Show Summary
In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, host Linda Abraham shares a strategic framework for a successful MBA application, with tips that can benefit applicants to any program. She discusses how to choose the right schools to apply to, demonstrate your knowledge of the programs you are applying to, effectively present yourself throughout the application, and review the application materials before submission.
Show Notes
Today’s episode is going to be a solo show with advice on how to approach your application. I’m providing a framework in this episode for the application process, and the focus for this show is going to be the MBA application and MBA applicants. However, I think that many grad school applicants, especially master’s applicants in a broad variety of fields, will benefit from the framework presented here. So if you’re not applying to a business school or you’re not applying for the MBA, don’t go away. Again, I think there’s value here for you too. As you see the approach I’m presenting for MBAs, I think you’ll find it very easily to adapt it to your application process. For those of you applying to top MBA programs around two, around three, of this year, or looking ahead to an application in 2025 or 2026, hold on to your hats, we’ve got a lot to cover. And again, I think that applies to non-MBA applicants also. Rather than introducing a freebie now, I’m going to introduce several of them at the end.
The challenges of an MBA application [2:07]
Now, top MBA programs have acceptance rates, recently, of 8%, 15%, 25%. And that means that they reject the overwhelming majority of applicants. Again, 8%, that means 90%, 92% are getting rejected. 25%, 75% are getting rejected. And indeed the top programs reject many, if not most, admissible applicants. So you do have several challenges as you apply, not just whatever challenge you’ve faced in your life but the competition that you have. And that’s even if you have good stats. And those challenges are even greater if you don’t have the good stats.
So the challenges are, how can you make your application as impressive, persuasive, and compelling as possible? How are you going to tell your story effectively, and effectively present the non-statistical elements of your application, specifically the essays and, when necessary, videos, and tell how you’re going to present yourself in an interview as well? And since most of you are also working full-time or going to school, if you’re not an MBA applicant, how can you make the process as efficient as possible? Well, I’m going to outline here a strategic framework for approaching the application process, assuming you are applying to two or more MBA programs.
One of my pet peeves, which is funny because this is the bread and butter of Accepted’s business, is that there’s so much focus on the essays, which are definitely important and we’re going to discuss those too, that applicants tend to ignore or give short shrift or not pay enough attention to the other elements of the application. And the application is evaluated as a whole, not just the essays. So yes, the stats do count, but they’re not the whole thing and neither are the essays. It’s all looked at as a whole. And that’s my approach both in advising individuals as well as advising audiences, including Admissions Straight Talk audience.
The foundation for an effective MBA application [4:10]
But let’s start with the foundation. The foundation for an effective application is choosing the right schools to apply to. In order to determine what those schools are, you must have, one, professional direction. And this is critical for an MBA. But you want to know something? It’s also really, really important for non-business master’s programs because almost all of them will request a statement of purpose. And whether you’re talking about a goals essay for business schools, for the MBA, or statements of purpose for a host of graduate programs, it’s miserably difficult to write either of those essays unless you have a goal or a purpose. J*ust the reality of the situation. So you need to know, and again, for MBAs, you need to define your purpose or your goal as the function you want to perform in the industry in which you want to perform it. For other fields, it could be different, but for MBAs, that’s the key. Location may play an element, play a role in your definition, but it doesn’t have to. And in any case, you’re going to want to select programs that support your goal.
Two, you’re going to want to have competitive qualifications, and that includes academic qualifications, like your grades as an undergrad. And for many people it’s going to also include a test score. We’ll get into that a little bit later also. For the MBA, you have to show that you can handle both the quantitative and the communications, the qualitative elements of their program. And then there’s the experiential requirements that almost all programs have in one form or another. They’re going to want to see, in the case of MBAs, full-time work experience with some relationship, some way that you can benefit or your future goals can benefit from your past experience. It doesn’t have to be directly related, but there should be some something there.
And then they want to know a sense of what’s important to you in an MBA program. That’s number three. Is it location? Is it instructional focus and curriculum? And that’s usually more important for most programs. What’s distinctive about them that appeals to you? Why would you choose them over somebody else? Is it the case method school, a school that emphasizes experiential learning versus lecture versus a combo of all the above? So again, those are three elements that you should be looking at when you determine which schools to apply to. Because you want to apply to programs that both support your goals and meet your needs and where you are competitive based on a realistic evaluation of your qualifications and what the schools are looking for.
