The 30 Commandments Of The MBA Admissions Game

Thou shall not ever attempt to explain a poor GMAT score: I just had this conversation today with someone who was asking me for admissions advice on Beat the GMAT. There’s a fairly clear and simple reason why your dream school’s adcom ain’t buying any story about your GMAT. They know that everyone who has A) the aptitude and B) the tenacity and discipline to prepare (and/or retake the exam) should be able to get a “good score” that is within their 80th percentile range. Unlike your four years of undergrad (about which a substandard performance might be explainable), any explanation that you try to offer about your GMAT will be seen as a whiny excuse. They’ll feel that you either lack A) that aptitude or B) tenacity–both of which would be bad news for you. Don’t do it. Do your absolute best, retake the exam (or edit/expand your list of schools) if you need to and submit your apps with confidence–AFTER you’ve comfortably achieved the 80th percentile range or better for EACH school you are applying to.

Thou shall not shoot in the dark: Applying to 9 or 10 schools that you know very little about (besides the prestige of their names) just to “see what happens” is a poor strategy; and one that I completely intended on following at one time. Once you really take the time to research and rank MBA programs in your own mind, you are likely to find no more than 5-7 (max) that really interest you.

Thou shall perform rigorous research on thy target schools: Your level of knowledge about your target schools will scream loudly in your essays and interviews. Do thy homework. It has the potential to pay big dividends later in the process. Those who skimp on this typically wind up sounding like everyone else; which is one good way to get a ding without an interview even though you have a 700+ GMAT and a 3.5+ GPA. Spend a lot of time in particular building granular knowledge about the specific concentrations, classes, professors, institutes, organizations, contests and initiatives that interest you most. Your ability to speak about these things in detail will have a lot to do with whether adcoms will view you as being a good “fit” for their school. Scour websites. Interview students. Make contact with professors. It all helps.

Thou shall not believe their own press: Regardless of how great you think you are or how phenomenal other people say you are, don’t believe any of it. Approach this process as if every school that you apply to is a long shot that you must exhibit near perfect execution to gain admission to…because they are. The moment that you buy into your own press will be the moment that you become arrogant and start cutting corners. Obsess over ever sentence of every essay; every detail of every story; your body language in an interview; the kind of info that comes up when your name is typed into Google. It all counts and it all has the potential to place a (+) or (-) by your name. Take nothing for granted. Consider that people with higher GMAT’s, higher GPAs, more extras, and more impressive work and leadership experience than you have been dinged from every school that you are applying to. Focus on details in an attempt to circumvent a similar fate.

Thou shall consider being reviewed by Sandy Kreisberg on Poets&Quants: Sandy’s series on Poets&Quants can be a jagged little pill to swallow. Its harsh, often crass and exactly what you need to hear before you go too deep in any direction of optimizing your profile. When I had my profile reviewed, I got the blessing of hearing all the “bad” parts about my profile right up front. Then in everything that I did from then on, I was aware of those weak points and, thus, able to craft each aspect of my candidacy to handicap t hem to the best of my abilities.

Thou shall leverage admissions consultants and previous applicants: I’m not saying that you have to go blow a wad on an admissions consultant; but I am saying that it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Whether you end up purchasing their services or not, admissions consultants are a wellspring of information and real-world case studies in this area. In the past, I’ve recommended Kofi Kankam of Admit Advantage and Linda Abraham of Accepted.com. While I am not a customer of either outfit, both contributed a tremendous amount of advice that helped to guide me to where I am now.

Thou shall take admissions consultants with a grain of salt: Now that we’ve broadly covered the benefits of admissions consultants, here is the caveat: you must take the consultants advice within the full context of their perspective. They are generally nice people who want to see you “get in”–and help you if you’re open to that. They are also constantly mindful of their success rates, which includes buyers remorse if you don’t get in anywhere. That would make them sad. Due to this circumstance, most admissions consultants are risk averse. They don’t want you putting your heart and soul into an app that may not get you accepted. One consultant, out of concern for me, suggested that I extend my target schools farther down the the rankings list (let’s just say closer to 25 and 5) just to be safe. She meant well and meant no harm; yet here I am going into January with acceptances from 2 of the top 5 and a pending interview at a 3rd.

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