Benefits of Applying through The Consortium

Summary

In this conversation, Harold Simansky and Nisha Trivedi discuss The Consortium, an organization that focuses on uplifting underrepresented groups in business. They explain how candidates can apply to be considered for membership and have access to a network of companies and professionals, as well as fellowships. They also discuss the application process, including the deadlines and essays required. Nisha provides examples of how applicants can demonstrate their alignment with The Consortium's mission and shares advice on writing career goals essays. Overall, they highlight the benefits of applying through The Consortium and the opportunities it offers for networking and financial support.

Takeaways

• The Consortium is an organization that aims to address the underrepresentation of certain groups in business and promote diversity and inclusion.
• Candidates can apply to be considered for membership and have access to a network of companies and professionals, as well as fellowships.
• To be eligible for The Consortium, candidates must have made contributions to the community that benefit one of the target groups: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans.
• The application process for The Consortium involves submitting an application through their website and completing the required essays.
• Applying through The Consortium offers a streamlined application process, allowing candidates to apply to multiple member schools at once.
• The Consortium requires essays that demonstrate the applicant's commitment to their mission, while member schools may have additional supplemental essays.
• Specificity is important in career goals essays, and applicants should focus on the impact they want to make and the problem they want to solve.
• Applicants who may not belong to the target groups can still demonstrate their alignment with The Consortium's mission through their work and contributions.
• Applying through The Consortium provides the opportunity for a later deadline, a streamlined application process, and potential fellowship dollars.
• Candidates should consider applying through The Consortium if they believe their experiences align with the organization's mission and want to take advantage of the benefits it offers.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the mbaMission podcast
• 0:56 What is the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management?
• 1:58 Who is eligible for Consortium membership?
• 3:35 How and when to apply for Consortium membership
• 4:28 Streamlined MBA application process for Consortium member schools
• 8:20 How to decide whether to apply through the Consortium
• 9:07 How to demonstrate your alignment with the Consortium's mission
• 10:40 Examples of successful Consortium applicants
• 13:32 How to determine your goals and write a career goals essay
• 15:43 Supplemental application essays for Consortium member schools
• 16:29 Putting it all together - is the Consortium right for you?

Transcript

Harold Simansky (00:00)

Hi, I'm Harold Simansky, senior consultant here at mbaMission with the mbaMission podcast. And today my guest is my colleague, Nisha Trivedi Hi, Nisha.

Nisha Trivedi (00:09)

Hi Harold, how are you doing?

Harold Simansky (00:11)

doing well. I'm going to start off with congratulations. I was at Poets and Quants and I was looking at your profile and you have 100 five star reviews. Congratulations. Now of course, of course, and listen, everyone who listens to our podcast, watches our podcast, go take a look at Nisha's reviews. They're fantastic. And that's been my experience as well. We're colleagues here and I will frequently reach out to Nisha to help me with different essays, would help me to different questions, all the different schools. So.

Nisha Trivedi (00:21)

Thanks so much, Harold. Appreciate that.

Harold Simansky (00:41)

Thank you for being here, Nisha. Really excited to have a conversation today. So one thing that you have really, really gotten to know quite well is the program called The Consortium. Could you just give us a little bit of background on what that is and who should consider it and just how it plays into the whole MBA admissions game?

Nisha Trivedi (01:02)

Yeah, absolutely. So for the Consortium, for people who might not be familiar, it's an organization whose mission is to...

address the under -representation of certain groups in business to really bring about diversity and inclusion. And specifically, they focus on uplifting the interests of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans in all aspects of business. And so the Consortium has a...

basically a method through which candidates can apply to be considered for membership and have access to a network of companies and professionals as well as fellowships. And in order to be eligible for Consortium, in order to be a strong candidate, candidates who are applying to full -time MBA programs can apply through Consortium and will be considered strong candidates if they have supported the Consortium's mission.

So whether that's within work, outside of work, you know, in in academic life, basically if they've made contributions to the community in a way that benefits one of the three target groups of the consortium, Consortium, that's African Americans, Hispanic Latinos, and Native Americans. And there could be many ways in which they do that.

Harold Simansky (02:24)

So, Nisha, as you say that very quickly, do the people who received either Consortium fellowship or can apply through the program, did they themselves have to be members of that group or is it simply a question of how they have contributed to those communities maybe?

Nisha Trivedi (02:41)

Yeah, that's a fantastic question, Harold. And the answer is no, they do not themselves have to be a member of one of those groups. But what is required is that the work that they have done, again, in their professional, personal, or academic life, has benefited one or more of those groups. That is the important part. But I've actually worked with a lot of Consortium applicants, and some of those who have gotten fellowships or invitation to membership were not actually part of one of those groups, so entirely possible.

Harold Simansky (03:10)

Yeah, no, that makes sense. So just to understand the process a little bit more, as far as, okay, if I say, whether I'm a member of that group or whether I've just been committed to these issues, I'm like, this sounds really cool. Like, what happens next? What sort of things should I do?

Nisha Trivedi (03:25)

Yeah, absolutely. So in terms of applying through Consortium, the one thing I always tell people to do is start with their website, cgsm .org, and it'll show the instructions for applying through the Consortium, as well as the member schools that participate in the Consortium. So you'll just want to check to see, the business schools that I want to apply to, are they on this list? And many of them are. And so if they are, then you can check out the deadlines and the essays that you've

you'll be required to complete. So basically the application is generally released in mid -August and then the deadlines tend to be, there's two deadlines and you'll have to pick one. The first one is usually around October 15th and then the second one is usually around January 5th. And so you have to choose one of those deadlines through which to apply to your schools. And the great thing about Consortium is it offers a streamlined application process. And what that means is that

Harold Simansky (04:22)

Okay.

Nisha Trivedi (04:24)

you can apply to all of your member schools at once through one application portal. That means one set of short answers, one time you upload your resume, one time you upload your transcript, and one sliding scale application fee based on how many schools you decide to apply to. So even if you're not totally sure if you're the ideal candidate for Consortium, if you think that you might be, then definitely give it a shot because at any case you're going to

Harold Simansky (04:41)

Okay.

Nisha Trivedi (04:54)

to be able to reap these benefits of the streamline process. I'm happy to talk about what the application looks like as well.

Harold Simansky (04:57)

life.

No, that's terrific. And just so I understand correctly, so you have the Consortium application itself, and that is its own application, and the deadline, I think you said, is mid -October. Is that right for it? And then on top of that, though, depending on the schools you are applying to, then do you have their applications as well, or how does that work?

Nisha Trivedi (05:06)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, so basically, you know, one of the advantages is that you'll be able to apply to all of your schools through one application portal, right? Which means that the schools' individual applications, their individual deadlines, those won't apply if you're applying through Consortium. You only have to pay attention to that one deadline, whether it's October 15th or January 5th or whatever it will be in 2024. And so, you know, that's something that makes it easy and we have to keep track of one portal and deadline. And then in terms of requirements, you know, you'll have

Harold Simansky (05:46)

Yes.

Nisha Trivedi (05:50)

your standard personal information, transcript, resume, and then there will be some essays. The Consortium has its own essays. First there are what's called the core essays usually, and those are essays that both the schools that you're applying to as well as Consortium see. And the first essay is about your career goals and how you arrived at those goals and how you plan to fulfill them. And then usually there's an optional essay.

Harold Simansky (05:57)

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Nisha Trivedi (06:20)

asking you to address any areas of concern or anything that you feel needs further elaboration. And so again, the schools and the Consortium see those. And then the Consortium also requires essays, what they call membership essays. And what the membership essays ask you are basically about, you know, how have you demonstrated your commitment to the Consortium's mission.

Harold Simansky (06:34)

Okay.

Okay and not only the Consortium sees or all of the member schools Okay.

Nisha Trivedi (06:48)

so these only the Consortium will see because they are the ones who are determining whether you are granted membership and they'll decide partially on the basis of these essays. And so they ask about your commitment to the mission to date, how you plan to uphold it in business school and after you graduate. And again, to your point, the schools will not see those essays, only the Consortium will see those essays. Then each of the schools, the member schools that you apply to, they will have their own what we call supplemental

Harold Simansky (07:08)

Okay.

Nisha Trivedi (07:17)

essays or short answers. Generally those are pretty similar to what's in their individual applications, but sometimes there's a little bit of variability. And those essays are only seen by the member schools. They are not seen by the Consortium.

Harold Simansky (07:18)

Okay.

Okay, okay. No, no, that makes sense then. Okay, so admittedly, even as I'm hearing this, I'm thinking to myself, why don't I just apply to the Consortium if only to get that leader due date? Is that is that an accurate sort of first way of thinking about it? Right.

Nisha Trivedi (07:49)

It is really tempting, right? You do get a later date, especially for round one, right? Or what they call the early round. January 5th is pretty much in line with the regular round two deadlines. But yeah, that is a benefit, only having to, again, upload your resume once and not five, six, seven times. So those are definitely benefits. What I tell people is...

Harold Simansky (07:55)

Yes. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Right, right, right, of course.

Nisha Trivedi (08:12)

you know, take a look at the essays and even thinking based on the work that I've done, you know, within work, outside of work, if I feel like it's possibly, you know, in line with Consortium's mission, if it's served one or more of the target groups, then, you know, go ahead and give it a shot.

Harold Simansky (08:29)

right to it.

Nisha Trivedi (08:30)

And then of course you'll reap all the other benefits of applying through Consortium, the streamline process. So if you're concerned about, well, is it good enough? Have I done enough to uphold the mission? I would say, and I was actually just telling this to a client earlier today, let the Consortium decide. So just put your hat in the ring if you think that there's a chance that you might be in line with what they're seeking.

Harold Simansky (08:41)

Right.

Right. Okay. Yeah.

know that makes sense. So Nisha, let's go one level down on the essays in terms of what have you seen, what has worked and now just talking about the Consortium essays in terms of the membership essays. Just from your perspective, what would demonstrate some of those things that Consortium is looking for?

Nisha Trivedi (09:06)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, absolutely. So in order to show alignment to the Consortium's mission, again, you want to show explicitly that your work has benefited one of the three target groups that I mentioned. And so there could be things like being a part of your employer's affinity group. Let's say if you do happen to belong to one of those three groups, organizing DEIA panels with representation from those groups, working with, let's say, a community

community service organization where, let's say, those specifically those groups are the target beneficiaries. I think those are some ways in which you can show demonstration, basically that you demonstrate the mission. But there's definitely a lot of different ways to do it within work, outside of work. The things you did in college are also fair game.

Harold Simansky (10:13)

Right. No, that makes sense. And recognizing that you've worked with all sorts of different clients, all different backgrounds, all different experiences. You know, could you give us just a couple of examples of people who really feel like they captured the mission and were in fact accepted into Consortium?

Nisha Trivedi (10:30)

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I've been lucky to work with a lot of different Consortium clients. So for example, I worked with one who, he was the president of the Black Students Association at school. And so in his case, he was a member of that group and very specifically did work to benefit that target population. I worked with somebody else who she worked with the community service.

organization that very much benefited Hispanic Americans. And so that was outside of work, right? But it was community service involvement. I mentioned a DEI panel that's directly based on another client that I work with. They organize DEIA panels. During, one was for Juneteenth, there was one where it featured Hispanics, Latinos, and their particular journey at work.

So yeah, those are just a few. And so yeah, there's a variety of ways to show demonstration of the mission.

Harold Simansky (11:32)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm going to throw something at you from a couple years ago and I think you read his essay again here at mbaMission. We pass around essays quite a bit. I had a client who actually did successfully get a diversity because of some of their work with diversity. They actually did get a Consortium scholarship. He was, he himself was not one of these member groups. However, his profession was actually helping Native American casinos.

and it goes back a few years ago. And honestly, the thing that he talked a lot about is just the impact Native American casinos had been to the community. And his big point was around the fact that most of these Native American casinos are not actually particularly operationally well -run. The communities that they're supposed to serve are probably not getting enough money. And we did this entire application about that.

and this one worked out and ended up working out but just it's sort of an indication of folks who again are maybe coming at the Consortium from sideways if you will.

Nisha Trivedi (12:42)

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And that's a terrific example. And actually, yes, that does ring a bell. And what's important there is that your client was able to show how he specifically benefited a group, right? He didn't talk in general about how he upheld the Consortium's mission or promoted diversity. He said, you know, in my case, it is the Native American population. And this is how the work clearly has benefited them and gave specific examples. And that's what made it so effective.

