Don’t Bend the Truth when Applying to Top B-Schools: 4 Things Admissions Will Always Check

When it comes time to apply to business school, the process of application can often be more overwhelming than the decision about which school to attend. There are so many I’s to dot and T’s to cross, that making sure you have included the correct information on your application can take some effort. And, because all the information in this tiny acceptance packet can either make or break your chances to get into the B-school of your choice, it can be tempting to, shall we say, bend the truth here and there. However, the top business schools in the country are more than prepared to thoroughly vet their applicants. Once your application has been accepted and moves into processing, it will be gone over and verified. Here are the top five areas where admissions will make sure applicants have their facts straight:

1. Undergrad Attendance

The first thing that a business school will check on is that you actually did attend and graduate from the schools that you listed on your application. Make sure that you include the correct dates, and the correct institution names.

2. Grades

You may feel the desire to bump up your GPA by rounding up. But, remember, this will be one of the first things schools will verify. If it looks like you don’t know how to round properly, your business school application may be thrown in the trash.

3. GMAT Score

Business schools will always check up on your GMAT score. Even if you include the correct documents, the admissions department, or an outside company, could be required to make follow up calls to verify that your GMAT scores are above board.

4. Employment Information

If you are thinking about bending the truth about your employment history, you are going to need a long trail of falsified information and collaborators. Business admissions will surely make calls to the past employers listed on your resume, regardless of the amount of time you spent there. They have the power to do as much fact-checking as they like about everything from start and end dates to salary.

5. Recommendations

If you list someone to vouch for your character, whether it be personal, professional or academic, make sure that they will be able to verify any of the information you have used as part of your application. If stories don’t match, it could signal a red flag for admissions

This is a guest post by a Houston-based writer, Jane Smith blogs about the importance and difference a thorough employment background check can make. For more information feel free to contact her at janesmith161@gmail.com.

A big thanks all my readers!!

I was on a weekend getaway when I saw a congratulations mail stating that my blog has made into top 3 MBA blogs.

This is indeep a proud moment and I would like to thanks all my readers for their support to make this happen.

THANK YOU ALL!!!

A

My blog in Top 22 MBA blogs. Your one vote could push it to the top!!!

Excited to announce that my MBA blog has been selected by eCollegeFinder.com as one of the Top 22 MBA blogs. The most important reason for this is YOU, my readers. This blog is a medium though which I could share my MBA information and help you in some way or the other. 

So, now I request YOU to help this blog win and appear in the top of the list. Kindly vote for this blog by clicking on the badge on the right side of the screen OR by directly click here and select Mistakes, Lessons, MBA, and more.... The voting is open till March 30, 2012 5 PM EST.

Your vote matters!

Thanks a ton,

A

How to improve your chance of getting into a business school?

As everyone of you might know, there are two stages of getting accepted into a business school. Your written application in which you need to market yourself and your interview in which you need to sell yourself. Improve on these two and you improve your chance of getting accepted. Simple?

Improving written application: A business school written application has many pieces, some of which you can improve and others you can't. Ideally, to stand qualified and competitive for a top-notch business school, all the pieces should be up to the par, which couldn't be possible for many. So the idea to improve your overall chance is to improve your best on the pieces you can improve to compensate on those which are below average and couldn't be improved. Below listed are the written application pieces:

1. GMAT: Try to score good i.e. 720+. This might compensate for the low GPA.

2. Resume: A good one page Resume could create a lasting impression. Jump to my earlier post to know about resume building in detail.

3. Essays: Your stories are the most important and could set you apart. They must be compelling but at the same time easy to comprehend.

4. LORs (Recommendations): This is also a very important piece and depends on how well you select your recommenders. Your recommenders must know you well and could back up your stories.

5. Professional Growth in both title and responsibilities: The companies you have worked with and the growth curve both in the title and responsibilities are very important. Remember, schools are looking for the leaders both in professional and personal life. Secondly, how many from your company have made into good business schools makes a difference. Means if you are working in company X where 1 of every 10 gets into a business school, improves your chances quite a bit.

6. Extra Curricular and community work: You can't improve much on these except you are planning to apply after a year or two and have enough time to work on these. But don't join just for the sake of the mentioning it your application. Be very serious about it, else they will make out in the interview.

7. University and GPA: Where are you graduated from? If it is a renowned university like IIT and is heard by the admission committee makes a difference. You can't improve these but could compensate.

Improving your interview: Interview is the final but the toughest part of the admission game from your side. No matter how perfectly who have marketed yourself in your written application, but if you can't sell it in the interview, they won't buy you.

You are at the interview stage means admissions committee likes your application and is interested in knowing more about you. Mostly a business school interview goes for 30 to 60 minutes and this is the time where you need to back up your written pieces, most importantly your essays and professional responsibilities, in a very smart and impressive manner, and this requires your soft skills, improving those is not easy and demand a lot of time. Below listed are a few ways:

1. Keep your responses short, succinct and to the point.

2. Rehearse your responses before the interview. You could record your responses for the basic interview questions (like why MBA?) and improve by listening and practicing them time and again. You could also practice in front of a mirror to get more confidence.

3. Take mock interviews with your friends and ask them for the honest feedback.

4. Take mock interview with the experts. There feedback is worth the money.

5. If you have enough time and not good enough communication skills, join a communication course / class and improve your communication skills to the best you could.

Hope this helps improving your chance of being accepted into a business school.

Best!

A

Straight from a Schulich MBA

One of the MBA aspirants admitted to Schulich Business school mailed me asking the placement scenario in Schulich. Luckily one of my friends has just completed his MBA from Schulich and got placed in P&G in marketing. I forwarded this request to my friend and below is his response:

If you are interested in marketing, then only come to Schulich. In fact, even though I am a Schulich MBA myself, I will not advise Schulich in general to anyone. Moreover, in general this is not a good time to come to North America as things are pretty tight here right now.

Even after this if anyone is interested, then:
1) For Finance go to Rotman
2) For Consulting go to Ivey followed by Queens

And don't even look at other schools.

This is straight from a recent Schulich MBA. Hope this helps you decide.

A

I've failed over and over and over again

Let's be honest, I tried for two consecutive years to get into top notch MBA schools and I failed over and over again. But in that, I managed to get 740 GMAT, I managed to get interview calls from a few of my dream schools, I managed to get a clarity on my goals in my life, I managed all the money spent in the process, I managed to be a fellow of Startup Leaderhip Program, I managed to a part of some of the NGOs, I managed to excel in my demanding job simultaneously, I managed to get married to the love of my life, and most importantly, I managed to keep my dream of getting into my dream school from shattering. I am back in business and I know, I will succeed soon!!!

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordon

Fruitful were my last few weeks!

Hello there,

I have a BIG smile on my face :-)) writing this post and have many reasons to back it. And to share with you these reasons in brief is the main purpose of this post.

Few of you, my readers, mailed me to check on me and asked me why off late I am not posting anything.  This is the first and foremost reason of my smile making me believe that I have got some really serious readers following and I promise them and you to post more often.

A few people have approached me for guest posts and even paid advertising which signifies the popularity of my blog and the thought itself becomes one more reason.

Last few weeks I was working with 3 guys as a MBA application mentor and just completed applications with them under my initiative mentioned in my earlier post. I worked with these three for the first time and helped each with just one school application. We all have worked really hard and the increasing satisfaction in their tone with every revised version of an essay kept making me more confident and thrilled. One of them even wants to post a testimonial on my blog as a guest post, making me elated. Desperately, waiting for their interview invites now.

One of the weakness I had always felt in my resume was no international exposure. This weakness no more exists in my updated resume as from last 2 months I am working out of US and hopefully be here for many months to come.

And last but most important reason of my BIG smile is that I am getting married this December to the love of my life. Her name is Isha and we both are madly in love :)

Thanks all for this :-))

A

Why do you want an MBA?

April is over and with that the last deadline of almost all the schools. While many applicants are busy through the complicated process of arranging visas and hefty loans, a few are making every possible strategy to win the adcom's heart and flip their tedious waitlist to refreshing admit. And while many others are trying to figure out their mistakes and deciding their next moves in life, many are on their high to start this journey fresh.

I congratulate the first many, wish the second (including myself) but my this post and the upcoming ones would be for the last two manys.

You must be knowing or will learn soon that is essential to have a plan throughout the application process. So, whats the plan and how to make it?

1. You want to apply for 1 year or 2 years or the mix of both?

2. How many schools you want to apply?

3. How to select schools and so on...???

You need to answer these and many more similar questions before you make a plan but before that you need to answer the utmost important question, which most of us take lightly or think only at the time of writing essays in bschool applications. - "WHY DO YOU WANT AN MBA?"

Most of the applicants think that MBA is some magic which will change their life, provide them cool status and make them rich. And, without even knowing what MBA actually is they start preparing for the GMAT. I did the same, and it was the biggest mistake. Indeed, MBA could change your life but only when you know exactly how it will change your life.

Ponder very very seriously over this. Think what you really want to do. What kind of work you really enjoy and what kind of companies or jobs you want to see yourself in after some years. Then, connect to the people (esp. alums or senior managers) who are already in those companies or jobs and try to understand how they reach there. Start reading blogs of MBA students. Research getting an MBA online. Start visiting sites of your dream companies. This would help you understand the whole MBA thingy. And you might also learn the alternate routes to reach there without spending thousands of dollars.

So, as the fresh season starts, put on your thinking caps to answer this question. And believe me, it would not be easy to find the honest answer. So, don't try it alone. Talk to as many people as possible. And when you would find your honest answer, the rest of the path would seem a little clearer.

Dedicate the month of May to get an honest answer for yourself.

All the best,

A

The BoB nominee

After a long time, I have seen a mail starting with "Congratulations" in my mailbox and it indeed made me happy. Thank you ClearAdmit team for nominating my blog for Clear Admit’s annual Best of Blogging competition (the BoBs) and giving me this smiling moment. It came to me as a pleasant surprise.

But more importantly, this nomination's significance that my blog's content stands worthy and useful for other MBA applicants gives me immense happiness! I promise to share more of my worth sharing experiences.

I request and encourage you to vote for me: http://www.facebook.com/#!/clearadmit?sk=app_180649451980850 

And, I wish all the fellow nominees good luck.

Cheers!

A

Advantages of MBA Deferral Policy

Some top business schools around the globe are offering flexible deferral policies these days. There is a reason for that but many admits don't ponder much on the advantages of the deferrals, and the few who do, just do it solely for family reasons. 

This post is intended to highlight how deferring for an year might position you better for your MBA. 

Prepare yourself to excel in MBA: Many top consulting companies or financial institutions who recruit MBA graduates mostly consider top 5 - 10 percent of the lot. And to be in that top 5% is not an easy task in a rigorous tight-packed one-year MBA program. In your deferred year, you can prepare yourself extremely well to have more chances to excel by completing basics management courses like accounting, finance, stats, economics, reading management books, reading famous biographies, improving soft skills and many more.

Clear your goals: I have interacted with a lot of MBA students and admission consultants during the last 4 years, and I have come to believe that one year in MBA just flew by before you know. Because of that it becomes utmost critical to have crystal clear goals of what you want from this MBA program. If you choose to defer, you gained one free and secure year. Use this year to increase your network, talk to as many alums as you can, talk to your senior professionals and search through your soul. Your crystal clear goals will help you far better in MBA than anything else. 

Aim for your dream school: If this is not your dream school or is not in the country where you would like to settle post MBA, you can defer for an year and give your best shot for your dream school with more confidence, because now you already have a seat secured. You are not loosing anything but the gain is tremendous. Nothing can substitute your dream school.

Increase in salary: One factor that largely affect the outgoing salaries of MBA students is their incoming salaries. In that one year, in all the probabilities, you have a better salary than the current. And, higher incoming salary equals to higher outgoing salary.

Designation: Many admits might have pending promotions within an year for which they have sweated-out really hard for last couple of years. So why not wait for an year and make that sweat count. You have your position secured in MBA and getting in with a higher designation will surely pay-off.

Plan for the money: Today you have a good earning job. Better earn and save money for one more year, so even if you opt for loan, you have enough liquid cash to pay off that loan without hurting your back in the uncertain market.

NOTE: Not all advantages are applicable to all, so think clearly and deeply and make the most of it. 

PS: This is a guest post by Kamal Verma. He is a freelance writer and resident blogger, dedicated to contribute to the MBA community.

In conversation with David Park, CEO of Beat The GMAT

Some wonderful things happen without a knock and leave you elated. Such one thing just happened. I just had an hour long conversation with David Park, CEO of Beat The GMAT. He left me totally stunned by his vivacious and grounded personality.

Why this conversation? As I mentioned in my earlier post that David has offered me some help related to bschool apps and that help was to review my bschool resume. Today we scheduled this. But before my resume we started with his introduction. He has done so many amazing things in his career with so many big names in his resume. Totally mind blowing.

Then we started talking about my resume, and he said my resume is just awesome with zero flaws. As per him, it is one of the best resumes he has seen in a while from an IT guy. And, he gaves a few reasons that why he felt so. I was like whoa...it was unbelievable for me. So as my resume is certified now, I'm not going to change even a single bit of it :)

Then we took the discussion to a different level with chatting about Startup Leadership Program (SLP), which he is aware of and finds totally impressive. Then he asked me to become guest blogger for BTG to share SLP experiences. He is very busy with some exciting BTG programs but humbly agreed to provide me feedback on my essays. That's simply great! He made my fly by saying that "Just looking at your resume and talking to you for these few minutes, I could say you are going places, and I mean it." And finally we discussed about a few very exciting things related to bschool applications, which I would save for the future.

All in all, it was an awesome and informative discussion, and now I'm going to have a smiling sleep. Thanks David!

Good night!

A

Northwestern Kellogg - Struggling with Leadership essay

From last 3 hours, I'm trying to frame a paragraph of my leadership essay, but yet not able to do so. My head is spinning now. I started this essay 4 days back because I thought it would be quite simpler than others as I have the content with examples ready.

I drafted the below mentioned outline (your comments are invited and needed):

1. A personal life experience long back in 2002 and my leadership learning from that - 200 words - drafted this for ISB essay.

2. How I evolved as a leader since then and a professional leadership experience - 200 words - drafted this for one essay last year.

3. What leadership skills I still lack, and how Kellogg would help me in gaining them - 200 words - have to draft this fresh, but had bullet points ready for what I feel I lack to be an effective leader.

So, my first draft was almost ready the very first day and as usual I sent it for review to my first reviewer mukaam. She was already aware of these examples, so she but obvious liked the content. But suggested to work on presentation, as it was not in a form of compelling stories, and we are targeting Kellogg. Actually she is reading '65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays', and when I read a few essays from that book, I was bound to agree with her.

So, since then I'm trying to transform my personal life experience content into a compelling story, but trust me guys it is the toughest job. I'm working from last 3 days and 3 nights, writing, deleting, writing again and deleting again, and I've completed just opening paragraph. The second para is making my head spin, but will get back to it after this post. Planning to write all night tonight, and hopefully before I crash on bed in the morning, I'll be done with the story of my personal experience. 

Anyways, my blog has completed 6 months and by the time I login again, it would touch 5K hits. It's a great feeling to see so many people visiting the blog and hopefully finding it useful in a way or other.

Keep visiting guys!!

A

My blog just hit 1K

It's just a month I published my first post on this blog, and today it hit 1K. One more reason for a big smile. Just hope my readers are taking away something positive every time they visit. Thank you all for visiting. Keep coming up. Waiting for 5K now ;-)

What I'm doing:

1. Incorporating comments in Reliance Stanford essay

2. Shaping up my Resume

3. Preparing hard for CABM

4. Requesting Rotterdam (RSM) community for informational interview

5. Shortlisting other schools

6. And, Smiling :-)

Love you blog,

A

Application help page

Just created a new page as a single stop for several resources which could be of great help during the bschool application process. I'll keep this list growing as and when I find something useful for you and myself.

Check it out here!

Cheers,
A

My blog on Hella's list and ClearAdmit

In middle of this rushing life with so many things going at once, I suddenly got a little reason to sit back and feel good about my blogging. It's been listed on Hella's MBA applicants list and ClearAdmit.com.

For many amazing bloggers out there, it might not be something worth posting, but for me it is: It made me SMILE :-)

Keep blogging,
A

A blog, Why?

When I first thought to create this blog, I'd so much to write in...but now, when I've actually created one, I'm wondering where you begin from.

Well, a nice way to begin is to write down WHY I need this blog. This word WHY has many hidden information, as I learnt during my last few months of gruelling MBA application process, but I'll come to that WHY MBA stuff later. Here, I wanna line up WHY this blog!

TO TRACK my past actions,

TO LEARN from my mistakes,

TO REMEMBER my lessons, and

TO PLAN my after steps.

Basically, TO MANAGE myself and my journey.

I don't know my blog will ever be read by anyone but I wanna make it help me, and anyone who would follow it might not make the same mistakes as I did.

Cheers,

A