Applying for your MBA? What Matters Most on the Path to Admissions

I'll never forget how nervous I was when I was first started applying for my MBA. The whole process can feel like a terrifying experience when you first start applying to schools, but should you put in the work and time, you'll be accepted to a great program and on your way to obtaining your MBA in no time.

Looking back, I wish I had someone to help me get through the MBA application process. Don't get wrong; the application itself wasn't hard to figure out. The most difficult process was knowing what areas I should focus the most energy on, whether it be my GMAT scores, letters of recommendation, work experiences, or volunteer time. If you're about to start the MBA application process, here are four areas you should focus on the most.

Work Experiences

It's easy to say you have an interest in something; it's an entirely different story to prove that you do. Before turning in your MBA application, make sure to draw attention to any and all work experiences that indicate you have a strong interest in business administration. People with all different kinds of majors eventually decide to get their MBA, but what matters most to admissions is what you did with your degree(s) after college. If you have absolutely no work experience, perhaps it would be a good idea to take a job at an evolving, ambitious company for a while and mention that unique experience when you decide to apply for your MBA the second time around.

Letters of Recommendation

On paper, we can make ourselves sound fantastic, but without people to back us up, we are just spouting a bias point of view. Whenever you're applying for your MBA, seek out those teachers, mentors, and colleagues who inspired you to drive forward in your career and ask them to write your letters of recommendation. It's always best to choose someone who knows you and your work ethic very well, so your letter will sound genuine as opposed to generic.

Essays

I think essays are the most important part of the admission process. Think of it this way: the essay is the only place in the whole application process that you really get to express your passion, creativity, ambition, and enthusiasm. Through your words, you'll be able to emphasize why it is you want an MBA and what you plan to do with it years down the road. Never underestimate the importance of essays because the last thing you want to do is put your enrollment opportunity in jeopardy just because you didn't care enough to write one or two essays well.

Academic Performance

Sorry to break the news to you, but your prior academic performance is one of the most important things to MBA admissions. So if you did extraordinarily well during your bachelor's or master's degree program, that's great; make sure to highlight that in your application. If you didn't do that well, perhaps you should focus more on the areas in which you did succeed, such as work experiences, awards, volunteering, etc. It's not a complete deal breaker if you didn't get straight A's in college, but just remember that an MBA is an educational program, so you'll certainly have to put in the work to do well when and if you do get accepted to a program.

GMAT Scores

Last but certainly not least, the GMAT is one of the most important factors in applying for a good MBA program. The GMAT is a strong indicator of your potential for academic success, so it's important that you dedicate enough time preparing for this required exam. If you've been out of college for a few years, it's probably best you spend a little extra time studying for this exam. Should you not do all that well on the GMAT, however, you can always take the test over again, and although your GMAT score is important, it's only one part of the admissions process. To get into a great MBA program, focus on creating a well-rounded application and don't fret too much over your GMAT scores.

Getting an MBA isn't for everyone, but should you find yourself interested in getting a business administration degree, make sure to put the most work into these four areas of your application.

Katheryn Rivas is a freelance writer and resident blogger at online universities, a site dedicated to distance higher education. She welcomes your comments at katherynrivas87@gmail.com.


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

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

Let's see how was 2010 and It's time to learn How to Sell?

Yet another rejection mail, this time from Richard Ivey.

But I don't want to keep the title of this post as rejection or dinged or blah blah...It's not a failure story. So, Read on!

When 2010 started I thought this would be one of the best years of my life. I got a 740 GMAT in late 2009 and was charged high; I was dreaming of congratulations mails from big bschools in march and international plane tickets in august. 

March went by with no congratulations mail but 2 waitlisted ones post interview...Ross and Tepper. I was rather happy than disappointed as I'd just rushed through my application and still was waited in two prestigious schools. July came harsh with rejection mails from both.

I started again with full vigor and planned for round 1. But then some really serious turbulence happened in my personal life and I wasn't able to follow my plan even though I kept trying. I wasn't able to apply to the schools I wanted to and deferred them for round 2. The schools I applied rejected me after interviews with rejection from last round 1 school today.

Hmmm! the other day, I was just talking to one of my friends and was cursing the year 2010. It was really a bad year both in light of my personal life and my bschool acceptance.

But is that true? Let's think further and see!

2010 made me learn I'm not scared of rejections. I learned that failures don't affect me much. In fact they give me reasons to retrospect and fight harder. I never knew this before 2010. When I see people around me feeling dejected just by one or two failures and loosing all hopes, I thank God for giving me this amazing mindset and thanks 2010 for helping me discover this.

Since my starting of GMAT preparation 1.5 years back till now, I have genuinely work hard every single day with a few exceptions, even with rejections, even in turbulence. 2010 made me know I am not scared of hard work.

