Meet Ohio State’s MBA Class of 2017

Catherine Banton

Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business

Hometown: Woodinville, Washington

Education: University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA), Bachelor of Arts, Public Relations and French

Employment

Case Western Reserve University, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admission

Wagstaff Worldwide, Publicist

PadillaCRT (formerly CRT/tanaka), Publicist

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE? If you have even the slightest desire to go to grad school, study for and take the exam at a time in your life when you have lots of free time and when you’re not too far out of college’s “test-taking mode.” Test scores are generally good for a few years, so don’t wait too long to take the exam if you are going to work for a few years before applying to grad programs.

You do not need to spend hundreds of dollars on test prep courses. Buy a prep book and stick your nose in it for three months before your test date. It’s not fun and, yes, it requires more accountability and self-control, but the application process is expensive enough. Grad school requires a strong work ethic, so studying for the exam is good practice.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? Since I was working in university admissions at the time of applying to grad school, I followed the same advice that I was doling out to high school students:

Have two or three “reach” schools and two or three “safety” schools on your list. Be sure to visit campus and talk with people who have attended the program. Understand that this is a competitive process that is about more than just your application. Each institution has needs, and you may or may not fill them.

I looked at top 50 programs with diverse electives and concentrations, stacked myself up against the incoming class profiles visited campuses, and searched my network for any alumni I might know.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf?  Making to-do lists and outlining the content of the essays were two of the most helpful tools I used during the application process. Write down – with pen and paper – what you need to do each week to stay on track with your applications and respective deadlines. This helped me stay organized during my busiest time of year at work, which was made even busier with grad school applications.

For essays, writing outlines is a great way to get the creative juices flowing. I wrote down all my thoughts for an essay topic, set it aside for a week to let it “marinate,” then tackled the full essay when I felt ready.

Practice is key for interviews. You won’t get more comfortable with grad school interview questions if you don’t go through the motions with a real, live person on the other side of the table. Find someone in your life who has applied to or attended grad school, and ask them to do a few mock interview questions with you. I was lucky to have someone like this readily accessible, and it made a big difference in my comfort level when I walked into my first interview.

For letters, be mindful of your recommenders’ work and personal commitments when asking for their time and support. I had to ask for letters during the busiest time of the work year, so I made sure to give my recommenders plenty of time to complete the letters, and checked in with them once week and one day before the application deadlines so there would be no surprises. Explain to your recommenders why you are asking them for a letter. Whether it is because of your work relationship, a task you completed under their supervision, or alumni status at your dream school, it may not be obvious to them. Tell them why.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? My most recent job was working in admissions for a university, so the yield process really made an impression on me when I chose my full-time MBA program. I was looking at a smaller program where I wasn’t just a number or statistic in the incoming class, and where I would have the greatest opportunities. The admissions team at Fisher reached out to me on a regular basis and even introduced me to fellow classmates by email based on shared interests and backgrounds. Ultimately, this gave me confidence in what the rest of my experience would be like at Fisher. I also spoke with alumni who raved about the program and wished they could go back to do it all over again. That did it for me

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? It’s important to me that I take advantage of the resources and tools available to me through Fisher’s Office of Career Management, its faculty, and my classmates to target and refine my professional path early in my two years in the Full-Time MBA program. For me, it’s going to be hard to avoid getting over-involved and over-committed to the activities on campus. I’d like to achieve a sense of balance, where I am dedicated to a handful of clubs and organizations that resonate with my personal and professional interests, including organizational behavior, women in business and community outreach.

I’d ultimately like to graduate with a solid understanding of every aspect of business, so in my next job I can make decisions based not just on one department, but because I also recognize how it will affect the finance group, the company culture, the customers, etc. As a non-traditional business student, I’d just be happy to conquer quantitative analysis and accounting…that would be a major achievement!