10 Lessons from a Decade of MBA Applications
Versión en Español: 10 lecciones de una década de aplicaciones MBA
It has been over a decade since we first experienced the stress and joy of applying to business school. We´ve learned many lessons along the way in terms of how to manage the overall process, how to connect with the Admissions Committee, and how to maximize the probability of success. As a celebration of this ten-year anniversary, we would like to share our Top 10 Lessons for anyone who is about to embark on this roller coaster of a journey that is the MBA application process. We hope you find each lesson helpful!
1. Be yourself. Be vulnerable. Don´t present yourself as perfect.
Your essays are an opportunity to show who you are beyond your resume and stats. Members of the Admissions Committee want to know who you are, what motivates you, how you got to where you are today, and where you would like to go. Everyone has had to face adversity, and everyone has weaknesses. These are the moments that define you as a person and a professional. Telling a narrative that presents you as the perfect candidate without flaws is not only unrealistic, but it also leaves an Admissions Committee member wondering why you are considering taking the time to go back to school.
2. Don’t tell anyone who doesn’t need to know.
Once you have decided that you are going to apply, you may want to tell coworkers, friends, and family why you are suddenly dedicating your weekends to studying for exams or writing essays. You are excited about what the future may hold, and you want to share that excitement with other people. Our recommendation is that you carefully consider who needs to know about your plans and tell only those people. When you are anxious about not receiving an interview invite in the first wave, the last thing you may want to do is talk about it with a long list of casual acquaintances.
3. Prepare for a roller coaster of emotions.
The application process has its ups and downs. Stress and anxiety are inevitable, especially after clicking submit and waiting to hear back about an interview. For some programs, you may find that within a couple weeks of submitting your application, the interview invite shows up in your inbox. Before you know it, you´re breezing through the interview and feeling great about how your odds of success are now closer to 50%, a general rule of thumb for those who make it to the interview stage.
For other programs, things won't go as planned. There may be many weeks (even months) of silence from the Admissions Committee. As you start to hear about other people receiving interview invites, you may feel defeated even though you know that interview invites come in ¨waves¨. Be prepared for both experiences and understand that the good news doesn't always come first and that you’re never officially out of consideration until the rejection letter arrives. Trust the process and take comfort in knowing that it happens to everyone.
4. Focus on what you can control and sprint to the finish line.
You can’t raise your undergraduate GPA, add a blue-chip employer to your CV, or suddenly get involved in your community in a meaningful way for your application. Instead of trying to rewrite your past, think about what you can do to improve your odds of success. A high GMAT score will help compensate for a low GPA. A CV focused on your accomplishments and tangible impacts, regardless of your employer’s prestige, will help you stand out even amongst extraordinary candidates. An honest and vulnerable narrative will help you demonstrate that you are a good person even if you haven't spent hundreds of hours volunteering.
5. It's a numbers game. Each application is an independent event. It's an imperfect process.
There is a lot of randomness in the application process. Each Admissions Committee assigns approximately two members to review each application, and each member reads thousands of applications per year. Just like anyone else, Admissions Committee members have bad days at work, and sometimes two Admissions Committee members interpret the same essay differently. As a result, a degree of human error is expected.
The good news is that Admissions Committee members from different programs don’t talk to each other about applicants. HBS doesn’t know if you were rejected without an interview in Round 1 from a lower-ranked school. Wharton has no idea what essays you wrote for other schools.
How do you manage these idiosyncratic risks? The answer is to submit as many high-quality applications as possible to programs that you’d be happy to attend.
6. A school´s ranking doesn´t affect the amount of work involved.
There is no such thing as an easy application. Each school expects you to convince its Admissions Committee members that their school is your top choice. You must do the work of researching the school online, attending webinars/chats with the Director of Admissions, visiting the campus, and speaking to current students or alumni. You must clearly demonstrate how each school offers the perfect combination of resources and opportunities to help you maximize your chances of success as you pursue your short, medium, and long-term professional goals. Lastly, each essay must be tailored to the specific questions that each school asks.
7. Don´t forget who is reading your application.
Admissions Committee members come from all types of backgrounds – most of which are different from the program you may be considering. They are most likely not graduates of the program. They probably don't have work experience in the same field or industry. When writing your essays or CV, think about how to connect with these members on a human level and stand out from the crowd. Vulnerability and humility are key aspects to making that human connection. Communicate your message more effectively by avoiding technical language or acronyms. Think of how you'd tell your story to your grandparent.
8. Make sure you don´t forget to answer the questions.
Almost all essay questions are straightforward. Why MBA? Why now? Why our program? What are your short and long-term goals? The Admissions Committee wants to know specific things about your profile, your motivations, and your interest in their program. Don’t interpret these questions as ¨suggestions¨ for what to write about in your essays. You absolutely must respond to the questions being asked. We’ve seen many candidates desperately try to force a response or story in essays that ask for completely different answers. Sometimes it is because candidates are emotionally attached to a unique aspect of their narrative and do whatever it takes to mention it. Other times, it's due to laziness and a desire to copy and paste sentences or paragraphs from other programs’ essays that seem sufficiently similar. If you do forget to answer the specific question or get caught copying and pasting something similar from another application, a rejection is almost guaranteed.
9. Review the online application early to understand how much work is involved.
The actual online application is a lot of work. It is also just as important as the other aspects of the process. There are always little surprises that send candidates into panic mode like the unruly amount of data entry or the short-answer question that they aren't prepared to answer. Overall, it is a process that will probably take several hours to do the right way. As soon as you´ve decided that you’re going to apply to a program, create your username and password and explore the entire application immediately. Take your time in filling out all the tedious information and make sure that everything is ready to go at least a week before the deadline.
10. Do everything in your power to improve your odds throughout the process.
At the most competitive programs, there is an excess of applicants that are ¨good enough¨ to be accepted and perform well. The difference between an accepted, waitlisted, or rejected candidate may be extremely small. If you want to maximize your chances of success, you must outwork the other candidates when possible. The more you research the program, the easier it will be to tell a narrative that clearly demonstrates why school X is the best place for you. If there’s an optional essay, make sure you treat it as mandatory. If you’re invited to interview, make sure you’re well prepared. If the Admissions Committee asks you to retake the GMAT, you should agree and schedule a test. Demonstrate your commitment to excellence at every opportunity.
If you´re considering applying to MBA programs this year and would like to receive a free consultation, please send us a message by clicking on the Get Started or the Request A Free Analysis buttons. You can also send us an email to contact@azuladvisors.com. We look forward to hearing from you!