1. Coldly and objectively analyze your profile. Do you have competitive qualifications for the schools you applied to? I just yesterday spoke to a former admissions committee member at a top school, and she emphasized how talented the applicant pool is. “It’s so hard to choose!” she said.
2. With the same cool objectivity evaluate your application: Did you present your qualifications well? This step is more difficult than #1, because you rarely have the perspective necessary to evaluate your presentation via your application. And it’s even harder to be objective about something inherently subjective.
3. Did you apply to the right schools given your goals and interests? Or did you just look at rankings and brand? (The latter is the wrong way to choose schools.)
4. Did you apply early in your target schools’ application process? For most programs “early” translates into an application submitted during or prior to January the January deadlines.
Once you have evaluated your qualifications, your presentation of those qualifications, and your school choices, you should also have the direction necessary to go forward. You may need to improve your profile, polish your presentation, adjust your school choice, and apply earlier. Or you may need to work on one of the above areas. But there is one approach you should not take: The same one you took last year.
If you aren’t confident of your objectivity or your ability to take the above steps, then consider an MBA Application Review. It will cost you a lot less money (and time) than another bunch of rejected applications.
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