Bank on Banking

In Part 1 of the series, I explored some of the most common pitfalls that B school applicants make, and how to avoid them. On the flip side of that article comes successful strategies for B school applicants, and how to implement them. While there are many successful strategies and wise words of advice peppered throughout the internet, the 5 tips below are some of the more beneficial (when applied properly).

Sell Yourself

Sell yourself, not who you think the admissions committee is interested in buying. While pretending to be someone or pretending to have an interest in a particular field has worked for many applicants in the past, you have a far better shot at earning a spot in the upcoming B school class if you are genuine; if you describe yourself honestly and express your goals and interests from the heart. Don’t fabricate an elaborate scenario where you make up goals and feign an interest in what you think is a popular field – come interview time, if you even receive one, this will most likely hurt you, or at the very least, not allow you to show your full potential.

If you are genuinely torn between a few different paths, then obviously go with the more realistic and focused plan – you can always change your mind once you’re in. Remember one thing regarding the business school admission committees; no one knows exactly what or who they are looking for, or even what exactly they prefer year to year, applicant to applicant. Therefore, try as you may to tell them what they want to hear, you may end up standing in your own way and sabotaging your own candidacy.

Know the School, Know Your Goals

It doesn’t matter if the application you are putting together is for your dream school, a safety school, or anything in between, before drafting those essays, you should absolutely knows the ins and outs of the school, how your goals align to what the school offers, and what you can offer back to the school. A safety school should not be a school that is out of your reach by any means, but every year waves of students are rejected from the schools that they consider “safeties,” and often accepted to more prestigious schools (but sometimes not). While it can easily be argued that perhaps the applicant just thought too highly of him/herself, it is also highly possible, that, like dating, no one likes to be a second, third, or ninth choice. This is why it is your job as the applicant to make sure every school to which you apply feels like it is your dream school (don’t say it though, unless it’s true – it is far worse to be a liar, than to have someone think you consider them second best).

Sure you may dream of attending MIT, and Fuqua is a complete safety school, but it is important to remember three things:

(1) Rankings change (sure MIT is phenomenal, but you never know, Fuqua, could run up in the rankings);

(2) Perhaps after visiting Fuqua you fall in love with the campus, students and general school atmosphere and now like it as much as MIT, or more; and

(3) Perhaps Fuqua gives you a full scholarship and MIT gives you nothing, so you call MIT, speak with admissions and end up being offered 15% or 25% tuition to MIT (stranger things have happened, although MIT is known to be a bit on the stingy side).

While these scenarios are not incredibly likely, nor is gaining admission to MIT – the acceptance rate is only around 15%, remember, for each school, don’t just talk about your interests and goals, and really tell a story. Discuss your background and reasons for these goals and interests, and why/how they are significant to you – this will set you apart from many other potential applicants. The last thing that you want to do is burn bridges and shut doors on opportunities, especially when you are spending $200+ (application fee) and countless hours (application time) to have these opportunities.

Give Back

Start volunteering – even if you are just a few months from applying, it is alright. While there is a chance that some of the schools may think you are only volunteering to impress them, many will not (again, support this through your essays) – and worse case scenario is if you have to reapply next year, you will have stronger volunteer experience to support your candidacy.

By support your volunteer efforts through your essays I mean that you need to show both how you’ve impacted the organization, as well as, if not more importantly, how the organization has impacted you on a personal level. Showing a connection to the cause, even if you’ve only pursued the cause for a relatively short time is incredibly important and will speak volumes both to your commitment and to your experiences with the organization. Yes, your experiences might be discounted due to the lesser amount of time spent volunteering, but an articulate and heartfelt expression of those experiences will definitely help to offset that lack of time. Additionally, you can absolutely talk to past experiences that are related to this new effort, even if a bit dated, as a means of further showing your passion for and commitment to the cause, so that it further appears less like you’ve only taken up this activity “wow” business school.

For the specific types of volunteer opportunities to pursue, again, passion and commitment is far more valuable than name or activity. If you are interested in working with underprivileged students trying to succeed in school, or adults dreaming to create a better life for them and their families, tutoring could be a great way to give back. If you are interested in working with hands and changing your community one family at a time, Habitat for Humanity might be another avenue. If, perhaps, you’ve recently been to another country where you saw a need to heal the community and found an organization looking to make the necessary changes, feel free to look into that as well. At the end of the day, B school will be far more impressed with what you’ve done for the organization/community AND how the organization has impacted your life; your way of thinking; your beliefs.

