I’ve received many inquiries lately from students in the process of obtaining their visas.  One of the most common is in relation to the Apostille Certificate (Apostille of the Hague) that is required at the New York consulate with your state police records.
What is this and why do I need it?
To make a long story short, it is a certificate issued by the Department of State of your state of residence that validates public documents issued in one State party to the Convention to be presented in another State party to the Convention. Not all consulates require it in conjunction with your police records in order to obtain the visa, but New York definitely does. You need it because this is their way of ensuring that this document is valid. More importantly, you need it because they will not even begin processing your visa until they have it!
Where and how do I get the Apostille certificate?
If you applying for your student visa at the New York consulate, you will need to contact the Department of State in your state of residence for detailed instructions. Below are the DOS websites for various states in the northeast region:
New York - http://www.dos.state.ny.us/CORP/msrfaq.html
New Jersey - http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/revenue/dcr/programs/apostilles.htm
Massachusetts - http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/precom/comidx.htm
Pennsylvania - http://www.dos.state.pa.us/notaries/cwp/view.asp?a=1250&q=445147
Connecticut - http://www.ct.gov/dph/cwp/view.asp?a=3132&q=395696
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Getting a Student visa for Spain.
Congratulations! You have been admitted to IE and you are ready to start your MBA in our campus in Madrid. However, before you come to Spain you have to obtain your student visa. Here is a summary of the process.
Once you have been admitted to IE you have to make a payment of 20% of your place reservation in order to secure your spot in the class. Without this payment you can not start the visa process.
Your visa information and process will be coordinated by the IE student Office.
After you pay your place reservation fee and the Fundacion IE donation, you will be contacted by the program directors that will send you a new user name and password. You will need this user name to access the global campus.
Please remember that from this point forward, the Campus Online, http://campus.ie.edu/webapps/login/, is your main source of information, and you should refer to it when you have any doubts or queries. Students are encouraged to view the information available online before contacting the Student Office with their questions. You will find that most questions can be answered there, and if not, it will direct you to the appropriate person you should refer to.
Processing time for a student visa takes at least 45 days (this is in the best of cases). In a significant number of Spanish Consulates, due to the high volume of petitions, visa procedures may last 2 or even 3 months. Please make sure you contact you local Spanish consulate. Some consulates require you to obtain an appointment on-line to request your student visa. Make sure you do this with ample time since some of these consulates are backed up almost 2 months…
In order to grant the issue of a student visa, all Spanish Consulates will ask you to present an Enrollment Certificate in Spanish. A certain number of Spanish Consulates will also require proof of secured accommodation and/or private medical insurance in Spain. For this reason, it is imperative that you contact the corresponding Consulate to obtain accurate and current information on all requirements.
If your nationality requires that you obtain a student visa, please follow the indications stated on Campus Online in order to receive the required Enrollment Certificate and, when necessary, proof of accommodation and insurance. You will have to complete the QUESTIONNAIRE located in Campus Online, as well as send the student office an email indicating which document(s) you are requesting.
To access the questionnaire: enter the IE website, click on “Online Campus”, enter your username and password, click on “Student Office” then “Information for new students” then “Immigration”. The questionnaire is located under the section entitled, “Enrollment and Accommodation Certificates”. Click on the word “questionnaire” to access it.
Please take into account that sending original documents by regular post mail can take up to 2 weeks to be delivered. Therefore, be sure to contact the Consulate and let us know as soon as possible whether or not we need to send you such document(s).Â
If you are a Communitarian citizen, or if you a married to a Communitarian citizen, please be aware that there are also immigration procedures that apply to you. These procedures are detailed in Campus Online.
In the Student Office section of Campus Online you will find many other resources; such as a house search engine, forums that enable you to get in touch with your future colleagues, special agreements for IE students (accommodation agencies, mobile phones), etc. We strongly advise you to consult the Campus Online before you make any major decisions such as renting an apartment, signing a student loan or buying a private medical insurance policy. The information and advice that they offer can help you make a more informed decision.
One of the key attributes of IE Business School besides the entrepreneur spirit of our school, is Innovation.
