already have on file, so you don't have to provide us with a new letter of recommendation, things like that. We have a whole section, like I said, called reapplicants, so you can always go look there, but we very much welcome reapplicants. That is great. And hopefully that will not be any of you for this time, but if it is, then you can look at that section for that as well.

A question that we just got was by Robert, which is, when will applications for Spring 2028 start, and how does payment for the program work? So that's a two-part question. The first part is spring 2028 applications won't be made available until, I believe, January of 2027, after we have finalized the fall class. So spring won't be ready until then. The second question of how does payment for the program work? So it is a pay-by-module structure. Essentially, if you are admitted into the program, you submit your enrollment deposit to save your seat, and you pay for a semester that you enroll into. It is a $25,000 program. If you do have questions specific to the program overview and more specific questions about the program itself, we actually encourage you to go onto our website, and we have some previously recorded webinars that goes over the overview of the online MBA program. And if you want to connect with Addison or myself to schedule an advising session, you can do so as well on the main website.

Yes, I will take our next question. If I submit my application by October 1st, can I still send an updated Duolingo score in December or must it arrive before the November 5th decision date? If you have an English language score that meets our minimums, provide that in the application. If you would then like to take another exam and improve your score beyond our minimums, you can, and you can choose to submit that later, but we do need to have a score that meets our minimums by when you submit the application on October 1st as we use that information when looking at admissions decisions. So if you at that point have submitted scores that meet our criteria, then you can choose later on if you would like to submit updated scores for us, but we do need to have those scores by when you submit the application for your application to be considered complete. If we do not have scores or a waiver at that point in time, then your application will not be considered complete. We won't be able to process it and that will delay our process by a lot.

Mhm.