Do Not Rush – GMAT First, B School Next

Don’t wait until the last minute to prepare for and take the GMAT – while some hopeful applicants have used this strategy and have succeeded, a majority crash and burn. The decision to go to business school should be a conscious, thought-out decision that takes time, preparation and patience – rushing to take the GMAT, or rushing to finalize your essays will more often than not result in sub par work (or at least not your best work), which will often lead to rejection and a lot of heartache and questions. Taking the time to plan ahead for the GMAT and business school applications in general will both result in a higher test score, and far more focused, genuine, and impressive applications.

As a general rule of thumb, if you are interested in applying to business school, I would recommend taking the GMAT at least 1.5 months ahead of your application due date, if not much, much sooner. I choose 1.5 months because in the event that you do not achieve your goal score, or don’t even approach the scores you’ve been seeing in practice exams, you now have enough time to prep a bit more and retake the exam (since you need to wait around a month or so before retaking it). Remember, continuing the message of this segment, taking the exam 1.5 months before your application due date means you should start studying 3.5 to 6 months before your application due date. While the material on the GMAT as a standalone collection of information is not terribly difficult, do not be fooled into thinking that you can master the material in 2 to 4 weeks and nail the GMAT. Studying the material takes time, familiarizing yourself with the test takes time, and building up the confidence and practice scores takes time – don’t short change yourself and have to settle for a 610, when you’ve been testing at the 680 level – put in the time, do the work, and get the score. This goes for both the GMAT and the application itself – half-assing the essays is the best way to ensure your rejection come decision time.

Too Good for Help, Too Good for Acceptance

Along the same lines as the previous point on preparation and patience, the business school application is a lengthy and fairly difficult process as a whole (not filling in your name and address, but describing accomplishments and awards, drafting the essays, and so forth). As a result, do not think that you are capable of writing a perfect application on your first draft and with no help from anyone else. Now I’m not telling you to go out and hire an essay or application service – far from it. I am, however, telling you to take your time with the application, don’t try to rush through your essays, carefully read the questions to ensure you are answering each aspect, and don’t be afraid to seek some help from a friend or a few friends that you trust and know can handle reading and critiquing essays of that caliber.

While asking for advice is often incredibly difficult, especially when you are sharing very personal experiences, sentiment, etc, it will absolutely help your chances of writing a very strong set of expressive essays. At the very least I would recommend that you ask someone to read the essays for grammar, spelling and punctuation as it is often those little mistakes that end up causing the most harm. Having a pair of eyes other than yours read the essays for grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors will greatly decrease the likelihood of seeing them in the final versions. Additionally, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have someone read at least one or two of your essays for content – not to critique what you’ve written, but rather to express whether they understand the point you are trying to make and whether it is clear and expressive, rather than muddled and flat. This is often the most challenging aspect of the process, but having a trusted friend, if no one else, take a look at least one of your essays for this purpose will open your eyes to whether you are failing to capture that which you are really trying to capture – in terms of emotion, and experience.

On the opposite side of the coin, I would not recommend that you have dozens of people critiquing your essays. I have spoken with several applicants that wonder whether it is wise to have several people critique each essay, and the answer is no. The phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen” is the best way I can think of to describe what happens when too many friends, colleagues, services, etc critique your essays. Essentially, you will inevitably lose the originality and unique qualities that your essays would and should bring to the table in order to appease everyone’s criticisms and recommendations. Furthermore, you will often find that one or two people will think one thing, another two or three will think another, and then others will be spread across slightly different if not entirely different ways to go about expressing a point or describing an experience resulting in more of an incoherent jumble than an eloquent and articulate essay. In short, a few people is good, but too many people and you will run into one hell of a bottleneck, or, perhaps worse, a bland and unoriginal creation.

That wraps up Part 2 of Applying to Business School. Stay tuned for upcoming articles including Interview 202, Delaying Graduation, What a Banker Really Does, and much more!

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