Our exchanges with Jana Kolesnikova, who represents the Master of Science in Business Administration program at TIAS School for Business and Society (Netherlands) reveal useful pieces of advice that students can use to apply and gain admission to the program.
Watch the full interview here.
[0:08] Q: Tell us a little bit more about yourself and which school you are working for.
[0:15] A: My name is Jana Kolesnikova, and I represent TIAS School for Business and Society in the Netherlands. And I represent our MSBA program, or Master of Science in Business Administration.
[0:30] Q: How can Master’s applicants communicate their fit to the program?
[0:39] A: The good news is that we accept candidates from any educational background. So, as long as you have a Bachelor degree in any field, you may apply and your application will be considered. And in terms of how to communicate your fit to us, well, obviously, you can submit your application online and we’ll take it from there. However, as a private business school, we always try to get to know our candidates well from the very outset of the application process, so we always encourage them to get in touch with us and let us talk to them.
[1:28] Q: What kind of questions should they ask in order to make a good impression of themselves at the interview with you or during your communication?
[1:38] A: Again, as a private business school, we really like to get to know our candidates very well from the outset. So, in general, we like it when you get in touch with us, and ask as many questions as you have, whatever they are, because the more questions you ask, the better the chance that we end up establishing whether this program is a good fit for you or not. And, of course, whether you are the right candidate for us or not.
[2:12] Q: What are the common mistakes that candidates should avoid when applying to your business school?
[2:15] A: First of all, a very simple but very important tip – use spellcheck! It’s unbelievable how many candidates forget to do that. Apart from that, an interview is an important part of our application process, and often we can tell that the candidates did not take time to prepare for the interview. So do take time for that; it’s very important and it really matters. And apart from that we also offer our own capacity test, Ties Capacity Test, that candidates have to complete as a part of their application process. So again, do take your time to prepare for this test; we always share with the candidates example question and practice tests, do go through them and you will be in a much better position to actually go through the real test and do well in it.
[3:12] Q: Speaking of tests, what kind of admission tests does your school accept, would it be GMAT, GRE, IELTS, or this test you just mentioned?
[3:23] A: In terms of English level qualifications, we accept IELTS and TOEFL, and in terms of capacity tests, we accept both GMAT and GRE. However, we also offer our own capacity test called Ties Capacity Test, which is an option that most of our candidates choose. And the reasons for that are, first of all, the fact that this test is free, it’s an online-based test that you can take at home in your own time. Also, you can even choose the language in which you prefer to take this test; it doesn’t have to be English. Another good thing about this test is that you don’t have to take months to prepare for it because, as you know, for GMAT you have to prepare for quite a long time.
[4:18] Q: What is the most important thing to know about essays, for example, as a part of the application process?
[4:26] A: In our application form we ask for six essay-based answers to our questions, and the most important thing is to keep your answers clear and concise, and straight to the point. We only let you use up to 100 words, and it may sound an easy task to write your answer using that many words, but actually a lot of our candidates find it pretty difficult. So make sure that you get your answer across and make it straight to the point.
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