While writing so many essays for my applications, I discovered I write quite well and started writing fictions and started a blog (other than this blog). And people quite loved my stories and I won one writing contest. 2010 gave me happiness.

I learned that there are 2 parts of getting into a bschool. Your written application in which you need to market yourself and your interview in which you need to sell yourself. Due to same reason of working on so many applications and getting them reviewed from quite good consultants, I gained a good understanding of addressing bschool essays. Now, I do review essays of my friends and my blog readers, and they quite feel my comments convincing and sensible. 2010 has made me proficient in marketing, but I have to work harder in selling myself.

2010 gave me a chance to talk to a lot of MBA students and alumni, and to understand better what I want to do post MBA. It also gave me a chance to be a fellow of SLP (Startup Leadership Program) and to be in the closest network of India's budding entrepreneurs. I'm getting encouraged to start my own MBA consulting services now :)

I became friends of David Park, CEO of Beat The GMAT. We have met on skype 10 times now, and  he truly believes in me. He is an amazing mentor and friend and motivates me like no one else does.

My friends and family were there with to support me throughout 2010. I didn't loose any friend and got quite new ones. I attended a lot of family celebrations, spent time with my family and friends far more this year.

And most important, 2010 has gifted me an amazing girl friend who makes me believe that all my failures are lessons and learning, and something really best is waiting out there for me.

I think 2010 made me a better person who knows more about himself now than ever. As they say, "if you have never failed, you have never lived." I have lived 2010.

Tonight was the last rejection of 2010, and I know I have to work harder to learn how to sell! 

If I deserve it, I'll get it sooner or later!

A

Startup Leadership Program (SLP) - I'm coming :-)

Today morning was awesome with an acceptance mail from SLP waiting to welcome me. An acceptance after a long time truly made my day :-) I didn't tell many close friends about this so will call now and surprise them. Looking forward to meet some of the amazing people and learning some of the amazing lessons!

Smiling!

A

ISB - A last moment hitch in submission

I never thought it would take me so much time to finally freeze my ISB essays. I gave myself the target of 15th August to complete the first version, which drifted to 22nd, when I wrote my last “yippie” post. Then my reviewers sent over comments, and I incorporated them. I myself didn't like few parts and rewrote them completely. And it was today i.e. 29th morning 6am, after editing my essays whole night, I was completely satisfied with them. I was all set to submit my application by today evening.

I completed the other sections of the application and uploaded all documents, to realise in the evening that I don't have scanned copy of my latest salary slip, but thankfully had a hard copy in my Visa documents folder, writing which makes me realise that I never posted about my US B1 Visa which I got stamped last Tuesday only. I should have blogged about it ya! Okay, then I got my salary slip scanned and uploaded it. I asked my reviewer to go through the entire application once for spell check, and though she was dead tired, she did that will as usual enthusiasm. It was 10:30pm and my ISB app was all set for submission. I was so happy that the first time I would submit my application not on its last day of submission i.e. 30th Aug, but seems it was not meant to happen.

I clicked on the last page and there was something new, “Upload scanned signature”. What the heck, it was never there before in any of the applications I submitted last year, it was totally unexpected. I somehow managed to get the scanned signature, and then the worst happened. I tried several times, but I am not able to upload it. It says saved successfully but when I go back to the screen, I am not able to see my uploaded signature and hence not even able to submit my application. Just wrote a mail to ISB and will call them tomorrow morning.

Just imagine if today were the last date, as it was last time when I was rushing through my app to submit it at 11:54pm, just 6 minutes before the closing window. Thank God this time it is not, but my excited feeling to submit my app before deadline date is vanished.

Lessons learnt:

1. Check all the sections of your application very minutely and try to complete them much before deadline, best even before you have started your essays.

2. Your targeted date to complete essays would definitely be missed, how hard you try to meet it. So always keep some buffer days for essays completion.

I’ll follow these lessons,

A

How I managed to upload signature?
I'm not able to post comments from my office system due to some weird reason, so I am updating my post itself with steps I performed to upload signature.


1. I signed again on a clean A4 white sheet.
2. Scanned it in 150dpi in jpeg format.
3. Changed its attributes using MS paint to 150 * 50 pixels. But this didn’t work and I was not able to see my signature.
4. Then I undo the same, and cut the piece around my signature, and saved only that piece as a new image.
5. Open this image and resized it to 150 * 50 pixels. This time it worked. Note: This time did not changed attributes but I actually resized the image.
6. Uploaded it successfully. You will see a link “click here to check uploaded signature” under the browse button, which would open a separate window with signature on top left corner, which means you are done.
7. Said “Thank God!!” and submitted my application.

It's kinda weird, but it worked for me. All the best!!