Assessing fit within MBA schools

Excel has been a through line of my academic and professional career. It is a skill that, once mastered, helped me in many spheres of my life. I've had to help a lot of people with varying levels of Excel proficiency. In this post, we’ll talk about how to autofill formulas in Excel. If you’d like to learn about additional strategies in Excel, you should read other posts in this series!

Should you take the GMAT or the GRE for MBA applications?

What is a cell reference? In Excel, it is when a cell derives its value based on the value of another cell. The below is a simple example of a cell reference. Note that the value in cell A3 is derived from the value in cell A1. How do you create a reference to another cell? In the cell that you want to create a cell reference, press the '=' key on your keyboard and then click on the cell that you want to reference.

I’ve introduced many friends, colleagues, and students to the Goal Seek feature in Excel, and I usually get a similar reply. “Woah!” is a common exclamation; “how cool!” has come up from time to time. No matter the person, most everyone is surprised that they hadn’t heard of the tool before, and lament the fact that they hadn’t known about it sooner.

"Give it to me in Excel." There's a high probability that you've heard this phrase in school, at work, or from someone that needs data. Excel has made it tremendously easy to sift through data and make it more interpretable. The vast majority of users in the business world use Excel, so it pays to be well-versed in this powerful tool. During my time working in the finance industry, I found Excel invaluable, and I committed these tips to muscle memory. I learned that these shortcuts helped me save a tremendous amount of time.

So, let's jump right to it! Here are 4 Excel quick tips to help you navigate data faster.

Note: These keyboard shortcuts apply to Windows computers.

So far in our series of Casing 101 blogs, we have reviewed structuring the problem via an initial framework and navigating case math. In this edition, we will cover another problem-solving exercise that is common in case interviews: market sizing. At first, market sizing may seem daunting – how can we possibly estimate the number of televisions sold annually in Boston, for example? But once you learn the technique and get comfortable making certain assumptions, you will find that it’s actually an area where well-prepared candidates can differentiate themselves.

Whether you're deciding to take the GMAT or the GRE, or you're merely weeks away from your test day, it is easy to get caught up in the tedious bits of advice that every blog, manual, and friend has to offer.  These five key strategies will help ground your long-term testing goals:

It's fun to stand out!

You’re not just any old business major: you’re an innovator. But how do you learn how to disrupt while you’re taking classes that are teaching you all the rules you need to know? Business majors can often get a bad rep for taking cookie-cutter classes that don’t prepare students for the actual business world. That’s why some of the best preparation for business might be far, far away from the business school. Future business leaders need to learn how to improvise and think creatively, but they also need to know how to express themselves eloquently.

One great field you can explore to expand your horizons as an aspiring entrepreneur is creative writing. Here are three reasons why business majors and other tycoons in the making should try their hands at fiction and poetry: