Don’t put the cart before the horse – Too many applicants commence the application process for their Dream B-schools without even sincerely doing the necessary ground work. MBA schools look into two distinct segments of your application to shortlist candidates for interview – 1. Academic records and 2. Leadership profile.
Take for example the case of Indian School of Business. ISB received nearly 5000 applications in 2010 admission cycle. To select 577 candidates, it short-listed nearly 3000 applicants for interview. In the 1st round of selection, it rejected almost 2000 applicants based on academic records and/or leadership qualities (based on accomplishments at the work place and in extracurricular) and/or clarity of career objective (Goal essay). Greater the competition in your applicant pool, bigger is the chance of rejection in the initial round itself.
In the interview round, schools judge your communication skill, confidence, maturity as compared to peers and authenticity of the “stories” mentioned in the essays. Schools further check whether your accomplishments are buttressed by suitable recommendation letters. Any disconnect between various professional accomplishments mentioned in the essays and in the recommendation letters might prove fatal.
Finally, ADCOM goes through the entire application to take the final call. So it’s abundantly clear that you are facing an extremely tough competition to grab a coveted seat in any top-ranked B-school. In case you are an Indian-IT-Male candidate, you are facing a “Himalayan challenge”. Hence, you need to factor in many critical elements into the process of business school selection. Some of them are:
Academics: Do a fact check… Are you a topper at IIT/NIT, or any other top ranking college? Have you ever won any scholarship or award at the college, state or national level? Or are your academic grades just average? More intense the competition in your applicant pool, more crucial would be the above mentioned questions!
Schools look at the entire gamut of your academic records such as GMAT, GPA (or % marks obtained) in school/college, any scholarship, award, etc. to decide whether you possess the “intellectual horsepower” necessary to withstand the rigor the MBA curriculum. Thousands of Indian IT engineers, Chinese applicants, NY Investment bankers, and so on apply for the few sought-after seats in the top MBA programs. Schools want to select the crème de la crème from each application pool. In case you are applying to “Dream schools” such as Harvard, Stanford, LBS, Insead, and so on, your chance of getting even an interview call, thereafter your long-cherished admission may be slim unless your academic grades are far higher than average.
A weaker academic performance could be bolstered with a higher GMAT and effectively crafted essays. Candidate with average academic records, decent GMAT (~680) and minimal extracurricular will drastically improve their case by writing persuasive essays which convey their personalized “stories” convincingly to ADCOM.
GMAT: Some of the applicants assume that GMAT is the most important criterion. The truth is…it certainly matters but not that much as the applicants imagine. Schools immensely focus on the GMAT score to evaluate your intellect. But a relatively poor GMAT score will not substantially decrease your chances of admission, even to your dream schools, in case you have a stellar academic record.
In case your undergraduate GPA is average, an excellent GMAT score (700+) serves as an indicator to the ADCOM that you would be able to handle the academic rigor of the curriculum. If you are not from science/engineering background, a good score in the Quantitative section in GMAT assuages the fear that you might face hurdles in handling analytical courses such as Accounting and Statistics. On the other hand, if you are an engineering graduate, a good Verbal score brings forth that you possess the essential communication skills, undoubtedly the backbone of being a successful leader.
But for an engineering/science graduate with average academic records, a relatively weaker GMAT score (650~690) might fuel the fire of doubt about his intellectual capability. Since the academic records can’t be altered, such applicants can retake GMAT and pen down thought-provoking application essays. A fascinating MBA essay that unfolds the various accomplishment of the applicant with subtle anecdotes, suitable examples and personal touch will captivate the ADCOM and allay doubt about the applicant’s intellectual proficiency.
Extracurricular Activities: B-Schools seek candidates with a multi-faceted leadership personality. So any involvement beyond professional and academic periphery proffers the school a sneak preview of your natural leadership traits. But a mere involvement in community service or in some sports will do very little to brighten your chances of getting admitted.
Higher the impact of your involvement, both to you as well to others, more valuable is that experience to ADCOM. For instance, if you stood 1st in state-level badminton championship, led your college cricket team etc, organized cultural events, participated in environmental awareness campaign ….all these accomplishments serve as a big ‘differentiator’ in your application. In case you have started an NGO with the noble purpose to educate poor children/donate clothes or increase awareness regarding health & hygiene (eg. HIV) amongst the impoverished, your entrepreneurial ability will “ring the bell” in the ADCOM.
In case you are completely engrossed in work and really don’t have much quality involvement (applicable for millions of Indian IT engineers), this can be a real pain point! We advise you to get involved in some activities where you can demonstrate leadership abilities and create an impact that you can narrate in your essays.
But before you put pen to paper, a word of caution! Thousands of applicants mention some kind of social service in their application. During the interview with the slightest of probing by ADCOM, it becomes crystal clear that their involvement in social service is just for the sake of MBA application. Remember! You need to talk about some leadership experience that is worth mentioning, of course something beyond the periphery of your day-to-day work. This can sincerely be done in numerous ways. For example, organize any social, musical, art, sport events, or blood donation camp, get involved in Greenpeace, volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or Missionaries of Charity, organize a tree plantation initiative, and so on. The bottom line is the impact of your accomplishments should not only be visible but also measurable! Your chances of getting an interview call will be substantially boosted if those very accomplishments can be strongly backed by recommendation letters from suitable authority. Nonetheless, it’s crucial that your essays effectively reflect the impact of these quality involvements on the society and your key leadership take-away.
Professional Leadership Experience: Undoubtedly your professional experience and accomplishments plays the pivotal role in the MBA admission. US B-Schools prefers 2-3 years of work experience while schools in EU such as Said, Judge, IMD, HEC, etc. prefer more experienced candidates. ISB mandates minimum 2 years work experience and IIMs PGPEX programs require minimum of 5~6 years work experience.
Professional Experience is much more than merely a number. Your maturity, intellect, insight into the world of business, astute understanding of various leadership issues, team work and organizational skill etc. are sharpened in the process of overcoming plethora of challenges in the professional world. Many of your key leadership lessons engrave a permanent impression in your mind. All these learnings, understandings and fresh perspectives shape your thinking and define your leadership persona. Moreover, they also determine your future course of action and pave the path of your career.
Your leadership profile plays a pivotal role in business school selection. More substantial your leadership experience is, brighter is your chance to secure a seat in crème de la crème schools. Additionally, your diverse experience, personal learning, uncovering of subtle leadership issues, eye-opening perspectives, and mental transformation through the rigmarole of various challenges need to be concisely written so that ADCOM staff can vividly imagine your personal experience. Writing such engaging, thought-provoking essays will surely “differentiate” you from thousands of others applicants who might have undergone identical experience but depicted their “stories” without the much-needed personal touch.
There are few other factors such as nationality, age, gender, gap in academics, 1 year/2 years MBA, etc. which also need to be factored in while choosing the schools and crafting admission strategies. But they play a substantially less significant role in the admission process.
Based on the above mentioned factors, MBA Essay Consultant will choose five business schools for you. Since the application process is expensive, time consuming and laborious, we believe that candidates should restrict the number of applications to five. A judicious mix of “Dream Schools”, ”Stretch Schools”, “Fit Schools” and “Safe Schools” will be selected with the sole objective that you receive atleast three interview calls, if not more, from the selected business schools.
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