If I were doing a webinar now, I’d show you a Venn diagram. And one circle would be what you want in a program, and the other would be what the school is looking for. And where those two circles cross, in the middle of my fingers here, that is where you want to be, the intersection of those two circles. And when you apply, you can apply, in my opinion, it makes sense to apply to one to two aspirational schools. You dream schools where maybe your stats aren’t so matching, if you will, or your qualitative experience is not quite what they want. But unless you are very open to the possibility of rejection and reapplication, I would say the majority of your schools, of your applications, should go to schools where you are competitive. That would be three to four competitive programs, and those are programs where you’re competitive based on the school’s quantitative and qualitative class profiles, and you can find that on the web very easily.
And then, one to two safety schools. Safety schools are not schools that you would never attend. That’s not a safety, that’s being rather silly if you ask me. They are generally highly ranked in your area of interest or your region, if that’s important to you, but are not ranked as well overall as maybe your competitive or your top choices. So applying to appropriate schools is step number one to applying effectively.
How to build on the foundation [8:08]
And then how do you build on this foundation? Well, you want to learn about the programs to ensure that they really are the right schools for you, and then to ensure that you can show that you are a well-informed applicant, a motivated applicant, a serious applicant, and that you have what the school’s looking for in terms of cultural fit, values, mission, and the opportunities the school provides and that you’re looking for. Previously, you really looked at what the school is offering you. Now you need to examine what the typical students offer to it. Yes, what the typical student brings to the school, gives to the school, to enable yourself to show that you too have those qualities.
So how would you go about doing that? How do you deepen your understanding of the school? Well attend events sponsored by the school. You want to learn as much as you can about the programs beyond the website, so attend admissions committee events, both offline if they’re convenient, and online, which are almost automatically convenient. Because these will provide you with insight and help you choose where to apply, basically confirming the research you’ve done to date, and will ultimately help you decide where to attend if you have multiple acceptances. And finally, they will help you write your essay questions, responses to essay questions, and also respond to interview questions when you’re invited to interview.
This research is important. Take notes so that you can look back and say, “Oh, this is what I really liked. This is what really appealed to me.” And you can bring that to bear when you’re writing your essays, or again, when you’re preparing for your interviews. You want to be able to not so much spit back the school’s website or even spit back their presentations, but you want to demonstrate interest to the schools, and by attending these events you’re doing so. And some schools definitely weigh demonstrated interest, not all, and other ways to follow them on social media. But the main purpose of these visits, attending these events, etc, is to inform yourself so that you can make the best decisions and that you can then provide the best answers to questions in the application. Again, don’t spit back their websites. They know their websites. But when you know what they’re looking for, you can choose from your life the experiences that best demonstrate that you will bring to the school what they’re looking for.
Now, the schools provide lots of information about the programs as well as advice on completing their application, and they also provide events with perhaps even opportunities to meet current students or recent alumni. Take advantage of the information to ensure that you are making a wise investment in your MBA education and to improve your chances of acceptance. That’s really what all this research is about.
Choosing which schools to apply to [10:51]
Now that you’ve done this research, and again, what are the schools that you should apply to? I said so before, here are the criteria that should guide you, and it’s a review. The school’s success in placing grads in positions and companies that you want to work for. The curriculum, what are you going to be studying and how are you going to be studying it? Does it appeal to you? Is it going to teach you what you want to learn? And then extracurricular clubs, activities, events, treks, competitions –, do they support your goals and match your interests? And finally, as I indicated before, your qualifications and competitiveness.
For now, you may find the following resources helpful in determining where you should apply. The last one is free. The first one is a fantastic investment in your professional future, but can start with a free sample, so to speak, and I’ll get to that a little bit later. The first resource for you is Accepted’s individual advising with an experienced MBA admissions expert so that you may apply to the best program for you. And you can learn more about that at accepted.com/mba/services. And more on the free option, the free sample later on in the episode. The free option is Map Your MBA. This is a short and sweet six-question quiz that will test and provide advice on how you should approach your MBA application and very much based on today’s episode.
How to decide what to tell schools about yourself [12:32]
Once you know where you want to apply, what’s the next step? Decide what you want each school to know about you based on the questions in the applications and the different opportunities the applications make available for you to present yourself. Now, note what I did not say. I think that’s important too, because these are really common errors that we see applicants make all the time. I didn’t say that you should ask your friends what’s cool in MBA admissions and make sure you present it. I didn’t say talk to your cousin three times removed or take a poll on Facebook of your Facebook friends as to what you should write about. I didn’t say present yourself so that your application matches what you think the admissions committee wants to read. And I didn’t say dive into the writing process, emphasizing the one achievement that you’re most proud of throughout your application so that your personal brand is clearly associated with that one accomplishment. I didn’t say any of those things.
