The 30 Commandments Of The MBA Admissions Game

  • Thou shall quantify responsibility and results: This is really related to the previous two points. Attach numbers to everything. Be specific. The ad coms will appreciate it. I”m not an ad com member; yet I imagine that they’d hate to loose a great person in the next class of your dream school because you gave them no specifics to add context to your candidacy.
  • Thou shall be a do-gooder: Community service counts big time in this process. At the same time, this isn’t about just signing up for some random tutoring program and quasi-enthusiastically showing up a few times per month to teach fractions. Just like your job, you want to show impact, responsibility and even advancement if it is available within your chosen activity. The real trick is to do something that you love doing where you enjoy making a contribution. If you start there, everything else will most likely take care of itself. And if there is an impact that you can quantify, all the better.
  • Thou shall write an optional essay for every application: Remember that picture? Remember context and detail? Well, unless you are a 3.89 former economics major from HYP with a 780 GMAT who’s a McKinsey alum/Olympian with a well-funded start-up, a non profit foundation in Bangladesh and a rich daddy who’s running for President, you’re bound to have a need to add just a tad more context to your story. Your optional essay is your chance to do that. Low GPA because you worked full time in college? Had to retake a class or two? Got great stats but very little community service because you work all the time? Come from an over-represented group like white males in finance or Indian males in IT? Use your optional essay section to add whatever context you need to plug even the tiniest holes in your profile. If you do it right, you could very well put the finishing touches on a masterpiece. Just DON’T write War and Peace. Stick to the facts and keep it painfully brief.  If you can keep it to 100-150 words, that’d be fantastic.
  • Thou shall choose thy recommenders wisely: This is self explanatory. Don’t ask anyone to recommend you unless you’re sure that they A) are impressed with you (by their own admission) and B) like you in general and support your upward movement. You’ll be better off explaining (in your optional essay) why your immediate direct supervisor isn’t recommending you than taking a chance on a rec from a boss that you don’t trust. Believe it or not, quite a few people get into great schools without a direct boss’ recommendation. Its not a death sentence, the adcoms will simply want a coherent explanation that makes sense. I got lucky with my current boss; however, a few years ago I had a boss with whom I had a horrible relationship. She was a poor leader, a well-known company slut (20 years worth!), and I didn’t respect her–and I was quite vocal about my lack of respect to boot; thus, our relationship was rocky. I would have never asked her for a recommendation; and neither should you in even a remotely similar circumstance. Don’t allow someone who you know has a personal issue with you to block you out of your future. Don’t allow their unfair opinion to count. Finally, choose a good writer. My best recommendations came from great writers–people who were proficient at expressing their thoughts on paper.
  • Thou shall become the project manager of they recommendations: Here’s a newsflash. Even the most well-wishing recommender WILL blow off your recommendations a time or two simply because your dream of going to Booth or Tuck or Wharton or Stanford is not central to their life. Manage them. Give them a folder that explains what you are trying to do and why. Tell them why you need their help.  Give them a deadline that is well before the actual deadline (even though they will know the actual deadline when they sign in). Manage the process up until the time you get the email notice that each recommendation has been turned in. You might end up being a pest at times, but you’ll be glad you did once you can let off that sigh of relief that your apps are complete. Also, your recommenders will understand. They get it; it’s just that their daily lives don’t revolve around your apps. Again, manage the process accordingly.
  • Thou shall focus on content and not production on video and PowerPoint essays: Multimedia essays can be a fantastic opportunity for you to paint bright colors over some of the grayer spots in your profile–your portrait.  The biggest mistake that you could make, however, would be to put so much effort into putting on a great show/making an amazing video/entertaining/wowing and impressing that you basically end up turning in a monkey act that doesn’t tell the adcom anything about you that is going to help your candidacy. Both my Booth PowerPoint and my MIT video were fairly basic and straightforward.  Both were nice and professional, but neither was overly polished or produced; and why should they have been? This isn’t a  production contest; its a PROFILE contest (catch that!!!!!!!!!)  They were also focused on giving very specific information that filled in specific areas of my profile that needed it; and in both cases, it worked. I got both interviews.

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