There is a large amount of resources available at the school for students interested in technology matters, for their present or future needs of their professional careers.
Close to 40% of all new ventures are related to the bundling of some kind of technologies. Therefore, we see the need to have a good understanding on how to manage the organizations and resources required to make these ventures a success beyond the traditional period of launch.
One good example of a good use of technologies is the content and delivery system of the Global MBA program.
Putting innovation and technology to good use, we can participate in an MBA program from a top ranked and accredited school without leaving behind our lives at home or exciting projects at work. Nothing can compare the living experience to be in a vibrant city like Madrid sharing an intense period of learning with classmates from around the world. But if you can´t come to our Campus for a full time program, with the intelligent use of technology we can bring the Campus close to you.
Other areas of interest within the school include the ieCommunities which is a social network for learning, the Master in Digital Marketing, the Master in Telecom & Digital Business programs and the Center of Excellence called ENTER where you can find vast amount of research and analysis on the IT sector.
As you see there are plenty of resources, programs and technology at use at IE Business School to make your experience during your programs similar to the one required in the business world after graduation.
GMAT Scandal Has MBA Students Sweating
Users of the shuttered GMAT test prep site Scoretop are worried about penalties
Business Week published this news on July 1st. Â It seems that a group of prospective MBAs were paying a $30 subscription to get preparation questions for their GMAT. Â Now GMAT is claiming that these questions were “live”, or in other words, they were actual questions from real tests. Â Who knows what went behind the scene and what kind of hacking software was the owner of Scoretop using in order to get these questions. Â A lot of students are claiming to be innocent victims since they did not know they were violating any copyright law or doing anything illegal.
Some comments on Business Week web mention the fact that “business types” would do anything in order to gain access to top business schools, even if this means cheating. Some other comments say that this is the problem of GMAC which should have more stringent rules in order to approve the launch and publishing of these preparatory websites.
I think the problem is that GMAC has a monopoly becuase GMAT is the only test Business Schools are accepting. Â
Some business schools have started to accept the GRE in the admission process like the case of Stanford. We at IE have followed this example and have started to accept the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT. In fact, here at IE we also have our own admission test that we also allow students to take in lieu of the GMAT.
Once GMAT is no longer a monopoly and free competition is allowed in the industry, I think this kind of problem as well as the problem of “doing anything you can” to increase your GMAT score, will be solved.
Students applying to Business schools should be evaluated based on other criteria not just a test score…
               The decision making process
What are the best schools in the rankings? Does the length of the program fit my future plans? Shall I go to the US or will Europe be a better choice to differenciate my profile? What about the campus location and school instalations? how shall I Â pay my degree…? Those are just a few of the questions we need to answer before making our decision to enroll to a Business School.
As a way of helping with your decision making process IE and our International Development Team offer to you Insight Sessions throughout the world, cocktails with IE Alumni, personal informative interviews and campus tours among other events. Furthermore, we recently organized a Virtual Student Chat Session with North American students which proved to be an enjoyable event for prospective students as well as for our current students from the International MBA program.
The North American Virtual Student Chat took place on April 8, 2008 and lasted for about an hour. Myself together with our International Director for North America Boris Nowalski met the students after they finished their MBA class and walked to our Marketing Department instalations close to our urban campus at the business centre in Madrid. We were all together in the same meeting room and at 4pm (Madrid time) we started the chat which  was an informal on-line session with relaxed question and answer sessions between current students and prospective students interested to come and study at IE.
The Students who participated were Amber Sprague (Bachelor of Science, Liberal Studies), Mark Armen (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science), Melissa Lauren Williamson (Bachelor of Arts in English and Italian), Richard Howard Whitworth (Bachelor of Science in Economics), Ryan Vance Klinefelter (Bachelor of Science) and Sara June Lindgren (Bachelor in Business). After the chat finished we went to have some Spanish ¨tapas¨and ¨cañas¨. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them again for their support and for sharing their valuable time to offer our prospective students first-hand testimonies and insightful details about their IE experience!
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