I didn’t say it for a very simple reason. Schools want to meet you through your application, not someone else. You want to present your best self to be sure. But make sure the person in the application is recognizable to you if you look in the mirror. If you put your application in the mirror, it should just look like you. Maybe not have all the detail, but that should be you. You want to come across as a genuine, thoughtful, multidimensional human being, which is why I don’t like the whole personal branding approach because it tends to be very unidimensional. And you want to come across as a person who’s going to add the diversity of interest, background, thought, and experience to your class. So I’d encourage you to take the time to approach each application purposefully and authentically.
How to present yourself effectively and efficiently [14:12]
What is the best way to go about the advice that I so glibly gave a second ago? What approach will help you present that multidimensional human being, interesting human being, effectively and efficiently without compromising quality? We’ll, here are a few suggestions. Number one, make a list of things that you think demonstrate your managerial potential, your leadership strengths, your organizational ability, or whatever qualities you think the schools are looking for. Initiative. Again, diversity of thought I mentioned a minute ago. Make a list for yourself. You can do that using a spreadsheet. You can use that doing any number of media. But create a spreadsheet for all the written or visual portions of the applications. And then look at the list you made of everything that the school might want to know about you. And going through the spreadsheet, take the items that you feel best answer the individual questions and shall fit with that specific school so that each element in the application is adding to the reader’s knowledge of you.
In the end, the metaphor that I like best is a jigsaw puzzle. Each piece in the jigsaw puzzle is distinct. There’s minimal overlap. There’s no overlap in just a jigsaw puzzle. There might be a little bit in your application, but there should be minimal. And they fit together, and they fit together to form this wonderful picture of whatever, in this case of you, but if you think of a jigsaw puzzle, they’re usually rather pretty, they’re attractive. And that’s what you want to be in your application. So plan how each element will add the reader’s knowledge of you by inserting the different experiences from the first spreadsheet and insights, I might add, that you intend to include in the applications, different boxes, essays, and answers.
And in particular in the essays, or where you have opportunity or even sometimes short answers, you don’t want to just say what happened, you want to say what you learned or what the results were or how you felt or how somebody else felt. It doesn’t have to be a book about it. But again, there has to be a little bit of analysis in there too. What was the outcome? And not just results, sales increased 10%, but did the company adopt your process? Whatever it might be.
What NOT to do [16:32]
What it’s not, it’s not where you approach each application as a series of discrete tasks that are unrelated, in which case you can have duplication, because checking off the list like a to-do list. Or you can have duplication that way also, because you think, “Oh, this answered this question well, this answered this question well.” And great, they know about that one experience really, really well, but what about all the rest of you? They don’t know anything about it. Again, inevitably you’re going to have a little bit of overlap, but you want to try and minimize it, because each element should add value.
You also don’t want to approach the application process like a productivity challenge where you batch all the leadership questions, you write it out and just stick them in, and then all the failure questions or all the diversity questions or whatever it is, difficult interaction questions, you don’t want to do that. Because again, nobody’s going to read them like that. You’re going to inevitably have duplication if you do that or you’re going to miss things in any given application. So approach each application separately.
You may end up adapting essays from a previous application to a newer application. That’s okay. But if you do that, make sure you change the school name, please, first before you do anything else. And that’s okay as long as you do it well. But each application has to be viewed separately. Application real estate is valuable, and it’s scarce, and every question is there for a reason. You want to, as I’ve said a thousand times now, you want to minimize duplication and have every element add value, just like a puzzle piece.
Furthermore, each application is somewhat different. And you want to authentically show fit with the programs that you’re applying to. Consequently, you need to approach each application as a distinct project. So you start your writing by strategizing how you want to use each application element to create that wonderful portrait of you, like the jigsaw puzzle, and then you start writing the essays, the short answer questions, and one relevant, perhaps a script for a video or at least an outline for a video, so that each application presents you most effectively and most efficiently for each program. Again, if you’d like help strategizing and then editing your essays, check out Accepted’s most popular services. We have application packages, hourly advising, and hourly editing, and resume services and interview prep, so you can choose a lot or little, whatever works for you. It’s all available at www.accepted.com/mba/services.
How to review your application [19:10]
So you write the essays, your responses to short answer questions, and you fill in the boxes. You polish your resume and you think your applications are ready for prime time. They’re ready for you to hit submit. But should you? Shouldn’t you check them? Check everything? And if so, what is the best way to check your applications? Well, is spell check sufficient? No. Here are my recommendations for a comprehensive check of your application before submitting it. Again, I’m trying to present to you a real strategic approach to the application, not just checking the essays, checking the whole thing.
