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"Schools are looking for traits and potential, and some people will show more self-awareness and emotional intelligence than others,” says Betsy Massar, founder of Master Admissions. “Still, both those characteristics are really important indicators of success in any organization, whether it is a business school or a place of employment. I think they are looking for maturity, and emotional intelligence can be considered on measure of that trait.”

Betsy interviews admissions directors from around the US asking whether it's worth it to apply to Round 3, or if it makes sense to wait. Students do get admitted to top business schools in Round 3. It’s not a myth. As former Harvard Business School admissions director Dee Leopold wrote in her blog about Round 3, “Yes, we have spots available. We always do.”

We recently discussed Justin Ernest’s options with him and with Betsy Massar, founder of Master Admissions, a leading MBA admissions consulting firm. Massar is herself a Harvard MBA graduate who has had a career in finance both on Wall Street and in Asia, and who actually worked at Stanford GSB.

A lot of applicants think they are answering the question but sometimes people go a little bit astray,” says Betsy Massar, founder of Master Admissions. She notes that a number of people are doing cutting-and-pasting among their apps and it’s no uncommon for candidates to take a detour from the actual school prompt. “The trick to do this is have somebody else read your essay without knowing what the question is,” advises Massar.

For Poets & Quants, Betsy Massar interviews Jason Jay, director of MIT Sloan's sustainability initiative. It's all about innovation.

A front-page P&Q interview by Betsy with the head of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford GSB. The school’s core philosophy, “Change Lives. Change Organizations. Change the World.,” speaks to the GSB’s approach, which extends well beyond shareholders and investors. That philosophy draws in a whole range of forces that affect the way business is done and the way organizations are run.