Admissions to Business Programs

You can learn more about the admissions requirements, and process, and how to write a motivation letter and all of that in the admissions course that you can request for us to unlock.

Slide 1: 

Lesson 3: Admissions

Okay, on to Lesson Three. So if you've taken our admissions course, some of this is going to be a little bit of a review, so bear with me. I'm just going to touch on some of this briefly. You can learn more about the admissions requirements, and process, and how to write a motivation letter and all of that in the admissions course that you can request for us to unlock. But I will touch on it a little bit now, and then go into business program-specific admissions information. 

Slide 2: Admissions Qualifications

  • Germany requires 2 years of college credits. Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Netherlands (only research universities in the Netherlands) require one of the following:
  • IB diploma
  • 1 year of college
  • 3-4 AP scores of 3+
    • More APs don’t give you a better chance
    • Germany requires APs

So, in the US, there are many reasons that the admissions process isn't transparent. The mentality here is that many people equate selectivity with quality, which of course isn't correlated. And universities are motivated to game the system, encouraging kids who would never get in to apply because more rejections lead to a higher selectivity number, which again, people then make you think it has higher quality. And also, because the rankings in just the US, they do look at selectivity, unlike the rankings in the global rankings, which we talked about in the previous lesson that look at research-related criteria only, so they're not incentivized to game the system. The rankings here in the US do look at selectivity as a factor. So universities do have many incentives to have a lower selectivity rate, or a lower acceptance rate. I hope you know what I mean. 

But luckily, that mindset doesn't exist in Europe. There are generally a set of criteria that a student must meet to be accepted. These criteria are defined and they're transparent. But I'll tell you what, they're rigid. I'm going to tell you, there are a few countries in which an American high school diploma is not the equivalent of that country's high school diploma. And so, for those countries, American students need extra qualifications. Now, I want to emphasize the word a “few” countries. The majority don't have these requirements. 

We have Germany that requires — actually now, it's two years of college credits or an associate's degree. Denmark, Italy, Norway, and the Netherlands — only the research universities in the Netherlands, not the universities of applied science — require that American students have one of these. So you either need an IB diploma, one year of college credits. Not from a community college. So those college credits have to come from a university that grants four year diplomas or bachelor's degrees. And then depending on the school, three or four AP scores of 3, sometimes 4. But I'll tell you, even with this, it's not like if you take 10 AP classes, you have a greater chance of getting in than someone who had the four AP scores. It's just about meeting the standards so that your high school diploma is the equivalent of theirs. 

So again, don't worry if you don't have APs. There are still a ton of options without these extras. Will you go to school in Denmark? Then no. But there are still — as long as you're not so pinned on just one country, there are going to be a ton of options for you. 

Slide 2: Requirements are school and program specific

Might include:

  • SAT scores
  • Interview
  • Motivation Letter
  • Entrance Exam
  • GPA
  • Math

So in terms of business school specific requirements, what you might see are some of these. Maybe it might be a math SAT score, or an interview. Actually, interviews are often to confirm English proficiency. So you should be fine there. A motivation letter, which speaks to why you're a good fit for the school and the school is a good fit for you. Why you're interested in this type of program, why you're interested in studying at this particular university, why you're interested in studying outside of your home country. So it's not about like, you know, what's your favorite word or what would you take to a desert island. It's really specific to your motivation. There may be an entrance exam, they might look at your GPA, and there might be a math requirement. 

So there are a couple of schools actually that base their decision 100% on a test score. There's Toulouse Business School, for instance. If you had, you know, questionable grades in high school, your first couple of years, and then you kind of had a moment or a turnaround, but your GPA suffered, it doesn't matter as long as you can score high on their entrance exam. And they give a study guide and all that for it. 

There's also a school called Aalto University in Finland, and it's all SAT score. That's the only thing. It’s all international students. Not just American, all international students. They submit their SAT scores, and then they just kind of rank them and take the top however many. So it's, you know, a good option for students who test well, but maybe don't have strong grades or don't have the AP scores. And again, those are the exception as opposed to the rule. 

Slide 3: If there is a Math requirement

  • AP Calc score (sometimes AP Stats)
  • Certain SAT math score
  • Entrance Exam

If a program has extra academic requirements, they’re usually related to math when we're talking about business courses. The program will specify the way that the math requirement can be met. Sometimes it's an AP score in calculus, sometimes stats works as well, an AP score in stats. Sometimes it's just that you took a certain number of math classes and had good grades in them. Sometimes, there's an entrance exam you can take, or a score on the SAT that will suffice and substitute. Like if they asked for an AP Calculus score and you're not going to have that, some schools will have an alternate way to meet that requirement. And again, that might be through an SAT score, or an entrance exam. It's just to say that no matter what your qualifications are, there are options for you. They're super specific to the program, and these are just examples of just a few. But I really do encourage you, if you haven't already, to take the admissions course and learn about this more in depth. 

So that would actually be the only action step for this lesson, it would be just to put on your list, you know, for next month. Ask to unlock the admissions course, and we'll take care of that for you. 

So I'm excited for our next lesson. It's the final lesson in this course. And we're going to talk about some really cool program options that are out there.