So I recommend that you review the application in four steps. I guess four is the number for the day. Number one, review the application as a whole to ensure that each element is adding to the reader’s knowledge of you and shows fit for the school you’re applying to and provides information requested, that goes without saying. As I’ve said before, you want to minimize duplication. And then ideally, I would say, put it away for a day. If you don’t have a day, then have an hour and move to step two.
Step two, critique each essay or short answer piece to ensure that it is a coherent piece of writing that, A, answers the question posed, reveals something distinctive and interesting about you, has a clear theme, logical structure, and engaging opening and conclusion that concludes. So we’re looking at each element, especially written element, separately. But we’re not really checking grammar and style and we’re not looking at the whole application anymore. We’re looking at each written element to make sure it’s a good piece of writing.
Then wait a day or at least an hour, and then line edit – this is step three – each essay to correct for wording, spelling, grammatical, and syntactical errors. Now, here’s the switch. Number one, don’t read it on the screen. Do not do this on the screen at all. What I suggest you do is double or triple space the essays, in this case, or short answer questions as well, or your resume for that matter, print it out and move away from your desk and the screen. Take yourself a pen or pencil and read it out loud, because your ear will check all kinds of things that your eyes are going to miss on the screen. Read it slowly, read it out loud, and pay attention to the grammar that you put in there. Read it according to the way you’ve written it. When you find an error, circle it, or if it’s real quick, make a change, and then go back and correct it on the computer, on your, yeah, whatever it is, Google Docs, Word, whatever you’re using, whatever the Microsoft equivalent is.
Unless you made very few changes, I would repeat the process again. Go out, go move your chair, go to a different place, and read it out loud with a pen handy to mark errors or things that you want to change, and then go back and fix it. And if there’s very few changes, then you can already check it on the screen just to make sure that you got the changes you want. But if there’s still a fair number, rinse and repeat and go over it until you’re really happy with it.
And then the last step, the fourth item, is review the rest of the application to ensure that there are no typos or spelling errors in your name, your address, your parents’ information, all the really small boxes. Go back and check those. If you want to submit a polished application, take the time to review it thoroughly, but not just skim it. That’s not going to do you any good.
Review it on a macro level and on a micro level, and don’t review it at the last minute and in a big, big, big rush. Allow time between the reviews to restore your critical eye, to restore your objectivity, and also not to be in that panic mode that you got to get it in before the deadline. Don’t wait for the last minute. And then finally, don’t submit it, if it’s due on 11:59 pm, do not submit it at 11:55, because the servers are likely to be overloaded. Try and submit it the day before or that morning or something like that so that you’re not in a panic mode.
Resources for a successful MBA application [23:24]
Now, I really dumped a ton of information on you and probably could have gone into more depth on any of the individual points. Right now, I invite you to take the free quiz I mentioned earlier, Mapping Your MBA, which you can find at www.accepted.com/mapmba. It will give you a chance to see how well you’ve absorbed the material presented this morning, as well as access to additional resources, both free and paid, that will assist you in applying successfully and efficiently.
Finally, no free webinar, presentation, assessment, or download can match the benefits of one-on-one advising. I’ve been an admissions consultant for 30 years. I ran the Accepted website, and contributed constantly for many, many years. And I always presented the best information I could, but there’s no way that I could tailor it to you as an individual when presenting to a general audience. So we’re talking here about your professional future. Unless you’ve done MBA admissions successfully for decades, as I have and as has the staff at Accepted, you can’t match the experience of Accepted staff, many of whom are former admissions directors, and almost all have years of experience as admissions consultants. So whether you want comprehensive assistance and guidance with every step of the application process, either on a flat-rate package basis or on an hourly fee basis, or you just want us to review and edit your essays or provide a mock interview, there is an option for you at www.accepted.com/mba/services.
Now, I mentioned earlier that there is a way for you to sample Accepted’s advising. And again, this is an investment in your future. If you want to try us out for free, you can. Just sign up for a free 30-minute consultation. Prior to the free consultation, you can review consultant bios, choose whom you would like to work with, and have a first free call with one of them. Or if you prefer, you can sign up for a first free call with me, and then I will refer you to the consultant I think would be best for you to work with, whatever you prefer, whether with your preferred consultant or with me. During the free consultation, you can ask for a profile evaluation and discuss service options to determine what works best for you. To access your free consultation, please provide the information requested at www.accepted.com/freembacall.
We’re going to include links in the show notes to Accepted’s MBA services, the free consultation page, and the free resource that I mentioned, the Map Your MBA quiz.
Listener, I want to thank you so much for joining me today for the 594th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. If you found the show helpful, please tell your friends about it. They will thank you, and so do I. This is Admissions Straight Talk, produced by Accepted, and I’m your host, Linda Abraham. I’ll talk to you again next week.