Harold Simansky (12:47)

Yeah.

Yeah.

know that makes sense. Whenever we hear specificity, and I'll circle back to one of the most early questions of the Consortium application, it's always this notion of career path, career goals. And Nisha, when someone comes to you and says, how do I even write a career path? You know, I don't know what I want to do. And that's such a core question. What do you tell that person who says, hey, I'm going to business school to figure things out?

Nisha Trivedi (13:36)

Yeah, I mean, what I tell them is, you know, on one hand, yes, things could change when you get to business school and, you know, nobody's expected to know exactly, you know, what they want to do. On the other hand,

things move really quickly at school. And so you can't necessarily spend two years figuring out, right? As soon as you get to campus, within it seems like a month, companies are coming to do presentations, there's resume drops, there's workshops on consulting, I mean, you name it. And so for that reason, the schools wanna know that you have...

a decent idea of what you're thinking about pursuing, right? Even though that plan can change. And in particular, they really want to know what does that short -term goal look like? What do you want to do after graduation, maybe for the next few years after that? And so, you know, for someone who's not sure what they want to do, I would encourage them to do that reflection. You know, think about what are the elements of their job they enjoy? What are the things they would like to do more of? And what have been some of the professional and even personal experiences they've had that have made them

realize what type of impact they want to make in the future.

Harold Simansky (14:43)

No, that makes sense. That makes sense. Invariably, one of the biggest things that I will say my clients, I think our clients generally have is that first notion of specificity with this notion here. And it's not unusual for me to get a client based on my background who says, I want to be an entrepreneur. And the reality is that doesn't mean anything, right? I want to be an entrepreneur. It's like, it just doesn't mean anything. So I always push people what type of entrepreneur exactly start and that sort of thing. Yeah.

Yeah.

Nisha Trivedi (15:13)

Exactly, exactly. They want to be able to talk about, you know, is there a particular problem, you know, that they want to solve, for example, or have they had other ventures and what have that, you know, what's that experience taught them? Those might be a couple of questions they might consider.

Harold Simansky (15:22)

Yeah, yeah. No question about it. So Nisha, picking up back up with the Consortium, so you decide to apply a bunch of schools. At that point it sounds like then you have to do supplemental essays for each school that you're applying to. And those essays, are they the same as the school essays for non -consortium folks, or are they completely different essays?

Nisha Trivedi (15:37)

Mm -hmm. Yes.

Yeah, they're generally the same as the essays for non -consortium folks. Occasionally, they might not require one of the supplemental essays. So for example, if a school has an essay that asks about career goals, but not why that program, well, Consortium, one of its core essays asks about career goals too. So occasionally, the school might say, okay, well, you wrote it for Consortium, so that's good. A lot of the times though, it's the exact same essays that the schools individually require.

Harold Simansky (16:17)

Yep, yeah, perfect then, perfect. So just to sort of pull it all together here, Nisha, I come to you and I say, I've heard about this thing Consortium. What will you tell me in terms of the program itself, how I should approach it, just what next steps would look like from that perspective? Yeah.

Nisha Trivedi (16:34)

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I would say, first of all, it's a fantastic organization, right, with a really, really important mission. And, you know, I would ask them about various experiences they've had in their professional and personal life to see, you know, do they, has their experience, you know, directly benefited one of the Consortium's target population, right? That's the important part. And if you feel like, you know, there's enough there, you know, to talk about, then I would, you know, very much encourage them to apply through the Consortium, right?

By doing so, they'll get the streamlined application process, they'll be able to apply to a number of member schools at once, and of course, they'll make themselves eligible for Consortium membership, which includes a lot of great networking opportunities, as well as possibly the fellowship dollars, and those are always nice.

Harold Simansky (17:25)

That's great. Always, always nice. Well, Nisha, thanks very much for joining me here today to talk about the Consortium. And by all means, I'd love to have you back on the podcast at some point soon. Great. Thanks again. It's Harold Simanksy and Nisha Trivedi here at mbaMission

Nisha Trivedi (17:34)

Yeah, definitely. Thanks again for having me.