Happy September!
I always have slightly mixed feelings as September arrives. On the one hand it signals another summer over (although to be honest given some of the temperatures we experienced in Europe over the summer months I am looking forward to cooler Autumn nights and better sleep) but of course with September comes the excitement of the new academic year. I used to love those first weeks of orientation when we’d welcome the new cohorts on to campus.
So what do we at the GMAC Europe office have coming up in the next couple of months?
Like many of you we’ll be out and about at various recruitment fairs and on-campuses demystifying the GMAT for your candidates. Our aim is always to enlighten, educate and hopefully inspire confidence by reducing any misplaced fear or anxiety candidates get about the test. If you see a GMAT table while on the road at fairs do send your candidates over if you think they need some advice and if you have a quiet moment yourself pop over and say hello.
On the subject of assessments, we are excited that many of our Executive MBA programs in Europe are now accepting the Executive Assessment as part of their admission process. We have also heard your requests for support in promoting and educating the market about EA and so I am pleased to let you know we are launching a major initiative this Autumn to increase awareness of EA among potential EMBA candidates.
As I mentioned last time and as you will have seen no doubt from other communications, our European Conference will be hosted this year by the lovely INSEAD team on their Fontainebleau campus on 20-22 November (tip: Fontainebleau is a fab place for early morning runs for those so inclined). If you haven’t booked your place yet note that early bird registration ends on 20th September. In addition we are pleased to be offering a full day pre-conference marketing workshop on 20th November in response to your requests for more professional development for those with marketing responsibilities. We also have a couple of other marketing professional development related ideas in the pipeline so watch this space….
I’m also really pleased to let you know that we have been working hard on our customer service support for schools in region. Many of you already reach out to us for help directly but our wonderful team member Selina Hall is now also able to deal with your inquiries to the general customer support mail boxes which should help eliminate time differences and delays. We hope you have started to notice a difference.
Finally, a big thank you to those of you who submitted data for the Application Trends Survey (and for accepting our gentle reminders with good grace). We had submissions for over 140 programs at 45 schools in Europe alone so there should be some useful data and benchmarking reports for you once the reports are published.
That’s all for now. Do get in touch with questions, suggestions and if you are passing through London we would love to see you!
Deborah Somers
Regional Director, Europe
Europe Market Development Team