Sometimes, applicants ask me whether there’s an art to getting into business school. My answer is always yes. Just like a job application or interview, there are certain things you need to know and do before you apply to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward in the process. Because if you’re only putting in 50% of your energy on the whole process, what kind of return do you expect? But I’m not here to tell you things you already know. I’m going to go over a formula so you can develop an open mind to the process and approach the application with the right attitude. The more informed you are about what you need to do, the easier it gets. So let’s get right to it!
Step #1: Understand What Business Schools Want
It’s funny to think about it this way but business schools are businesses, too. And as for any business, they have an underlying business model that keeps applicants flocking to them every year. What is it? Maybe it’s the education? The facilities? Or even the professors? But guess what…..
It’s the notable alumni. What would Stanford be without Phil Knight (Stanford GSB ’62, Founder of Nike)? Warren Buffet (Columbia ’51, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway)? A business school’s reputation is fueled by the success of its alumni. In order to reinforce the prestige and brand, schools like Wharton, Tuck, and Yale SOM need to produce Fortune 500 high-level executives time and time again. So as you ponder this concept, make sure you understand that the motivation of a business school is to welcome students that have the best possible chance of making it big one day.
Why this matters? Your goal throughout this entire process is to persuade admission officers that you’re capable of being very successful and attaining a high-level executive position. (Yes, even if you don’t want one.)
Step #2: Show Them You Have Ambition and Intent
To persuade business schools that you have what it takes to become a high-level executive, you need to show them you’re capable of high-level achievement. I’m not talking about becoming Associate Director or Assistant Manager of a venture capital firm. I’m talking about thinking a lot bigger than that. You must believe that you’re capable of achieving greatness. If no one has the drive to become CEO or have profound affect on a particular industry, the chances for business schools to create notable alumni vanishes.
What’s the goal here? You have to develop one heck of a career vision, an exciting one that’s going to turn heads and maybe land you on a cover of a newspaper one day. Of course, it has to believable and relate to multiple aspects of your background. But even if you’re unsure of your career vision, it doesn’t really matter what you really want to do. What matters are the expectations of the business school to which you’re applying. Once you get in, it’s a whole other ball game and you can do whatever you’d like. That’s why it’s so important to do your research before you apply so you understand these expectations.
Step #3: Choose Your Career Vision Wisely
Awesome career visions don’t just happen. There has to be relevance and a solid connection to one’s background. If you can extrapolate your career vision from your previous background (work experience, life story, extracurricular activities), you’re on the right track. For example, if you’ve been an EMT since you were 18, and Grant Program Coordinator at a hospital for the last several years, your career vision could be to work for the National Health Institute in the United States to oversee projects benefitting underserved communities in urban neighborhoods.
This is just an example but you want to take a very simple quality (at least two) from your background and magnify it ten-fold. This is what’s going to make an exciting career vision that admission officers can hold on to. If there’s a level of consistency and connection between your vision and background, you will instantly gain credibility. If you’re worried about the quality of your work experience, don’t worry too much. Most applicants only have a few years of work experience, consisting of 1-2 jobs at the entry levels. As long as there’s relevance or a connection, you’re in the clear.
Step #4: Back It Up
Now that you have an exciting career vision that stems from at least two qualities of your background, your career vision will sound believable because it’s inspired by sincere and obvious motivation. The next step to persuade admission officers is to provide evidence (professional & nonprofessional) that reinforce your career vision. Up to this point, you’ve laid the necessary groundwork for admission committees to see that you have dreams. Now you want to show them that you’re focused and hell bent on making a plan and following it. You also want to make sure you tie up loose ends that may raise any doubt while they’re reading through your application.
One way to do this is to get two to three more aspects of your background to reinforce your vision. The more supporting details you have, the more consistent, and stronger your application will be. Unlike the two qualities you used earlier, the other aspects only have to be closely related with your career vision. You just need to position these experiences differently so that they support your career vision. I like to refer to this as social proof.
Using the hospital administration example up above, two to three more aspects of your background could include your experiences volunteering for the American Diabetes Association leading a fundraising team, participating on the Board of Directors for the National Kidney Foundation spearheading outreach activities, and volunteering for an ambulance corps on the weekends. The point here is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a star at any of these organizations; what’s relevant is the link between your extracurricular activities and your career vision. Do you see how we’re taking elements of a hypothetical applicant and reinforcing his or her story with health-related information? The goal here is to make your application consistent, persuasive, and focused.
Step #5: Show Them You Have the Smarts
Up to this point, we’ve gone over identifying what business school expectations are, giving them what they want, and angling your profile to reinforce your career vision. Now you have to show them that you have the drive to achieve your goals. There are two things you need to consider once you’re at this point:
1) Show schools you have intellect and a successful track record in business.
You do this by having a good GPA, GMAT/GRE scores, graduating from a particular undergraduate institution (not super important), and having quality work experience.
2) Show schools you have the personality, character, and emotional intelligence to succeed.
You do this by using non-factual information such as your extracurricular activities, work experience success stories, and your over-all life inspirations, and passions.
Although this is a lot of information to take in at once, what you should walk away with is that business schools are looking for certain criteria when they’re reading through your application. The most successful MBA applicants are those who are able to paint a clear picture of who they are as leaders and using experiences from many parts of their lives, not just one, to support their reasons for attending business school.
About the author: Oscar Pedroso is founder of MBA Writer’s Block, an online admissions resource for young professionals and students applying to top business schools. He is a seasoned MBA applicant who has secured interviews from top MBA programs. He has taken his years of application experience and funneled it into the MBA Writer's Block blog, as well as his newly published essay guide, MBA Essays Exposed.
Using his resources, blogs, videos, and podcasts, applicants learn how to build confidence, brainstorm, organize, and write compelling essays. Readers gain access to over 20 MBA essays that have helped applicants gain admission to schools like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Tuck, and Simon. To learn more about writing compelling MBA essays, feel free to check out MBA Writer's Block.
© Photo from Dmitri Chekhter's Photostream on Flickr
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