In truth, though, MBA admissions committees focus on specific areas when evaluating candidates and their potential fit with the program. The welcome news for b-schoolapplicants is that they can stand out in the following four areas no matter their background.
Work experience and goals: In general, admissions committees like to see three or more years of work experience before prospective students apply, but the quality of the overall work experience matters much more than length.
Even if you've had the same title for years, you can differentiate yourself from other applicants by highlighting concrete professional growth, quantifiable achievements or examples of times when you embraced new challenges and took advantage of learning opportunities. Whether your pre-MBA experience has been at Goldman Sachs or the family business, the admissions committee will look first and foremost for steady progression.
While business school is a wonderful place to refine your career goals, you need to make some choices and explain your areas of interest to gain admission.
Successful essays don't include the statement, "I look forward to figuring out my future career path in business school." Make sure you define the role you envision in the future and explain the effect you want to have in the business world and on society.
Finally, remember to convey realistic post-MBA career goals. Consider the application process from the school's perspective: MBA programs want to launch graduates who will go on to become successful professionals and serve as active alumni. Don't forget to sell your employability so the admissions team feels confident you'll find a great job quickly after graduation.
Leadership: Business schools strive to create tomorrow's leaders, and admissions committees want to see that you have a framework already in place.
Lots of applicants worry about how the admissions team will perceive their leadership skills, especially if they've never held a management position. However, an essay on leadership or examples in your application don't need to be your greatest personal or professional achievements. You can discuss times when you've led ideas, sports teams, student groups, etc.
Successful leadership examples should show how you motivated other people, bringing out their passions, educating them and helping them see organizational priorities in new ways. A leader's work energizes or improves others' work, so find anecdotes in your professional and extracurricular background that illustrate this kind of behavior.
Define the leadership challenges you faced, not the management ones. Collecting impressive titles does not make someone a great leader – helping a team overcome great challenges does.
Keep in mind that in the admissions committee's view, your past is a strong predictor of how involved you'll be on campus, if admitted. Ultimately, leadership examples from college, jobs and during business school signal to future employers how you will likely perform in their organization.
Creativity and intellectual aptitude: Creativity as it relates to an MBA application doesn't mean something artistic but rather refers to creative expression in the way you have solved problems at work or in volunteer activities by thinking outside the proverbial box.
Some business schools use creative MBA essays prompts, such as the airport layover scenario used by Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. But all admissions teams will look for evidence in your essays and interview responses that show you have a unique perspective that will add something new to the classroom. Think beyond your obvious achievements and differentiate yourself by highlighting your most compelling stories and experiences.
Business schools will judge your intellectual aptitude by your GMAT or GRE scores, undergraduate GPA and college major. A solid 3.2 overall GPA from an economics or chemistry major will weigh more heavily than a 3.8 GPA in the arts or humanities.
However, admissions committees actively seek a diverse class, and that's where schools will factor in a strong GMAT score or additional college-level math courses that prove you can handle the program's academic rigors.
Interpersonal skills and fit: The admissions process at a growing number of business schools now includes video essays, team-based discussions and group interviews to ensure applicants have the appropriate interpersonal skills for success and to fit in well with the program's culture.
They want to see that you can play nice with others. Your application and interview should support the individual attributes that make you a great candidate and person overall, convey your understanding of the school's culture and reveal how you will be a terrific fit, if admitted.
Keep in mind that for some programs, fit and knowledge of the school can be equally as important as concrete qualifications. You still need to have those qualifications, but if you don't also have a thorough knowledge of the program's great facets, you could find yourself in the rejected pile.
Round two application deadlines are just around the corner. By focusing on and strengthening these four areas in your MBA application, you'll boost your chances of making it to the interview stage and beyond.
