Applicants Invest 90 to 140 Hours To Apply

Source: AIGAC 2013 survey

The most controversial finding in the report had to do with recommendations for applicants. Some 38% of applicants said they were asked to write or draft his/her own recommendation.About 50% of non-U.S. applicants were asked to write their own recommendations, including 61% of applicants from India to 34% for those from Japan. Men were asked to write their own recommendations more than women. Respondents also indicated that there was more pressure to write your own recommendations in finance and accounting versus technology or consulting.

The results were released at AIGAC’s annual conference held at Wharton this year. Anna Ivey, president of AIGAC, noted in a tweet that “no consultant in the room was surprised by this recommendations data, except to say the percentages must be ‘too low.’”

Legacy rankings continue to be the most popular among respondents, the survey found. The most popularly consulted ranking, according to the poll, was BusinessWeek, which began ranking business schools 25 years ago this year. Some 69% used the BusinessWeek rankings, while 61% consulted the rankings by the Financial Times. About 54% used the rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Though less than three years old, some 41% said they consulted Poets&Quants’ composite ranking which takes into account the five most influential MBA rankings published by BusinessWeek, The Financial Times, U.S. News, The Economist, and Forbes. About 40% used The Economist, while 31% consulted Forbes.

Among the respondents who said they used a consultant to get into a business school MBA program, the most valued service was assistance with essays. Some 91% named that service as the most valuable. The service getting the second highest vote total was GMAT prep, for which 53% of the respondents said was valuable.

Source: AIGAC 2013 survey